The Teachings of Ascending with the Conduct
The Master Padmakara appeared in different forms with various kinds of attire. In the manner that is beyond observance he observed all the precepts, ranging from the disciplines of the shravakas to the tantric vows of the vidyadharas. He orally taught the nine gradual vehicles and thus showed the view and conduct as a unity, descending with the view while ascending with the conduct. Since his mind possessed the realization of total omniscience, he
cherished with bodhicitta all sentient beings higher than himself. All the advice on how to behave spoken by this master, who was a nirmanakaya in person, an enlightened one, was written down by Lady Tsogyal. The great master said: Whichever teaching of the outer or inner vehicles you practice, you must first
take refuge in the Three Jewels. While possessing the precepts that are the foundation of your training,1 whenever you go in a certain direction, take refuge in the buddhas and bodhisattvas of that direction. Always have unwavering faith in the Three Jewels. By so doing, you create a karmic connection
right now, and in the future you will become the disciple of the buddhas. It is therefore essential to make offerings and supplications to the Three Jewels. Master Padma said: Practice the Dharma of the ten virtuous actions and have confidence in what should be avoided and what should be undertaken
concerning the “black and white” types of the effects of these actions. By doing so your actions will hold great strength. Since the power of truth is great, give up all nonvirtue and misdeeds, apply the remedy that works against your disturbing emotions, and put great effort into meritorious actions. One who has not gathered merit will not engender a noble attitude. One who accumulates merit will have a noble frame of mind. Once you hold the noble attitude in your being, you will put effort into virtue and refrain from misdeeds. It is therefore essential to arouse diligence in the different types of means for
gathering merit through your body, speech, and mind. Master Padma said: To arouse bodhicitta, the mind set upon supreme enlightenment, before undertaking any Dharma practice, is most important. The person who has aroused bodhicitta will cultivate the feeling of equality that all beings are his mothers, free
from partiality and prejudice, in order to serve all sentient beings. Of all sentient beings there is not a single one who has not been your own father or mother. So as a way of repaying the kindness of all sentient beings, set out to work for their well-being. Cultivate loving-kindness and compassion for all sentient beings. Constantly train
yourself in bodhicitta. Train yourself to benefit sentient beings through all your actions. Train yourself in cherishing others as more important than yourself. In short, the most essential point is that the determination of arousing bodhicitta must precede all the outer and inner practices and the stages
of development and completion. Generation of bodhicitta is the very root of all Dharma practice. Master Padma said: If you desire to attain the buddhahood of omniscience then train yourself in understanding that all ego clinging and fixation on phenomena have no self-nature. No matter what meritorious action you may be involved in, understand that all phenomena are like dreams and magic. In accordance with my oral instruction, train yourself in the emptiness of
all phenomena without clinging either to the six paramitas or to great compassion. By the power of meditating on emptiness you should come to realize that the six paramitas and the engendered great compassion are also like a magical illusion. Although you meditate on emptiness, make sure that it becomes an aid to virtuous practice and a remedy against your disturbing emotions. Whatever root of virtue you engage in, fuel it with bodhicitta and never be
separate from the six paramitas. Whatever you then do, always have the intention to increase virtue and decrease misdeeds. Whatever physical actions you engage in, make them virtuous. Whatever words you utter, make them virtuous. Whatever thoughts you entertain, make them virtuous. In short, exert yourself in nothing but wholesome and virtuous actions of body, speech, and mind. Shun even the tiniest nonvirtue or misdeed. If you do not keep the protection of
the armor of mindfulness and conscientiousness, the weapons of disturbing emotions will cut the aorta for attaining the higher realms and liberation. During the four kinds of daily activities, it is therefore essential to guard yourself with the armor of mindfulness and conscientiousness. Master Padma
said: First of all, have confidence in the cause and effect of your actions. Keep in mind that before long you will definitely die. This life lasts only for a short while so do not strive for the things of this life. Keep in mind the future is lasting and strive for the benefit of the future. Make ready and
certain now, for the benefit of future lives, that you do not slip onto a downward track. Do not be conceited about anything. If you retain the pride of thinking that you are learned, great, or noble, you will not acquire any good qualities. So cast away conceit and train yourself in Dharma practice without
wavering for even a single moment. Apply the remedies against misdeeds. If even the slightest disturbing emotion or unvirtuous deed arises in your being, think of it as an unbearable suffering, the size of Mount Sumeru.
