On ultimate bodhicitta
Student: In the Longchen Nyingthik ng?ndro, in the small text after the bodhicitta verse, it says: 'Meditate as much as you can on absolute bodhicitta, the union of shamatha and vipashyana, guided by conviction in twofold egolessness.' Could you talk about that, please?
Rinpoche: Well, I will be talking about that for my entire lifetime. Bodhicitta has two aspects, relative bodhicitta and ultimate bodhicitta, and relative bodhicitta also has the aspects of wishing and entering. Ultimate bodhicitta is actual meditation on emptiness, and that's what they are talking about here: the unity of vipashyana and shamatha. We call it emptiness meditation, but if you have certain instructions from your masters on remaining in this mind of the present moment, that is ultimate bodhicitta. Remaining in the present moment mind, your attention is not rushing after the past and the future. That is ultimate bodhicitta. There is no ultimate bodhicitta other than that.
On completion stage practice
S: At the end of the Vajrasattva practice it says, 'This is awareness-emptiness, in which the entire mass of thoughts involving what is to be purified and what purifies has not been inherently existent from the very beginning.' Can you talk about that a little?
R: Always begin with bodhicitta mind, that you are practicing this not for yourself. If you are a king-like bodhisattva, you think, ' My practice is not only for me, but for all sentient beings.' If you are a shepherd-like bodhisattva, you don't think about yourself at all, 'I'm doing this for all sentient beings. And myself? Who cares whether I get enlightenment or not. That's not my agenda at all.' You want to have that kind of bodhicitta. When you practice, be it this practice of Vajrasattva or the so-called precious guru yoga, the practices are all illusion. The whole path is illusion. The result is illusion. That is so important to remember again and again. But as a beginner, it is so difficult to remember, so the masters have very kindly and skillfully included completion stage practice as part of all practice, even refuge. When you practice prostrations, you can beg, cry, yell, and in the end it dissolves into you. That's quite special. I don't think you can go to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and cry and yell, and in the end the wall dissolves into you. You wouldn't expect that.
S: But it also says, 'Look at the very face of the ultimate Vajrasattva and rest in equanimity.' So how do you look at that?
R: Keep on asking me this, also in the years to come, this is about your practice, Mahamudra and Mahasandhi or Dzogchen. Right now, you imagine that Vajrasattva dissolves into you and you then just look at the mind of that very moment. That very moment, that split second. Of course, your mind will begin to wander so then you do the next stage. That's all you can do at the moment. Don't rush. It's good enough. I will not explain more than that because if I do, then it will become theory and this theory will bother you in the future. It's kind of difficult.
On aspects of humility
R: When you associate with the world, you should eventually learn to associate without hope and fear. Initially, from worldly beings' point of view, it may seem that you are going crazy. Thinley Norbu Rinpoche is someone like that. Instead of saying to you, 'Oh, you look very nice, you look beautiful,' he would say to you, 'Oh, my god, you look miserable!' because he does not have so much hope or fear. But actually you might feel released from a certain tension. Someone like him has no agenda or worries that someone would be disappointed. Like, 'I might lose my disciples or my friends.' You might first think that he's being really nasty, but I think he's just being himself. What do you think?
S: It's very liberating.
R: He may say to you, 'My god, you look terrible. What's wrong with your nose? Has it always been like that?' The amazing thing about someone like him is he will talk like that, but actually a lot of people appreciate it. From the conventional point of view, this is abuse. And he is like that constantly, not just once or twice. But many people are attracted to that, and oddly enough become his followers. As much as people like us are so ignorant, there is still a little bit of sensitivity left in us that can recognize that somebody's making such a remark out of love, with no hope or fear. So you feel comfortable when you encounter that. Often we meet a person who says, 'Oh, you look wonderful. Oh, you're so this, you're so that.' It might give us a little bit of happiness for a split second, but then we want that confirmation again and again and again. So we feel relief when someone talks to us honestly. But it's rare to come by. There are only a few people like that.
I'd like to make a point. It's slightly complicated, but it is important. It's about humility. As we study Buddhism, a sign of having studied is being subdued and tamed, and a sign of having meditated is to be less emotional. We are talking about developing humility, which is so important, really. Everyone must learn how to be humble - the teachers, the students, practitioners. But, again, humility is subtle. To explain this is going to be a little complicated.
