Shenpen ÖselThe Clear Light of the Buddha’s Teachings Which Benefits All Beings

April 1999

His Holiness Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche

Volume 3, Number 1

The teachings of buddhadharma, which can enable the practitioner to discover the state oftotal enlightenment, still exist. They are still accessible. So we have a choice. We can chooseto follow the path and to attain the state of enlightenment, or we can choose to wander about

in confusion, which will lead one into various states of rebirth [replete with suffering].Certainly we have this choice.

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Shenpen ÖselThe Clear Light of the Buddha’s Teachings Which Benefits All Beings

Contents(click on a heading)

3 Introduction

5 Mind, Karma, Ego-formation, and Liberation in Tibetan BuddhismBy His Holiness Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche

18 Mahamudra: the Essence of All the Buddha’s TeachingsBy His Holiness Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche

32 Chöd: Cutting Through the Four MarasBy The Venerable Tenga Rinpoche

40 Techniques for Shamatha, the Practice of TranquillityBy The Venerable Tenga Rinpoche

48 Experiencing the Nature of Mind Through VipashyanaBy The Venerable Tenga Rinpoche

55 A Commentary on the Twenty EmptinessesBy The Venerable Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

Volume 3 Number 1

Editorial policyShenpen Ösel is a tri-annual publication ofKagyu Shenpen Ösel Chöling (KSOC), a centerfor the study and practice of Tibetan vajrayanaBuddhism located in Seattle, Washington. Themagazine seeks to present the teachings ofrecognized and fully qualified lamas andteachers, with an emphasis on the KarmaKagyu and the Shangpa Kagyu lineages. Thecontents are derived in large part fromtranscripts of teachings hosted by our center.Shenpen Ösel is produced and mailedexclusively through volunteer labor and doesnot make a profit. (Your subscriptions anddonations are greatly appreciated.) We publishwith the aspiration to present the clear light ofthe Buddha’s teachings. May it bring benefitand may all be auspicious. May all beings beinspired and assisted in uncovering their owntrue nature.

Photo credits this issue: Gunnar Reitel, pp. 32, 40,48; Ryszard K. Frackiewicz, pp. 55, 64.

Staff

EditorLama Tashi Namgyal

Managing editorLinda Lewis

Copy editors, Transcribers,RecordersGlen Avantaggio, Peter Borodin, AlanCastle, Anita Castle, Susan DeMattos,Ken DeSure, Denise Glover, WolfgangHirsch, Judy Knapp, Donald Lashley,Edmund Liong, Yahm Paradox, ChrisPayne, Rose Peeps, Mark Voss

PhotosRyszard K. Frackiewicz, Gunnar Reitel

Database managerDarren Beil

Mailing coordinatorMark Suver

Mailing crewMembers of the Seattle sangha

SHENPEN ÖSEL 3

Introduction

In one of the very earliest Western books about Tibetan Buddhism, entitled TheMessage of the Tibetans, Arnaud Desjardin reported a conversation that he had hadwith Kalu Rinpoche. He had asked Rinpoche the age-old question, “What is Truth?”

Rinpoche replied, “You live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality,and you are that reality, but you don’t know it. If you should ever wake up to that realityyou would realize that you are nothing, and being nothing, you are everything. That is all.”In these very few words, Rinpoche evoked in the minds of Desjardin’s readers a variety ofconcepts about Eastern thought—like the “veil of Maya,” the oversoul, cosmic conscious-ness, etc.—of which they had only the fuzziest understanding. Even the terms that came tomind in those days, the late sixties and early seventies, were inadequate when employedto interpret what Rinpoche was talking about, because they were expressed in the kind oflanguage Hinduism tended to use, not in the language of Buddhism. In those days the twotended to be all mixed together in the minds of Westerners.

It was not until 1982, during Rinpoche’s fourth visit to the West, that he began toexplain in greater detail to Western audiences, from the point of view of the mahamudratradition, the meaning of this very simple statement. The first two teachings in this editionof Shenpen Ösel were given by Rinpoche during that visit in Little Bridges Hall of Music atPomona College. In them he describes the empty, clear, and unimpeded nature of mind—tong, sal, magakpa—as the true nature of all sentient beings, as well as four “layers” ofconfusion, four “veils,” that have obscured the minds of all unenlightened sentient beingsin varying degrees since beginningless time: the veil of knowledge (shes bya’i sgrib pa), theveil of habitual tendency (bag chags kyi sgrib pa), the veil of emotional affliction (nyönmongs pa’i sgrib pa), the veil of karma (las kyi sgrib pa). It is these veils, he taught, thatobscure one’s understanding of the true nature of mind and the true nature of reality andare the source of all of one’s suffering, frustration, anxiety, and mental and emotionalaffliction.

Rinpoche also explained—step by step, veil by veil—which practices in the Buddhisttradition are designed to purify these veils. Through the practice of ngöndro one eliminatesthe negative karma and push-button reactivity of the veil of karma. Through the practiceof shamatha one pacifies the veil of emotional affliction. Through the practice ofvipashyana one purifies the habitual tendency to cognize one’s experience dualistically,which tendency is the precondition, the sine qua non, of all emotional affliction. Andthrough the practice of mahamudra one removes or dissolves the subtlest of all these veils,the veil of knowledge—which we sometimes call fundamental ignorance, the basicmisperception of reality.

During these two teachings, Rinpoche also gave direct pointing-out instructions and ledshort guided meditations. Later, I asked Rinpoche what kind of mahamudra instructionshe had given, and he replied that he had given ground and path mahamudra instructions.I also asked him what the difference is between teaching about mahamudra and actuallygiving pointing-out instructions. He replied that teaching about mahamudra entails simplydescribing the true nature of mind, whereas, when a lama actually gives mahamudrapointing-out instructions, he or she tells the student or students to look directly at theirmind in such and such a way. I then asked Rinpoche whether we might transcribe and

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distribute these teachings, and he said yes. And then I asked whether Rinpoche wanted usto include the pointing-out instructions, and he said it would be better not to.

Therefore, faithful to the injunction of the lama, we have omitted the actual pointing-out instructions in the publication of these teachings. The reason that these instructionsare not generally published in the marketplace is that in giving these instructions thelama introduces the student very directly and experientially to the true nature of mind.This involves using the fruitional state of enlightened mind as the path, rather thansimply seeing fruition as some kind of extremely distant goal. For this process to work, thestudent must be very open and devoted, and the lama must have authentic experience orrealization. These instructions also must be received in the actual presence of the lama; itwon’t do to get them out of books or off tape recordings. If all of these elements arepresent, the pointing-out will be very effective, and will become the basis for the student’ssubsequent meditation practice. If any one of these elements is absent, then the instruc-tions will not work for the student, as a result of which the student may very well losefaith in the teachings, not practice them, and thereby lose the tremendous opportunity toattain liberation and enlightenment that they afford. It is for this reason that studentstraditionally have been expected to finish ngöndro before receiving these instructions.However, from time to time some very highly realized lamas may give these instructionswithout requiring completion of ngöndro, and this happened to be one of those times.

♦ ♦ ♦

We are also including in this issue a teaching on the twenty emptinesses by TheVenerable Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, which is a continuation of the

madhyamaka teachings that Rinpoche gave here in Seattle, the first section of whichappeared in Shenpen Ösel Volume 2, Number 2. If one gets lost in this issue’s teachings,one would do well to review those teachings.

In order to understand the function and relationship of the different types of teachingsthat have been presented in Shenpen Ösel, it is helpful to bear in mind the followingwords of Thrangu Rinpoche:

“To become free of delusion we have to realize the ultimate truth. We can accomplishthis through meditation on the nature of mind. The direct realization of the emptiness andclarity of one’s own mind is the swift path of the vajrayana. However, before we embarkupon that path, we need to understand the difference between consciousness and wisdom.Therefore [one needs to understand] both the mahayana view on the empty nature ofappearances and the vajrayana teaching on the nature of the mind, thus providing theview that can serve as the foundation for the graduated path of meditation.”

The teachings of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche that we have included inShenpen Ösel thus far have all been concerned with the mahayana view on the emptynature of appearances, while the teachings of Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche presented in thisissue are concerned with the ultimate truth, with wisdom, and with the vajrayana teach-ings on the nature of mind.

Finally, we wish to thank the directors and members of Karme Thekchen Chöling inVancouver for their cooperation in the publishing of the teachings of Tenga Rinpoche thatare included in this issue.

—Lama Tashi Namgyal

SHENPEN ÖSEL 5

On September 11, 1982, at the Blaisdale Institute for Advanced Study in WorldCultures and Religions in Claremont, California, His Holiness Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche gavea teaching on mahamudra. The following is an edited transcript of that teaching, whichRinpoche gave in Tibetan and which was translated orally by Lama Chökyi Nyima.

His Holiness Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche

By His Holiness Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche

Mind, Karma,Ego-formation,and Liberation

in TibetanBuddhism

Let me say that I am delighted to be able to come to this gathering today andto be with the sponsors of this event and those of you who have come to hearmore about the teachings of the buddhadharma and to imbibe the nectar of

the teachings and understand for yourselves more of what these teachings have to offer.The kind of search that begins to take place when someone begins to understand

or at least begins to think about the nature of their existence is an indication thatthere have been certain positive karmic actions and tendencies in previous lifetimeswhich have established and reinforced positive tendencies in this life which havecaused that search to begin.

In this particular instance, when one begins to examine one’s mind or one’sexperience, one begins to question: What is going on here? Who am I and why am I

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All of us have avague or naiveunderstanding ofthe mind

here? This is the kind of questioning that begins toarise in this kind of positive search.

What this means is that one’s latent potentialemerges at a certain point in one’s life due tocircumstances in one’s situation, or perhaps inrelation to the world situation. Then one begins toquestion, one begins to use one’s intelligence, andone begins to seek answers to suchfundamental issues. The fact thatthis kind of questioning—this kindof very noble endeavor—can arisein the mind at all indicates aconsiderable consolidation ofpositive merit in previous exist-ences. It is quite an incredibledevelopment, brought about through an accumula-tion of merit, of positive thought and action in thepast. It points to a receptive part of our conscious-ness that something in us has risen beyond a mereanimal state of existence or mentality. An animalmentality is only concerned with enough to eat,enough to drink, a place to sleep for the night, andso on—just a moment-to-moment existence.

Now comes a period of gestation, an attempt toformulate the questions: What is the relationshipbetween me and the universe about me? Is theregreater meaning behind what we are experiencing?What is it that I want this relationship betweenme and universe around me to be?

The very fact that this kind of search or ques-tioning can arise in the mind at all—what is thenature of mind or what are the spiritual teachings,such as Buddhism, that can lead one to a correctunderstanding of the nature of mind—is not onlyamazing but very hopeful. This kind of thoughtarising in the mind is an indication of a verymeritorious and positive tendency which is arisingor emerging in this situation.

It is in response to that kind of noble motiva-tion on the part of you all that I have been movedpersonally to return to the West, and to try toexplain what I understand and experience of theteachings of Buddhism in order to help people intheir search for deeper understanding. I am nowseventy-eight years old, so this journey has posedsome difficulty to me, but I refuse to let that dauntme, because I feel that there is real need for people

to have further information and further under-standing. This is what has brought me on thispresent tour through the centers of Southeast Asia,beginning in Calcutta, and traveling on to NorthAmerica. This is what brings me here for thefourth time to the United States. Particularly, Ifeel that to discuss these ideas in a country like

America—which is so wealthy andprosperous and which offers itspeople such a high degree ofpersonal freedom, and whichoffers as well, such a high level ofeducation—is very beneficial,because people here have thefreedom and intelligence to meet

and to understand these kinds of concepts and tounderstand them to a great degree. So I feel thatpresenting the dharma here in America creates agreat degree of benefit to the people who live here.

All of us have a vague or naive understandingof the mind. We all know that we have a

mind, and we think in terms of “my mind.” Wehave the idea that “I have a mind” and so we say“my mind.” But how much do we understand aboutthe nature of our minds and the nature of ourexperience? Actually there is a great deal of igno-rance and a great deal of misunderstanding andconfusion as to what exactly is going on. Whatexactly do we experience? What exactly do wemean when we use the word, “mind”? When welook at our mind, rather than finding control,precise understanding, and insight, we find thatthere is emotional confusion in the mind. There areall kinds of passions which arise in the mind, suchas attachment, aversion, stupidity, anger, jealousy,pride, and so on. All of these things are continuallyboiling up in the mind as a result of this emotionalconfusion and thus we experience a great deal offrustration, suffering, and pain.

Understanding the nature of the mind is some-thing that has a great calming and cooling effecton all of that boiling turmoil in the mind. It is as ifwe had a pot of boiling water and into it we threwa cup of cold water. The boiling ceases immediately.The activity immediately calms to a certain extent.Even mere intellectual understanding of the na-

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The mind simplydoes not directlyexperience its owntrue nature. Thisfundamentalignorance or thisfundamentalunknowing of themind is the root ofall problems

ture of the mind can be very beneficial in helpingone to sort out the emotional confusion and elimi-nate the suffering that it causes.

