Namo Buddha Archives

Teachings by Thrangu Rinpoche

(We have assembled some interesting questions and answers from the Guide to a Bodhisattva’s Way of Life which is now completely revised with three added chapters and the root verses.

Question: Why can’t gods, sages, and Brahmin reach enlightenment?

Rinpoche: The gods, sages, and Brahmin are only concerned with their own welfare. They practice to attain Buddhahood only to eliminate their personal suffering. Therefore they have never even dreamt of an attitude of awakening mind being concerned only with their own welfare.

Question: What is the philosopher’s stone?

Rinpoche: At the time of Nagarjuna this gold-making elixir existed. It has been said that if one had an ounce of this elixir, one would be able to transform one thousand ounces of iron into gold. In those days Nagarjuna constructed a great university of Nalanda and other holy places. He was, however, an ordinary monk and had no wealth whatsoever. So to construct these places, he did a practice that made use of this gold-making elixir.

Question: Could you explain further the fear of a bodhisattva faced with the task of helping absolutely all sentient beings?

Rinpoche: The fear of engendering awakening mind is thinking, "Well, I’ll never be able to help all these beings, since they are so numerous." One thinks of all these numerous and various beings and all their desires and that one is not able to fulfill all their hopes and desires. So there is a fear of engendering the awakening mind or engaging in bodhisattva activity.

It might seem that this effort involves suffering, but it also involves happiness. For example, if you are concerned about ten people and you help one of them, then you feel very happy. You will be content with your effort of having been able to help one person. So if you are able to help two or three or more of these people, you will be even happier. So in the case of a bodhisattva who is concerned with a limitless number of beings, the bodhisattva’s happiness and joy is continuous. It is continuous because the bodhisattva is concerned with the welfare of so many and each time someone is helped, the bodhisattva is happy. So, in fact, there is a continuous happiness and joy, rather than suffering with this commitment.

Question: How much negative karma is erased from doing good actions?

Rinpoche: The virtue resulting from giving rise to the awakening mind is very powerful. In fact, it consumes negative karma. In the case of extremely strong negative karma, awakening mind will, so to speak, take away the effect, though one will have to experience some of the effects of this negative karma. In the case of a slight misdeed, it will be eliminated totally by awakening mind. If one, for example, has accumulated karma which will result in rebirth in hell and after one has given rise to the awakening mind, the future effect of this negative karma will be very slight. For example, if you drop a ball, it bounces back off the ground. In the same way, rather than having to dwell in the hell realms for a very long period of time, one might just fall down into the hell realms and then bounce up again like a ball.

Question: Do person who are nonBuddhist or have not taken the bodhisattva vows possess awakening mind or bodhichitta?

Rinpoche: There are fortunate beings in the world who have many good intentions and these one could say have bodhichitta. But the majority of those that are endowed with bodhichitta are to be found within the Buddhist tradition because Buddhists have an understanding of bodhichitta and know it’s meaning. Bodhichitta generally means that one has developed goodness of mind or one has good intentions. But these good intentions might be limited to having good intentions in relation to relatives, one’s country, one’s race, and so forth. If one, for example, has good intentions towards one’s relatives, it follows that one might be adverse to those that are not one’s relatives. If one has good intentions in relations to one’s country, it follows one will probably have bad intentions towards other countries. Similarly, having good intentions towards those that are of the same race means one is probably adverse towards others of a different race. With bodhichitta, however, one is not biased and one’s good intentions includes all sentient beings. One believes that all sentient beings no matter what country they belong to, whether they are related or not, or whether they belong to the race or not, desire happiness and want to avoid suffering. So a bodhisattva’s good intentions include all these sentient beings and is completely unbiased.

There are many people that have good intentions and desire to help others, but their good intentions are limited. They think that it’s not necessary to attain Buddhahood and it is sufficient to be happy oneself and benefit others so that they are happy. In actual fact, one needs to establish all beings in Buddhahood because any other help is only temporary and will eventually be exhausted. For example, if one lends a hundred dollars to someone, for some time that person will have money and be temporarily helped, but when the money is used up, that person is impoverished as before. Whereas if one is able to establish someone in Buddhahood, that is the ultimate kind of help and will never be exhausted.

