Bringing Gradual Improvement to the Practice

Yesterday I explained how spontaneous presence is pointed out as self-liberation. That is the forty-fifth and last practice session in our text. The rest of the book from then on is all teaching sessions. There are no additional practice sessions. Within the same section of the book there are several quotations from sutras, tantras, and the words of great gurus of the past. And then the section of the text that is the main practice is concluded and we come to the final section of the text, which is the conclusion. Much of the conclusion is concerned with the enhancement of the practice, with how to bring about gradual improvement. Enhancement is explained in detail, all in teaching sessions; no separate practice sessions are presented.

The first section of the conclusion is the dispelling of impediments. This is divided into six points. The most important of these are places of loss and places of deviation. There are four places of loss and one place of deviation described, making a total of five. The four places of loss are explained in the sixty-fifth, sixty-sixth, sixty-seventh, and sixty-eighth teaching sessions. What is meant by a place of loss is something that causes you to take entirely the wrong approach or entirely the wrong path, to mistake the path fundamentally.

Although there are four of these spoken of in our text, most prevalent are two. One is less serious, but still a problem, and the other one is most serious, and most definitely a problem. The one that is less serious but still a problem is to confuse experience and understanding, to develop through inferential reasoning an understanding of something and to mistake that understanding for actual direct experience. This type of confusion or place of loss is a problem because it prevents progress. Obviously, if one attempts to cultivate inferential understanding as the basis of one’s practice, one will not get anywhere. But it is not dangerous in any other way. The second place of loss is truly dangerous, and this is to develop an intellectual view of emptiness that makes you nihilistic—to have some understanding or some experience of emptiness and then mistakenly to conclude,

based on that understanding or experience, that nothing matters, that there is no benefit to virtue because it is empty, and that there is nothing problematic about wrongdoing because it is empty. This is called carrying emptiness around in your mouth. This is the very worst place of loss and the very worst misunderstanding that can occur. These two are the major places of loss. The first needs to be avoided for progress to occur, but it is, aside from that, not dangerous. The second is extremely dangerous.

Both of these places of loss are somewhat easy to recognize and, therefore, they are easy to abandon or relinquish. As long as you continue to cultivate mindfulness, alertness, and watchfulness, there should be no problem in recognizing them if they start to afflict you. And having recognized them, it should not be too difficult to abandon them. Again, of these two, the one that is the greatest danger is the view of nothingness or nihilism—the thought that nothing matters.

In the sixty-ninth teaching session the places of deviation are presented. The difference between places of loss and places of deviation is that, whereas a place of loss takes you on the wrong path altogether, a place of deviation causes you to be somewhat sidetracked. Another way to distinguish between them is that, generally speaking, places of loss arise because of how you are thinking, and places of deviation can arise based on actual meditation experience on which you fixate. As you practice, various experiences can arise: experiences of intense well-being or bliss; experiences of both cognitive and sensory lucidity; and experiences of no-thought, experiences of nonconceptuality. Regardless of what arises, if you attach an independent value to the experience, and in that way become attached to the repetition or perpetuation of the experience, that will impede your progress. Whatever arises, whatever the experience is, and whether or not any special experience arises at all, it is essential to have no attachment to what arises and no craving for its rearising. If extraordinary experiences occur for you, simply continue your practice without being led astray by them. If extraordinary experiences do not arise for you, simply continue your practice without craving their arising.

Mainly what we are seeking in the practice of meditation is stability and lucidity. Experiences, including visions, are not that important. This needs to be said, because otherwise you might think that visions, such as different things you see when you meditate, are either special in some way or a sign of some danger. For example, if you look at the life of Lord Gampopa, when he was practicing meditation under the guidance of Jetsun Milarepa, he started to experience a lot of different visions and he naturally assumed that these were of some significance. So, he went into Milarepa’s presence and reported the visions that he had been seeing. Milarepa responded by saying,

“Well, there is nothing wrong, but this is nothing special either. Just continue practicing.” Milarepa said that seeing visions is like someone who squeezes their eyes, presses on their eyes and looks at the moon and sees two moons. There could be two different reactions to this. One person would look and see two moons and think that he or she was special. “Everyone else sees just one moon. I see two.” Another person would look at the sky and see two moons and think that they were losing their mind. “Everyone else sees one moon. I see two.” In fact, if you see visions and various sorts of things there is nothing wrong. You are not losing your mind. But it does not mean that you are anything special either. You see things simply because you are working with your mind directly. Therefore, the mind is somehow stimulated and can produce these visions. But they are not dangerous. They are not going to cause you to lose your mind. Since meditation for us is to remain looking at the mind’s nature, do not react with fear or pride to any visions that occur.

