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Extracting the Essence of Spiritual Practice
Instructions on Mountain Spirituality, Direct Guidance for Experiencing the Practice Explained in a Way that is Easy to Understand
by Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje
Version 5 (C)2005 by John N. Ross
This translation is copyrighted to prevent misuse. Permission is expressly granted to individuals who have received transmission of this text from a qualified lineage holder to make copies for their own personal use only. All other duplication, in any media and for any purpose, is expressly prohibited.
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Extracting the Essence of Spiritual Practice
Instructions on Mountain Spirituality, Direct Guidance for Experiencing the Practice Explained in a Way that is Easy to Understand
At the feet of the incomparably kind, glorious and sacred Guru, respectfully I bow down and go for refuge. Please grant your blessings that the realization of the profound path may swiftly arise in the mind-streams of myself and my disciples without the slightest error and that we may attain the primordially impregnable ground in this very life.
For fortunate individuals who, through the conjunction of their perfectly pure previous aspirations and karmic propensities, have heartfelt confidence in the teachings of the profound, secret Great Completion and the Guru who introduces it and who wish to pursue the practice to its final conclusion, here is an entranceway. These instructions on the key points of mountain spirituality are direct guidance for the meditation practice of the utmost secret, the Great Completion, explained in a way that is concise and easy to understand.
Accordingly, there are three main topics to be understood. The preparation is to purify and train your mind-stream by severing the bonds of desire and attachment and by keeping your mind turned toward the Teachings. The main practice is to clear away doubts and misconceptions about the view, meditation and conduct and to sustain the experience of practice. The ensuing experience is to guard your vows and sacred commitments and to complete the activities of this life in accord with the Doctrine. Then, to say a little about the first subject:
Alas! This incessant cognition that we label as our minds arose in the very beginning at the same moment as Total Goodness. However, Total Goodness knows itself and thus is free, while we sentient beings, through non-recognition, wander endlessly in cyclic existence.
The bodies we have inhabited among the six classes of beings are beyond enumeration, yet all of the activities we have thus engaged in have been meaningless. Now, once out of so many times, we have obtained this human body. If we do not accomplish the means to avoid rebirth in the lower realms of cyclic existence, it is uncertain where we will be reborn when we die. Wherever we are reborn among the six classes of beings, we will never be beyond the inevitability of suffering.
It is not enough simply to have obtained this human body-at the time of death, we must leave it behind. Thus, we need to practice the Teachings genuinely this very moment. At the time of our death we should have no regrets and no reason to be ashamed of ourselves, just like Jetsun Milarepa. As he said, "The Doctrinal tradition of myself, Milarepa, is not to be ashamed of oneself. "
Having entered the Spiritual path, it is not enough simply to adopt the appearance and activities of Spirituality. You need to sever all ties to plans and desires that are limited to this life. Without making this break, you might enter the door of the Teachings with an unresolved mind, still attached to your homeland, wealth, relatives, friends and so forth. Then, due to the conjunction of cause, the mind of attachment, and condition, the objects of attachment, the Devil will create obstacles. Once again you will become involved in common worldliness, and your destiny will regress.
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So, abandon the three downfalls: food, clothes and useless chatter. Without attachment to the eight worldly concerns, focus your mind one-pointedly on the Doctrine.
In the solitary place, the heartfelt misery of death,
the practitioner who has uprooted attachment from deep within
enters the retreat, abandoning thoughts of this life,
and never meets with the visitors, thoughts of the eight worldly concerns.
One should act like Gyalwa Yang Gonpa. Otherwise, mixing the Teachings with the eight worldly concerns will lead to catastrophe, like eating food mixed with poison.
The eight concerns can be condensed into hope and fear, and the meaning of these two is aversion and attachment. Aversion and attachment within manifest outwardly as male and female demons. As long as one is not free from aversion and attachment, one will not be free from male and female demons and obstacles will never cease.
So, is there any attachment or conceit regarding this life or the eight worldly concerns hidden deep within your heart? Examining yourself again and again, you should earnestly abandon such defects. To harbor the eight concerns deep within while adopting the appearance of the Doctrine would be deceitful, and any material benefit that you might receive as a result would be a perverse means of livelihood.
It is said, "By abandoning ones homeland, half of the Teachings are accomplished. " So leave your homeland behind and wander alone throughout the land. Part from your relatives and friends in good fashion, but ignore their entreaties to postpone your spiritual practice. Give away your wealth as charity, and survive on whatever alms come your way.
Understand that everything desirable is but an obstacle that leads to bad habits, and develop a mind that is free from desire. Without restraint and contentment regarding wealth and possessions, then as soon as you get one you will need two. Eventually the deception of desirable objects will make it easy for the Devil to enter.
Whatever people say, whether good or bad, do not cling to it as true. Whatever is said, just let it be without acceptance or rejection, hope or fear, like comments made about someone who is already dead.
Apart from a qualified Guru, the most honest advice would come from ones parents, but even their advice is not to be heeded. Stand your ground. Do not let your nose rope fall into anyone's hands.
In order to maintain appearances and be as a friend to all, you should be easygoing and know how to avoid burning others' noses. But if anyone, whether great or humble, becomes an obstacle to your practice, you should be unshakable. You should be like an iron boulder with a silk scarf tied around it. Don't be the kind of person who is easily influenced, like the grass on top of a mountain pass that bows in whatever direction it is blown by the wind.
Whatever practice you are engaged in, from the moment you begin until reaching the end, whether hail falls from above, a lake rises up from below or precipices collapse from in front of you, with fierce resolve never to abandon your commitment even at the cost of your life, continue your practice until reaching the end.
From the very beginning progressively establish a schedule for meditation sessions, sleep, relaxation and meals, allowing no bad habits. Whether your practice is elaborate or simple, it is important not to let it be erratic. Desolate and ordinary, in every moment without exception be aware of the practice and experience its essence.
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During retreat seal the entrance with mud. If not that, in any case do not meet with, nor speak with, nor spy on others. Completely discard all wanderings of the restless mind. Assume an excellent posture and expel the stale breath. Summarily abandon chasing after the mind. Like a stake driven into the ground, you should remain without wavering for even an instant. A strict outer, inner and secret retreat will quickly give rise to all the signs and qualities.
If for some important reason you meet with someone and then speak with him, thinking that, "After this I will be strict," this transgression will cause the prosperity of your practice to fade. Your retreat will become slacker and slacker. If from the very beginning you make a resolute decision to remain seated and gradually increase the strictness of your retreat, your practice will not be swept away by obstacles.
Although there are many ways of examining the special characteristics of particular places, in general places blessed by Guru Rinpoche and other accomplished masters of the past that are not occupied by those with conflicting sacred commitments, any utterly solitary place where it is easy to gather necessities or whatever place is agreeable to oneself are suitable.
If you can handle the swift and powerful manifest energy of the conjunction of outer and inner interdependence in charnal grounds and other terrifying places where malicious spirits abide, that will really enhance your meditation. However, if you cannot handle it, there will be many obstacles. When your realization becomes one with the inner space, all obstructing circumstances will arise as friends. At that time it is especially excellent to undertake secret activities in charnal grounds and such places.
Continuously abandoning all outer and inner distractions, to abide in non-action is the transcendent solitary place.
As for the actual purification of your mind-stream, the ordinary practices are the four thoughts which turn the mind, and the extraordinary practices are refuge, awakening mind, purifying obscurations and gathering the accumulations. According to the commentaries, make effort at each one in turn until genuine experience arises.