Question: I want to ask a practical question. If you do an evil deed during the day, should you try to confess it right away, or should you wait until the end of the day or should you wait until you practice?

Rinpoche: It doesn’t make a big difference when one confesses evil deeds. One confesses what one has done the moment one recognizes that one has committed an evil deed. Whether a day has elapsed, whether it’s immediately or after a few years makes no great difference. At the point when one recognizes that one has committed an evil deed and regrets that, one makes a confession. With respect to commitment of the vajrayana tradition on the other hand, timeliness have been mentioned, though generally speaking with respect to evil actions there are no particular time limits.

Question: Does one have to feel remorse with confession?

Rinpoche: Here confession is concerned with recognizing or identifying evil deeds that one has committed. It’s not very important to have a feeling of remorse or regret for no particular reason. With respect to confession or disclosure of evil, one actually recalls negative deeds and regrets them.

Question: What about regret?

Rinpoche: Well, usually with regret, one has a reason. There is something one has done in a mistaken way and one recognizes this. And therefore one feels remorse or regret. Though generally speaking, the nature of samsara is suffering and so forth. So when this state of mind arises without any particular reason, it’s good to meditate or do some practice which could clear away that frame of mind. It just indicates the general nature of samsara and suffering, the fact that state of mind arises.

Question: Is it important to visualize the buddhas and bodhisattvas?

Rinpoche: Well, buddhas and bodhisattvas are not ordinary beings. There is the interaction between oneself meditating on the buddhas and bodhisattvas and the buddhas and bodhisattvas knowing that one is doing this act of confession. So we are not able to actually see these buddhas and bodhisattvas in front of us, but they are present. We evoke them then by doing this meditation and not being ordinary beings, they at that point know that we are doing this confession, and they actually are present in front of us.

Question: How far away should one visualize them?

Rinpoche: There is no ordinary distance. For them, it’s not a question of being far away or close by. They are not present in front of us physically. They are present in the sense that they are aware of our confession.

Question: I do not understand rebirth.

Rinpoche: There is what one calls the mental continuum. The Bagamati River here in Kathmandu always seems to be the same river, though in actual fact, yesterday’s river is not the same as today’s river because the water in yesterday’s river has already flowed down to India. It’s not here anymore, though one thinks of the river as the same one when in actual fact, it’s not. It’s new water flowing through all the time. Similarly, one’s present body is different from the body one will have in one’s future life, though one still thinks one is the same.

So, now with a human being and he can talk about lots of different things. If he’s reborn as a dog, for example, he can’t talk anymore, he can only bark. So even though he might think he is one and the same individual, in fact he’s not.

Question: How can we completely eliminate the kleshas or negative obscurations?

Rinpoche: One speaks of suppressing, for example, anger, and the antidote for this is patience. One develops patience by considering the result of what ensues from anger. Based on this one is able to suppress anger, but it’s not uprooted. To abandon, for example, anger one then meditates on selflessness, that is, one meditates on the emptiness of all phenomena. In terms of the vajrayana tradition, one meditates on mahamudra or dzog chen, and anger or any other affliction will be abandoned when the true nature of mind is realized. Then naturally these afflictions will have been pacified.

Question: How do we know when we are sufficiently developed in our shamatha meditation to go on to vipashyana meditation?

Rinpoche: It is not good if we stay with shamatha meditation and never begin vipashyana meditation. Because vipashyana is actually being able to uproot the disturbing emotions, vipashyana is what establishes us in liberation. For this reason we need to begin vipashyana, but this vipashyana meditation needs to be grounded in the calm abiding of shamatha meditation. What are the signs of having reached a stable mind in shamatha meditation? The signs are that you can rest your mind whenever you want it to rest, that your have little trouble in letting go and being at ease at will, that you do not often experience the faults of dullness and agitation in your meditation. When you do not have dullness or agitation often and that your mind is easy and open, then that is a sign that your mind has some kind of stability and that is a sign that your are ready for vipashyana meditation.

Question: How does forsaking attachment to friends and relatives relate to the relationship one has for one’s children?