To begin with, let us take, for example, the eyeswe see with. The eyes are situated in the face andwith these eyes we can see anything in the outsideworld. That is the function of the eyes—to seeclearly. But the one thing that the eye cannot seeclearly is the face itself, even though it is so close tothe face. It simply does not work that way. There isa fundamental lack of recognition, a fundamentalinability of the eye to see the face in which it issituated. In the same way, what we, as sentientbeings or unenlightened beings, now experience isthis fundamental lack of recognition. The mindsimply does not directly experience its own truenature. So this fundamental ignorance or thisfundamental unknowing of the mind is the root ofall problems—the mere fact that there is this lackof direct experience.

Perhaps we should define terms. What do wemean by mind? When we speak of mind we

mean that which is aware. That which gives rise tothoughts, emotions, feelings, such as “I’m happy orI’m sad.” That which experiences all the thoughts,states, and emotions that arise iswhat we mean when we speak of themind. Not the contents but thatwhich experiences the contents.

The nature of mind itself is whatwe term “emptiness” in Buddhism.Mind itself has no color, form, shape,or size. Mind has no limiting charac-teristics that one can ascribe to it.So, in speaking about the mind, oneis speaking about that which isintangible. Mind is completelyempty or devoid of these kinds oflimiting characteristics. We mightuse the example of open space, suchas the space in this room, whentalking about the nature of themind. Because mind is as intangible as the spacein this room, you cannot describe it. The space inthis room has no color, shape, nor size. There issimply space in the room.

If the space in this room represents mind, thenwe need to take into account that in this particularspace there is also a kind of illumination. This isnot a dark room. We can see perfectly clearly. If allthe sources of illumination were shut off or blockedat this point we would be in total darkness. Wecould not see a thing. There would be space, but noclarity. But the fact is that we have illuminationfrom electric light and natural sources whichmakes the room very bright and clear and we cansee everything perfectly clearly in the room.

Mind has its own kind of illumination, althoughnot in a visual sense. It is not as though there werea kind of lighting up of the mind or that the mindwould light up or that the kind of illumination weare speaking of is any kind of visual perception.But rather it is the inherent ability of the mind toexperience. The fact is that mind can experience.Mind, being no thing in and of itself, neverthelessexperiences everything. That potential to experi-ence is the illuminating potential of mind—theilluminating nature of mind. So in speaking aboutthe mind, we can make reference to the fundamen-tal intangibility of the mind and the illuminatingpotential which it demonstrates.

On a practical level, this illuminating potentialof mind, this ability to experi-ence, is something we encounterwhen we sit quietly by ourselvesand think of a place very faraway like New York or SanFrancisco. We can call that placeto mind immediately. There isthe possibility of thinking of,remembering, or recalling thatplace. This is an example of thisilluminating potential of mind.

The space in this room andthe illumination in this room arenot two things that we canseparate. They are two differentaspects of a unitary experience.In the same way, when we refer

to the intangible nature of mind, the essentialemptiness, and the clarity or illuminating natureof the mind, we are not speaking of two separatethings, but two aspects of one experience.

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This fundamentalnature of mindas intangibleemptiness,illuminating clarity,and dynamicunimpededawareness iswhat we termtathagatagharba,the seed orpotential forenlightenment

We have not yet completed our description ofmind itself. We have space in this room which weuse as an analogy for emptiness, and we haveillumination. But we do not have an effectiveconsciousness. We do not haveanything other than empty andilluminated space. With mind wehave something more. We have theactual awareness that can decide—“this is form,” “this is sound,” “thisis such and such a shape.” We canmake judgments and we are con-scious of the particular details of asituation. That is the unimpededmanifestation of mind, which isalso the dynamic intelligence orawareness of mind as well. So bydescribing mind in and of itselfrather than the contents of mind,we are speaking of somethingwhich is essentially intangible. Bythis we also mean the illuminatingpotential and the dynamic unim-peded manifestation of awareness.

Perhaps at this point we coulduse a kind of approach to allowoneself to experience this funda-mental nature of mind rather than the particularcontent of mind. We must consider that most of ushave the idea that the mind is located in the brainor in the heart region or some other fixation ofwhere the mind is. This is not particularly helpfulat this point: Mind has no particular location; it isnot in any particular part of the body. This state ofbare awareness or fundamental awareness is priorto a state of any attachment to any particularstate. It is not a particular place in the body nor aparticular locality or object in the environment. Itis simply intangible, clear, unimpeded nature ofmind itself.

This fundamental nature of mind as intangibleemptiness, illuminating clarity, and dynamicunimpeded awareness is what we term, in theBuddhist tradition, tathagatagharba, buddhanature, the seed or potential for enlightenment. Itis that inherent nature of mind which emerges asthe fully enlightened experience. It is that which

allows the fully enlightened experience to takeplace in the first place. This is something that isshared by each and every living being, human orotherwise. Anything that is sentient—anything

that has consciousness—inher-ently has this fundamental purityor nature of mind in its make-up.

We find in the Buddhist teach-ings that Buddha Shakyamunisaid, “This tathagatagharba—thisseed for potential enlighten-ment—pervades all forms of life.There is not a single being thatdoes not have this as part of itsmake-up.” To give this experiencea name for reference, or simply tolabel it for practical purposes, inthe Buddhist tradition we refer tothis fundamental nature of mindas tathagatagharba—the seed oressence of enlightenment. It is thepotential for enlightenment.

Referring to the causal factorfor enlightenment, we find refer-ence in one of the tantric scrip-tures of Buddhism to the effectthat all beings are born enlight-

ened, but incidental obscurations are blocking theexperience of enlightenment. Once thoseobscurations have been removed that experiencesimply emerges and becomes actualized and wecan experience the original clarity of our minds. Wemight think of this tathagatagharba potential as aseed just like a living seed that can grow into aflower. If one takes a seed and nurtures it, cares forit, and goes about things the right way, one canproduce a flower from that seed. In the same way,if we recognize the inherent nature of mind and itspotential and learn how to cultivate it—learn howto cause it to emerge through spiritual practice—then we ourselves can actualize that experience.We can become a buddha. We can become com-pletely enlightened.

Another label which we give to this state or thisexperience in Buddhism is jnana or transcendingawareness, primordial awareness, to which wesometimes add the word alaya, which means

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It has always beenthe case that mindcan experienceanything but itsown nature. Thisfundamentalignorance isbuilt in

fundamental or original awareness. We couldperhaps think of this in terms of a practical ex-ample. If we think of clear, transparent, purewater before any pollutants or sediments havebeen added, we note that the water is pristine inits clarity and transparency. Or perhaps you mightthink of a sky totally free of any clouds and the sunshining brilliantly in the sky. There is again noobscuration and nothing in the way—nothingobscuring or limiting the experience at all. Nowgiven that there is this naturally pure, positivenature of mind, then where has all this negativeconditioning come from? Where have the negativeaspects of confusion and suffering arisen from?How has the clear, pure, transparent water beenpolluted by sediment?

First and foremost there is the lack of directexperience that we mentioned previously—thefundamental ignorance or unknowing, which wecall the obscuration of knowledge, the fact that themind does not see itself, is not directly aware of itsown nature. In Buddhism this is notsomething to which we ascribe anorigin. We do not say that at acertain point it happened that mindcould not see itself, that mind lostthis direct experience; but rather,when we speak of the beginninglesscycle of existence, we say that mindhas always been obscured by thisignorance. It is co-emergent with orco-existent with consciousness itself.

Another example which is oftenused in the text is gold. Since thereis gold there is tarnish forming onthe surface of the gold. In the same way as long asthere is unenlightened mind there is and alwayshas been this fundamental ignorance. This funda-mental lack of the direct experience and under-standing of the nature of mind is the basis of allthe other problems and levels of confusion andobscuration which we now experience. The techni-cal term which we use for this basic level of igno-rance or basic unknowing in Buddhism is co-emergent ignorance, which indicates that it is co-emergent or simultaneous with consciousnessitself. As mind arises, so does this ignorance.

Practically speaking, it is impossible to speak ofthe mind separate from this ignorance in ourpresent state, and so it is co-emergent with minditself.

This co-emergent ignorance has always beenthere in the same way that the eyes have alwaysbeen unable to see the face. From the moment thatwe are born and begin using our eyes up to thepresent time, we have never yet seen our facedirectly. It simply does not work that way. It hasalways been the case that mind can experienceanything but its own nature. This fundamentalignorance is built in, so to speak.

Given that this is the case, a further distortiontakes place. The essential intangibility or

emptiness of the nature of mind in and of itself, isdistorted into what we experience as the self orsubject—something solid, real, or existent in and ofitself, something tangible which we experience asthe self or the subjective pole in our experience.

Then the illuminating potentialof the mind, which can and doesgive rise to all of these appear-ances and experiences that mindundergoes, is distorted into theobjective pole of our experience,into the phenomenal world andthe sensory objects that weexperience as separate from theself. At this point a dualistic splithas already taken place. Weexperience the distortion of theessential intangibility and illumi-nating potential of mind itself in

a subject/object frame of reference that we think ofas the basis of our on-going experience. Again weare going to label this and give it the name, obscu-ration of habitual tendencies. From beginninglesstime, just as there has been ignorance of mind,there has also been this habit of experiencing interms of subject and object.

This is a state or condition that will continue ifwe do not attain enlightenment. If one does nottranscend the ignorance and obscuration whichlead to this distortion, then this state is perma-nent. One cannot expect such a fundamental

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We have thedistortion ofthis essential,intangible natureof the mind intosomething solidand tangible—theego or subject.The illuminatingpotential of mind isdistorted intosomething other

habitual tendency to simply wear itself out anddisappear. Instead, it continues to reinforce itselfand will do so as long as the individual does notattain enlightenment.

Even in the dream state, when we go to sleepand have a dream, we can see this fundamentaldualism as part of our experience, as an on-goingexperience of something which carries over fromwaking consciousness. Even though one goes tosleep and dreams and experiences an entirelydifferent realm than the physical waking state ofexistence—with all sorts of projections of mindplaying themselves out in the dream—there is stillthe fundamental perception of “I” and “other.” It isstill that basic dualistic split that permits all theother more complex aspects of the dream state—such as pleasure, happiness, pain, and so on, totake place, because there is thatunderlying on-going dualisticelement in our experience.

In the future when each andevery one of us comes to die, that is,when the physical body dies and isdisposed of, the mind goes on toexperience a totally formless non-physical state of experience, atotally disembodied state, in thatthere is no physical basis for theconsciousness at that point. Thereis, however, a continued impressionin the mind of some kind of embodi-ment, some kind of mental body.There is still a fundamental split,in that the appearances that arisein the mind are projected into theenvironment and experienced assomething other than mind itself.So even in the bardo state, the after-death statebetween physical death and physical rebirth, thereis the on-going habitual tendency of mind to expe-riences self and other.

We have the distortion of this essential, intan-gible nature of mind into something solid andtangible—the ego or subject. The illuminatingpotential of mind is distorted into something other,which is projected as separate from the self. Nowbased upon that, and given that there is this

dualistic framework, emotional reactions developbetween subject and object. So an emotional com-plexity of mind, which we call the obscuration ofafflictive emotions, or the obscuration of kleshas,develops based upon this dualism.

Initially, there are the patterns of either attrac-tion, or aversion and repulsion. In other words,there is a love-hate relationship between subjectand object that mind perceives in the world aroundit. That is the beginning of the most basic level ofemotional confusion in the mind. And so given thatthere is this fundamental split in the first place—the subject/object split of self and other—then thesituation arises where the subject or the object ispleasing to the self, and also there arises thesituation where the object is threatening or repul-sive. As well, there is an element of stupidity,

mental dullness or apathy in thesituation, in that one is simplynot aware of what is really takingplace. Instead, one is caught up inthe superficial appearance of theemotional situation.

In seeking the basis of emo-tional confusion in the mind, wefirst distinguish three patterns:attraction or attachment, aver-sion, and stupidity or dullness.These are the three basic emo-tional patterns in the mind. Thequestion then is: What experi-ences this dualism? What isexperiencing self and other andall the emotional reactions be-tween self and other? Mind itself,due to its inherently intangible,illuminating, dynamic, and unim-

peded nature, is experiencing dualistic mind.It is good to pause for a moment to reflect on

this and to attempt to experience for ourselveswhether this is the case or not, whether what hasbeen described is what is taking place.

The unenlightened being we have examined sofar has a fundamental lack of direct experience.Mind does not experience its own essential intangi-bility, its illuminating potential, or its dynamic andunimpeded awareness. Because of this fundamen-

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We are caught upin emotionalreactions due tothe syndrome ofsubjects beingattracted to orrepelled byobjects, which isbased on the basicmisunderstandingof what exactly istaking place

tal lack of direct experience, our experience hasbeen distorted into a subject/object frame of refer-ence. And a certain level of emotional confusion hasset in based upon this dualistic frame of reference.We are caught up in emotionalreactions due to the syndrome ofsubjects being attracted to orrepelled by objects which is basedon the basic misunderstanding ofwhat exactly is taking place.

Further development of emo-tional complexity takes place inthe following way: From theattachment syndrome, an emotionof greed (avarice or grasping)develops. Based upon aversion,anger and jealousy develop. Basedupon stupidity, pride develops.