With diligence you should take the guruyoga in particular as the life force of your practice. If you do not, meditation will be slow to develop. Even if it does develop a little, obstacles will arise and you will not be able to develop genuine realization. So pray intensely with uncontrived devotion. In this way the Guru's mind-stream will be transferred, and an extraordinary, inexpressible realization will certainly arise from within you.
As Lama Shang Rinpoche said, "To sustain stillness, to sustain experiences, to sustain profound concentrations are quite common. By the power of devotion and the grace of the Guru to give rise to realization within is rare indeed. "
Therefore, for the meaning of the Great Completion to arise in your mind-stream depends upon these preliminaries. This is what Je Drigungpa meant when he said, "Other Doctrinal traditions consider the main practice to be profound, here we consider the preliminaries to be profound. "
Second, regarding the main practice, which is to clear away doubts and misconceptions about the view, meditation and conduct and to sustain the experience of practice, the first subject is the view that knows reality.
The nature of your mind is the actual state of the transcendent nature. Free from all characteristics fabricated by conventional rational mind, it is definitively established as
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awareness. Awareness arises nakedly as self-occurring primal knowing. Neither can it be expressed in words nor indicated by example. It has never been corrupted by cyclic existence, nor has it ever been improved by going beyond suffering. It has never been born, never ended, never been liberated, never been confused, never existed, never not existed, never been interrupted in the slightest, nor ever fallen into any kind of partiality.
In short, from the very beginning the originally pure essence, the vast pervasive expanse of emptiness, has never been a substantial entity with elaborated characteristics. From the unobstructed radiance of emptiness, the phenomenal realms of cyclic existence and freedom from suffering appear by themselves like the ocean, the sun and the sun's rays. The nature that is the great spontaneously present qualities of primal knowing, has never been a blank, nihilistic emptiness. In this way the awareness which is the indivisible union of appearance and emptiness is the very identity of Threefold Being, the actual state of the primordial nature. Recognizing this reality just as it is, is what is called the "view" of the Great Completion beyond rational mind.
The Great Master said, "True Being beyond rational mind is as-it-is-ness. " How joyous! We hold in our hands that which actually kindles the intention of Total Goodness.
This itself is the heart-essence of the six million four hundred thousand tantras of the Great Completion, which are the ultimate conclusion of all of the eighty-four thousand sections of the Conqueror's Teachings. There is not an inch to go beyond this. All of the Teachings must be perfectly and decisively understood according to this.
Cutting from within doubts and misconceptions about this view and continuously sustaining it is what is called "meditation". All other meditations based on intentionality and fabrication are conceptual meditations created by the rational mind. We don't do that.
Without losing the foundation of that previous view, loosely leave all of the perceptions of the five senses to relax and self-settle.
Don't meditate by labeling, "This is it! " If you meditate, that is rational mind. There is nothing whatsoever on which to meditate.
Do not be distracted for even an instant. If you become distracted from letting go into yourself, that is the real delusion. Do not be distracted. Whatever thoughts arise, let them arise. Do not follow after them. Do not suppress them.
If one were to describe what this is like, whatever arises or appears as an object of perception, see it all like a small child peering into a temple. Without clinging to appearances, leave them fresh. Leave all phenomena in their own place, undamaged by contrivance, their color unchanged, their lustre undiminished. When whatever appears is unspoiled by grasping or clinging thoughts, all of appearance and cognition arises as the empty lucidity of naked primal knowing.
There are so many teachings that are called "vast" or "profound", yet they are merely deception for all those of lesser intelligence. If one were to explain the essential, concise meaning in the manner of putting ones finger on it, when the previous thought has ceased and the future thought has not yet arisen, isn't there a fresh knowing-nowness which has never changed at all, nor ever had the slightest foundation, a naked clear awareness? This is the presence of awareness itself.
Yet one does not remain only in that state forever. Doesn't a thought suddenly arise? This is the self-manifest energy of that awareness. If you do not recognize this in the very moment of arising, thoughts will spread out in your mind-stream. This is called the chain of delusion. It is the root of cyclic existence.
If in the instant of arising you merely recognize without following after and let go at -5-
ease in yourself, whatever thoughts arise all effortlessly liberate in the inner space of True Being awareness. This is the combined practice of the view and meditation according to Cutting Solidity. This is the main practice.
As Garab Dorje said,
When from the primally pure expanse,
awareness arises suddenly in an instant of recollection,
it is like recovering a wish-fulfilling jewel from the depths of the ocean, True Being which has neither been made nor caused by anyone.
This is the ultimate point. You should meditate like this day and night without distraction. Without leaving emptiness an object of knowledge, gather everything into awareness itself.
Then, as for the conduct which enhances this meditation, the manner of sustaining the practice is as follows:
As was explained previously, the main point is to see your Guru as the actual Buddha and to never separate from that perception. Pray one-pointedly and steadfastly from your heart. This is called the "panacea of devotion". Whether for clearing away obstacles or for enhancing experience, this method is supreme. This is the way to powerfully and decisively traverse all paths.
If your meditation falters by sinking or becoming dull, nimbly bring out awareness. If thoughts proliferate or you become agitated, relax consciousness from within.
Without forcing or restraining due to an incessant mindfulness of the continuity of meditation, simply do not forget the self-recognition of your own essence. Continuously sustain this at all times, whether during equipoise or during the activities of ensuing experience such as eating, sleeping, walking and sitting. Whether happy or suffering, whatever neurotic thoughts arise, without hope or fear, acceptance or rejection, without suppressing or bringing antidotes, let be on the face of the thoughts-the experience of happiness or suffering just as it is. Let go into that stark nakedness alone.
It all comes to just one key point, so do not deceive yourself with a lot of thinking. You do not need to meditate by using emptiness as an antidote against thoughts and emotions, as if they are "something to be abandoned". In the instant awareness recognizes "something to be abandoned", it self-liberates like a snake uncoiling its own knot.
This is the ultimate conclusion of the hidden meaning of the Luminous Indestructible Heart Essence. Many know how to speak of it, but without knowing how to practice it this becomes just like parrots' litanies. We are extremely fortunate!
There is something to be considered carefully and understood. The mortal enemy that has bound us to cyclic existence since time without beginning is that pair, the grasper and the grasped. Now due to the kindness of the Guru, you have been introduced to the True Being that abides within yourself, and that pair has been burnt up like a feather without leaving the slightest trace or remnant. Isn't that really satisfying?
To have received such a profound instruction on the swift path and not to practice it would be like taking a wish-fulfilling jewel and stuffing it in the mouth of a corpse. What a loss! Don't let your heart rot. Put these instructions into practice.
Beginners will fall into distraction and lose their mindfulness amidst the darkness of proliferating thoughts. Suddenly becoming wound up in myriad thoughts, they will be carried away by the underlying movements. Then when a startling mindfulness returns, they will think, "I have been distracted" and will feel regret. At that time do not entertain the
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slightest regret, either for having been distracted or for losing the previous thought. When that stark mindfulness returns, self-settle on that. Continuously sustaining that alone is sufficient.
"See thoughts as True Being. Don't abandon them," has become a famous aphorism. However, if your insight has not completed the manifest energy, simply to think, "This is True Being," while resting in an unknowing state of quiescence poses the danger of becoming trapped in an indeterminate equanimity without any discriminating cognizance.