Rinpoche: There is the feeling of attachment and there is the feeling of wanting to benefit others. We need to understand that wishing good for our children is not something undesirable, but is something good. It is all right to think, "I wish that my children will be healthy, they will have a good education, and that they will have a good life." That is simply wishing them well and is giving up nothing. On the other hand thinking, "I must always be with my children and I cannot live without them." is attachment and this is not healthy. If one wishes well for one’s children, then its fine and there’s nothing to give up.

Question: Can you say something about enlightenment.

Rinpoche: There are various religious traditions in the world. Non-Buddhist traditions often believe that enlightenment is God, a supernatural power which if one prays to this God, then that God will be pleased and will grant one whatever one wishes. They also believe that if one does not pray to that God and does not keep contact with that God, the God will not be pleased and one will not get what one wishes. So this is the theist view of enlightenment. But in Buddhism, enlightenment is noting outside, it is nothing other than our own mind. Sometimes our mind is polluted, sometimes the good qualities of our mind do not manifest, but when our mind is purified, then all these special qualities of enlightenment will unfold. The word for enlightenment in Tibetan is "sang gay" with each syllable having a meaning. The first syllable sang means "to purify" and the second syllable gay means "fully" so reaching enlightenment is when all the temporary thoughts of the mind have been dispelled by the power of meditation and all the excellent qualities of the mind have unfolded fully.

Question: Can you say something about busyness?

Rinpoche: If we look at our life, we see that we are actually always in pursuit of something, always busy doing something. When night comes, we go to bed thinking we didn’t really finish that job and we’ll have to get up really early tomorrow to do it. Then the next day we work worrying about whether we will finish our job. We go on this way without ever really completing the project especially in modern life. Then we feel unhappy when we have no project or job. So we’re suffering if we are busy and unhappy and also when we are not busy. This is what is understood by the suffering of busyness. This is due because our mind is never satisfied thinking, "I will be happy if I have $ 1,000." Then when we get it we think, "No, I need $ 2,000." We are always thinking that it is quite enough, we need more. This is the impulse that causes suffering in human beings.

The Lamp Prayer (from Kaygu Monlam)

The glorious lord Atisha with just seventeen of his students recited this prayer in a roar in the temples of U Tsang, it is heard

May the bowl of this lamp become equal to the outer ring of the world realm of the great Three Thousands. May its stem be the size of the King of Mountains, Mt.Meru. May its oil fill the surrounding oceans. in number, may a hundred million appear before each and every Buddha. May its light dispel all the darkness of ignorance from the Peak of Existence to the incessant Hell and illuminate all the Pure Realms of the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions so they are clearly seen.

OM VAJRA ALOKE AH HUM

Emaho!
I offer this amazing, wonderful bright lamp
To the one thousand buddhas of this fortunate aeon
The lamas, yidams, dakinis, dharma protectors,
And gatherings of deities in the mandalas

Of all pure realms of the infinite ten directions
My parents in the fore, may every sentient being
In this lifetime and all the places they take birth
See the pure realms of the perfect Buddhas directly

And then become inseparable from Amitabha
Out of the power of the truth of the Three Jewels
And the deities of the Three Roots I've made this prayer
Please grant your blessings that it be quickly accomplished.

TAYATHA PANCHANDRIYA AVA BODAHANAYE SVAHA

Meditation – A Buddhist Perspective

Shamatha
Meditation – A Buddhist Perspective
“Meditation is like Driving to Enlightenment”
Khenpo Kunga