We find reference in the Bud-dhist tradition to six basic emo-tions: three primary emotions andtheir three secondary develop-ments. In fact, the complexity doesnot stop there, because from anyone of these primary emotions, thousands of sec-ondary ramifications, variations and permutationscan develop. There would seem to be an almostinfinite number of different emotional situations, ifone wished to analyze them and assign a particu-lar primary emotion as the dominant factor. Wefind described in the tradition that there are21,000 emotional states based upon attachment,21,000 based upon aversion, 21,000 based uponstupidity, and 21,000 in which these forces appearin combination. In an attempt to describe thisemotional complexity the tradition describes it asthe 84,000 different emotional states, 84,000 typesof emotional afflictions.

Because of this emotional complexity basedupon fundamental confusion, we behave in

certain ways: physically, verbally, and mentally.We react to emotional confusion through thesethree gates. These actions, be they physical, ver-bal, or mental, by repetition become tendenciesand these tendencies become reactive habits. Thesereactive habit-tendencies, once they are estab-

lished, lead to specific results in our experiencelater on. There is a causality between one’s reac-tions and one’s experiences. This is the level ofobscuration that we call the obscuration of karma.

The karmic level of these tenden-cies reinforced by physical, verbal,and mental actions or thoughtpatterns is based upon this confu-sion. Therefore, this confusionitself is directly or indirectly harm-ful both to oneself and to others,because it perpetuates the confu-sion.

These four levels of confusionor obscuration are dependent oneupon the other. Not that one isarising after the other, but simplythat one is based upon the other.The confusion in the mind is firstand foremost the lack of directexperience of mind’s essentialpurity, the inherent transcendingawareness which is the nature ofmind itself. Due to this fundamen-

tal ignorance in the mind, the dualistic frame ofreference—the fixation of self and other as sepa-rate and independent entities—develops. This isthe second level of confusion which is based uponthis primary lack of direct experience of the truenature of mind.

Based upon this dualistic clinging to self andother, a mass of complex emotional confusion, the84,000 afflictive emotional states, has developed,which is the third level of obscuration.

Finally, the fourth or the gross level of obscura-tion is the karmic level of all of these unskillful andnegative tendencies, reinforced through physical,verbal, and mental actions and thought processesbased upon emotional confusion.

In our present confusion then, as unenlight-ened beings, we experience the totality of thesefour levels of obscuration all at the same time. Theinherent purity of mind has not been lost in us andcannot be lost, but it is obscured to the point thatwhat one experiences is one big state of obscura-tion. The impurity, which is the confusion, coversthe pure nature of the mind as clouds obscure the

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To use thesephysical, verbal,and mentalfaculties in skillfulspiritual practice isto eliminate thekarmic level ofobscuration

sun.The single most important element in our

experience, which binds all of that confusion to-gether, is egocentricity, the clinging to the reality ofself or ego, the thought, “I am.” We might say thatit is the glue or the binding that holds theobscurations together.

Until there is illumination of all of those levelsof confusion and obscuration in the mind,

then there can not be a true state of enlightenmentor realization. Given that the water has alreadybeen polluted by sediment, then the idea is torecover its original purity and transparency. Giventhat the sky has become obscured by clouds andfog to the point where the suncannot be seen, then the idea is toclear away the clouds and fogbanks so that one can see and bewarmed by the sun without hin-drance. Once we understand andexperience this essential intangibil-ity and this illuminating quality,then the dynamic and unimpededawareness of the manifestation ofmind can begin to loosen the bondof ego-clinging. At that point, thisalmost incredible binding stricture,which the clinging to self and to theappearances of reality produces, can dissolve.

Once this initial loosening takes place, then onecan begin to use one’s physical, verbal and mentalcapacities in a skillful and productive manner. Thisis why there are physical spiritual practices suchas prostrations. This is why there are verbalspiritual practices such as recitation of mantra andprayers. This is why there are mental spiritualpractices such as meditation and various states ofmind generated through meditation. To use thesephysical, verbal, and mental faculties in skillfulspiritual practice is to eliminate the karmic level ofobscuration, is to counterbalance negative karmictendencies and eventually to remove them asfactors of, or leading to, confusion.

More specifically, through the practice of medi-tation, one develops the experience of shamatha,which is the experience of stability or calmness of

mind, the ability of mind to rest in a given statewithout emotional confusion and distractions. Atthat point, one begins to eliminate the third levelof obscuration, the level of emotional confusion.

The next phase of meditation experience is onewe term the vipashyana experience, which isinsight into the nature of mind. This is oftentechnically termed egolessness or the experience ofegolessness, the egolessness of the individual selfor ego and the egolessness of all phenomena asindependent entities in and of themselves. In theexperience of vipashyana one begins to realize thatboth the ego and the objects and situations weperceive in the external world lack any ultimatereality. With the vipashyana experience—insight

into the nature of the mind—thesecond level of obscuration, dual-istic clinging, is eliminated.[While the third and fourth levelsof obscuration are regarded asgross, emotional obscurations, thesecond and first levels are re-garded as subtle, cognitiveobscurations.]

Then finally, developingbeyond this experience of insight,there is a fundamental transfor-mation of unknowing to a state ofknowing, changing a state of

unawareness to a state of awareness, from igno-rance to a state of direct perception and directexperience of mind. Then mind can see or experi-ence its own nature. This is what we term themahamudra experience. Mahamudra means “greatsymbol,” which is a code word for the direct experi-ence of the fundamental nature of mind. At thispoint the most subtle level of obscuration or level ofconfusion in the mind has been removed. Ignorancehas been transformed into intelligent awareness.

This is how we define buddhahood, the attain-ment of complete enlightenment. The word“buddha” is a Sanskrit term which was translatedinto Tibetan as sangye. Sang means to eliminate,in the sense that all of these levels of obscurationand confusion in the mind have been eliminated.Gye means simply to manifest or unfold, whichrefers to the unlimited expression of the inherent

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It is only in thehuman state ofrebirth that wehave theintelligencenecessary toperceive thesituation we are inand to effect thetransformationnecessaryto becomeenlightened

awareness and nature of mind that ensues uponenlightenment. That is the definition ofbuddhahood, the illumination which allows thismanifestation.

The nectar, the elixir which allows one to effectthat transformation, the illumination which

makes such unfolding take place, is containedwithin the teachings of dharma. It is the functionof the spiritual teacher to give these teachings andthat in fact is what this process requires. Havingreceived these teachings then one absorbs them.One actually takes them in andexperiences them through one’sown practice. Then one can becomeenlightened. One can effect thattransformation, become a buddha,and become completely enlight-ened. So when we speak of a sen-tient being, an unenlightenedbeing, and when we speak about abuddha, an enlightened being, weare not speaking about somethinghere and something else over there.The transformation seems to bethis simple: There is a state ofunenlightenment or there is a stateof enlightenment, and all that isnecessary for one to become theother is for that transformation tobe effected.

There are many lower states ofexistence that we cannot directlyperceive—the hell states, the ghost realms, and theanimal realms that we cannot directly perceive inour present limited circumstances. We can, how-ever, see a great deal of other kinds of animal lifearound us. We can directly perceive the life in theocean, on the land, and in the air, including insects.All of these forms of life, all life that is sentient,have inherent in their make-up, this potential forenlightenment. And we can see quite plainly thatin the vast majority of these animal states ofexistence there can be no appreciation of mentalstates and that there can be no steps made to-wards actualization of mental awareness. Themind is so obscured by ignorance—there is such a

fundamental lack of intelligence in animal life—that the kinds of concepts we are discussing todayare completely closed to their kind of mentality. Itis only in the human state of rebirth that we havethe intelligence necessary to perceive the situationwe are in and to effect the transformation neces-sary to become enlightened. So, while these otherforms of life have this potential, it is temporarilyblocked and unavailable to them because of thelimitations of that state of rebirth.

This is not to say that any one of these beingscould not at some future point attain enlighten-

ment in some other state ofrebirth, because the situation is avery complex one due to thebacklog of karma which is quiteliterally infinite. There have beeninfinite cycles of rebirth up to thepresent time. In every sentientbeing there has been an infinitereinforcing of positive and nega-tive tendencies. In the case ofconfusion, only negative karmahas been reinforced. However, itis possible that positive or virtu-ous tendencies can be established.And because these tendenciesplay themselves out, one after theother according to their relativestrengths, it is possible from thepoint of view of spiritual aware-ness that at a certain point in thefuture any one of those non-

human forms of life could pass from that form oflife and attain a much higher form of life in its nextrebirth. At that point, connections with spiritualteachings and teachers could then be establishedand such beings could attain enlightenment. Theycould discover their own buddha potential andeffect the transformation to enlightenment. So wecannot rule out the possibility that in particularstates of rebirth this path will be open to them.

In presenting his teachings, the BuddhaShakyamuni spoke of karmic causality as the mostcrucial concept for understanding the spiritualpath and the transformation that the teachings ofthe buddhadharma can effect. The Buddha talked

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There is a basis formoral choice inboth the doctrineof karma inBuddhism and thedoctrine of divinepunishment andreward inChristianity

very extensively about causality, the infallibleinterdependence of cause and effect on a karmiclevel, the states of happiness produced by positiveand virtuous physical, verbal, and mental actions,and the negative and harmful results and states ofsuffering and pain caused by negative and un-wholesome actions.

The way in which the enlightened mind ex-presses itself through manifesting and being

active in the world to lead beings to enlightenmentis quite incredible. So it should come as no surpriseto us that we see parallels in the various religiousand spiritual philosophies that develop. For ex-ample, if we take a look at the Christian teachingson karma we can see that while it isnot labeled in that way—it is notperceived of as a karmic process—there is nevertheless an emphasison one’s actions and the effects ofone’s actions. There is definitelysome causality recognized betweenthe actions that one commits andthe experience that the mind andbody undergo in the future. In thisway Christianity and Buddhism aresimilar. They may not speak of theprocess in the same way, or useexactly the same labels, but manyparallels can be seen. For example,in the Christian tradition the atti-tude may be one of acting in accordance with or inopposition to the will of God. And so there is theidea that certain kinds of actions are acceptable inthe eyes of God and are in accordance with the willof God, which lead to positive results that willbenefit the person performing the actions, while,on the other hand, there are actions which arecontrary to the will of God, which produce sufferingand pain for the person committing the action.

In the Buddhist tradition we speak of one’s ownkarma, those tendencies of mind, speech, and bodywhich one has established, the results of which onewill have to personally experience. In this way thekarmic process is more self-contained, and it isexpressed as one’s own actions coming back uponone. But the end result is the same. In either case

there is a basis for a moral choice. This is basedupon the understanding that certain actions pro-duce positive results and certain actions producenegative results. In reference to the different waysof expressing the inevitable interdependence ofcause and effect, we have a saying in Tibet:“Whether you beat someone or strike someone theresult is the same—a negative action with a nega-tive effect.” In both cases you are hitting the per-son. On this level the two doctrines present thesame concept in a different way, but the end resultis the same. There is a basis for moral choice inboth the doctrine of karma in Buddhism and thedoctrine of divine punishment and reward inChristianity in accordance with whether or not

actions are in accord with thewill of God.

The way this karmic processis explained in thebuddhadharma is that the im-pure aspect or mind, the funda-mental ignorance of mind andthe many attendant states ofcognitive and emotional confu-sion and obscuration of mind actas a basis upon which the karmictendencies can form or develop.For example, the fundamentalstate of unawareness is like theearth upon which seeds can beplanted. These seeds represent

the karmic tendencies which are reinforced by ourphysical, verbal, and mental actions. Once a seedhas been planted, for it to come to fruition thereneeds to be the support from the earth and soil,nourishment of the soil, water, light, heat, and soforth. Without these circumstances the seed willsimply remain inert. When all the circumstancesthat the seed requires are present, then it germi-nates, grows, flowers, and multiplies. It comes tofruition. In the same way, any karmic tendencywhich is established and reinforced through aparticular action is stored in some sense in thatfundamental state of confused awareness. It is alatent tendency until such time as the circum-stances in the environment within the mind itselfprovide an avenue by which that tendency can

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The physical deathof the body doesnot constitute thedeath of the mind

emerge and become an active part of one’s experi-ence and mature as an aspect of one’s experience.

The pure nature of mind, the original tran-scending awareness which is the fundamental

nature of mind as we have described it—essen-tially intangible, empty of limiting characteristics,no thing in and of itself—this essentially intangibleexperience which also exhibits illuminating poten-tial and dynamic unimpeded awareness, is notsomething that is subject to birth or death. It is notsomething that arises at any given point and thendisappears at another point. Essentially intangibleas it is, mind is not subject to birth or death. It isan infinite process without beginning and withoutend. On the fundamental level of mind itself we arespeaking of something eternal.* Mind is not sub-ject to the process of birth or death because it is nothing in and of itself. This essential intangibility ofmind exempts it from being sub-ject to arising from any one pointand falling away at any otherpoint. On the other hand, theconfused state of awareness whichwe experience because of all of thefour levels of obscuration that wehave been describing, gives rise toappearances and experiences which are notmarked by this eternality. They are subject tochange. They arise and they fade. There is a con-tinual coming and going of projections, appear-ances, experiences, thoughts, emotions, and soforth in the mind. There is this continual instabil-ity which is the basis of frustration and pain inone’s individual consciousness. This has been thecase up to the present time and will continue to beso as long as the individual does not attain enlight-enment. As long as there is no transcending of theconfusion which produces these impermanent andunstable experiences there will continue to be thesuffering and pain as well as the merely temporaryattractive states of pleasure and happiness thatoccur on the mundane level. There will continue tobe an on-going flux in the mind of unstable statesof pleasure and pain, of happiness and unhappi-

ness, without any end in sight. For true and per-manent happiness and benefit to occur it is neces-sary to transcend the whole process which givesrise to those unstable appearances.