At the beginning just look directly at whatever thoughts arise without the slightest analysis or reflection. Completely carefree, without adding anything, let go into the "recognizer" of the thought like an old man watching children play.
Letting go like that, self-settle into a non-conceptual state. When suddenly the propensity for abiding spontaneously dissolves, in that instant the primal knowing beyond mind will arise naked and distinct.
While on the path you will inevitably encounter experiences of bliss, lucidity and non-thought. However, if you can leave them without even the tiniest bit of hope or fear, of pride, attachment or satisfaction, then you have successfully negotiated these potential points of deviation.
It is important always to avoid distractions and to maintain one pointed mindfulness and aspiration. If you fall into intellectualization and wish fulfillment, becoming complacent about a bit of quiescence without digging in to the meat of experience, you will merely become skilled at mouthing the words. There is no benefit in that.
There is a proverb of the Great Completion, "Understanding is like a patch. It will fall off. " And also, "Experiences are like the mist, they will fade. "
Even the most trivial external circumstances, whether good or bad, can deceive "great meditators". There are so many ways to be led astray by circumstances. Even if you have entered the practice of meditation, if you do not meditate continuously that is just leaving the profound instructions on the pages of the text. Your knowledge and practice will become a mere facade and genuine meditation will never arise. Old "great meditators" still new to the practice, beware! You could die with your head covered in salt.
Isn't that really satisfying?
To have received such a profound instruction on the swift path and not to practice it would be like taking a wish-fulfilling jewel and stuffing it in the mouth of a corpse. What a loss! Don't let your heart rot. Put these instructions into practice.
Beginners will fall into distraction and lose their mindfulness amidst the darkness of proliferating thoughts. Suddenly becoming wound up in myriad thoughts, they will be carried away by the underlying movements. Then when a startling mindfulness returns, they will think, "I have been distracted" and will feel regret. At that time do not entertain the
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slightest regret, either for having been distracted or for losing the previous thought. When that stark mindfulness returns, self-settle on that. Continuously sustaining that alone is sufficient.
"See thoughts as True Being. Don't abandon them," has become a famous aphorism. However, if your insight has not completed the manifest energy, simply to think, "This is True Being," while resting in an unknowing state of quiescence poses the danger of becoming trapped in an indeterminate equanimity without any discriminating cognizance.
At the beginning just look directly at whatever thoughts arise without the slightest analysis or reflection. Completely carefree, without adding anything, let go into the "recognizer" of the thought like an old man watching children play.
Letting go like that, self-settle into a non-conceptual state. When suddenly the propensity for abiding spontaneously dissolves, in that instant the primal knowing beyond mind will arise naked and distinct.
While on the path you will inevitably encounter experiences of bliss, lucidity and non-thought. However, if you can leave them without even the tiniest bit of hope or fear, of pride, attachment or satisfaction, then you have successfully negotiated these potential points of deviation.
It is important always to avoid distractions and to maintain one pointed mindfulness and aspiration. If you fall into intellectualization and wish fulfillment, becoming complacent about a bit of quiescence without digging in to the meat of experience, you will merely become skilled at mouthing the words. There is no benefit in that.
There is a proverb of the Great Completion, "Understanding is like a patch. It will fall off. " And also, "Experiences are like the mist, they will fade. "
Even the most trivial external circumstances, whether good or bad, can deceive "great meditators". There are so many ways to be led astray by circumstances. Even if you have entered the practice of meditation, if you do not meditate continuously that is just leaving the profound instructions on the pages of the text. Your knowledge and practice will become a mere facade and genuine meditation will never arise. Old "great meditators" still new to the practice, beware! You could die with your head covered in salt.
If you meditate continuously for a long time, at some point due to devotion or some other conducive circumstance, experience will blaze forth as realization. You will see the naked, extraordinary awareness. Like peeling a cover off of your head, your view will become vast, spacious and even. This is called "the supreme seeing of what is not seen". From this point onward thoughts will arise as meditation. Stillness and movement will liberate together.
At first you will recognize thoughts and then they will liberate in the manner of meeting someone whom you used to know well. Later thoughts will self-liberate in the manner of a snake releasing its own knot. Finally thoughts will neither benefit nor harm and will liberate in the manner of a thief entering an empty house. These stages will occur progressively.
A vehement conviction will arise from within that all phenomena are solely the display of your own awareness. The inner expanse will roil with waves of emptiness and compassion. There will no longer be any possibility of choosing between cyclic existence and going beyond suffering. You will realize that there is no difference between Buddhas and sentient beings. Whatever occurs, you will be joyous within the state of the actual nature. You would not even know how to waver from that alone-that limitlessness beyond day and night.
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There is a proverb of the Great Completion, "Realization is unchanging like the sky. " Thus the body of a yogi appears as an ordinary human being, yet his mind is the realization of True Being, free from activity or effort. Without activity he will traverse all the paths and levels. Finally, both rational mind and phenomena will be exhausted. Like the space inside a broken vase, his body will dissolve into particles and his mind will dissolve into the actual nature. This is what is called "the inner lucidity of the expanse of the primordial ground gathering in the youthful vase body". So it can be.
This is the conclusion of view, meditation and conduct. This is what is called "actualizing the result that is not to be obtained". Such is the difference between experience and realization.
Some individuals will progress gradually in stages, others will skip the stages, some will realize instantly. This is due to the various abilities of different individuals; however, at the time of fruition there is no distinction to be made.
The third general topic is ensuing experience, guarding your vows and sacred commitments and completing the activities of this life in accord with the Dharma.
Although you may make effort at the practice of the view, meditation and conduct, if you are not skillful regarding the activities of ensuing experience your vows and sacred commitments will degenerate. In the interim there will be hindrances and obstacles along the paths and levels, and ultimately you will certainly fall into the hell of Utmost Torment. Therefore it is critical always to be vigilant and mindful, without making the slightest mistake regarding what should be adopted and what abandoned.
As the Great Master said, "Although the view is high as the sky, ones concern for the results of ones actions should be as fine as flour. " Thus you should forsake thoughtless crudity and be meticulous about cause and effect. Protect your vows and sacred commitments without the slightest degeneration and remain untainted by any faults or downfalls.
Although there are many ways of enumerating the sacred commitments of Secret Mantra, they can all be condensed into the sacred commitments of the body, speech and mind of ones root Guru. It is said that if one perceives ones Guru as an ordinary human being for even an instant, accomplishment is months and years away. If you were to think, "Why is that so? ", know that this is a crucial key point. As it is said, "For whoever holds the vajra, accomplishment depends on the master. " Thus it is.
At first whoever you are, until you rely on a Guru you are under your own power. However, once you rely on a Guru and become connected by empowerments and oral instructions, from that point onward you have no power not to keep the sacred commitments. At the end of the four empowerments one bows before the Guru as the main figure of the sacred circle and says, "From this point onward take me as your servant. I offer myself to you. Please accept me as your disciple, and use even the tiniest part of me. " Once you have made this promise, no matter how great or powerful you are, haven't you given up your autonomy to the Guru?
One also says, "Whatever the main figure of the sacred circle commands, I will accomplish it all. " After having made this vow, do you have the power not to do whatever he says? If you do not accomplish your vow, although it may sound unpleasant, you cannot escape the fact that this is what is called a "violator of sacred commitments".