What is of primary importance, of course, is that we continue to cultivate the samadhi of mahamudra. Also pointed out in this section of the text is the importance that this cultivation not become partial. In other words, it is important not to cultivate an experience of emptiness that is devoid of compassion, or to cultivate compassion in the absence of the experience of emptiness. Either one will be incomplete. In practice this means that, while we continue to meditate on the mind’s nature, it is important to continue to cultivate the lo jong training and the practice of tonglen. Compassion and the cultivation of compassion will cause progress in your realization of emptiness, and the realization of emptiness will naturally increase your compassion. The development of compassion in this context, however, has to be free, as much as possible, of dualism. About this it was said by the Third Gyalwang Karmapa, Rangjung Dorge, “Through this meditation, intolerable49 compassion for beings will arise spontaneously. At the very moment that that love arises or appears, its emptiness of nature will be directly or nakedly evident. May I, therefore, cultivate throughout the day and the night this supreme path, which in this unity is beyond deviation.”50 Through the force of meditation on the mind’s nature, compassion will arise spontaneously. The arising of compassion will enhance the recognition of mind’s nature.

The second thing that is mentioned in this section of the text is the relationship between two aspects of practice: upaya (method) and prajna (discernment). In this context the development of prajna primarily refers to the cultivation of the samadhi of mahamudra. The practice of method or upaya primarily refers to the gathering of the accumulations, specifically to the accumulation of merit. If someone takes only method as their practice, gatherin g the accumulations without any cultivation of prajna, then their practice strays into the extreme of permanence, because, for it ultimately to lead to wisdom, merit and the accumulation of merit must be sealed by the absence of reification of the three aspects of that accumulation.51 On the other hand, if we utterly ignore the accumulation of merit, then our cultivation of prajna can sometimes be weakened. In this case, we cannot perfect the power of prajna because there is not the necessary energy to do so. In such cases, the application of method, including the gathering of the accumulation of merit, can bring a great increase to the force of the prajna that one has cultivated through meditation. In that way, method is caused to increase—as in the increased accumulation of merit through the application of greater prajna—and prajna will increase through the application of method. Here, what is referred to as method or upaya is in general the first five of the six perfections (paramitas), not including discernment or prajna— generosity, patience, discipline, exertion, and meditation—and also specific methods, such as the practice of guru yoga, the practice of meditation on yidams, and so forth, all of which are useful in bringing progress in mahamudra practice.

The third point connected with enhancement is the relationship between tranquility and insight. It has been stated that if we only practice tranquility without developing any practice of insight, we will not achieve the qualities of abandonment and realization.52 Therefore, we clearly need the practice of insight. However, if, on the other hand, we underemphasize the practice of tranquility and only practice insight in isolation from tranquility, because any insight gained under such conditions will be unstable, we will be unable to bring the practice of insight to perfection. Therefore, as was the case with compassion and emptiness, and method and prajna, here, tranquility and insight reinforce and bring progress to one another. Tranquility enhances one’s progress in developing insight, because it brings stability to it, and insight enhances one’s progress in developing tranquility, because it brings lucidity to it. In practice this means that one primarily practices insight, but one continues to cultivate within that samadhi of insight the stability that was gained through the preceding practice of tranquility. In that way, although we call our practice insight, in fact, it is the unity or integration of tranquility and insight. If at any point your cultivation of insight becomes unstable, if your mind becomes too conceptual because of the process of investigation, you can always return to the specific tranquility practices and apply them as needed to regain the necessary stability. So in that way, through the integration of compassion and emptiness, the integration