The Importance of Meditation
Meditations are very important in our daily life for three reasons:
1. First of all, in our daily lives both physical health and mental health are very significant. Both of them will be improved through meditation. Usually our minds are very sensitive and weak that is why we very easily become sad and angry. If someone always feels sad and angry, then they often become physically sick. If we meditate a lot, then our mind will become very strong and peaceful. If our mind becomes like that, then we will defeat sensitive or weak mind and become physically and mentally healthy.
2. Second, if someone is trying to find peace, then they method is to practice meditation; because the best remedy is meditation and it bring peace to their inner mind. For example, if someone did physical work for a month without rest, then they could become very seriously sick. In order to stay well, they should get some rest. Similarly, if our mind is always thinking and does not get any rest, then it will become unwell. So, to avoid developing an unwell mind, we need to learn to rest our mind. Meditation is the best way for our mind to rest.
3. Third, meditation in Tibet (GOM) means getting familiar. If we want to become a very good practitioner, we must become familiar with our mind or make friends with our mind. If we want to become familiar with our mind, then we always check our mind and try to improve or repair it.
Three perfect principles of meditation
1. Preparation
• Choose a Place.
• Make an Offering:
• Incense. Flowers. water
• Think about the Benefits of Meditation.
2. Main Part
• Follow the Instructions of meditation.
• Try to Focus on a Single Object. Breath
3. Conclusion
• Dedicate the Merit of meditation benefit for all sentient being
• Thin and Recite a formal meditation such as the following:
Emulating the hero Manjusri,
Samantabhadra and all those with knowledge
I too make a perfect dedication
Of all actions that are positive.
Or
By this merit, may all obtain omniscience
May it defeat the enemy, wrongdoing
From the stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death
From the ocean of samsara, may I free all beings


The Five Faults/Obstacles to Meditation
1. Laziness (an attitude of attraction to relative ease and general dislike for wholesome activities).
Three kinds of laziness

• Laziness of lack of application- don’t like practicing
• Laziness of personal feeling inadequacy. Looking “down on” yourself
• Laziness which is an attachment to bad activities

2. Forgetting Instructions
3. Dullness and Agitation (“Blah” vs. “Monkey” Mind)
• Dullness - Inner mind falls asleep
• Agitation - Mind goes “outside” the meditation
4. Non-application of antidotes – not using them when necessary
5. Over application of Antidotes – continuing to apply them when unnecessary and thus not being in the peaceful state.

How the Obstacles Harm Our Shamata
1. Laziness is an obstacle to Preparation.
2. Forgetting the instruction 3. Dullness and Agitation harm the Actual meditation.
4. Non-application of Antidotes 5. Over-application of Antidotes are obstacles to increasing
meditation.

The Eight Antidotes
To defeat the Five Faults, you should practice the Eight Antidotes.
1. Faith – Belief that meditation is the best way to happiness in this life and to achieving enlightenment. There are three kinds of Faith:
1, Inspired faith 2, Aspiring faith 3. Confident faith

2. Aspiration – Desire to begin the practice. If you have faith, you will have the aspiration.
3. Effort – Applying enthusiasm to begin the practice. If you have the aspiration, it will be
easy to make the effort.
4. Flexibility of mind – Using the suppleness and pliancy of your mind to the practice. If
you make the effort, you will be able to use the flexibility of your mind.
Note: The first four are the antidotes that destroy laziness.
Or the three kinds of effort are antidotes of laziness.
1,armor-like diligenc 2, effort in training 3, the diligence of never regarding as enough
5. Mindfulness – Remembering the instruction of meditation. If your mind is flexible, you
will be mindful of the instruction or antidotes.
6. Introspection– Using your two minds – one to do the practice and the other to observe and
evaluate your practice and control what is going on, like a Shepherd. If you are mindful
during your practice, you will practice introspection successfully.
7. Applying the Antidotes – Selecting the appropriate antidote when obstacles arise. If you
are introspective while meditating, you will choose the appropriate antidote to defeat
obstacles.
8. Resting in Equanimity – Achieving the feeling of effortless meditating. If appropriate
antidotes are applied, and obstacles are defeated, you will rest in equanimity.