We experience a physical body now. The physi-cal body is a result of the maturation of variouskarmic tendencies, and whatever the mind experi-ences it experiences through this physical body.The maturation of these various karmic tendenciesbrings about a particular state of physical exist-ence. Even if that physical body is totally de-stroyed—perhaps it is bombed to smithereens tothe point where there is not a single trace of thatphysical body left—at that point the mind contin-ues and, due to the trauma produced by death,enters into a state of unconsciousness. This state ofunconsciousness lasts for only a few days at themost, whereupon there is a re-awakening of themind. At this point, the mind begins to experience

what we term the bardo state—the after-death state or the inter-mediate state between death andrebirth. During this time, theworld is as real to the individualconsciousness as the world we nowexperience is to us in our wakingstate. The mind ascribes to its own

impressions and experiences in the after-deathstate the same amount of reality as we ascribe nowto our own world. So the physical death of the bodydoes not constitute the death of the mind.

When the Buddha Shakyamuni described thiskarmic process he spoke in terms of previousexistences. Not only had there been previousexistences that the mind had undergone, but onecould actually look to one’s physical body and toone’s actual situation in this life to determine, tosome extent, what the karmic tendencies in previ-ous existences had been. So he said at one point, “Ifone wants to understand what the mind has expe-rienced, look at one’s present physical body.” Is thebody a strong, healthy, long-lived body? Does theperson enjoy health or fame or influence? Theseare results of meritorious and positive karmictendencies which have led to such states andexperiences. The Buddha also said that if a personis wealthy, this is a sign that they were generous in

*Editor’s note: Rinpoche is speaking here from the point ofview of Shentong Madhyamaka.

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The BuddhaShakyamuni said,‘If you want to seewhere the mindhas been, look atyour body; and ifyou want to seewhere the mind isgoing, look at yourpresent actions’

previous lives in which they shared their wealth,and that through the merit gained thereby, karmiccausation has led to the experience of wealth forthem in this life. If, on the other hand, a person issubject to poverty and want and deprivation, thenthis is a sign that there has been theft and takingfrom others and harming and depriving others in aprevious lifetime.

If the mind and the body of theperson are happy, the person ishealthy, and that person has livedfor a long time, then this is a signthat the person has nourished andcherished life in previous lifetimes.On the other hand, if a personexperiences a great deal of pain,suffering, illness, and disease anddies very young, then this is a signthat the karmic tendencies fromprevious lives were produced by thetaking of life, killing, and causingphysical or mental injuries to otherbeings. The Buddha spoke of thisdirect correlation between karmictendencies established in previousexistences and the actual physical body and stationand situation in life one experiences now.

But this process also takes into account futurestates of existence, without which, in fact, spiritualteaching would be of no use at all. If it were nottrue that the mind goes on to experience otherstates of existence, then there would be no need forspiritual teachings. If the mind died with the bodythen the only benefit available to us, even on avery temporary level, would be to work in theworld as much as possible to develop the greatestextent of happiness and fulfillment in this lifealone, and that would be it. But all spiritual teach-ings recognize that mind goes on to other states ofexperience. If that were not the case, then therewould be no need for any spiritual teachings, andthey would not have arisen in the first place. Butthere is this understanding of a causal relationshipbetween our mental continuum and future statesof existence that is fundamental and crucial to allspiritual traditions.

The Buddha also said that not only can one go

to one’s physical body and experiences in this life todetermine previous karmic tendencies, but one canalso look at one’s actions in this life to determineone’s future experience.

The Buddha Shakyamuni said, “If you want tosee where the mind has been look at your body;and if you want to see where the mind is going lookat your present actions.” If one’s actions are moti-

vated to a great extent by angerand malevolence, if one takespleasure in stealing from andhurting other beings—and thisincludes killing and hurtinganimals for pleasure as well—and if the tendencies in one’smind are continually strength-ened and reinforced by thoughtsof such things, then these are thepatterns that can lead the mindto a rebirth in hell. And even if amind with such tendencies is notreborn in a hell realm and issomehow able to attain humanrebirth, one will undergo sick-ness, suffering, and a short life

that is miserable because of the karmic result ofthat kind of malevolent activity. On the otherhand, if one’s actions are those of cherishing lifeand are motivated by benevolence and altruisticconcerns for others, then karmic tendencies areestablished which can lead to rebirth in a godrealm. This is still in the cycle of rebirth, but in anextremely evolved, comfortable, pleasant, andhappy state of existence. If the mind does notattain to such a high state of rebirth but to ahuman rebirth, then it would enjoy a productivelong life, healthy, happy, and prosperous as a resultof the positive karmic effects of the positive tenden-cies established by such benevolent actions in thepast.

We tend to think that the prosperity, wealth,and security that we enjoy in this life are directlydependent upon our immediate efforts of studyingand working hard to build up security and stabilityand so forth. No doubt that is a factor and there iscertainly causality on that level as well. But thereare situations where we simply cannot justify that

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kind of understanding as the only way of explain-ing things, because when a rich person or a richfamily has a child and that child has done no workbut is born into wealth and is immediatelywealthy, then there is noreference to the child’sdirect efforts in his or herpresent life to acquire ahigh station of wealth. Inthe same way, we maysee a person who is borninto a family that is verypoor and the child maystarve and experienceextreme mental andphysical suffering fromthe start, without havingdone anything in this lifeto deserve that suffering.What helps to explainthis seeming contradic-tion is the idea that thekarmic process is theresult of negative karmictendencies that weregenerated in and alreadyexistent in previous livesand that were reinforcedby negative actions inprevious lives and thatconsequently produce anexperience of poverty,want, and suffering inthis life, though theremay be seemingly noth-ing in the immediatesituation to justify such an experience. So it isthese kinds of situations that impress upon us thevalidity of the karmic process of causality as it isdescribed and demonstrated, which is the relation-ship between actions and their results in ourexperience.

In experiencing human rebirth we have a veryfortunate opportunity, because only the humanexperience affords one the opportunity to exercise acertain degree of free will, and thereby affords onethe opportunity to establish the kind of karmic

habits that will direct one toward enlightenment orat least to higher states of rebirth. However, onecan also quite easily establish negative karma thatwill ensure the mind a lower state of rebirth. One

is, in a certain sense, ata pivotal point betweenan upward or a down-ward direction. One hasthe choice to go to ahigher state of rebirth orto a lower state of re-birth. In an animalrebirth the mind is farmore limited because ofthe limitations of thislower realm. The mindthere has very littlechoice. An animal isdriven by its own in-stincts and impulses tocommit actions which inmany ways reinforcenegative karmic tenden-cies leading to lowerstates of rebirth. Thequalities of faith, com-passion, benevolence,and altruism, which areconducive to spiritualdevelopment—and on amundane level to posi-tive karmic tendenciesbeing established andreinforced—these av-enues are closed toanimal life.

During this morning’s session we have beenconcerned for the most part with the state of thingsas they are now, the different levels of obscurationsthat we all experience as unenlightened beings inthe cycle of rebirth and the various states of experi-ence in the cycle of rebirth and so forth. We havebeen speaking about things from the point of viewof samsara. Later on today we hope to go more intothe concept of nirvana.

Yangsi Rinpoche, the reincarnate Kalu Rinpoche

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His Holiness Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche

Mahamudra: the Essence ofAll the Buddha’s Teachings

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This nature of mind that we have beendiscussing—the essential emptiness ofmind or intangibility of mind, its being “no

thing” in and of itself, but nevertheless, exhibitingan illuminating potential, and a dynamic unim-peded awareness—are terms that one has probablynever heard before.* But through the grace andblessing of the Buddha Shakyamuni, we haveteachings which can expose us to this truth. Theynot only confirm for us that we have this truenature of mind inherently in our make-up, but alsothat, through the skillful application of the tech-niques and methods of buddhadharma, we canexperience and actualize that pure nature inattaining enlightenment.

It is mind, on the one hand, that experiences allof the confusion and all the illusions andobscurations which give rise to the experience ofsamsara [the cycle of conditioned rebirth and all ofthe states of experience within that cycle of re-birth]. It is mind which gives rise to and experi-ences all of these situations. On the other hand, itis the same mind which is inherently unimpededand gives rise to and experiences all of the quali-ties and potentials of the enlightened state ofmind. So, whether we are speaking of the unen-lightened state of being or the enlightened state ofbeing, everything happens within the mind itself;nothing falls outside of it. It is mind which experi-ences both of these states.

In our particular case, being human and enjoy-ing this human state of rebirth indicates to us thatthere has been a considerable development andestablishment of merit and virtuous, positivekarmic tendencies in our previous lifetimes. Fur-

thermore, it would seem we have had a connectionwith the three jewels and the tradition ofdharma—all of which is coming into maturity inthis life. We have this physical body as quite afortunate state of rebirth and we are able to makecontact or re-establish contact with these teachingsand understand and apply them.

The embodiment that we now experience is aphysical one, which is nevertheless mental inorigin; it arises from the mind. Its origin, ulti-mately speaking, is the mind. When we go to sleepand dream we experience the dream state, which isa different kind of embodiment. The mind does notexperience through the physical body at that point,but it experiences a purely mental body, which isanother kind of embodiment based upon habitualtendencies in the mind. These tendencies can besubtle ones of dualistic clinging and obvious onesbased on our experiences during this life, whichform patterns that arise in the dream state. Fur-thermore, in the future, when each and every oneof us dies, the physical body disintegrates and themind goes on to experience another state of being.This is a disembodied state, in that there is nophysical basis for the consciousness. Nevertheless,there is a sense of embodiment in the mind whichwe term the mental body. In that situation there isstill an impression of “I.” I exist. And so the threestates—the physical body which is the maturationof karmic tendencies, the dream body of habitualtendencies, and the mental body of the after-deathstate—constitute different elements of rebirth,which follow one after the other in a continualprocession.

The essence or quintessence of all of theBuddha’s teachings are those teachings whichdescribe and point out the mahamudra experience.This term mahamudra in Sanskrit means “su-preme symbol” or “supreme seal,” like a seal on adocument, and is translated into Tibetan quiteliterally as chak gya chenpo, [phyag-rgya-chenpo].Chak gya in Tibetan means “seal” and chenpomeans “great” or “supreme.” The term mudra inSanskrit or chakgya in Tibetan can be brokendown further into two syllables. The first, chak, isan honorific word in Tibetan for “mind,” whichliterally is a code word for sunyata or the empti-

The following edited transcript is a continuationof Rinpoche’s September 11, 1982, teaching onmahamudra. Rinpoche gave the teaching inTibetan; it was orally translated by Lama ChökyiNyima.

By His Holiness Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche

*Editor’s note: The Tibetan terms being translated here aretong, sal, magakpa, which literally mean empty, clear, andunimpeded or emptiness, clarity (lucidity, luminosity), andunimpededness.

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ness of mind and all phenomena. This is the essen-tial intangibility and the ultimate non-reality ofmind and all phenomena. The second syllable, gya,refers to the all-embracing nature of this experi-ence, outside of which no aspect of one’s experiencefalls. It refers to the all-embracing awareness ofthe essential emptiness of mind and its experi-ences, and the all-embracingemptiness of all phenomena.Chenpo in Tibetan, or maha inSanskrit, means great or supreme.It indicates that this is the ulti-mate experience and there isnothing greater. So the termmahamudra refers to the all-embracing awareness of the empti-ness of mind and of each and everyaspect of one’s experiences.

On the one hand we find thisterm mudra or “seal” or “symbol”which can be explained as a cipheror code word for this condition,emptiness, outside of which noaspect of one’s experience exists or happens. Wealso find reference in Buddhism to the maha atiteachings, in Tibetan dzogchen, which means the“supreme perfection” or the “supreme completion.”This term refers to a state of being which is all-inclusive, which is complete and embraces all ofone’s experiences in their entirety. So again, thereis nothing that falls outside of this experience orthis state of mind. There is nothing that is notincluded in this experience; it is complete in and ofitself. It is supreme perfection and supremecompletion. This is the term dzogchen.

In the dzogchen tradition we find that theteachings which expose one to this concept are soprofound that, according to the tradition, if onemeditates upon them by night, one will attainenlightenment that same night, and if one medi-tates upon them by day, one will attain enlighten-ment that day. In some cases, if a person is fortu-nate enough and has the proper karmic back-ground, it will not be necessary to meditate at all.If that person simply hears these teachings thenthey will bring about that state of realization. It isalso possible that if one encounters or hears the

mahamudra teachings, in a single instant one canbecome enlightened. In this case, one is dealingwith a very direct path to enlightenment.