Nor is it taught that one needs to keep sacred commitments perfectly with great Gurus who have extensive retinues, or who are wealthy, powerful, eloquent and so forth, but
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that there is no need to keep sacred commitments with humble Gurus who keep a low profile or engage in the conduct of beggars. In any case, you need to understand the key point of risk and benefit. It won't do just to sit there like a befuddled old horse. This need to keep sacred commitments, is it for the Guru's benefit? Or is it for your own benefit? You should focus your mind and reflect on this carefully, as if grinding medicine. If it is for the Guru's benefit, then you can just drop it this very moment. But if that is not the case, it won't do to throw ashes on your own head.
In general, the sacred commitments regarding ones Spiritual brethren is to practice pure vision, seeing all who have entered the door of the Buddha's teachings in a positive way. Abandon partiality and criticism toward particular traditions of practice. Especially, give up disrespect, competitiveness, jealousy and deceit toward vajra kindred who have received teachings from the same Guru or within the same sacred circle. From your heart you should cultivate a loving attitude toward them.
All sentient beings have really been ones own kind parents. Alas! They are trapped in cyclic existence and oppressed by fierce suffering. Thinking that, "If I do not protect them, who will? " you should train your mind by meditating on unbearable compassion. Engage all of the abilities of your three gates to ceaselessly accomplish the benefit of beings, and dedicate all the merit to the benefit of others.
At all times there are only three things to think of: the Doctrine, the Guru and sentient beings. Do not let your thoughts or your conduct go astray. Do not compete with those who bear the name or trappings of realized yogis or monks. Keep your mouth shut and control your mind. This is extremely important. Do not make a fool of yourself.
If you reflect on what is of benefit to yourself, it is only your future life. What is called "Spirituality" is something you need to do for yourself. If you are placing your hopes on virtue that others may accomplish for you after your death, it may be difficult for that to be of benefit.
So turn your mind inward. Begin by developing heartfelt certainty. With intense diligence, aspiration and mindfulness as your foundation, make the length of your practice equal to the length of your life. For the main practice, strike the vital point with the practice of the profound view and meditation. During ensuing experience, act without contradicting what is to be adopted and what abandoned with regard to the sacred commitments, precepts and vows. As a result, the qualities can not but arise from within.
The Great Completion is a path of such powerful skillful means that even sinful people can follow it to Awakening. However, due to this extraordinary profundity, there can be obstacles-just as great profit comes with great risk. The power of the oral instructions will cause all of the negative actions that you have previously accumulated to rise up as challenging experiences. Mara will create obstacles and apparitions. At your place of practice, you may see gods and demons. They may even call out your name or appear in the guise of your Guru and make prophecies. Various terrifying phenomena will occur in your experiences or dreams.
In actuality, you may encounter beatings, humiliation, robbery, theft, illness and other challenges. For no reason at all you will experience sadness, longing or intense mental suffering. Intense neurotic thoughts will arise. Your devotion, awakening mind and compassion will diminish. Your thoughts will arise as enemies and drive you insane.
You will misinterpret beneficial advice. It will become unbearable to stay on retreat, and you will long to abandon your promise. You will develop wrong views about the Guru and doubts about the Doctrine.
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In addition, you may be wrongly accused or acquire a bad reputation. Your friends may become enemies. Both outwardly and within yourself, these and various other undesirable circumstances will arise. Ho! These are upheavals that have been ripened by your practice. Recognize them as such.
This is the crossroads between profit and loss. If you resolve these obstacles with the vital point, they will transform into accomplishment. If you fall under their power, they will become hindrances. At this point, with pure sacred commitment and persistent, earnest devotion entrust your mind and heart to the Guru. Thinking, "whatever you do, you know all things", pray with ardent confidence. Whatever challenging circumstances arise, accept them as something desirable and put intense effort into your practice. If you can practice in this way, the solidity of these circumstances will collapse by itself and your practice will be enhanced. Appearances will become insubstantial like the mist. Confidence in the Guru and his instructions will grow even greater than before. After this even if challenging experiences occur, you will feel confident and think, "Alright! "
This is the sign of having mastered the challenge. After circumstances have become a support for the path, whatever challenges arise are fine. Ah la la! This is precisely what we old fathers want. Don't be like a fox who skulks around a human corpse longing to eat it, yet trembling with hesitation. Develop courage!
Those whose accumulation of merit is meager, whose sacred commitments and vows are lax, whose misconceptions are huge, whose doubts are numerous, who make exalted commitments but are feeble in practice-such people, whose hearts waft farts, request the Guru's oral instructions to leave on their bookshelves. Clutching adverse circumstances in a death-grip, they follow after them and deliver themselves to the Devil. This will only lead to evil destinies. Alas! Pray to the Guru that this does not happen.
Actually, adverse circumstances that arise as challenges along the path are relatively easy to deal with. Felicitous circumstances that arise as challenges along the path are extremely difficult to handle. Those who presume that they have attained realization and become distracted by constantly striving after greatness in this life are in danger of enslaving themselves to the Devil of the Child of the Gods. One should be exceedingly cautious in this regard.
Know that this is the point at which "great meditators" are put to the test. This is the crossroads at which you will go up or down.
Until the manifest energy of the qualities of your inner realization is complete, it is inappropriate to tell stories of your experiences-however exalted they may be. Keep your mouth shut. Furthermore, don't become conceited about how many months or years you have spent on retreat. Wholeheartedly endeavor to practice for your entire human life. Do not deceive yourself by mouthing words about emptiness and then criticize the accumulation of virtue by cause and effect as deception.
Village rituals, subduing demons and so forth are for gathering food. Do not remain for long in populated places. Reduce meaningless work, needless talk and useless thinking. Do not deceive others through fraud, pretense or other actions that contradict the Teachings. Do not engage in wrong livelihood, uttering indirect requests or flattery out of craving for desirable things. Do not associate with unvirtuous friends or those who are not conducive to your view and conduct. Expose your own faults. Do not talk about the hidden faults of others.
Tobacco, opium and all other such drugs are said to be the manifestation of sacred- commitment-degenerating demons. From your heart abandon them. Alcoholic beverages,
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however, should be relied on as a sacred-commitment-substance, but not wantonly consumed to the point of intoxication.
Whether others have faith in you and treat you with respect or have no faith and attack you or scheme against you, without differentiating between good and bad relationships take them all on the path and look after them with pure aspirations.
At all times sustain the valor of awareness. Don't be a coward. Although inwardly exalted and expansive, outwardly your conduct should be humble. Wear tattered clothes. Whether others are good, bad or indifferent, consider them all above yourself. Making do with meager provisions, remain steadfastly in mountain hermitages. Direct your ambition toward the life of a beggar. Emulate the complete liberation of past accomplished masters. Without blaming your past actions, practice the Doctrine in an impeccable and exalted manner. Without blaming circumstances practice steadfastly amidst whatever circumstances arise.
In short, take your own mind as witness. Devote this human life to Spirituality. At the time of your death, have nothing left to think about and no reason to be ashamed. The key point of all practice is just this.
At some point the time of death will arrive. At that time completely abandon whatever wealth or possessions you may have without attachment to even so much as a single needle. The best conduct is to be joyous at the time of death. The middling conduct is not to shirk from death. The inferior conduct is at least not to have regret when you die.
If the luminosity of realization has completed the cycle of day and night, there is no intermediate state, but merely the dissolution of the body. If you have not reached this level, but nonetheless have certainty of being liberated in the intermediate state, whatever you do is fine.