Nine Stages of Setting the Mind

1. Placing attention on an Object. Focus on a single object. Suggestions are:
• A picture of Buddha. Flower. Blue paper. Music/sound. Following breath
• If visual object, colors are important because the symbol of the five Buddha Families.
1) Buddha Family or Vairochana (White) 2) Vajra (Diamond) Family or Akshobhya (Blue) 3) Ratna (Jewel) Family or Ratnasambhava (Yellow) 4) Padma (Lotus) Family or Amitabha (Red) 5) Karma (Action) Family or Amoghasiddhi (Green)
2. Continual Setting – Keep doing the above. Keep your attention on the object slowly
increasing the time.
3. Patch-like Setting – If your mind has distractions during meditation, use your mindfulness
and awareness to bring it back and re-focus on the object.
4. Close Setting – If your mind wanders again, bring it back and focus more intensely to block
the distraction.
5. Taming - If you become bored or tired during meditation, think about the benefits of
meditation and use this knowledge to “tame” the mind.
6. Pacification – If you are meditating and the “three poisons” arise and cause you to become
angry or hate meditation, you can pacify you mind by remembering that anger and hatred
destroy your happiness. Remind yourself that meditation, compassion and loving kindness
will restore it and block the poisons.
7. Complete Pacification – When you observe dullness or sleepiness while you are meditating,
you can refresh your mind by remembering the disadvantages of dullness and sleepiness.
Stop your meditation, walk around and wake yourself up, then return to meditation.
8. Single/ One-Pointed – When you can keep your focus on objects successfully, and destroy
obstacles, you can move to focusing on concepts - compassion , loving kindness or
emptiness.
9. Placement on Evenness/Equanimity – When you can meditated without obstacles or
concepts, you can just “let it go” - don’t work to hard, just do meditation in that state.

Our Buddha Nature
The goal of meditation is to see our Buddha Nature or last emptiness and will get exhaustless bliss - the nature of our mind. All sentient beings have Buddha nature but we can’t see it that’s why we are still wandering in samsara. If we see truly Buddha nature or Basic goodness then we are enlightened.
The three exalted bodies of a Buddha
1. The body of reality {chos sku} or dharmakaya,
2. The body of perfect rapture or complete Enjoyment body {longs sku} or sambhogakaya,
3. The emanation body {sprul sku} or nirmanakaya
• Darma kaya – Only Buddha can see this. If we abandon all obstacles, then we can see
• Sambogakaya – When we attain the 10 bhumi, then we can see it
• Nirmana kaya – All sentient being can see it

More excerpts from Rechungpa's Biography

On the defilment (Skt. klesha): Pride

Pride is a very powerful obstacle but it doesn't arise when one has difficulties and suffering. It is a time when things are going very well and one is practicing well that pride can arise. When one is having difficulties and suffering the poisons such as anger and ignorance arise.

Ibit, "A Spiritual Biography of Rechungpa" Pre-publication Edition, pg 30

Clarity, Awareness and Emptiness

"Milarepa had a prophesy that he will have two great disciples: one who would be like the sun and the other who would be like a moon. The disciple who was like the sun was Gampopa and the disciple who was like the moon was Rechungpa."

Here is a doha (spiritual song) that Rechungpa sang about the essential meaning of the view and meditation:

If one doesn't understand the actual nature of appearances, then one is going to continue in samsara.
If one realizes the nature of appearances, then one knows them to be the dharmakaya and there isn't any need to look for any other view.
If one doesn't know how to rest the mind in meditation, then one has to meditate on the mind.

The mind has three characteristics which are clarity, awareness, and emptiness.

Clarity means that there is an unbroken continuum of the mind.
Awareness means one knows exactly what it is that one is doing.
Emptiness means the mind has no true, solid reality.

If one doesn't understand these three characteristics, then many different thoughts will arise.
However, if one is able to rest in a natural uncontrived state then this is the sambhogakaya.

As for conduct, one should just deal with whatever occurs and be totally natural without any fixed plan or system. This is called naturally appearing and naturally liberated conduct.

Excerpt from the Pre-publication Edition of "A Spiritual Biography of Rechungpa" by Ven. Thrangu Rinpoche
Based on the tibetan text: The Radiance of Wisdom: The Clear Mirror of the Path to Omniscience and Liberation The Life of Liberation of Venerable Rechung Dorje Drak

The Power of Mantra

The definition of mantra is "that which protects the mind." That which protects the mind from negativity, or that which protects you from your own mind, is called mantra.

When you are nervous, disorientated, or emotionally fragile, chanting or reciting a mantra inspiringly can change the state of your mind completely, by transforming its energy and atmosphere.

How is this possible?
Mantra is the essence of sound, and the embodiment of the truth in the form of sound. Each syllable is impregnated with spiritual power, condenses a spiritual truth, and vibrates with the blessing of the speech of the buddhas.

It is also said that the mind rides on the subtle energy of the breath, the prana, which moves through and purifies the subtle channels of the body.