Actions engaged in with doubt will not accomplish anything, so do not harbor the slightest doubt. As long as you have not abandoned ego-clinging, then misdeeds, no matter how small, will still yield results. So it is essential to shun misdeeds. Master Padma said: Having taken the vows of the greater or
lesser vehicles,2 do not abandon them even at the cost of your life. If you do damage them, it is most important to immediately make confession and retake your vows. Some people, when their vows are damaged, become disheartened and commit nothing but acts of further transgression. But like cleansing oneself
by washing and sprinkling fragrant water after slipping in the dirt, purify your obscurations and acts of downfall and violation so that broken vows never accumulate. Do not keep company with or befriend a person who has degenerated his discipline or samayas for even a single moment. If when wearing white
robes you go to an oily swamp, the black stuff will surely discolor the white. Similarly, even though your own samayas are pure you will surely still be defiled by the broken samayas of others. If your own samayas are not pure, it is like black not being tainted by black. So be very careful. It is there
essential not to associate with evil people or with bad company who have lost their vows. In any case, one should take care not to be ashamed of oneself. Master Padma said: Whatever actions you engage in, do not do anything nondharmic that fails to become the accumulation of merit and wisdom. Do not desire
anything other than omniscient buddhahood and benefiting sentient beings. Do not be attached to anything. Attachment itself is the root of bondage. Do not criticize other teachings and do not disparage people. All the teachings are ultimately indivisible, like the taste of salt. Do not criticize any of the
higher or lower vehicles. They are identical in being the path to be journeyed, just like the steps on a staircase. You cannot know another person unless you can perceive with superknowledge. So do not criticize others. In general, all sentient beings are by their very nature spontaneously perfect buddhas.
They possess the essence of enlightenment. Do not examine other people’s faults or delusions. Do not examine the limitations of others. Examine how you can change your own. Do not examine the shortcomings of others but examine your own shortcomings. The greatest of evils is to hold religious prejudice and to
criticize other people without knowing their mind. So give up prejudice as if it were poison. Master Padma said: Even though you have taken so many rebirths since beginningless time, you have not accomplished the welfare of yourself and others. Now, in this body, you should accomplish the benefit of
self and others. Even though you have incarnated so many times in the past, you had no opportunity to train in the Dharma but only plunged further into the dungeon of
samsaric existence. Now exert yourself in training in the Mahayana teachings during this brief time while you have met the Dharma. Keep company with those
who increase virtue. Give up friends who increase misdeeds. Do not restlessly hanker after things like a dog or a hungry ghost, but rest loosely by means of applying the remedies. If you tire yourself with restless hankering, you will agitate your own mind with evil deeds, and through that the minds of
others. Thus you will accumulate misdeeds. If you consider even slight discomfort to be suffering, it will grow to be more painful. You will find no happiness unless you let your mind rest loosely. Do not pursue former suffering. Everything, whether good or bad, is past and gone. Do not anticipate
future suffering. No matter what suffering may befall you now, do not give in to it, but develop courage again and again. In any case, if you do not apply the remedies to your mind, suffering will never cease. Relax your mind in its natural state without modifying or spoiling it and turn it gently to what is
virtuous. Master Padma said: When you persevere in Dharma practice, it is essential to always train in turning any virtuous root of action, through body, speech, or mind, to be for the benefit of others. First, train gradually in this with the smallest deeds. From time to time, check to see whether or not
you are tainted by the defilement of self-interest. You will not be successful if you retain even the tiniest taint of selfishness. Make sure not to be tainted by the defilement of self-interest. The difference between the greater and lesser vehicles is the arousing of bodhicitta. The difference is created
not by the view but by compassion. Therefore keeping the view of the natural state, train yourself in great compassion. For the benefit of self and others, abandon the suffering of samsara forever. Train repeatedly in feeling renunciation for samsara. Train in taking upon yourself the burden of the suffering
of others. First train in regarding all sentient beings as being like yourself. Train in feeling that the suffering of others is your own suffering. Then train in cherishing sentient beings as being more important than yourself. Train in the great compassion that involuntarily acts for the welfare of others.