So we might wonder—is this really true? Wellyes, it is true. This transformation can be effected.If the fundamental ignorance or the lack of thedirect experience of the nature of mind is trans-

formed into awareness, then in aninstant that transformation can beeffected. It is only necessary forthat fundamental transformationto take place. But practicallyspeaking, of course, these fourlevels of obscuration seem verysolid at this point. We experiencethem as being very solid impedi-ments or barriers to direct experi-ence. Until those levels of obscura-tion have been thinned out, thatkind of transformation is going tobe very difficult.

What needs to happen in orderto develop this experience of

mahamudra—this direct experience of the natureof mind? There are two fundamental elements inone’s spiritual transformation: one’s own efforts inthe purification of one’s negativity and mental andemotional obscurations and one’s own efforts todevelop positive qualities such as merit and aware-ness, and one’s devotion to one’s guru, one’s spiri-tual teacher, which also plays an essential part inbringing about this transformation. These twofundamental elements will bring one to the attain-ment of the mahamudra experience.

In the Buddhist tradition we sometimes, tech-nically, call this pure, fundamental nature of mind,before any distorting element of confusion orobscuration sets in, “co-emergent transcendingawareness,”* which is co-emergent with conscious-ness itself in that it is the inherent nature of mindwithout all of these obscuring factors. Referring tothis attainment of enlightenment termed themahamudra experience—the state of co-emergent

The termmahamudrarefers to the all-embracingawareness of theemptiness of mindand of each andevery aspect ofone’s experiences

*Editor’s note: The term yeshe is more frequently translatedas “wisdom” or “primordial awareness” these days, whichwould then give one “co-emergent wisdom” or “co-emergentprimordial awareness” in this case.

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awareness—we find a reference in one text whichstates that in order to bring about the emergenceof transcending co-emergent awareness, the onlyeffective means are one’s own efforts in the purifi-cation of obscurations and the development ofmerit and awareness and one’s devotion to andreliance upon a qualified guru. One should under-stand that any other approach would be stupid.One would be wasting one’s time with any otherapproach than these two methods.

This is not to say that it is in every case neces-sary to work extraordinarily hard to attain enlight-enment and experience mahamudra. It depends onthe circumstances. If the person is a very spiritu-ally sensitive and mature individual as a result oflifetimes of spiritual development and purificationand the development of merit and awareness, andso forth, then a more or less in-stantaneous transformation couldtake place. If that kind of personwith those qualifications meets askillful, enlightened teacher in theproper circumstances, then theycould attain the experience ofmahamudra immediately. It ispossible, but it depends upon thecircumstance.

What kind of qualities wouldthat kind of person have? Thatkind of spiritually sensitive personwould have faith and conviction inthe teachings they were receiving.When they heard discussions onthe nature of the mind and thesunyata experience, the emptinessof mind, there would be the kind of conviction thatsaid: “Yes, this is true, this is the way it is.” Theywould have unswerving confidence in the informa-tion they were receiving. They would also have anunswerving faith in their guru as a fully qualifiedand realized being. There would be no doubts onthat level, in terms either of the teachings or of theteacher. They would also have an intense compas-sion for all other beings and the understandingthat, while each and every being has this potentialto become enlightened, all the confusion andobscurations which block that direct experience

create endless suffering and frustration for allbeings. That would be the source of their compas-sion. Such a person would have intense dedicationand diligence in their spiritual practice so that anyparticular task that was required, any particularpractice that needed to be worked through, wouldbe met and carried through with complete diligenceand commitment. If all of these qualities cometogether, then one has an extremely spirituallysensitive person with acute capabilities whichallow this very rare transformation to take placeinstantaneously.*

Given that one is not perhaps such a personwith extremely acute capabilities, who is spiritu-ally mature, but is, in fact, on a lesser level ofattainment, at a level of preparation, how does onego about attaining this state of ultimate aware-

ness? The situation that unen-lightened beings find themselvesin is similar to what we describedearlier with the sun shining in thesky. The sun may be there in thesky but it is obscured from ourview because clouds cover it. If oneis going to see the sun one is goingto have to clear the clouds out ofthe way first. If one has suffi-ciently thick levels of obscurationand confusion in one’s mind thenone cannot have that direct experi-ence immediately. It simply cannotbe an aspect of one’s experiencenow. When that is the case, thenone must work at clearing awaythose obscurations to the point

where direct experience can take place. That is thefunction of one’s practice. One must eliminate thevarious levels of obscuration and confusion in themind in order to permit the inherently pure nature

The only effectivemeans are one’sown effort in thepurification ofobscurations andthe developmentof merit andawareness andone’s devotion toand reliance upona qualified guru

*Editor’s note: In this regard, the editor once asked LamaWangchen Rinpoche, who was the previous Kalu Rinpoche’snephew and who spent a great deal of time as a boy andyoung adult traveling with and serving Kalu Rinpoche, if hehad ever asked Rinpoche when and under what conditions hehad attained enlightenment. Lama Wangchen said, yes, hehad asked that question, and that Rinpoche’s answer wasthat his mind had always been the same all of his life, evenin earliest childhood.

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of mind to manifest itself directly.Again, one does not need to give up in despair

and think, well, since I am obviously not a verysensitive person with extremely acute capabilities,then it is hopeless for me. I have so manyobscurations, so thick and so solid, that it is goingto take me many lifetimes before I can work it alloff. We are not meant to feel that way. The purposeof all the truly incredible teachings of both thesutras and the tantric teachings of the Buddha isto bring that transformation into effect very rap-idly. One does not have to let these levels of cogni-tive and emotional confusion andobscuration play themselves out,so to speak, as one gradually chipsaway at them, attempting to cometo the point where a significantexperience can take place. One canactually take control over one’ssituation and effect this transfor-mation through the skillful prac-tice of these precious teachings.Skillful methods give one themeans for a greatly disproportion-ate result in a very short term ofpractice. If one practices regularly,even for a few minutes or a fewhours daily, one can eliminate the confusion andobscuration that took eons to accumulate. That isthe particular blessing and efficacy of spiritualpractice. It provides one with skillful and effectivemeans of clearing away these obscurations so thatin a relatively small amount of time, one canexperience a great effect in one’s total make-up.

We say there are many people who are inter-ested in Buddhist teachings and many people whoare practicing the Buddhist teachings, but how is itthat they are not already enlightened? What ismissing is the kind of commitment that is neces-sary, the kind of total involvement which can beseen in the life of Milarepa. This total involvementpermits total absorption in spiritual practice; andit is only because we lack this kind of intensity ofcommitment that we do not effect the transforma-tion to enlightenment more quickly. This can bedemonstrated if we look at all of the activities thatwe engage in day and night, which simply involve

us in the world and leave us very little time andenergy for spiritual practice. If we totaled up ouractivity day and night, perhaps only one or twopercent is really being directed to the dharma.Because there is a lack of intensity in one’s com-mitment to one’s practice, there is a commensuratelack of intensity in the results of one’s practice. Ifwe increased the time committed to spiritualpractice to equal more nearly the time that we nowdevote to mundane activities, and involved our-selves at the same level of intensity, then we couldeffect this transformation. The transformation

might not come about in thislifetime, as one might lack theintensity necessary, but certainlythe transformation could happenin the bardo or after-death state,or within a significantly smallnumber of lifetimes. In two orthree lifetimes, one could effect thetotal transformation from a stateof unenlightened awareness to astate of totally enlightened aware-ness.

Today we are discussing thequestion of mahamudra, the

ultimate experience of the nature of mind that wehave described as being empty and essentiallyintangible, mind as being “no thing” in and ofitself, but nevertheless, exhibiting qualities whichare an illuminating potential [cognitive clarity orcognitive lucidity] and the ability to experience theunimpeded and dynamic manifestation of aware-ness.

A way to confirm this empty, clear, and unim-peded nature of mind is simply to let the mind restin its own natural state without any distraction orany dullness. This is a way of confirming the wayor path one takes to attain the state ofmahamudra. The point is that the mind does notlook at anything—does not try to experience any-thing, but simply is. One lets the mind be in itsown natural state without any distraction, but alsowith this bare spark of awareness, the dynamicquality of awareness not being blocked or impeded.The mind is neither dull nor is it agitated or dis-

If one practicesregularly, even fora few minutes or afew hours daily,one can eliminatethe confusion andobscurations thattook eons toaccumulate

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Without therebeing desire in themind, there wouldbe no desire in thebody. Withoutthere being angerin the mind, therewould be no angerin the body

tracted, but is simply resting in the state of bare,uncontrived awareness.

At this point, while the mind is resting in thisempty state of non-discursive awareness, we couldintroduce an element of conscious thought andsimply watch what happens. This could be athought or an emotion, an experience of faith orcompassion, or whatever. One could simply allow itto arise. One could stimulate themind to give rise to a certainthought, emotion, or feeling tone.Or, if thoughts and emotionsalready exist, one could simply beaware of what happens. Is thethought that arises of the mind, isit separate from the mind, or is itidentical with the mind? Whatexactly is happening when athought arises in the mind? Whatexactly is going on? This is some-thing one can confirm for oneselfthrough this kind of approach.One can deliberately bring up thethought or emotion or feeling—either positive ornegative. The point is simply to confirm for oneselfwhat is happening.

No doubt each and every one of us has someoneor something to which we are very attached. Itmay be a husband, wife, lover, or a particularpossession or accomplishment to which we are veryattached. If we have great pride in it, we are,therefore, very attached to it. We have a great dealof attachment and desire for that thing or thatperson. Using this particular approach in medita-tion—letting the mind rest in this state of intan-gible awareness—one can call the thought of thatperson or that thing or that accomplishment tomind. As that attachment to that person, situation,thing, or whatever arises then one can observe:Does it arise from mind itself, or is there some-thing that exists in and of itself? If it does arisefrom mind, what does this mind look like? What isthe mind like when giving rise to the desire orattachment? What does the desire or attachmentlook like? What kind of shape or color or form ortangibility does it have? It is useful to investigatethe mind in this way.

At present, we have a vague or naive under-standing of “I exist” or “I am, I have a mind.” Weare also very aware of the physical body. We think,my body, this body of mine, and we tend to regardthe two as one. I am my mind and body together asone lump. And so we tend to feel or experienceemotions arising on a physical and mental level atthe same time, as though they were somehow

inherent in the body and the mind.But actually, the origin of all thesefeelings, thoughts, and emotions ismental in nature. Ultimatelyspeaking, the way these emotionsarise in the mind has nothing to dowith the body. We have simplyconditioned the mind to experiencethem as if there was some physicalorigin for any given emotion, whichis actually not the case. The mindis like a stern king and the body islike a humble servant. And it is thebody’s function to follow the ordersof the mind. Mind directs the body

in various activities and the body simply followsthe mind without being an entity itself, having noidentity in and of itself. Which means that withoutthere being desire in the mind there would be nodesire in the body. Without there being anger inthe mind there would be no anger in the body. Thebody can only express itself in these ways becauseof what is in the mind to begin with.

So right now we have quite a problem becausewe experience our mind and body as a unit and wefeel that whatever comes up in the mind must beimmediately translated into physical or verbalaction. We feel that there is no choice in the mat-ter. Thus, when desire or anger arises in the mindwe will go to any lengths to express it on a physicalor verbal level. We will go through any hardship tomake sure the anger or desire gets expressed on aphysical or verbal level. This is our understanding,so we think it must happen that way: The emo-tions arise in the mind and body seemingly to-gether, and there can be no other way of experienc-ing them. If this were really the case, then whenwe die, and mind and body separate, it would seemthat the corpse would continue to feel desire and

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If in fact, thesethoughts andemotions . . . arenot solid things, ifthey are intangible,then we do nothave to go throughall the trouble ofplaying them outphysically, verbally,or mentally

anger and act accordingly. Even though conscious-ness would be absent, there would still be a capac-ity of the body to manifest these emotions and toplay them out.

It is necessary here to understand how emo-tions arise in the mind and how the physical

body is based upon the projections of the mind. Wemust understand more about the nature of minditself, particularly the essential intangibility of themind that gives rise to all of these emotions. Hav-ing understood the intangibility of mind and hav-ing understood that thoughts and emotions arisefrom the mind, then one needs to extend thisunderstanding to see the intangibility of thoughtsand emotions, given that they arise from an intan-gible and essentially empty state of mind. Theythemselves are a state of that intangible nature.They are not solid things in and of themselves.

If in fact, these thoughts and emotions—suchas attachment, aversion, envy, anger, pride, and soforth—are not solid things, if they are intangible,then we do not have to go throughall the trouble of playing them outphysically, verbally, or mentally. Allof that becomes meaningless, ifthey are, in fact, nothing in and ofthemselves. Even if one under-stands this concept only intellectu-ally—this concept of the emptinessof mind and the emptiness ofthoughts and emotions which arisefrom the mind—and even if onedoes not develop this understandingfurther by experiencing it directlyin meditation, one should know thata great deal of the trouble can stillbe eliminated simply by under-standing that this is the case, thatthe projections of the mind are asintangible and empty as mind itself. It is for thisreason that the Indian mahasiddha Nagarjunasaid in one of his texts: “Wherever emptiness isappropriate, everything is appropriate. Whereveremptiness is not appropriate, nothing is.” The pointhe was making is that when approaching medita-tion, if one has this basic understanding of the

emptiness of mind and all that is projected andexperienced by mind, then whatever particularmethod or technique is used in meditation will bevery effective. But without this basic understand-ing of emptiness, no technique is going to be veryeffective. It all hinges on this fundamental under-standing.