So when you chant a mantra, you are charging your breath and energy with the energy of the mantra, and so working directly on your mind and subtle body.

Excerpt from The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche 1992

More songs from Monlam April 2009

The Six Questions (by Milarepa)

Mind has even more projections than there are dust motes in the sun
Is there an accomplised yogi here or yogini
Who sees the appearance of things laid bare in the very bed where it lies?

The basic nature of things is not produced by cause and conditions;
Is there an accomplised yogi here or yogini
Who gets to the very bottom of this, cuts down to its very root?

Mind's impulse to sudden thought cannot be stopped by hundreds with spears;
Is there an accomplised yogi here or yogini
Who sees that attachment can dissolve, be freed in and of itself?

The movement of thinking mind cannot be stopped by hundreds with spears;
Is there an accomplised yogi here or yogini
Who sees that discursive mind itself is empty in itself?

The sensory enjoyments even wisdom deities do not shun;
Is there an accomplised yogi here or yogini
Who's able to see through the transparency of the process of consciousness?

What about the appearance of th six kind of objects that go with the consciousness
Not even the hands of Victorious Ones can put a stop to that;
Is there an accomplised yogi here or yogini
Who can see there is no objects there behind the apperances?

Song Lyrics from Monlam : April 2009

Friends
A song about being full of love but free of attachment

Friends are empty forms like a water moon
To think of them as being truly real
Will only make your many sufferings increase

To know they're empty forms like a water-moon
Will make illusion-like samadhi increase
Compassion free of clinging will increase

And non-referential view will also increase
And meditation that's fixation-free
And conduct free of doer, deed increase

Of all the many marvels, this, by far the most marvelous!
Of all the many wonders, this, the most wonderful!

Composed by Khenpo Tsultrim at Marpa House, England, August 1997
Translated and arranged by Jim Scott

Highlights from teachings of Shamatha & Vipassana Meditation (cont.)

March 2009 (Part 2)

I. The 3 wisdoms that play a vital role in achieving the path to liberation are the wisdom acquired through:

1. Listening/ Reading
2. Contemplation (establishes faith)
3. Meditation (most important)

If you contemplate for your whole life, but if you don’t practice, it is like you can never taste the food, meditation brings the “taste”.

II. Shamatha (tranquilty) => non conceptual

=> don't analyze

=> don't examine

=> focus on any given object

Benefits of meditation => achieve calmness

III. Quality of meditation and not quantity is more important.

Highlights from the teachings of Shamatha & Vipassana Meditation

March 2008 (Part One)

I. What is a Dharma friend?
A dharma friend is one who digs out your hidden faults.

II. Listening, contemplating and meditating - the path to realisation.

III. Samsara begins at the time you are confuse and ends when we dismantle the believe of dualism.

IV. According to Tarpo Tashi Namyel, once we embrace buddhism, it is important to practise. (Mahamudra, Shambala)

V. Meditation need blessings and merits to be successful, hence it is important to have spiritual guidance. Tranquility Meditation (Shamatha) is one-pointed concentration - non conceptual and without duality. Insight Meditation (Vipassana) is analytical comprehension (wisdom that analyses all the time) is supplementary, a perception that examines the mind.

Combining them
Eventually the perfect ease of mind and body is automatic and effortless and the analytical mind is also automatic and effortless. Tranquility & Insight has become one. Shamatha and Vipassana are closely linked and has no difference.Tranquilty makes the mind unshakeableInsight makes the mind unmovable, like a mountain. The goal of both is to attain realization.

VI. A root guru is one who can show you your true nature of mind directly. Nowadays, it is difficult to meet with your root guru, due to the degenaration age hence your refuge guru is very important. The degeration age causes the 4 elements to be imbalance. (ref. notes on Guru Padmasambhava's hidden treasure treatise - terton)

VII. It is important to be guided by Mindfulness, which reminds you of your good acts, and Awareness, watches your acts.

NB. If any errors are found above, all errors are of the author and are not a reflection of Rinpoche's teaching which are perfect in itself.