of method and discernment, and the integration of tranquility and insight, progress will be ensured. That is how to practice mahamudra according to The Ocean of Definitive Meaning. When you study this book on your own, carefully and gradually, as I hope you will, you will observe that it is very clear. It gives very precise practical instructions for every stage of the entire path—from the stage of an absolute beginner to the stage of greater no-meditaton. The book is utterly clear and utterly profound. Now you have to actually accomplish this path through practice. Therefore, at each stage of your practice, continue to consult the book. Consult the sections of the book that correspond to where you actually have reached in your practice and your experience. And carefully compare your experience of practice to what is presented at that point in the book, stage by stage. Do not let this comparison become too vague. Do not allow guess work or inference to interfere with authentic evaluation of your practice, based upon the prescription or instruction that you find in the book. This book exists through the great compassion of the gurus of our lineage. It is based on their direct experience, not upon dogma or upon theory of any kind. It is, therefore, not a general survey of the path. It is without any vagueness or mistake in its presentation of the path. Read it very carefully and use it assiduously to guide your practice. Because this book is devoted solely to direct and practical instruction, it is more a case of directly pointing things out about practice and about the mind than giving supportive arguments and explanations for why this is the case and why that is the case.

So, this book does not present a lot of logical arguments. You will not find many proofs of the various ideas that are presented here. There are two ways you can approach dharma: You can base your approach on faith, or you can base it on reasoning and logic. Most Western students follow reasoning or logic as opposed to simple faith, which is good. That may mean, however, that, while The Ocean of Definitive Meaning will definitely give enough material and instruction for your practice itself, you may still have questions about the background of the practice or about the reasons for certain things that are said that this book does not answer. If that does occur, I urge you to consult Moonbeams of Mahamudra (translated as Mahamudra: The Quintessence of Mind and Meditation)53 by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal, because that book is also a source of practical guidance, but does give some of the theoretical background about which you may wish to know. I am going to stop here and finish the reading transmission.

[[[Rinpoche]] finishes the reading transmission.] [[[Rinpoche]] and students dedicate the merit:] Unborn, eternal, self-arising dharmakaya Arises as the miraculous kayas of form;

May the three secrets of the Karmapa be stable in the vajra nature And may his limitless buddha activity spontaneously blaze.
Splendor of the Teachings, Venerable Karma Lodro, may you remain steadfastly present.
Your qualities of the glorious and excellent dharma increase to fill space.
May your lotus-feet always be stable,
And may your buddha activity of teaching and practice blaze in all directions.
By this merit, may all attain 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. 
Notes
 

1 Published in 2001 by Nitartha international under the title Mahamudra: The Ocean of Definitive Meaning. For further information go to www.nitartha.org.
2 Tranquility meditation is commonly referred to by the Sanskrit word shamatha and by the Tibetan word shinay.

3 Insight meditation is commonly referred to by the Sanskrit word vipashyana and by the Tibetan word lhaktong.

4 The common preliminaries, which are common in the sense of being shared by all traditions of Buddhism, include the teachings on precious human birth, death and impermanence, karmic cause and effect, and the unsatisfactory or vicious nature of samsara. The uncommon preliminaries include going for refuge and engendering bodhicitta, using prostrations as a support; the purification practice of Vajrasattva; the gathering of the two accumulations of merit and wisdom through the practice of mandala offerings; and the receipt of the blessings of the lama’s lineage of mahamudra through guru yoga. For a discussion of the third set of preliminaries, called particular or special preliminaries, see Shenpen Ösel 4, no. 3 (2000): 12-17.

5 The Six Dharmas of Naropa are six special yogic practices received by Naropa from Tilopa and subsequently passed down through the Kagyu lineages to the present day. They are the yogas of chandali (Sanskrit) or tumo (Tibetan), illusory body, dream, luminosity, ejection of consciousness, and the bardo.
6 See Shenpen Ösel 1, no. 2 (1997): 11-13 for Rinpoche’s explanation of the seven dharmas of Vairochana.
7 See Kalu Rinpoche, THE DHARMA That Illuminates All Beings Impartially Like the Light of the Sun and the Moon (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986), pp. 151-171 and 181-183 for a discussion and enumeration of the fifty-one samskaras or mental formations.
8 I.e., not through the practice of deity meditation, nor through the various associated completion stage practices such as the Six Dharmas of Naropa, the Six Dharmas of Niguma, or the Six Applications of Kalachakra, all of which involve various visualizations. For more on the creation and completion stages of tantric meditation practice, see Shenpen Ösel 5, no. 1 (2001).
9 Post-meditation refers to all time not spent in formal meditation.