Extracting the Essence of Spiritual Practice
Instructions on Mountain Spirituality, Direct Guidance for Experiencing the Practice Explained in a Way that is Easy to Understand
by Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje
Version 5 (C)2005 by John N. Ross
This translation is copyrighted to prevent misuse. Permission is expressly granted to individuals who have received transmission of this text from a qualified lineage holder to make copies for their own personal use only. All other duplication, in any media and for any purpose, is expressly prohibited.
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Extracting the Essence of Spiritual Practice
Instructions on Mountain Spirituality, Direct Guidance for Experiencing the Practice Explained in a Way that is Easy to Understand
At the feet of the incomparably kind, glorious and sacred Guru, respectfully I bow down and go for refuge. Please grant your blessings that the realization of the profound path may swiftly arise in the mind-streams of myself and my disciples without the slightest error and that we may attain the primordially impregnable ground in this very life.
For fortunate individuals who, through the conjunction of their perfectly pure previous aspirations and karmic propensities, have heartfelt confidence in the teachings of the profound, secret Great Completion and the Guru who introduces it and who wish to pursue the practice to its final conclusion, here is an entranceway. These instructions on the key points of mountain spirituality are direct guidance for the meditation practice of the utmost secret, the Great Completion, explained in a way that is concise and easy to understand.
Accordingly, there are three main topics to be understood. The preparation is to purify and train your mind-stream by severing the bonds of desire and attachment and by keeping your mind turned toward the Teachings. The main practice is to clear away doubts and misconceptions about the view, meditation and conduct and to sustain the experience of practice. The ensuing experience is to guard your vows and sacred commitments and to complete the activities of this life in accord with the Doctrine. Then, to say a little about the first subject:
Alas! This incessant cognition that we label as our minds arose in the very beginning at the same moment as Total Goodness. However, Total Goodness knows itself and thus is free, while we sentient beings, through non-recognition, wander endlessly in cyclic existence.
The bodies we have inhabited among the six classes of beings are beyond enumeration, yet all of the activities we have thus engaged in have been meaningless. Now, once out of so many times, we have obtained this human body. If we do not accomplish the means to avoid rebirth in the lower realms of cyclic existence, it is uncertain where we will be reborn when we die. Wherever we are reborn among the six classes of beings, we will never be beyond the inevitability of suffering.
It is not enough simply to have obtained this human body-at the time of death, we must leave it behind. Thus, we need to practice the Teachings genuinely this very moment. At the time of our death we should have no regrets and no reason to be ashamed of ourselves, just like Jetsun Milarepa. As he said, "The Doctrinal tradition of myself, Milarepa, is not to be ashamed of oneself. "
Having entered the Spiritual path, it is not enough simply to adopt the appearance and activities of Spirituality. You need to sever all ties to plans and desires that are limited to this life. Without making this break, you might enter the door of the Teachings with an unresolved mind, still attached to your homeland, wealth, relatives, friends and so forth. Then, due to the conjunction of cause, the mind of attachment, and condition, the objects of attachment, the Devil will create obstacles. Once again you will become involved in common worldliness, and your destiny will regress.
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So, abandon the three downfalls: food, clothes and useless chatter. Without attachment to the eight worldly concerns, focus your mind one-pointedly on the Doctrine.
In the solitary place, the heartfelt misery of death,
the practitioner who has uprooted attachment from deep within
enters the retreat, abandoning thoughts of this life,
and never meets with the visitors, thoughts of the eight worldly concerns.
One should act like Gyalwa Yang Gonpa. Otherwise, mixing the Teachings with the eight worldly concerns will lead to catastrophe, like eating food mixed with poison.
The eight concerns can be condensed into hope and fear, and the meaning of these two is aversion and attachment. Aversion and attachment within manifest outwardly as male and female demons. As long as one is not free from aversion and attachment, one will not be free from male and female demons and obstacles will never cease.
So, is there any attachment or conceit regarding this life or the eight worldly concerns hidden deep within your heart? Examining yourself again and again, you should earnestly abandon such defects. To harbor the eight concerns deep within while adopting the appearance of the Doctrine would be deceitful, and any material benefit that you might receive as a result would be a perverse means of livelihood.
It is said, "By abandoning ones homeland, half of the Teachings are accomplished. " So leave your homeland behind and wander alone throughout the land. Part from your relatives and friends in good fashion, but ignore their entreaties to postpone your spiritual practice. Give away your wealth as charity, and survive on whatever alms come your way.
Understand that everything desirable is but an obstacle that leads to bad habits, and develop a mind that is free from desire. Without restraint and contentment regarding wealth and possessions, then as soon as you get one you will need two. Eventually the deception of desirable objects will make it easy for the Devil to enter.
Whatever people say, whether good or bad, do not cling to it as true. Whatever is said, just let it be without acceptance or rejection, hope or fear, like comments made about someone who is already dead.
Apart from a qualified Guru, the most honest advice would come from ones parents, but even their advice is not to be heeded. Stand your ground. Do not let your nose rope fall into anyone's hands.
In order to maintain appearances and be as a friend to all, you should be easygoing and know how to avoid burning others' noses. But if anyone, whether great or humble, becomes an obstacle to your practice, you should be unshakable. You should be like an iron boulder with a silk scarf tied around it. Don't be the kind of person who is easily influenced, like the grass on top of a mountain pass that bows in whatever direction it is blown by the wind.
Whatever practice you are engaged in, from the moment you begin until reaching the end, whether hail falls from above, a lake rises up from below or precipices collapse from in front of you, with fierce resolve never to abandon your commitment even at the cost of your life, continue your practice until reaching the end.
From the very beginning progressively establish a schedule for meditation sessions, sleep, relaxation and meals, allowing no bad habits. Whether your practice is elaborate or simple, it is important not to let it be erratic. Desolate and ordinary, in every moment without exception be aware of the practice and experience its essence.
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During retreat seal the entrance with mud. If not that, in any case do not meet with, nor speak with, nor spy on others. Completely discard all wanderings of the restless mind. Assume an excellent posture and expel the stale breath. Summarily abandon chasing after the mind. Like a stake driven into the ground, you should remain without wavering for even an instant. A strict outer, inner and secret retreat will quickly give rise to all the signs and qualities.
If for some important reason you meet with someone and then speak with him, thinking that, "After this I will be strict," this transgression will cause the prosperity of your practice to fade. Your retreat will become slacker and slacker. If from the very beginning you make a resolute decision to remain seated and gradually increase the strictness of your retreat, your practice will not be swept away by obstacles.
Although there are many ways of examining the special characteristics of particular places, in general places blessed by Guru Rinpoche and other accomplished masters of the past that are not occupied by those with conflicting sacred commitments, any utterly solitary place where it is easy to gather necessities or whatever place is agreeable to oneself are suitable.
If you can handle the swift and powerful manifest energy of the conjunction of outer and inner interdependence in charnal grounds and other terrifying places where malicious spirits abide, that will really enhance your meditation. However, if you cannot handle it, there will be many obstacles. When your realization becomes one with the inner space, all obstructing circumstances will arise as friends. At that time it is especially excellent to undertake secret activities in charnal grounds and such places.
Continuously abandoning all outer and inner distractions, to abide in non-action is the transcendent solitary place.
As for the actual purification of your mind-stream, the ordinary practices are the four thoughts which turn the mind, and the extraordinary practices are refuge, awakening mind, purifying obscurations and gathering the accumulations. According to the commentaries, make effort at each one in turn until genuine experience arises.