View, meditation and conduct (by Kunga Sherab)

The term view means the right understanding of the Buddhist path. Meditation is the actual practice, and conduct is the discipline necessary to stay on the path. The view is a very profound guide to meditation. Without proper knowledge of the teachings, many obstacles can arise due to mistakes in the practice. Naturally, if you do not know anything about meditation you won't recognize them as mistakes. This is why before you start practicing, you should first develop a correct understanding. You will then be able to recognize obstacles and the meditation will progress. In this way view and meditation are connected.Conduct is based on the understanding of karma. Right conduct means to ensure that actions, whether through our body or our speech, are not influenced by disturbing emotions. If actions are tainted, negative karma is created. For example, if we let ourselves be influenced by anger, we may harm people or we may possibly even kill. Motivated by anger, a great deal of ill will and negativity do arise. Right conduct means to be free of those influences. Instead, we let our actions be guided by positive qualities such as compassion.Like meditation, conduct is also influenced by our view because right understanding leads naturally to right conduct. Some people have problems with this. For example, we understand the teachings, and have the right view and yet we do not follow it. This is due to difficulties with our own emotions. Even learned people can act negatively because they can have the right understanding without the right meditation. Meditation is the means to conquer the negative emotions. The right view provides the understanding of how to overcome them.If we want to become liberated, then our own negative emotions are our real enemy. We can learn how to overcome disturbing emotions by studying the Abhidharmakosha. This text explains in detail how to overcome negative emotions, and even how long it will take. Such teachings can also be found in the Prajnaparamita. In the Vajrayana, they can be found in the Sakya foundation where it explains that by calculation, it takes three years, three months and three days of practice to remove all samsaric problems. To study such texts is to become a learned person and to understand the path. However, someone who has completed a three year retreat could be seated on a stage and recite everything by heart without necessarily being enlightened at all. This means that his emotions are still stronger than his knowledge because he has not followed the path personally. Emotions can then overpower the view if the emotions are not conquered through meditation.There are many different obstacles on the path. By knowing them, you will see which ones are in your Dharma practice. To meditate, you need the right understanding or you will make many mistakes. Meditation without understanding is very risky. You may know a little bit about meditation, but this is not sufficient to develop your practice over a long period of time. It is not enough to simply imagine what it is. Overcoming obstacles is about cause and effect and the knowledge that things are connected. Conduct generally is related to karma. The specific behavior to be applied depends on the developed level of practice.In Vajrayana, samaya is important. It is more than receiving an empowerment or practicing a certain aspect of Buddha mind, samaya means proper conduct. We need to avoid any behavior that would harm our practice. For example, while you are engaged intensively in the calm abiding meditation (Tib. shi-nay, Skt. shamatha) it is wrong to think that you would rather be doing a higher practice like Mahamudra. It is not right to practise a higher meditation before having successfully built the foundation for it. Of course, the intention to practise a higher teaching like Mahamudra is positive but the wrong timing makes it a hindrance. If you already cannot successfully practice shi-nay now, then Mahamudra would be even more so challenging later on. Another caution for those engaged in shi’nay is not to eat too much. If you eat a lot, you will feel sleepy. Your meditation cannot go well. This is why Buddha said that monks should not take the evening meal.Right view ultimately means to understand the meaning of the Madhyamaka. Madhyamaka is the quintessential view of the highest meditations of Mahamudra and Maha Ati. These high meditations cannot be practised without understanding the Madhyamaka view. Perhaps there are other high meditations that I do not know about, but Mahamudra and Maha Ati lead us to Buddhahood. First, the Madhyamaka explains the right view. Then, based on this view, special meditation methods developed and were compiled and have been given names like Mahamudra and Maha Ati. The view and the meditation are separately represented. For example, in the practice of Chod, there is a ritual execution where one actually plays a big damaru (a ritual drum) and so on. Such details are not described in the Madhyamaka. However, without the Madhyamaka view, one cannot do this practice. There is more to it than just the sound of the drum.In Mahamudra and Maha Ati there is much said about the nature of mind. This means that when the meditator recognizes the actual meaning of Mahamudra or Maha Ati, he is enlightened on the spot. But just try to do it. We joke about it. Many people who have