10 The three prayers offered are, respectively, the Long Life Prayer for the Seventeenth Gyalwa Karmapa, Ögyen Trinley Dorje; the Long Life Prayer for Thrangu Rinpoche; and the Dedication of Merit Prayer.
11 It is visualized as a two dimensional square that has a bit of thickness in the third dimension, like the visualization of a thick square coin.
12 Blue for ignorance, confusion, apathy, and/or bewilderment; white for anger; and red for passion. The consequence of successfully visualizing these faces radiantly is to transform these kleshas, which are based on dualistic clinging and are impure in nature, into their wisdom aspects, which transcend dualistic clinging and are therefore pure in nature. The radiant blue face then represents the transformation of ignorance into the wisdom of dharmadhatu; the radiant white face then represents the transformation of anger into the mirror-like wisdom; and the radiant red face then represents the transformation of desire into the discriminating awareness wisdom. For further information about the fives wisdoms, see Thrangu Rinpoche’s commentary on the symbolism of the five buddhas of the five buddha families in Shenpen Ösel 4, no. 2 (2000): 25-26.
13 The vajra-like samadhi occurs at the end of the tenth bhumi of bodhisattva attainment and signifies the attainment of the state of buddhahood.
14 Chandali and the breathing and physical exercises that go with it are very dangerous if not practiced in seclusion under the supervision of a qualified lama, with the proper motivation, and with proper preparation in meditation.
15 See Shenpen Ösel 1, no.2 (1997): 16-17 and Shenpen Ösel 3, no. 2 (1999): 3, 49.
16 In the experience of tranquility, the struggle against thoughts ceases through the recognition that if you simply leave the mind alone, thoughts are seen to dissolve of their own accord. It is also seen that struggling against thoughts only creates more thoughts, and since the bias of tranquility meditation is towards being without thoughts, one gives up the struggle against them and allows them to dissolve naturally. In the experience of mahamudra, on the other hand, once the mind’s nature has truly been recognized, thoughts are directly experienced as being of the same essence as mind itself. Therefore, whether or not there are thoughts in the mind, the ultimate nature of the mind and of the mind’s contents is in essence exactly the same. Therefore, the presence or absence of thoughts is irrelevant.
17 The distinction between mindfulness and alertness is important in Buddhism. The faculty of mind that determines to do something or not to do something and remembers that it has made such a determination is called mindfulness. The faculty of clear awareness that enables the mind to notice that in fact it is not doing what it had determined to do or is doing what it determined not to do is called alertness.
18 One is not to allow one’s awareness to drift from seeing very clearly where you are and what you are doing and experiencing in the present. One is not to drift off into thoughts of the future at the expense of awareness of the present, nor to drift off into thoughts of the past at the expense of awareness of the present. But thoughts about the past and the future that are experienced in an awareness that they are current events happening in the present, that do not cause one to drift off into daydreams
 