Humility is very much cherished and emphasized in Buddhism and, of course, for that very reason you can say that Tibetan culture also emphasizes humility. But here some people are almost proud of being humble. Actually, almost 99 per cent of Tibetans are proud of being humble. Now some Tibetan lamas, especially those from Golok, a region that has quite a tradition of producing a lot of great Dzogchen practitioners, tend to be quite straightforward. So they create a lot of scandals within Tibetan society. Tibetans are so proud of being humble and some of these lamas don't appear to be humble. Someone once mentioned to one Golok lama about how fast he could read the dharma texts, and he answered, 'That's because I have completely purified my speech chakra, look here!' And he then showed how on his tongue there was a self-arising red lotus. Tibetan people who are proud of being humble just think, 'Oh god, this man is showing off again.' But there's another way of looking at it. I think this man is really humble, but in a very, very different way. You see he doesn't have this burden of humility.
That stage of being free from the burden of such artificial humility has got nothing to do with being totally empty-headed or claiming you are a Dzogchen lineage-holder or an incarnation of Deepak Chopra! To distinguish the authentic ones from these people may require a little bit of discernment. Individuals who genuinely are free from the burden of humility are quite amazing. I like such people. But if you are stuck with the burden of artificial humility, you may not appreciate it.
To be safe, I would really suggest that you cherish humility. Carry the burden of humility. That's less risky than thinking about going beyond the burden of humility - which is a little difficult. But if you happen to meet some of these Golok lamas, you will see they are so innocent. When the lama I mentioned says, 'I can read fast because I have no defilement in my speech chakra', it's exactly like Sophie saying, 'I'm a woman.' She has no doubt.
On pride and jealousy
Student: Rinpoche, what are good antidotes to pride and jealousy?
Rinpoche: Rejoice! As it suggests in the seven-branch prayer. It is difficult to deal with these two, pride and
jealousy, especially pride. I suggest you refrain from going where pride can occur, avoid getting involved with pride. After many years of practice you will still notice that pride, jealousy and anger occur, but you will notice that they become shorter. If, at present, you know that you have pride and jealousy, that's already quite good actually. And you should admit that it is pride and jealousy. Of course, a lot of this has got to do with confidence. If you are confident, then you don't have pride and you don't have jealousy.
On distraction
S: Rinpoche, it seems like some of the practices, because of their elaborate form and mantra, actually bring up more thoughts, they speed the mind up. I find that just by sitting, things calm down. Especially in mandala offering practice I find that I can get completely distracted from the practice for a long time, because of the momentum that's happening.
R: I think that's still less of a risk than just thinking that we are meditating but actually not really being there.
Meditation has a lot of loopholes and sidetracks and the sidetracks are so subtle. The meditator's greatest difficulty is not knowing whether we are distracted or whether we are concentrating. Especially as we become slightly more mature.
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S: Then how do you know?
R: Well, you will know once you are quite good, but somewhere in the middle it's quite tough to know. And
when you know, there's another difficulty: you will not trust what you know. Then our old habits tell us, ‘Oh, read a book, analyze it.' And we will analyze it, reading about Madhyamika. But that is a sidetrack actually. Madhyamika is good to establish the view, but when we practise, we need to have a certain trust also. So this is why I guess the lamas always emphasize practices like the ng?ndro. Patrul Rinpoche gives the example of a wild yak that you tie with a long rope and you tie this rope to a strong peg. Form meditations like mandala offering are like a peg. In such a practice you can easily tell if you are not thinking about offering body, speech and mind or Mount Meru or clear springs or beautiful garlands or the ladies of garlands, lamps, charm, etc. Instead, if you are thinking about Rome and Paris , you are distracted. It's kind of easy to tell.
On prayer
S: Do you have any advice on how to relate to the doubt that comes up? I experience a lot of doubt when I'm
practicing because I feel like I'm making it all up all the time.
R: There are many ways. Don't think that this doubt is going to become less; in fact, it's going to become more.