Emptiness should be defined at this point.Emptiness is not what we mean when we say

that a house is empty or a container is empty—that there is an absence of something. That is notthe case at all. The term here is used to indicatethat the mind in and of itself is empty of, or devoidof, limiting characteristics. It cannot be pinneddown as being such and such a color or such andsuch a shape or size or in such and such a location.Those kinds of tangible limiting characteristics aretotally inapplicable to mind. And so we say thatmind is empty.

The emptiness of mind is something that canactually be demonstrated empirically. It might not

be demonstrated in a way thatwe are willing to accept rightaway, but we could indicate theemptiness of mind just as we canindicate any object and say, “Thatis what it is like.” If we considerall the years we spent at homeand going to school getting aneducation and continually accu-mulating knowledge, then wemight see that all of that knowl-edge does not go anywhere. Itdoes not go somewhere inAmerica or in this town or in thisbody. In fact, it is doubtful thatthe body could hold it all, there isso much of it. Where does it go? Itdoes not go anywhere because

mind does not behave according to such param-eters. Learning is not a thing that has to be putsomewhere. It is an expression of mind as essen-tially intangible or empty of limiting characteris-tics. Because mind is inherently empty, no thing inand of itself, it should not surprise us that a projec-tion or manifestation of the mind is equally empty.

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The same kind of process that we describedearlier for karmic tendencies which are establishedand reinforced in the mind, applies here as well,because the learning that one does is a kind ofpotential—a causal factor which is stored in acertain sense. It is a latent tendency. The funda-mental confused consciousness* is a storing groundfor these tendencies. This is not meant in thephysical sense of storing, as something that youput somewhere, but in the sense of that latenttendency being stored until such time as circum-stances cause it to emerge.

In the case of learning, we establish a tendencywhich is then put on hold until such time as werequire that knowledge. When one comes into asituation where all the circumstances require thatknowledge to come forth, it does, because one hasalready learned it and one knows what to do andso one goes ahead. The cause and effect relation-ship is perfectly valid. One can use this example asthe basis for understanding the karmic process—the validity of the cause and effect relationship ofan action and an experience, one leading to theother. In this way there is a connection to thelatent tendency, which is not lost but remainslatent until such time as the circumstances impel itto mature. This is what is known as emptinessarising as cause and condition. The fundamentalintangible experiences manifest or behave incertain ways according to causality.**

When one is engaged in the practice ofmahamudra, there is a particular advanced level ofrealization which is termed ro chik, which inTibetan means one flavor or one taste. At thispoint, the identical nature of subject and objectbecomes apparent. There is no longer a split be-tween subject and object. Causality becomesempirically obvious. One can see the connections,not in a visual way, but in a way so that one cansee a particular cause leading to a particular effect.It becomes extremely evident, though it may not beevident at our current level of understanding.

If we were to take all of the thoughts and ideasthat we have in a single day or night and tried to

contain them in this whole room, it is doubtful thatthe room could hold them all—if they had anytangibility or form. But these thoughts and ideasdo not. This again exhibits the essential intangibil-ity and essential emptiness of mind and its experi-ences.

Let us take another example that is perhapscloser to home. If all of the forms and objects which

*Editor’s note: Here the translator is referring to the alayavijnana, which is fundamental dualistic consciousness, whichis the root of samsara.

**Editor’s note: There are a number of important ideas thatare being expressed here. The first is the emptiness, theinsubstantiality of the cause, which we refer to as a latency,but which we could never find as any sort of substantialentity. If we were able, in an instant just before the ripeningof any particular cause, to search all the infinite universesomnisciently, we would not be able to find that cause as atangible, substantial entity. If we searched in the same wayfor the exact conditions which give rise to the ripening of thatcause, we wouldn’t be able to find them either. The cause—what we sometimes call the root cause or the karmic cause—we can never find as a substantial entity not only because itis an action, therefore intangible, and therefore not an entity,but also because it is always gone by the time the resultripens. For example, you might ask what is the cause of achild, and you might say a gestating woman in labor. But bythe time the child is born and we can rightly say there is achild, the gestating woman in labor no longer exists, andwhile she does exist, there is no child. In this way cause andeffect—gestating woman in labor and child—do not exist atthe same time, and if they do not exist at the same time, howcould one be the cause of the other? But at the same time wedo know that there is a logic to the way things occur, and thislogic is called interdependence. We know that in dependenceupon the activity of copulation at the time of ovulation and inthe proximity of a consciousness in the bardo and a bit ofmicroscopic swimming around, an embryo is conceived. Weknow that in dependence on such conception, the process ofgestation begins. We know that in dependence on gestationand a lot of good eating and many other factors the embryowill grow in size and the woman will swell and change shape.We know that in dependence on that, at some point theunborn child will find the womb uncomfortable and thewoman will have pains and contractions and sooner or laterthe baby will be born. There is a logic to theseinterdependences which we describe in terms of karmiccauses, conditions, and results, and in terms of the twelvelinks of interdependent arising. And we say that from thestandpoint of relative truth—the way things appear to us—that this whole process arises in accordance with causes andconditions. But if we take the time to examine any of myriadcauses and conditions involved, we will see that they do notexist inherently from their own side independent of othercauses and conditions. And so therefore we say that they areempty of inherent existence. In the ultimate analysis—fromthe standpoint of ultimate truth—they do not exist. They areempty. This is called emptiness arising as causes andconditions. It is also called the union of emptiness andinterdependence. It is also called the union of the twotruths—the union of absolute truth and relative truth. And itis by virtue of a buddha’s understanding all of this that it issaid that a buddha understands both how things are, andhow they appear.

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We can extend ourexperience ofdreams tounderstand thatall phenomena andall states ofexperience arefundamentally thesame. They partakeof the same illusorynature

one saw on television in the course of a single dayhad any tangibility they would probably fill thewhole of Los Angeles. But they do not. They do nothave that kind of tangibility at all.

We find this concept of empti-ness a very fundamental one in theBuddhist teachings. In thePrajnaparamita sutras, the litera-ture dealing with the perfection ofwisdom and the experience ofsunyata or emptiness, one findsvery lengthy analyses of the expe-rience of emptiness, which deter-mine and explain it from differentpoints of view. We sometimes findreference to the eighteen differentaspects of sunyata, and to the veryinvolved details of the analyses ofthis experience, which develops anunderstanding of the essentialemptiness of that experience andof mind itself.

In both the Tibetan and the Japanese tradi-tions of Buddhism great emphasis is placed on thisprinciple of sunyata and on the experience ofsunyata during the course of meditation andspiritual practice. As well, The Sutra of the Heart ofTranscendent Knowledge, the Heart Sutra as it iscommonly called, is recited by practitioners of boththese traditions. The language differs, but theessential concepts which are presented in thatsutra remain the same. Both Tibetans and Japa-nese recite at one point in this text: “There is noeye, there is no ear, there is no nose, there is notongue, there is no body, there is no mind,” therebydenying the ultimate reality of all of these aspectsof our experience as things in and of themselves.

But if one does not have an understanding ofwhat is meant by these assertions, if one takesthem at face value, it seems quite absurd. Someoneis saying that there is no eye, no ear, no nose, andin fact, they do have eyes, ears, a nose, and so on,so what are we talking about? There seems to be adenial of what is quite obvious.

We can demonstrate the truth of these asser-tions by using the example of a dream. When onedreams one hears, sees, tastes, smells, touches,

and thinks, yet none of the sense organs are beingused during the dream. The mind is experiencingits dream as if the sense organs were being used,

but there is no ultimate validity tothat experience when one wakesup and the dream is gone. Weregard the dream as somethingthat the mind came up with—itwas just a dream. We can extendour experience of dreams to under-stand that all phenomena and allstates of experience are fundamen-tally the same. They partake ofthe same illusory nature—theyare not real in and of themselves.There is no ultimate validity tophenomena in any case. It is onthat basis that this teaching wasgiven and is spoken or recited. Ifone does not have this basic un-derstanding of emptiness and theappreciation of the intangibility of

thoughts and emotions which arise in the mind,then, even if one concerns oneself with the practiceof dharma and meditation, one is going to run intoa lot of difficulty.

If one is practicing a meditation such as themeditation of Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva ofcompassion, one meditates oneself in the form ofAvalokitesvara. Then when one lies down to go tosleep, does the bodhisattva also lie down and go tosleep? We can run into problems like this, whichbring about a certain logical gap in what one isdoing if one is treating this meditation as too solid.

Once one has appreciated the emptiness ofmind, it does not pose any problem. Emptinessdoes not get up or lie down. It is not subject tolimitations. That kind of framework simply doesnot apply. So there is a greater freedom in the wayone can use the mind when one understands that itis essentially empty.

Referring to the Heart Sutra again—no ear,eye, and so on—one also finds reference to a par-ticular mantra, Om Gate Gate ParagateParasamgate Bodhi Svaha, which is the mantra ofthe prajnaparamita doctrine. It condenses orencapsulates the sunyata experience into a verbal

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This is the ultimateanswer tosuffering—theability to seethrough theillusory nature ofthe experience

mantra and this is described as the mantra whichpacifies all suffering. The idea is that the mantrastands for the experience of emptiness, in which allsuffering loses all ground to stand on and thereforethere is no basis for the arising of suffering. This isthe case once one has seen the essential emptinessof mind and all its experiences.

The point of all this is that when a personexperiences extreme pain or suffering, the

ideal approach to such a situation would be forthem to understand that the experience arisesfrom the mind. The mind is essentially intangible,essentially empty, and therefore, so is the experi-ence. With that understanding and with the expe-rience of the truth of that understanding, theability of the experience of suffering to take hold ofone dissolves. That is the ultimate answer tosuffering—the ability to see through the illusorynature of the experience itself.

Understanding the fundamental nature of mindis crucial to one’s future spiritual development andthe ability to deal effectively with pain and suffer-ing. It is like the cure-all medicine that can beapplied in the case of any affliction. To one’s worstdisease one could apply this medicine and it wouldbe effective. Then through cultivating that under-standing of the nature of mind, oneapproaches the mahamudra expe-rience—the direct absorption intothe direct experience of mind on anon-going level. Moreover, as onecomes to a correct understandingof the nature of mind, one beginsto appreciate more and more thestate of buddhahood, the realiza-tions of bodhisattvas, and enlight-enment. The more one has faith inthese concepts and faith in thosewho have attained these realiza-tions, the more one develops. Andthe more one develops spiritually, the more one hasfaith in these concepts and in the beings who haverealized them, because one can see far more clearlyjust what is entailed. This understanding in and ofitself boosts one’s faith. Again, a correct under-standing of the nature of mind develops one’s

compassion and empathy for other beings, becauseone can see the reason why all beings suffer somuch. One can see that beings suffer so muchbecause of this naive clinging to the situation of “Iam real,” “this is real,” “there is nothing other thanthis right here.” When our minds are conditionedby such dualistic ego-clinging, we are forced tosuffer accordingly and to pay a penalty for thatnaive assumption. As one’s personal understandingof the nature of mind develops through experience,one’s compassion develops automatically. It simplyarises as a matter of course.

To speak for a moment in a formal Buddhistcontext—the first step in Buddhist practice is

what is known as taking refuge—taking the vow ofrefuge. The context in which we take the vow ofrefuge is the appreciation of one’s own limitationsvis-à-vis the incredible potential and qualities andfreedom from suffering that are inherent in thestate of enlightenment that one will experience asone attains enlightenment.

First, in the Buddhist tradition, we take refugein the buddha and in buddhahood itself, which isthe state of being of total enlightenment: themanifestation of the infinite potential and theincredible qualities of mind inherent in the true

nature of mind, and the transcen-dence of all suffering and pain.

Second, we take refuge in thedharma. These are the teachingswhich were presented by enlight-ened beings in order to allow allsentient beings in our situation tofind our way out of our confusion.

Third, we take refuge in thesangha. This is the assembly ofthose who realize the truth ofthese teachings and in turn trans-mit them to others and act asspiritual guides and advisers to

others.In the Buddhist context the first step in spiri-

tual practice is formally to take refuge in thesespiritual principles—in the Buddha, dharma, andsangha—as one’s source of blessing and inspira-tion. They represent the embodiment of all the

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potential and incredible benefits that one does notexperience right now, but which one could achievethrough one’s own practice. Without that initialfaith in them, however, there would be no commit-ment and there would be no point to even begin thepath, let alone to try to carry it through to fruition.That initial faith or confidence is what allows oneor causes one to make the first step along thespiritual path.

Someone who has taken refuge, at least in theformal sense, is someone we might say is a Bud-dhist. The point of all this—the giving and takingof the vows of refuge—is not to make Buddhismthe biggest group and to get lots offollowers for Buddhism and to tryto make everyone a Buddhist. Thisis not the case. The point is thatthis is the first step that someonewho wishes to follow this path ofenlightenment goes through inorder to set themselves on thatpath. Having taken that step, thatperson can find sufficient inspira-tion, faith, and confidence to allowthem to carry through with thepersonal attainment of enlighten-ment. This is the context in whichthe vow is given.