about the past and the future, are perfectly all right, and one does not attempt to stop their arising or to alter them in any way.
19 For the complete prayer and Tai Situ Rinpoche’s commentary on it, see Shenpen Ösel 2, no. 1 (1998).
20 Karma refers both to any action, good or bad, that is motivated by a mind under the influence of dualistic clinging—i.e., clinging to subject and object, good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant, etc.—and to the results of such actions.
21 The Sanskrit word klesha has had many translations—emotional affliction, conflicting emotion, emotional disturbance—and refers to any state of mind, whether we might regard it as being good or bad, that is under the power of dualistic fixation and thus serves as the motivation for the actions and results we refer to as karma. Therefore, kleshas are seen as a more fundamental cause of suffering than karma. In the hinayana teachings, the Buddha presents the belief in the existence of an individual self as the basis of the arising of kleshas, and presents meditations leading to the realization of the nonexistence of an individual self as the principal remedy to the arising of kleshas. As the Buddha continued to discuss the causes of suffering, his presentation came to include subtler causes. Principal among these are dualistic fixation—clinging to the existence of an individual self and fixation on the existence of that which is other to the self—and fundamental ignorance, the fundamental misperception of the nature of mind and the nature of reality. Thus, suffering arises from karma—including emotional reactivity and “karmic retribution”; karma arises from kleshas; kleshas arise from dualistic fixation; and dualistic fixation arises from the fundamental misperception of the nature of things, which includes the nature of mind and the nature of reality. As we shall see, the true and sustained recognition of the nature of mind and reality causes this concatenation of the causes of suffering to collapse like a house of cards. See Shenpen Ösel 3, no. 1 (1999): 3-31 for Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche’s presentation of this topic.
22 The Sutra of the Heart of Transcendent Knowledge:
Thus have I heard.
Once the Blessed One was dwelling in Rajagriha at Vulture Peak mountain, together with a great gathering of the sangha of monastics and a great gathering of the sangha of bodhisattvas. At that time the Blessed One entered the samadhi that expresses the dharma called “profound illumination,” and at the same time noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, while practicing the profound prajnaparamita, saw in this way: He saw the five skandhas to be empty of nature.
Then, through the power of the Buddha, venerable Shariputra said to noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, “How should a son or daughter of noble family train, who wishes to practice the profound prajnaparamita?”
Addressed in this way, noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, said to venerable Shariputra, “O Shariputra, a son or daughter of noble family who wishes to practice the profound prajnaparamita should see in this way: seeing the five skandhas to be empty of nature. Form is emptiness; emptiness also is form. Emptiness is no other than form; form is no other than emptiness. In the same way, feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness are emptiness. Thus, Shariputra, all dharmas are emptiness. There are no characteristics. There is no birth and no cessation. There is no impurity and no purity. There is no decrease and no increase. Therefore, Shariputra, in emptiness, there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no formation, no consciousness; no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no appearance, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no dharmas; no eye dhatu up to no mind dhatu, no dhatu of dharmas, no mind consciousness dhatu; no ignorance, no end of ignorance up to no old age and death, no end of old age and death; no suffering, no origin of suffering, no cessation of suffering, no path, no wisdom, no attainment, and no nonattainment. Therefore, Shariputra, since the bodhisattvas have no attainment, they abide by means of prajnaparamita. Since there is no obscuration of mind, there is no fear. They transcend falsity and attain complete nirvana. All the buddhas of the three times, by means of prajnaparamita, fully awaken to unsurpassable, true, complete enlightenment. Therefore, the great mantra of prajnaparamita, the mantra of great insight, the unsurpassed mantra, the unequaled mantra, the mantra that calms all suffering, should be known as truth, since there is no deception. The prajnaparamita mantra is said in this way:
OM GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA
Thus, Shariputra, the bodhisattva mahasattva should train in the profound prajnaparamita.”
Then the Blessed One arose from that samadhi and praised noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, saying “Good, good, O son of noble family; thus it is, O son of noble family, thus it is. One should practice the profoundprajnaparamita just as you have taught and all the tathagatas will rejoice.”
When the Blessed One had said this, venerable Shariputra and noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, that whole assembly and the world with its gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas rejoiced and praised the words of the Blessed One.
English translation by the Nalanda Translation Committee,
as slightly amended by Shenpen Ösel.
23 There are many different forms of prajna. First there is worldly prajna, which would include, from the standpoint of relative truth, any unconfused knowledge about the workings of the world that we might study in colleges and universities. Then there is spiritual prajna, which includes what we would call unconfused knowledge of spiritual matters and transcendental insight on the one hand, and jnana, which is translated variously as original wisdom or primordial awareness, and sometimes just as wisdom, on the other.
24 For a short description of the generation and completion stages of vajrayana meditation, see Thrangu Rinpoche’s teaching on the tantric path of mahamudra in Shenpen Ösel 2, no. 2 (1998): 50-58. For a more extensive treatment, see Thrangu Rinpoche’s commentary on Jamgön Kongtrül’s text Creation and Completion in Shenpen Ösel 5, no. 1 (2001): 4-61.
25 The syllable OM embodies the blessings of the forms of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the three times and ten directions, including the blessings of body of all lamas, yidams, dakas, dakinis, and dharma protectors, and, thus, of the yidam being practiced.
26 Empty of any inherent, substantial, indivisible, separate, and unchanging existence.
27 I.e., the self that we and others believe exists and that we project onto that which does not exist, thereby providing the basis for perceiving the self as existent.
28 For further discussion of these two topics, including the many proofs of both Nagarjuna, Chandrakirti, and Asanga, see the teachings of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche in Shenpen Ösel 2, no. 2 (1998); 3, no. 2 (1999); and 5, nos. 2-3 (2001). Also see Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche’s Open Door to Emptiness and Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche’s Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness (both available through Namo Buddha Publications: cjohnson@ix.netcom.com); Arya Maitreya’s The Changeless Nature (The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra) translated by Ken and Katia Holmes, with extensive notes provided through consultation with both Thrangu Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche (available at www.samyelingshop.com); and Arya Maitreya’s Buddha Nature (The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra), with Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye’s commentary The Unassailable Lion’s Roar and Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche’s commentary on Jamgön Kongtrül’s commentary (available at www.snowlionpub.com).
29 Nor will it by itself lead to liberation.
30 Any practice of the path of method—including ngöndro, any form of guru yoga or yidam or protector practice, chandali, etc.—will help to dispel torpor. When practicing front visualizations, focusing on the upper part of the visualization helps to dispel torpor. Splashing cold water in one’s face, taking cold showers, running around the block, reducing the temperature in the room, opening the windows, taking off some clothing, tightening up one’s posture—all will help to dispel torpor.
31 Concentrating on the lower parts of either a self visualization or a front visualization, relaxing one’s posture and making oneself comfortable, and increasing the warmth in the room may also prove helpful in taming the excitement of the mind.
32 Post-meditation and subsequent attainment are both translations of the same Tibetan term, jetop.
33 Madhyamaka reasonings are based on the teachings of the Buddha found in the sutras, not on his teachings found in the tantras.
34 During which time the bodhisattva traverses the ten bodhisattva bhumis and attains buddhahood.
35 For a discussion of these latter two methods, see Shenpen Ösel 4, no. 3 (2000): 70-85.
36 One might wonder what is the difference between delight and misery and the kleshas or mental afflictions, since we tend to have desire for and attachment to delight and aversion to misery. The answer lies in the recognition that delight and misery are resultant states, feelings experienced as a result of virtuous and unvirtuous actions engaged in in the past, while kleshas or mental afflictions are the emotional motivations for the actions of body, speech, and mind that will ripen as results in the future.
37 Perhaps the most fundamental distinction that must be understood at the beginning of a true spiritual path is the distinction between secondary causes (Tibetan: kyen, here being translated as “condition”) and primary causes (Tibetan: gyu). For any mental affliction to arise, there must be both a primary cause and a secondary cause. The secondary cause is that which we generally regard as the “cause” of our anger or desire or jealousy or resentment. It is that which, from the standpoint of the confusion of our dualistic clinging, we regard as the external event that is responsible for whatever our particular klesha of the moment may happen to be—whether that external event is the dastardly, inconsiderate, unthoughtful, and primitively aggressive blackguard out there in the external environment of our life, who does something intolerable that causes our anger, that, therefore, we are momentarily averse to, or whether it is the extraordinarily beautiful or handsome, and for the moment, considerate and elegant person out there that causes us to be dreamily in love. Regardless of the existence of those external provocations, for those confusing kleshas to arise, there also must be a primary clause, our actual actions in the past, and usually in past lives, that cause us to have the tendencies and proclivities to have these same emotions and to act upon them. The real culprit is the primary cause. The secondary causes are legion and not entirely under our control. The primary causes are our own creations, manifest only in our own minds, and, if we are willing to make the effort, the mental, emotional, verbal, and physical reactions that we have to the ripening of these primary causes, caused to ripen by the appearance of secondary causes, are totally under our own control. To give an example, if there is a plague, all people are exposed to the germs, which are contagious. But only some of them contract the plague. And why is that? Because, although all are subjected to the secondary cause, some people have the primary cause—their actions taken in past lives—and some have not. Therefore, some people fall sick and others do not. Similarly, some people who fall sick freak out, and others remain quite stoic or even at peace. Of a group of people who have all generated the primary cause of dying from the plague, those who have practiced no virtue as an antidote to that cause will die. Those who have practiced some virtue, may fall sick and not die, but may freak out and live the rest of their lives with impaired health. Others who have practiced more virtue may fall sick and remain stoic or even at peace. Others who have practiced even more virtue may fall sick, remain at peace, and recover entirely. And others who have practiced even more virtue than that may not fall sick at all. Ultimately, the cause is always within ourselves, as is the solution. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves…” (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar: Act I, Scene ii). Of all the virtues that can be practiced as an antidote to the ripening of negative primary causes, the practice of vajrayana is the most powerful, the fastest, and the most efficacious.
38 Passion (desire, greed, lust, etc.), aggression (anger, hatred, resentment, etc.), ignorance (bewilderment, confusion, apathy), pride (wounded pride, low self-esteem, etc.), and jealousy (envy, paranoia, etc.). According to the teachings of the Buddha there are some 84,000 different conflicting emotions.
39 According to this presentation, the second instant follows so quickly upon the first that we are not normally even aware of the distinction between the two, but only perceive the second.
40 I.e., the four philosophical schools.
41 This seeing is not referring to the “seeing” described in the previous paragraph, but to ordinary, mundane seeing.
42 I.e., the buddhas.
43 Fixation here refers to fixating on aspects of experience as truly or substantially existent—to fixation on objects as existent, to the self as existent, etc.