And as you practice more, your doubt is going to become sharper and more intelligent. Right now these doubts are very stupid doubts, easy to answer. Read some books and you will solve this problem, if you really need to. But I would suggest not reading books. The best I know of is that when the doubt comes, again pray to the refuge objects if you are practicing taking refuge, or else pray to the guru. Pray that this doubt will transform into wisdom. That's the best way and the easiest. Don't think about other methods. You can analyze, read entire books on Madhyamika, and it will help today, but tomorrow there will be new doubts. Then you will have to read another book.
I will give you one piece of advice: when we practice and when we ask for blessings, we tend to think of the great but perhaps remote issues like purifying defilements. But you should pray about what you have now, here, such as loss of inspiration, such as wandering mind, such as not understanding the dharma, stuff like that. Not the general issues. Do you understand what I'm saying?
S. Purify whatever is happening?
R: Yes. It's always better. Of course, the general issues also. You can even think, ‘May I purify all my defilements of the past, present and future.' People do that actually. That's what the text also says. But I always like to include mainly the problems that I have now. Whatever I have. And we have a lot! You can't think, ‘This is such a mundane concern, I shouldn't bother Guru Rinpoche with it.' You shouldn't think that. Guru Rinpoche does everything. If the kitchen stove doesn't work, you can pray about that also. Guru Rinpoche spans everything from enlightenment to the stove. Or a dispute between two people, especially in such a case. This person Jason may be praying, ‘Guru Rinpoche, please make Heather listen to me.' And Heather is praying, ‘Guru Rinpoche, please make Jason listen to me.' Then you two can talk. In this way, include everything. From time to time remember the illusory aspect, that everything's an illusion, that nothing has any truly existing nature. That way, when a prayer is not answered the very next day, you will not get disheartened.
On visualisation
S: Rinpoche, do you have any advice for how to visualise? I have difficulty visualising.
R: Well, if you are having difficulty, begin to learn to have confidence that they are there. Instead of going through details of their hair, how it falls on their neck and shoulders, the way they hold their knife, whatever…
Forget that! Just think that they are there.
On post-meditation practice
S: So when you're doing post-meditation practice, are you thinking the body or the world is dharmakaya?
R: Ideally we should be seeing everything as the deity. But that's very difficult for us, so beginners like us should learn to think they're illusion. Now, seeing phenomena as the deity and seeing them as illusion are very connected, but if you were to ask me, ‘Which one accumulates more merit?' then I would say seeing phenomena as the deity. This is the sophistication of the Vajrayana. But, then again, the question arises, ‘Why deity?' Because phenomena are illusion. You look at Heather, she is totally an illusion, the way you see her is projected by your mind. So think that however she appears in your mind is not really what she is. Based on that, then you think that she is not an ordinary being in the way you perceive her, but she is Vajrayogini. So all the interactions between her and you become more meaningful. Because the Theravada teachers are interested
in liberating you from sorrow they will teach you to think that she is not beautiful, she is a skeleton. And in the
Mahayana you are taught that she is an illusion. In the Vajrayana, she is a deity.
On deity
R: When the great Sakyapa masters talk about mind, they say, ‘Look at the mind. The clarity aspect of mind is the sangha; the emptiness aspect of mind is the dharma; the non-duality of emptiness and clarity is Buddha.' This nonduality of emptiness and clarity cannot be expressed, it is beyond expression, that is the guru; that is beyond expression and is actually bliss. It's free from all kinds of effort of trying to express or effort of dualism, basically. And the bliss is the deity. Of course, we have to do temporarily with created deities, but ultimately they are beyond form. They are form, but they are also beyond that. And then, just to finish the whole set, the unceasing mind that is clarity, emptiness, inexpressible, blissful, is the dakini.
POEM FOR DZONGSAR KHYENTSE RINPOCHE
As the pure white light divides to the four colours,
So the Adi Buddha Samantabhadra
Manifests in the four corners of the earth.
Appearing in the southern continent,
Precious Kuntuzangpo, please remain with us.
Like the human rebirth, hard to attain and easily lost,
Is the fortune of meeting with the precious ones.
Like suffering, pervasive and also subtle,
Is the compassion and kindness of the mother-like lamas.
Like a spring morning, a clear sky and white blossoms,
Is the incomparable beauty of the Buddha's smile.
But now, like trees seen through fog in moonlight,
Is the mysterious nature of the Buddha's mind.
Glorious teacher, who has the one quality that
illuminates all,
Please remain with us.
-- Sunyata
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