If what we were trying to dohere is to establish a Buddhistarmy to go in and invade some country, then wewould have to recruit as many people as we could.That is not the point here. The point is to give theopportunity to as many beings as may wish to seekenlightenment. That is the reason for giving thevow of refuge, so that everyone who wishes to takethat first step along the spiritual path may havethe opportunity to do so. This is why the vows ofrefuge are open to anyone regardless of theirreligious preference, regardless of their race,regardless of any worldly aspect of their condition-ing. The vows of refuge are open to any being whowishes to make this first step along the path.

With this first virtuous impulse that causessomeone to take this first positive step of takingrefuge, that person enters into what we term thepath of accumulation, the initial phase of one’s

spiritual development. The first step is to takerefuge. As one’s practice develops and one begins togather the means to effect one’s own spiritualtransformation, one develops along this path ofaccumulation. In the traditional literature this isdescribed as taking the initial step on the path toenlightenment. Later there is an intermediate andan intensive or concluding phase on this path ofaccumulation.

With this understanding then, one engages inpurification techniques to develop one’s merit andawareness, and also in meditation techniques, suchas stabilizing and calming the mind and develop-

ing insight, and so on. In this wayone develops a working basis, aparticular framework of practice,that one can apply and that onecan make a commitment to carry-ing through with vigor, effort, andperseverance. When one makesthis kind of commitment to one’spractice, regardless of the ob-stacles presented by the situationone is in, and one begins to makesomething of one’s spiritual path,then one is said to have reachedand to be on the path of applica-tion. When, having gathered allthe necessary prerequisites,* onebegins to apply them, then at that

point, one has entered the second stage on thepath, the phase of application. Then, with forbear-ance in the face of obstacles, with vigor, persever-ance, and commitment to practice, one carries on.

There are four stages which are recognizedtraditionally in the path of application. The first ofthese is technically termed warmth, the second istermed climax or peak. The third is termed pa-tience—patience in a transcendental sense, that is,not in the ordinary sense of being patient. Thefourth is termed the most excellent of worldly

*Editor’s note: i.e. when one has listened to and studied thedharma adequately to understand the basis of what one isdoing, when one has thoroughly contemplated it, thoughtabout it, and discussed it in order to clear up any of one’sdoubts or lack of understanding, and when one has receivedthe requisite empowerments, spiritual authorizationsthrough reading (lung), and meditation instructions.

The vows of refugeare open toanyone regardlessof their religiouspreferences,regardless of theirrace, regardless ofany worldlyaspect of theirconditioning

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dharmas.* Once one passes through these succes-sive stages on the path of application, this takesone to the next path, termed the path of vision orthe path of seeing. When one speaks of this path ofvision, the first thing that is asked is, “What isseen with this vision that takes place?”

What is seen or experienced is the fundamentalnature of mind. The emptiness of mind that wehave been discussing begins to present the firstglimmer of a stable on-going element in one’sexperience. At that point it is as if one were flyingin an airplane and had already taken off. Anymountains, rivers, or valleys that would have beenan obstacle if one were on foot, no longer presentany problem. This first stable element of therealization of the emptiness of mind constitutes thefirst moment on the path of vision. It is like takingoff, and what had been an obstacle previously, nolonger constitutes an obstacle.

At this point, the connection between theblessings of the three jewels, of one’s spiritualteachers, and of one’s own efforts in purificationbring about a situation where there is this realiza-tion of emptiness of mind and an increased free-dom of mind. At that point, the emotions andthoughts that normally the mind is subject to havelost a great deal of impact. They are not totallyabsent, but they are far more weak, much lessinfluential than they were, and mind itself—asopposed to emotionally afflicted mind and reactivemind—becomes able to take the dominant role.This state gives the mind greater freedom toexpress itself and to control its own experiences.

People are fascinated with the idea of the first,second, third, all the way up to the tenth level

of bodhisattva realization. They are always saying,“What are the signs? What kind of signs are therethat this is taking place? Do you see rainbows, ordoes this happen or does that happen?” No, what ishappening is that this freedom of mind throughrealization increases—that is all. That is really all

that takes place. There are ways in which thisfreedom does express itself. For example, supposethere were 100 different images of the Buddha,showing different colors, different postures and soon, in 100 different places around the world—inIndia, in China, in America, Canada, and inFrance—and one were required to meditate onthese 100 different images of Buddha at one time.We would be doing pretty well if we could get oneof them to stay in our minds, because our mindsare limited at this point. But the mind at the firstlevel of bodhisattva realization can encompass allof those 100 states of mind in a single instant withno contradiction, with nothing left out and no senseof conflict at all. The mind can simply embracethose 100 different images of Buddha in differentcolors and different locations and different posturesin a single instant without any kind of problem.**There is such freedom of mind.

There is this limited freedom of mind that isbeginning to express itself. It still has limitationsbut it is far greater than what we experience now.A story that might illustrate this concerns a tantricsaint named Jomdara who had a particular trans-mission of a tantric cycle known as Hevajra. Hav-ing transmitted this empowerment and the teach-ings concerned with this meditation on the form ofthe deity Hevajra, Jomdara sent a student intoretreat. The form of the deity Hevajra has sixteenarms and is quite a complex figure. The studentmeditated on this form and identified with this

*Editor’s note: For further elaboration of the meaning ofthese terms and the stages themselves, see Chapter 18: TheAspects of the Five Paths, in The Jewel Ornament of Libera-tion, by Gampopa as translated by Khenpo KonchogGyaltsen, Rinpoche, or in Gems of Dharma, Jewels of Free-dom, which is a different translation of the same text.

**Editor’s note: Here and in subsequent passages, KaluRinpoche is referring to bodhisattvas who have attained theirrealization of the true nature of mind through the extremelylong and arduous period of time required if one is onlypracticing the mahayana sutra tradition. Because thisprocess takes so long, these kinds of qualities are said to befully present at the time that they attain the path of seeing,which is the first moment at which, when meditating, theyalways have stable realization of emptiness or the truenature of mind. For those bodhisattvas who attain theirrealization through the practice of the mahayana tantratrandition, the vajrayana—through the practice of which onecan attain enlightenment very quickly, even in one lifetime ifone is extremely diligent—these kinds of qualities generallydo not appear in that same lifetime. Such a bodhisattva, it issaid, will attain the realization of dharmakaya at the time ofreaching the path of seeing, but will attain thesamboghakaya only after death. And it is said that if such abodhisattva practices secretly and diligently in their follow-ing lifetime that all of these vast qualities will likely arise.For more on the nature of these qualities see note on page 30.

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The mind thatreaches thefirst level ofbodhisattvahoodcan manifest 100emanations in asingle instant

form in meditation. He attained quite a significantdegree of success in his practice to the point thathe felt as though he could actually manifest thosesixteen arms. He felt as though heactually was the deity. At thatpoint, the teacher, Jomdara, cameto visit him to see how his studentwas doing as he had heard of theparticular state that his studenthad reached. When he came to seehim Jomdara said, “You shouldwash my feet.” Now in India, ofcourse, it is very hot and dusty andwhen someone comes to visit froma long journey and their feet arehot and dusty it is a mark of respect and courtesyto wash the visitor’s feet in cold water. When theguru came to visit the student, he said he wasquite hot and tired and dusty from the trip and sothe student brought the water in a basin to washthe guru’s feet. The guru said, “Wash one of myfeet with each of your hands.” So, with his lefthand he began to wash the guru’s right foot andwith the right hand the guru’s left foot. All of asudden he looked down and the guru had four feet.That posed no problem. He simply emanated twomore hands and washed the four feet. Suddenlythere were eight feet. Fine, no problem, he ema-nated eight hands. Then there were sixteen feet, sohe emanated sixteen hands. Then he found himselflooking a thirty-two feet and he was stuck. He hadtreated his meditation of sixteen hands as so realand substantial that he could not get beyond thatset number.

This is what we are talking about when refer-ring to the limited ability of mind to express itselfwhen it is without total mastery. Another storythat can illustrate this limited or incomplete mas-tery over one’s experience and the mind is illus-trated in the context of miracles that took placebetween Milarepa, the great Tibetan yogi, andanother Tibetan master, who was also quite accom-plished, named Naro Bönchung. Naro Bönchung’sparticular miraculous power, however, still hadsome limits. When he and Milarepa were engagedin a contest of miracles, at one point they werebeside a lake named Manosarowar, which is quite

large. Naro Bönchung placed one foot on one shoreand one foot on the other side and straddled thelake and became enormous in size and dared

Milarepa to better him.Milarepa then completely

covered the lake without the lakebecoming any smaller and withouthis becoming any bigger. He wasable to completely cover the lake,because he had reached the stateof mastery where those kinds ofdualistic limitations no longerplayed any part. He was beyondthat kind of limited framework.

At the first level of bodhisattva realizationthere is this limited freedom of mind which

permits the mind to express itself with greaterfreedom than we now experience. Instead of therebeing simply one physical body that the mindexperiences, the mind that reaches the first level ofbodhisattvahood can manifest 100 emanations in asingle instant. This poses no conflict or logicalproblem at that point. In fact, the texts speak oftwelve different qualities which are simply anexpression of this freedom of mind which is begin-ning to develop.*

In the following bodhisattva levels—the second,third, fourth, and so on—it is written that thesevarious qualities increase tenfold on each of thesuccessive levels. By the time one is at the tenthlevel of bodhisattva realization it is said that onecan enter 100 million states of mind in a single

*Editor’s note: For further elaboration of the variouspowers of bodhisattvas residing on the ten bodhisattvabhumis or levels, see Chapter 19 of Gems of Dharma, Jewelsof Freedom. Gampopa describes the twelve particularabilities of a first level bodhisattva in the following way: “Atbest, in an instant, a short moment, just a fraction of time,they can: (1) attain a hundred profound absorptions andexperience their stable fruition, (2) see a hundred buddhas,(3) most properly be aware of those buddhas’ blessings [i.e.transmission of realization], (4) shake a hundred worldsystems [with the truth of their teachings], (5) visit a hun-dred buddhafields, (6) illuminate a hundred world systems,(7) bring a hundred sentient beings to full maturity, (8) live ahundred eons, (9) be excellently aware of the past and futureup to a hundred eons past or hence, (10) open a hundredgates of dharma, (11) manifest a hundred emanationsanywhere and (12) manifest each of these physical forms asbeing accompanied by a hundred other bodhisattvas.”

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of limited freedom of the tenth level cannot com-pare to the unlimited freedom of full enlighten-ment, because at that point all limiting factorshave been removed completely. There has been atotal elimination of the four levels of obscurationthat we spoke of earlier; thus, the unlimited poten-tial of mind can express itself entirely, and so wecannot speak at this point in terms of hundreds ofthousands, or of billions or trillions. There is sim-ply no limit to what is possible and that is why wespeak of the qualities of buddhahood as infinite.That is why we speak of their enlightened activi-ties for the benefit of all beings as unlimited orinfinite.

The teachings of buddhadharma, which canenable the practitioner to discover the state of totalenlightenment, still exist. They are still accessible.So we have a choice. We can choose to follow thepath and to attain the state of enlightenment, orwe can choose to wander about in confusion, whichwill lead one into various states of rebirth [repletewith suffering]. Certainly we have this choice.

instant, that one can produce 100 million emana-tions in a single moment.* There is this incrediblefreedom of mind which has developed.

With the attainment of total enlightenment—buddhahood—beyond this tenth level ofbodhisattva realization, even this incredible level

*Editor’s note: It is likely that the translator got it wrong atthis point, for in Gems of Dharma, Jewels of Freedom,Gampopa talks of the particular ability of a tenth levelbodhisattva: “In one instant, a short moment, a smallfraction of time, they can enter as many profound absorptionsas there are pure particles in a thousand million, million‘countless’ buddhafields etc. etc.” Concerning the meaning of“countless,” the translators, Ken and Katia Holmes write in afootnote on countless: “In the various systems of countingthat were imported to Tibet from India, there are names foreach multiple of 10, i.e. the equivalent of our words, ‘hun-dred,’ ‘thousand,’ etc. up to 10 to the 59th power. In somesystems there are names for multiples of 100, reachingfurther than figures 120 numbers long. These figures wereused, among other things, in Buddhism, to compare realitiesexperienced by different sorts of beings—their relativelifespans, etc. ‘Countless’ signifies a figure beyond thosehaving their own name, rather than something which wasuncountable.” Therefore, it would appear that KaluRinpoche’s translator’s figure of 100 million was a grossunderestimation.

Lamas gathered in 1983 for a picture in front of the Main Shrine Hall at KaluRinpoche’s monastery in Sonada near Darjeeling, India. At the time Rinpoche wasbestowing the six-month cycle of empowerments called the Rinchen Terdzöd to a greatgathering of Kagyu tulkus, lamas, monks and nuns, and lay people. In the front row,seated left to right are Tai Situ Rinpoche and Kalu Rinpoche. In the back, standing, areKhenchen Tulku Rinpoche, Saljay Rinpoche, Thrangu Rinpoche, Sangye NyenpaRinpoche, Tenga Rinpoche, Bokar Rinpoche, and Khenpo Dönyö.