With diligence you should take the guruyoga in particular as the life force of your practice. If you do not, meditation will be slow to develop. Even if it does develop a little, obstacles will arise and you will not be able to develop genuine realization. So pray intensely with uncontrived devotion. In this way the Guru's mind-stream will be transferred, and an extraordinary, inexpressible realization will certainly arise from within you.
As Lama Shang Rinpoche said, "To sustain stillness, to sustain experiences, to sustain profound concentrations are quite common. By the power of devotion and the grace of the Guru to give rise to realization within is rare indeed. "
Therefore, for the meaning of the Great Completion to arise in your mind-stream depends upon these preliminaries. This is what Je Drigungpa meant when he said, "Other Doctrinal traditions consider the main practice to be profound, here we consider the preliminaries to be profound. "
Second, regarding the main practice, which is to clear away doubts and misconceptions about the view, meditation and conduct and to sustain the experience of practice, the first subject is the view that knows reality.
The nature of your mind is the actual state of the transcendent nature. Free from all characteristics fabricated by conventional rational mind, it is definitively established as
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awareness. Awareness arises nakedly as self-occurring primal knowing. Neither can it be expressed in words nor indicated by example. It has never been corrupted by cyclic existence, nor has it ever been improved by going beyond suffering. It has never been born, never ended, never been liberated, never been confused, never existed, never not existed, never been interrupted in the slightest, nor ever fallen into any kind of partiality.
In short, from the very beginning the originally pure essence, the vast pervasive expanse of emptiness, has never been a substantial entity with elaborated characteristics. From the unobstructed radiance of emptiness, the phenomenal realms of cyclic existence and freedom from suffering appear by themselves like the ocean, the sun and the sun's rays. The nature that is the great spontaneously present qualities of primal knowing, has never been a blank, nihilistic emptiness. In this way the awareness which is the indivisible union of appearance and emptiness is the very identity of Threefold Being, the actual state of the primordial nature. Recognizing this reality just as it is, is what is called the "view" of the Great Completion beyond rational mind.
The Great Master said, "True Being beyond rational mind is as-it-is-ness. " How joyous! We hold in our hands that which actually kindles the intention of Total Goodness.
This itself is the heart-essence of the six million four hundred thousand tantras of the Great Completion, which are the ultimate conclusion of all of the eighty-four thousand sections of the Conqueror's Teachings. There is not an inch to go beyond this. All of the Teachings must be perfectly and decisively understood according to this.
Cutting from within doubts and misconceptions about this view and continuously sustaining it is what is called "meditation". All other meditations based on intentionality and fabrication are conceptual meditations created by the rational mind. We don't do that.
Without losing the foundation of that previous view, loosely leave all of the perceptions of the five senses to relax and self-settle.
Don't meditate by labeling, "This is it! " If you meditate, that is rational mind. There is nothing whatsoever on which to meditate.
Do not be distracted for even an instant. If you become distracted from letting go into yourself, that is the real delusion. Do not be distracted. Whatever thoughts arise, let them arise. Do not follow after them. Do not suppress them.
If one were to describe what this is like, whatever arises or appears as an object of perception, see it all like a small child peering into a temple. Without clinging to appearances, leave them fresh. Leave all phenomena in their own place, undamaged by contrivance, their color unchanged, their lustre undiminished. When whatever appears is unspoiled by grasping or clinging thoughts, all of appearance and cognition arises as the empty lucidity of naked primal knowing.
There are so many teachings that are called "vast" or "profound", yet they are merely deception for all those of lesser intelligence. If one were to explain the essential, concise meaning in the manner of putting ones finger on it, when the previous thought has ceased and the future thought has not yet arisen, isn't there a fresh knowing-nowness which has never changed at all, nor ever had the slightest foundation, a naked clear awareness? This is the presence of awareness itself.
Yet one does not remain only in that state forever. Doesn't a thought suddenly arise? This is the self-manifest energy of that awareness. If you do not recognize this in the very moment of arising, thoughts will spread out in your mind-stream. This is called the chain of delusion. It is the root of cyclic existence.
If in the instant of arising you merely recognize without following after and let go at -5-
ease in yourself, whatever thoughts arise all effortlessly liberate in the inner space of True Being awareness. This is the combined practice of the view and meditation according to Cutting Solidity. This is the main practice.
As Garab Dorje said,
When from the primally pure expanse,
awareness arises suddenly in an instant of recollection,
it is like recovering a wish-fulfilling jewel from the depths of the ocean, True Being which has neither been made nor caused by anyone.
This is the ultimate point. You should meditate like this day and night without distraction. Without leaving emptiness an object of knowledge, gather everything into awareness itself.
Then, as for the conduct which enhances this meditation, the manner of sustaining the practice is as follows:
As was explained previously, the main point is to see your Guru as the actual Buddha and to never separate from that perception. Pray one-pointedly and steadfastly from your heart. This is called the "panacea of devotion". Whether for clearing away obstacles or for enhancing experience, this method is supreme. This is the way to powerfully and decisively traverse all paths.
If your meditation falters by sinking or becoming dull, nimbly bring out awareness. If thoughts proliferate or you become agitated, relax consciousness from within.
Without forcing or restraining due to an incessant mindfulness of the continuity of meditation, simply do not forget the self-recognition of your own essence. Continuously sustain this at all times, whether during equipoise or during the activities of ensuing experience such as eating, sleeping, walking and sitting. Whether happy or suffering, whatever neurotic thoughts arise, without hope or fear, acceptance or rejection, without suppressing or bringing antidotes, let be on the face of the thoughts-the experience of happiness or suffering just as it is. Let go into that stark nakedness alone.
It all comes to just one key point, so do not deceive yourself with a lot of thinking. You do not need to meditate by using emptiness as an antidote against thoughts and emotions, as if they are "something to be abandoned". In the instant awareness recognizes "something to be abandoned", it self-liberates like a snake uncoiling its own knot.
This is the ultimate conclusion of the hidden meaning of the Luminous Indestructible Heart Essence. Many know how to speak of it, but without knowing how to practice it this becomes just like parrots' litanies. We are extremely fortunate!
There is something to be considered carefully and understood. The mortal enemy that has bound us to cyclic existence since time without beginning is that pair, the grasper and the grasped. Now due to the kindness of the Guru, you have been introduced to the True Being that abides within yourself, and that pair has been burnt up like a feather without leaving the slightest trace or remnant. Isn't that really satisfying?
To have received such a profound instruction on the swift path and not to practice it would be like taking a wish-fulfilling jewel and stuffing it in the mouth of a corpse. What a loss! Don't let your heart rot. Put these instructions into practice.
Beginners will fall into distraction and lose their mindfulness amidst the darkness of proliferating thoughts. Suddenly becoming wound up in myriad thoughts, they will be carried away by the underlying movements. Then when a startling mindfulness returns, they will think, "I have been distracted" and will feel regret. At that time do not entertain the
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slightest regret, either for having been distracted or for losing the previous thought. When that stark mindfulness returns, self-settle on that. Continuously sustaining that alone is sufficient.
"See thoughts as True Being. Don't abandon them," has become a famous aphorism. However, if your insight has not completed the manifest energy, simply to think, "This is True Being," while resting in an unknowing state of quiescence poses the danger of becoming trapped in an indeterminate equanimity without any discriminating cognizance.
