September 2001

In This Issue

LONGCHEN NYINGTHIK NGÖNDRO PRACTICE RETREAT AT SSRC

DZONGSAR KHYENTSE RINPOCHE VISITS CHAGDUD GONPA

BLITZ ON TIBETAN ENCAMPMENT

INTERVIEW:
GYUTO MONKS' SPOKESPERSON SONAM RIDZIN

DHARMA DATES:
-Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche's Visit
-Tsoknyi Rinpoche Visits Australia
-Dalai Lama Attends Forum
-Namkhai Nyingpo Rinpoche's Retreat
-Hevajra Retreat
-White Lotus Children's Sponsorship Programme
-Join Gesar Springs Community
-Lama Ngawang Jinpa

Gentle Voice
Contact Information

ON THE VAJRAYANA PATH

From January to March 2001 Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche taught on the Longchen Nyingthik ngöndro at Sea to Sky Retreat Centre outside Vancouver, Canada. Here and in the next issue are some questions and answers from that teaching.

On ultimate bodhicitta

Student: In the Longchen Nyingthik ngöndro, 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 practising 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 practise, 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 skilfully included completion stage practice as part of all practice, even refuge. When you practise 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 recognise 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 emphasised in Buddhism and, of course, for that very reason you can say that Tibetan culture also emphasises 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.

(The Gentle Voice appreciates the help of SSRC, Lisa Davison and Jakob Leschly in transcribing and editing this teaching.)

(To be continued in the next issue of the Gentle Voice.)