studied these teachings would say, "Mahamudra and Maha Ati are the highest meditations. I have studied them for many years and now I know." But that would mean that they have been enlightened for a long time. To recognize the nature of mind is to become enlightened. In the teachings of Maha Ati, it is said that if one begins this practice in the evening, one is enlightened the next morning. If one starts in the morning then one is enlightened in the evening. That is only twelve hours, isn't it? If someone says that he knows it because he has studied it for many years yet if he is still not enlightened, then what does he really know? It is not so easy.You may have heard that you should see the guru as the essence of all Buddhas. Take for instance that I agreed to be your guru and to show you the nature of your mind. You might get very excited because it seems so direct and special. Afterwards when you go home, you would think, "Today I have received a profound meditation from my guru." But look at yourself. What has actually changed in you? You should then come back to view, meditation and conduct.Milarepa received the teachings from Marpa and then practised alone. He conducted himself to practise twenty-four hours a day in his cave, fully concentrated. But he also sang many songs. Often he meditated and afterwards he would sing a song. Why did he do that? It was his knowledge of meditation that guided his practice. The songs contained this knowledge. He sang them often as a reminder to himself. In the course of his practice, certain methods were necessary at certain times. He would compose a verse to rekindle his knowledge from memory. Although he never studied poetry, he was very good at composing it. Whenever his meditation needed it, he would compose a precise poem. If you read the life story of Milarepa you will notice that he sang songs at important junctures in his practice. When he encountered obstacles, he would recall various methods from memory. In this way Milarepa's knowledge guided his meditation.The Madhyamaka teaches logically and precisely that phenomena and beings do not really exist, what mental confusion is, and how illusion arises in the mind. It teaches how, if you practise, you can become free from the neuroses, attachments, and the habit of believing in concrete existence. You can remove all of them if you understand very precisely the Madhyamaka view. According to the Madhyamaka view of emptiness, all substantial phenomena are heaps (Skt. skandhas) composed of particles. The particles are then examined metaphysically by breaking them down until even the smallest particle is found not to have any real existence. You then examine mental projections in the same way. It is explained that mind itself is emptiness. It is an accumulation of momentary thoughts, none of which exist independently but arise in dependence on one another. Therefore even mind itself does not have a solid existence either. That is how the Madhyamaka explains emptiness. But then, if we punch the wall now, our hand will still hurt! Although you understand through logic that there is no real existence, you cannot yet experience what it really means. It is not just simply explaining that everything is nonexistent. Logic alone is not enough to remove the illusion. Grounded in the Madhyamaka view, meditations, which build upon one another, have to be practised.What will we achieve by the methods? The Madhyamaka explains that all things are empty. But we do not want to achieve sheer emptiness - what would be the benefit of that? Understanding emptiness will help us achieve a deeper understanding of mind through Mahamudra, the core of the Madhyamaka. We will realize that it is neither the outer world that imprisons us in samsara nor our body. It is neither the universe nor our physical body that is in samsara – it is our mind. The point is to examine mind with the precise logic of the Madhyamaka. When we are properly oriented towards the mind, we have the correct view. To apply this view of the mind in practice, to simply let the mind experience this very view is the Mahamudra experience in one instant.To experience Mahamudra, great concentration is necessary. This is why it is so important to first practise shi-nay. Without the stability of shi-nay, the view of mind is like a flame in the wind. One moment it is there, in the next, it is gone. If you try to have the right view without mental stability, a short insight may come up but the untamed mind is unable to sustain it. Before you can hold the view without interruption, statements like "one can achieve enlightenment in one instant" make no sense.Develop first the view. Next, on this basis, develop a direct experience of the mind and practise it without interruption. When the right view of mind is developed it is an awakening from ignorance. This view must be held continuously. Without mental stability it will disappear again.

Tilopa's teaching to Naropa : Six Words of Advice

Six Words of Advice

	First short, literal translation	Later long, explanatory translation	Tibetan (transliteration)
1	Don’t recall	Let go of what has passed	mi mno
2	Don’t imagine	Let go of what may come	mi bsam
3	Don’t think	Let go of what is happening now	mi shes
4	Don’t examine	Don’t try to figure anything out	mi dpyod
5	Don’t control	Don’t try to make anything happen	mi sgom
6	Rest	Relax, right now, and rest	rang sar bzhag