At the beginning just look directly at whatever thoughts arise without the slightest analysis or reflection. Completely carefree, without adding anything, let go into the "recognizer" of the thought like an old man watching children play.
Letting go like that, self-settle into a non-conceptual state. When suddenly the propensity for abiding spontaneously dissolves, in that instant the primal knowing beyond mind will arise naked and distinct.
While on the path you will inevitably encounter experiences of bliss, lucidity and non-thought. However, if you can leave them without even the tiniest bit of hope or fear, of pride, attachment or satisfaction, then you have successfully negotiated these potential points of deviation.
It is important always to avoid distractions and to maintain one pointed mindfulness and aspiration. If you fall into intellectualization and wish fulfillment, becoming complacent about a bit of quiescence without digging in to the meat of experience, you will merely become skilled at mouthing the words. There is no benefit in that.
There is a proverb of the Great Completion, "Understanding is like a patch. It will fall off. " And also, "Experiences are like the mist, they will fade. "
Even the most trivial external circumstances, whether good or bad, can deceive "great meditators". There are so many ways to be led astray by circumstances. Even if you have entered the practice of meditation, if you do not meditate continuously that is just leaving the profound instructions on the pages of the text. Your knowledge and practice will become a mere facade and genuine meditation will never arise. Old "great meditators" still new to the practice, beware! You could die with your head covered in salt.
Isn't that really satisfying?
To have received such a profound instruction on the swift path and not to practice it would be like taking a wish-fulfilling jewel and stuffing it in the mouth of a corpse. What a loss! Don't let your heart rot. Put these instructions into practice.
Beginners will fall into distraction and lose their mindfulness amidst the darkness of proliferating thoughts. Suddenly becoming wound up in myriad thoughts, they will be carried away by the underlying movements. Then when a startling mindfulness returns, they will think, "I have been distracted" and will feel regret. At that time do not entertain the
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slightest regret, either for having been distracted or for losing the previous thought. When that stark mindfulness returns, self-settle on that. Continuously sustaining that alone is sufficient.
"See thoughts as True Being. Don't abandon them," has become a famous aphorism. However, if your insight has not completed the manifest energy, simply to think, "This is True Being," while resting in an unknowing state of quiescence poses the danger of becoming trapped in an indeterminate equanimity without any discriminating cognizance.
At the beginning just look directly at whatever thoughts arise without the slightest analysis or reflection. Completely carefree, without adding anything, let go into the "recognizer" of the thought like an old man watching children play.
Letting go like that, self-settle into a non-conceptual state. When suddenly the propensity for abiding spontaneously dissolves, in that instant the primal knowing beyond mind will arise naked and distinct.
While on the path you will inevitably encounter experiences of bliss, lucidity and non-thought. However, if you can leave them without even the tiniest bit of hope or fear, of pride, attachment or satisfaction, then you have successfully negotiated these potential points of deviation.
It is important always to avoid distractions and to maintain one pointed mindfulness and aspiration. If you fall into intellectualization and wish fulfillment, becoming complacent about a bit of quiescence without digging in to the meat of experience, you will merely become skilled at mouthing the words. There is no benefit in that.
There is a proverb of the Great Completion, "Understanding is like a patch. It will fall off. " And also, "Experiences are like the mist, they will fade. "
Even the most trivial external circumstances, whether good or bad, can deceive "great meditators". There are so many ways to be led astray by circumstances. Even if you have entered the practice of meditation, if you do not meditate continuously that is just leaving the profound instructions on the pages of the text. Your knowledge and practice will become a mere facade and genuine meditation will never arise. Old "great meditators" still new to the practice, beware! You could die with your head covered in salt.
If you meditate continuously for a long time, at some point due to devotion or some other conducive circumstance, experience will blaze forth as realization. You will see the naked, extraordinary awareness. Like peeling a cover off of your head, your view will become vast, spacious and even. This is called "the supreme seeing of what is not seen". From this point onward thoughts will arise as meditation. Stillness and movement will liberate together.
At first you will recognize thoughts and then they will liberate in the manner of meeting someone whom you used to know well. Later thoughts will self-liberate in the manner of a snake releasing its own knot. Finally thoughts will neither benefit nor harm and will liberate in the manner of a thief entering an empty house. These stages will occur progressively.
A vehement conviction will arise from within that all phenomena are solely the display of your own awareness. The inner expanse will roil with waves of emptiness and compassion. There will no longer be any possibility of choosing between cyclic existence and going beyond suffering. You will realize that there is no difference between Buddhas and sentient beings. Whatever occurs, you will be joyous within the state of the actual nature. You would not even know how to waver from that alone-that limitlessness beyond day and night.
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There is a proverb of the Great Completion, "Realization is unchanging like the sky. " Thus the body of a yogi appears as an ordinary human being, yet his mind is the realization of True Being, free from activity or effort. Without activity he will traverse all the paths and levels. Finally, both rational mind and phenomena will be exhausted. Like the space inside a broken vase, his body will dissolve into particles and his mind will dissolve into the actual nature. This is what is called "the inner lucidity of the expanse of the primordial ground gathering in the youthful vase body". So it can be.
This is the conclusion of view, meditation and conduct. This is what is called "actualizing the result that is not to be obtained". Such is the difference between experience and realization.
Some individuals will progress gradually in stages, others will skip the stages, some will realize instantly. This is due to the various abilities of different individuals; however, at the time of fruition there is no distinction to be made.
The third general topic is ensuing experience, guarding your vows and sacred commitments and completing the activities of this life in accord with the Dharma.
Although you may make effort at the practice of the view, meditation and conduct, if you are not skillful regarding the activities of ensuing experience your vows and sacred commitments will degenerate. In the interim there will be hindrances and obstacles along the paths and levels, and ultimately you will certainly fall into the hell of Utmost Torment. Therefore it is critical always to be vigilant and mindful, without making the slightest mistake regarding what should be adopted and what abandoned.
As the Great Master said, "Although the view is high as the sky, ones concern for the results of ones actions should be as fine as flour. " Thus you should forsake thoughtless crudity and be meticulous about cause and effect. Protect your vows and sacred commitments without the slightest degeneration and remain untainted by any faults or downfalls.
Although there are many ways of enumerating the sacred commitments of Secret Mantra, they can all be condensed into the sacred commitments of the body, speech and mind of ones root Guru. It is said that if one perceives ones Guru as an ordinary human being for even an instant, accomplishment is months and years away. If you were to think, "Why is that so? ", know that this is a crucial key point. As it is said, "For whoever holds the vajra, accomplishment depends on the master. " Thus it is.
At first whoever you are, until you rely on a Guru you are under your own power. However, once you rely on a Guru and become connected by empowerments and oral instructions, from that point onward you have no power not to keep the sacred commitments. At the end of the four empowerments one bows before the Guru as the main figure of the sacred circle and says, "From this point onward take me as your servant. I offer myself to you. Please accept me as your disciple, and use even the tiniest part of me. " Once you have made this promise, no matter how great or powerful you are, haven't you given up your autonomy to the Guru?
One also says, "Whatever the main figure of the sacred circle commands, I will accomplish it all. " After having made this vow, do you have the power not to do whatever he says? If you do not accomplish your vow, although it may sound unpleasant, you cannot escape the fact that this is what is called a "violator of sacred commitments".