44 Samsara is conditioned existence, existence conditioned by the fundamental misperception of the nature of reality that manifests as dualistic clinging and is of the nature of suffering. Nirvana is postulated to be the opposite of samsara–beyond suffering.
45 Relative truths in this context do not refer to codes of ethics or teachings which fall short of the definitive teachings of the Buddha, but which are somehow still useful to beings at various lesser levels of spiritual understanding. Relative truths here refer simply to what arises in our experience that is apparently real but not genuinely real.
46 According to the mahayana, there are five stages or paths that must be traversed to complete the path to buddhahood. These are the path of accumulation, during which the student is learning the dharma and engaging in meritorious actions which will gradually give greater and greater force to the student’s practice of meditation and post-meditation; the path of joining or of juncture, sometimes called the path of application, during which the student’s accumulation of merit and wisdom enables the student to meditate single-pointedly and therefore to go through and transcend all worldly meditation states; the path of seeing, which, in some descriptions, is the first instant of recognizing emptiness, which constitutes the beginning of the first bodhisattva level, and, in other descriptions, includes the first to fifth bodhisattva levels; the path of cultivation or of meditation, which again constitutes either the remaining nine levels or the last five levels of the bodhisattva path, during which the bodhisattva cultivates and expands the experience of what was seen on the path of seeing; and the path of no learning, which ensues upon the experience of the vajra-like or indestructible samadhi, the line of demarcation between the end of the bodhisattva path and the beginning of buddhahood.