The word Mahayana implies simply to cherish others as being superior to oneself. Mahayana never implies the pursuit of happiness solely for oneself with no thought for the suffering of others, regarding oneself as more important. Master Padma said: If you train your mind in love, compassion, and bodhicitta,
you will not take rebirth in the three lower realms. Moreover, from this very moment you will never fall back. This alone is my oral instruction. Wherever you go, keep bodhicitta in mind, never departing from its company. Whatever action you engage in, train in doing it for the benefit of sentient beings.
Train in regarding others as more important than yourself. You will attain numerous qualities as a result of this training, such as having unimpaired samayas and vows.
Unless you cultivate bodhicitta, you will not attain enlightenment, even though you may gain mastery of mantra and be very powerful. All the supreme and common accomplishments will result from bodhicitta arising in your being. That alone is my oral instruction. Master Padma said: Whether you meditate on
emptiness or anything else, it is mistaken meditation practice unless it becomes an effective remedy against disturbing emotions and ordinariness. Something that does not counteract the disturbing emotions and ordinariness is a cause for falling into samsaric existence. If any teaching you study,
reflect upon, or expound becomes an effective remedy against your disturbing emotions as well as an aid for allowing the pure Dharma to take birth in your being, then that is called a Mahayana teaching and is unmistaken. No matter how much you may be acclaimed as learned in study, exposition, and meditation,
if your intention is only the eight worldly concerns, your activity is called a black Dharma practice. In any case, it is essential to meditate on appearance and existence3 as being magical illusion, so as not to allow your attachment and clinging to grow stronger and stronger. “A great yogi” simply means being free from attachment and clinging. Master Padma said: The welfare and happiness of all sentient beings result from the teachings of the Buddha.
So study the tantras, scriptures, and sutras and listen to the words of the masters. Actions and their resulting happiness and suffering grow forth like seeds, so discriminate between virtue and evil deeds. If you do not observe your vows, the root of your Dharma practice is rotten. Protect your vows and samayas as carefully as you would your own eyes. In any case, if you have no trust when practicing the Dharma your effort is wasted, and anything you do
will be futile. In whatever you do it is essential to be free from doubt and mistrust. Master Padma said: Some people call themselves tantric practitioners and engage in crude behavior, but that is not the action of a tantrika. Mahayana means to cherish all sentient beings with impartial compassion. It will not suffice to claim oneself a tantric practitioner and then refrain from adopting what is virtuous and not avoiding or shunning evil deeds. It is
essential for all tantric practitioners to cultivate great compassion in their being. Without giving rise to compassion in your being you will turn into a non-Buddhist with wrong views, even though you may claim to be a practitioner of Secret Mantra. Master Padma said: Secret Mantra is Mahayana. Mahayana means to benefit others. In order to benefit others you must attain the three kayas of fruition. In order to attain the three kayas you must gather the two accumulations. In order to gather the two accumulations you must train in bodhicitta. You must practice the paths of development and completion as a unity. In any case, a tantrika who lacks bodhicitta is totally unsuited and does not practice Mahayana. Master Padma said: Secret Mantra and the philosophical vehicle4 are spoken of as two, but ultimately they are one. If you lack the view
or the conduct you will stray into being a shravaka. So descend with the view while ascending with the conduct. It is most essential to practice these two as a unity. That is my oral instruction.
SAMAYA.
This completes the teaching on ascending with the conduct. This was committed to writing at the upper hermitage of Chimphu on the eighth day of the
last summer month in the Year of the Hare. Seal of treasure. Seal of concealment. Seal of entrustment.
1. The particular set of vows one has taken of any of the three vehicles.
2. The bodhisattva vow and the refuge precepts. The latter also includes the vows of individual liberation. See the glossary.
3. “Appearance and existence” refers to the universe with all sentient beings.
4. Another word for the Mahayana teachings or the paramita vehicle.