Nor is it taught that one needs to keep sacred commitments perfectly with great Gurus who have extensive retinues, or who are wealthy, powerful, eloquent and so forth, but
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that there is no need to keep sacred commitments with humble Gurus who keep a low profile or engage in the conduct of beggars. In any case, you need to understand the key point of risk and benefit. It won't do just to sit there like a befuddled old horse. This need to keep sacred commitments, is it for the Guru's benefit? Or is it for your own benefit? You should focus your mind and reflect on this carefully, as if grinding medicine. If it is for the Guru's benefit, then you can just drop it this very moment. But if that is not the case, it won't do to throw ashes on your own head.
In general, the sacred commitments regarding ones Spiritual brethren is to practice pure vision, seeing all who have entered the door of the Buddha's teachings in a positive way. Abandon partiality and criticism toward particular traditions of practice. Especially, give up disrespect, competitiveness, jealousy and deceit toward vajra kindred who have received teachings from the same Guru or within the same sacred circle. From your heart you should cultivate a loving attitude toward them.
All sentient beings have really been ones own kind parents. Alas! They are trapped in cyclic existence and oppressed by fierce suffering. Thinking that, "If I do not protect them, who will? " you should train your mind by meditating on unbearable compassion. Engage all of the abilities of your three gates to ceaselessly accomplish the benefit of beings, and dedicate all the merit to the benefit of others.
At all times there are only three things to think of: the Doctrine, the Guru and sentient beings. Do not let your thoughts or your conduct go astray. Do not compete with those who bear the name or trappings of realized yogis or monks. Keep your mouth shut and control your mind. This is extremely important. Do not make a fool of yourself.
If you reflect on what is of benefit to yourself, it is only your future life. What is called "Spirituality" is something you need to do for yourself. If you are placing your hopes on virtue that others may accomplish for you after your death, it may be difficult for that to be of benefit.
So turn your mind inward. Begin by developing heartfelt certainty. With intense diligence, aspiration and mindfulness as your foundation, make the length of your practice equal to the length of your life. For the main practice, strike the vital point with the practice of the profound view and meditation. During ensuing experience, act without contradicting what is to be adopted and what abandoned with regard to the sacred commitments, precepts and vows. As a result, the qualities can not but arise from within.
The Great Completion is a path of such powerful skillful means that even sinful people can follow it to Awakening. However, due to this extraordinary profundity, there can be obstacles-just as great profit comes with great risk. The power of the oral instructions will cause all of the negative actions that you have previously accumulated to rise up as challenging experiences. Mara will create obstacles and apparitions. At your place of practice, you may see gods and demons. They may even call out your name or appear in the guise of your Guru and make prophecies. Various terrifying phenomena will occur in your experiences or dreams.
In actuality, you may encounter beatings, humiliation, robbery, theft, illness and other challenges. For no reason at all you will experience sadness, longing or intense mental suffering. Intense neurotic thoughts will arise. Your devotion, awakening mind and compassion will diminish. Your thoughts will arise as enemies and drive you insane.
You will misinterpret beneficial advice. It will become unbearable to stay on retreat, and you will long to abandon your promise. You will develop wrong views about the Guru and doubts about the Doctrine.
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In addition, you may be wrongly accused or acquire a bad reputation. Your friends may become enemies. Both outwardly and within yourself, these and various other undesirable circumstances will arise. Ho! These are upheavals that have been ripened by your practice. Recognize them as such.
This is the crossroads between profit and loss. If you resolve these obstacles with the vital point, they will transform into accomplishment. If you fall under their power, they will become hindrances. At this point, with pure sacred commitment and persistent, earnest devotion entrust your mind and heart to the Guru. Thinking, "whatever you do, you know all things", pray with ardent confidence. Whatever challenging circumstances arise, accept them as something desirable and put intense effort into your practice. If you can practice in this way, the solidity of these circumstances will collapse by itself and your practice will be enhanced. Appearances will become insubstantial like the mist. Confidence in the Guru and his instructions will grow even greater than before. After this even if challenging experiences occur, you will feel confident and think, "Alright! "
This is the sign of having mastered the challenge. After circumstances have become a support for the path, whatever challenges arise are fine. Ah la la! This is precisely what we old fathers want. Don't be like a fox who skulks around a human corpse longing to eat it, yet trembling with hesitation. Develop courage!
Those whose accumulation of merit is meager, whose sacred commitments and vows are lax, whose misconceptions are huge, whose doubts are numerous, who make exalted commitments but are feeble in practice-such people, whose hearts waft farts, request the Guru's oral instructions to leave on their bookshelves. Clutching adverse circumstances in a death-grip, they follow after them and deliver themselves to the Devil. This will only lead to evil destinies. Alas! Pray to the Guru that this does not happen.
Actually, adverse circumstances that arise as challenges along the path are relatively easy to deal with. Felicitous circumstances that arise as challenges along the path are extremely difficult to handle. Those who presume that they have attained realization and become distracted by constantly striving after greatness in this life are in danger of enslaving themselves to the Devil of the Child of the Gods. One should be exceedingly cautious in this regard.
Know that this is the point at which "great meditators" are put to the test. This is the crossroads at which you will go up or down.
Until the manifest energy of the qualities of your inner realization is complete, it is inappropriate to tell stories of your experiences-however exalted they may be. Keep your mouth shut. Furthermore, don't become conceited about how many months or years you have spent on retreat. Wholeheartedly endeavor to practice for your entire human life. Do not deceive yourself by mouthing words about emptiness and then criticize the accumulation of virtue by cause and effect as deception.
Village rituals, subduing demons and so forth are for gathering food. Do not remain for long in populated places. Reduce meaningless work, needless talk and useless thinking. Do not deceive others through fraud, pretense or other actions that contradict the Teachings. Do not engage in wrong livelihood, uttering indirect requests or flattery out of craving for desirable things. Do not associate with unvirtuous friends or those who are not conducive to your view and conduct. Expose your own faults. Do not talk about the hidden faults of others.
Tobacco, opium and all other such drugs are said to be the manifestation of sacred- commitment-degenerating demons. From your heart abandon them. Alcoholic beverages,
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however, should be relied on as a sacred-commitment-substance, but not wantonly consumed to the point of intoxication.
Whether others have faith in you and treat you with respect or have no faith and attack you or scheme against you, without differentiating between good and bad relationships take them all on the path and look after them with pure aspirations.
At all times sustain the valor of awareness. Don't be a coward. Although inwardly exalted and expansive, outwardly your conduct should be humble. Wear tattered clothes. Whether others are good, bad or indifferent, consider them all above yourself. Making do with meager provisions, remain steadfastly in mountain hermitages. Direct your ambition toward the life of a beggar. Emulate the complete liberation of past accomplished masters. Without blaming your past actions, practice the Doctrine in an impeccable and exalted manner. Without blaming circumstances practice steadfastly amidst whatever circumstances arise.
In short, take your own mind as witness. Devote this human life to Spirituality. At the time of your death, have nothing left to think about and no reason to be ashamed. The key point of all practice is just this.
At some point the time of death will arrive. At that time completely abandon whatever wealth or possessions you may have without attachment to even so much as a single needle. The best conduct is to be joyous at the time of death. The middling conduct is not to shirk from death. The inferior conduct is at least not to have regret when you die.
If the luminosity of realization has completed the cycle of day and night, there is no intermediate state, but merely the dissolution of the body. If you have not reached this level, but nonetheless have certainty of being liberated in the intermediate state, whatever you do is fine.