47 The teachings on mind training. See Jamgön Kongtrül, The Great Path of Awakening, trans. Ken McLeod (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1987).
48 The practice of sending and taking. See Shenpen Ösel 5, no.1 (2001): 62-70.
49 This term is often translated as “unbearable.” 50 See Shenpen Ösel 2, no. 1(1998): 8:
The nature of beings is always buddha.
Not realizing that, they wander in endless samsara.
For the boundless suffering of sentient beings
May unbearable compassion be conceived in our being.
When the energy of unbearable compassion is unceasing,
In the expressions of loving kindness, the truth of its essential emptiness is nakedly clear.
This unity is the supreme unerring path.
Inseparable from it, may we meditate day and night.

51 In any action, including actions which generate the accumulation of merit, there are three spheres: the doer of the deed, the doing of the deed, and the recipient or object of the doing of the deed. For example, in the practice of patience, there is the one being patient, the patience itself or the act of being patient, and the sentient being or event, such as the arising of anger, with which one is being patient. In the practice of patience as a paramita one seeks not to fixate on any of these three spheres— not to be acutely aware that it is I who am being patient and how noble I am for being so; not to regard the act of patience as something especially significant or worthy of notice or praise; and not to make a big deal of whom or what one is being patient with. Not to fixate on these spheres, but to see their true nature instead, prevents one from reifying them, from giving substantial existence to those things which in their true nature have no substantial existence. Ultimately, there is no self that is being patient, there is no act of patience, and there is no object of our patience. Not to fixate on these spheres, but instead to see their emptiness or to see them as the union of mere appearance and emptiness, is called threefold purity, and is that which distinguishes the paramitas—of generosity, manners and ethical behavior, patience, exertion, meditation, and prajna—from the ordinary virtues that carry the same name.

52 Abandoning that which needs to be abandoned and realizing that which needs to be realized in order to attain buddhahood. 53 Published under the title Mahamudra: The Quintessence of Mind and Meditation (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1986).