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For many years Ihave not beenable to come back to Vancouver, although I

have continually prayed for the welfare of theVancouver sangha. After such a long absence I amdelighted to be able to return here and to meetwith all of you again. I welcome you to this event.

The Venerable TengaRinpoche gave a chödteaching and empower-ment in Vancouver, Brit-ish Columbia, July 2through 5, 1998, spon-sored by Karme ThekchenChöling.The following isan edited transcript ofthat teaching, whichRinpoche gave in Tibetanand which was orallytranslated by Lama YesheGyamtso. © TengaRinpoche

By The VenerableTenga Rinpoche

I am very pleased tosee that the center,Karme Thekchen Chöling,which is a center of HisHoliness The SeventeenthKarmapa, has beencreated and that all of youare working very hard tokeep its activities growingand flourishing. Thedharma center is more,however, than an institu-tion that is merely keptrunning for its own sake.The need for dharmacenters is real becausewhen dharma centersexist, there is a placewhere people can meet atauspicious times, such as

the full and new moon, to practice shamatha/vipashyana together, or the Chenrezig meditationor yidam sadhanas, and so on. The dharma centeris a place where people can practice together,which is very powerful and important. It is also aninstitution that can invite resident and visiting

Chöd:Cutting ThroughThe Four Maras

The Venerable Tenga Rinpoche

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*Editor’s note: To turn the wheel of the dharma, which is tosay, to teach the dharma, which in turn sets in motion all theshort- and long-term benefits, both seen and unseen, atten-dant upon such an event.

Impurely motivatedvirtuous actionsare like the watertree which bearsfruit only once andthen dies

teachers to turn the dharmachakra,* which bringsa great deal of benefit for many people and estab-lishes, at the very least, a habit of dharma in theminds of many.

Maintaining a dharma center is not easy. Itrequires the maintenance of a building, and so on,and requires a great deal of workand some expense. Up to now themembers of Karme ThekchenChöling have done very well increating and maintaining thiscenter. Please continue. Rememberthat in maintaining a dharmacenter you are doing so for the sakeof the buddhadharma in generaland for the benefit of the sangha inthis city in specific. And so I want tothank all of you who have contributed funds andwork, putting all of what you have together tomake this dharma center possible. I would also liketo present Karme Thekchen Chöling with thispainting of King Vaishravana, who in essence isthe same as Jhambala,** as an auspicious supportfor the center. Now please begin by chanting thelineage supplication.

At the beginning of listening to the dharma, itis essential to clarify your motivation for doing

so. The motivation that is needed in order to listenin the fullest way is bodhicitta, the thought thatyou are going to listen to and practice the teach-ings in order to liberate all beings. The reason thatwe generate this motivation is that all sentientbeings are suffering. They are either experiencingintolerable suffering right at this moment or theyare certain to experience it at some point in thefuture. All of these beings, who are sufferingagainst their own will in this way, have, at onetime or another during your previous lives, beenintensely kind to you. They have been your father,your mother, and so on. So therefore, if you under-stand that, you will feel it necessary to free all

these beings from the sufferings of samsara ingeneral and the sufferings of lower states of exist-ence in particular. So you should generate themotivation that you will listen to and will practicethe teachings in order to bring about that libera-tion of all beings from suffering.

There are two benefits topossessing this motivation: thepresent or immediate benefit, andthe long-term or ultimate benefit.The present or immediate benefitof possessing the motivation ofbodhicitta is that all of yourvirtuous actions become rootsthat perennially yield more andmore virtue, like a tree thatyearly bears fruit while it itself

continues to grow, thereby being able to yield moreand more fruit every year. In that way all virtuousactions that are embraced by bodhicitta flourishnaturally. On the other hand, if you engage invirtuous actions without the motivation ofbodhicitta, if you engage in virtuous action for yourown benefit, or in order to accumulate merit foryourself, or in order to remove your own obstacles,or in order to become famous, or in order to acquiresocial position, or to acquire the service of others—because such motivation is impure, although theaction is virtuous and therefore will bear a virtu-ous or positive result, it will do so only one time,while the root of virtue itself will disappear. In thatway such impurely motivated virtuous actions arelike the water tree which bears fruit only once andthen dies.

The difference between the hinayana andmahayana traditions of Buddhism rests entirely onthe absence or presence of bodhicitta, respectively.It was taught by the Buddha that people havedifferent dispositions. Some people naturally areconcerned with benefitting others and are diligentin doing that which is beneficial to others. Suchpeople have a natural mahayana disposition.Other people find the idea of engaging in trouble-some activities in order to benefit others extremelyfrightening and think, I can’t do anything foranyone else, I can only help myself. Those peoplehave a natural hinayana disposition. The funda-**Editor’s note: Jhambala is an enlightened deity of wealth.

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Surmang chöd practice. Surmang is the monasteryof Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and it has a lin-eage of the chöd practice that is practiced exten-sively in the Kagyu lineage. At the end of thisseminar I will give the reading transmission forboth the liturgy and the commentary of this prac-tice, and then, having received those transmis-sions, if you wish to do an elaborate chöd practice,you can go to the two lamas who live here inVancouver and they will explain it to you. Thiswould take some time, so it would be a gradualprocess for those who really wish that form ofelaborate practice.

In order for me to explain the meaning of chöd,you must first remember that the Buddha’s teach-ings, the Buddha’s turning of the dharmachakra,consisted of three distinct phases or styles. Thefirst of these, called the first dharmachakra, isusually known as the dharmachakra of the fournoble truths. The reason for this is that what theBuddha taught during that period of his teachingsis essentially contained in these four truths. Thefirst two of these truths are called the truth ofsuffering and the truth of the cause of suffering.These two explain the experience of samsara andthe cause of samsara. They describe the presenceof suffering in our experience and the fact that thissuffering is caused by the presence of mentalafflictions in our minds. The second two truths arethe truth of the cessation of suffering, which isnirvana or peace, which is the result, and the truth

of the path, the fourth noble truth,which is the cause or path whichleads to that result.

The second dharmachakra, theintermediate dharmachakra, iscalled the dharmachakra of theabsence of inherent characteris-tics. What this means is that allthings to which we can ascribeperceived characteristics—such asa form, a shape or a color, and soon—are relative truths. They each

of them have a relative truth or existence. Thenature of each and every relative truth is empti-ness, which is their absence of inherent or inher-ently existent characteristics. That emptiness is

The absolute orultimate chöd . . . isa form of, or anotherway of looking at,shamatha andvipashyana practice

mental difference between a hinayana and amahayana practitioner is that the former does not,and latter does, possess bodhicitta as their motiva-tion.

In fact, it could be said that bodhicitta is theessence of all buddhadharma. This is true withregard to whatever we practice, whether it isvajrayana or mahayana. In some cases the prac-tices are the ground for the development ofbodhicitta; in some cases they are the path leadingto bodhicitta; and in some cases they are the resultof bodhicitta. But in some way or another, allpractices relate to bodhicitta.

Bodhicitta is primarily divided into two divi-sions: relative bodhicitta and absolute bodhicitta.Relative bodhicitta is the motivation that wegenerate. For example, when we are listening tothe dharma or practicing it, we think that we aredoing so in order to be able to liberate all beings.Relative bodhicitta is also the love and compassionfor all beings that we cultivate. Absolute bodhicittais what we cultivate through the practice of suchmeditations as shamatha and vipashyana that areconcerned with recognizing the nature of the mind.

The subject of this seminar is the practice ofchöd, and the practice of chöd can involve a lot

of different visualizations—the visualization ofdifferent deities and many other types of visualiza-tions as well. We only have three sessions in whichto do this, so there is no way that I could explain toyou the entire elaborate practice ofchöd in this time. Rather thanattempting to go through chöd in ahaphazard way, I would ratherexplain in a very full way theessential meaning of chöd and thepractice of what is called theabsolute or ultimate chöd, which isa form of, or another way of look-ing at, shamatha and vipashyanapractice. I think that this will bemore useful and applicable to yougiven our lack of time and the busyness of yourlives.

No doubt some of you have bought the commen-tary, The Garden of All Joy, and the liturgy for the

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absolute truth. So the emphasis in the second orintermediate dharmachakra of the Buddha wasthe proclamation of absolute truth.

The absolute truth is that all things are empty.But the emptiness of things is not like the non-existence of the horns on a rabbit. Emptiness doesnot mean absolute nonexistence.Nor is it like the emptiness ofempty space; it is not a mereabsence. Because, while the natureof each and every thing is empti-ness, nevertheless emptinessmanifests as relative truth with aninternal consistency. Relativetruth, within the realm of relativetruth, is consistent. This means,for example, that, while the natureof fire is emptiness, neverthelessfire always has the consistentcharacteristics of fire. It is hot, itcan burn, it produces light, and soon. So, because of this characteristic of relativetruth, which is consistency of function, because ofthat, relative truth is extremely powerful andintense. But the power and intensity of relativetruth derive from its emptiness. Because relativetruth is in its absolute nature empty, it can mani-fest so powerfully or intensely.

How do relative truths appear or manifest?They are said to appear through the coming to-gether of the subtlest particles, which are of eighttypes. The particles of earth, of water, of fire, of air,of sound, of smell, of taste, and what are calledtactile particles. The coming together of these eightparticles becomes the basis for the appearance ofmatter. Now these eight particles can vary in theirinteractions. Sometimes they assist one anotherand sometimes they destroy one another. Forexample, if you have a fire that is burning, and youpour a great deal of water on the fire and the firegoes out, that indicates that there were more waterparticles than fire particles. On the other hand, ifyou have a burning fire and you pour a little bit ofwater on the fire and the fire gets stronger, thatindicates that there were more fire particles thanwater.

The term in Buddhist texts for these particles is

subtlest partless particles or subtlest particles, andthey are sometimes referred to in English asatoms. Now the basis for the interaction, whetherit is one of assistance or opposition of the particles,is the fact that they partake of the same funda-mental nature which is emptiness. The reason why

these particles appear to us in thefirst place is that we have a habitwithin our minds of experiencingthem. Therefore, even the appear-ance of particles is the display ofour own minds. An indication ofthis is that when someone has anextremely stable practice of tran-quillity or shamatha meditation,they can actually look at thesesubtlest particles and determinetheir individual characteristicsand their individual qualities andso on. The reason why they canexperience these things in medita-

tion is that their mind’s nature is emptiness, theparticles’ nature is emptiness, and the appearanceof the particles is produced by a habit that iscontained within their minds. There have appearedmany mahasiddhas, both in India and Tibet, whohave exhibited such miracles as being able to passthrough water without drowning, being able topass through fire without being burned, and so on.These abilities come from their recognition thatexternal appearances and the experiencing mind orcognition are of the same fundamental nature.Through that recognition, and since they havebecome free from any grasping at the inherentreality of appearances, the qualities or characteris-tics of appearances no longer have control overthem. The basic message of the intermediatedharmachakra was that all appearances, all rela-tive truths, are in their nature emptiness, which isthe absolute truth, and that therefore, these twotruths—the relative and the absolute—are actuallya unity, only distinguished for the sake of clarity.

The application of this view to working withone’s mind came to be called chöd or cuttingthrough in Tibet. It has had various other names.For example, in the tradition of Naropa as it wasfound in India, it was called equal taste. In the

While the nature ofeach and everything is emptiness,neverthelessemptinessmanifests asrelative truth withan internalconsistency

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The first mara . . .is called thesubstantial mara,which refers toanything that canactually beexperienced withthe senses

tradition of Guru Rinpoche it was called the prac-tice of secret conduct. In the tradition of PadampaSangye it was called the pacification of suffering.And in the tradition of Aryadeva it was called theshort text or the concise tradition of Aryadeva.

Padampa Sangye went to Tibet where heencountered the wisdom dakini Machig Labdron,who had been born in Tibet. She received theseinstructions from him and the tradition of theseinstructions that stems from her is called chöd. Theterm chöd literally means to cut something, but itdoes not mean that you are going to be taking anax or a sword and cutting something up. The termchöd refers to cutting through the four maras. Thefirst of the four maras in the context of chöd iscalled the substantial mara, which refers to any-thing that can actually be experienced with thesenses, such as forms that can be seen by the eyes,smells that can be smelled by the nose, sounds thatcan be heard by the ears, and so forth. This marais called substantial because it has the substantialcharacteristic of impeding. Solid substances canphysically impede you. If you want to go some-where and there is a solid object in between youand where you want to go, youcannot walk through the solidobject ordinarily. In the same waythese appearances of the senses,since they have the consistentfunctions of those sense appear-ances, are substantial, solid, orimpeding.

Why are these sense appear-ances classified as a mara? Let uslook, for example, at one aspect ofthe substantial mara, which isbeautiful form, something you cansee that you find pleasant or attractive in someway. Any time you experience something as pleas-ant, you have become attached to it. Becomingattached to it, you generate a craving for it, adesire for it, and an identification with it and,therefore, more pride, and so on. Your craving,desire, and pride inspire you to engage in variousactions in order to acquire it—actions of body,actions of speech, actions of mind—even to thepoint where you might actually kill or steal in

order to acquire this beautiful form, which wouldcause you to be reborn in a future life in the hellrealms and so on. In short, this attachment topleasant form or beautiful form is one of the thingsthat casts us into samsara and, therefore, is amara.

As well, some of the things we encounter withthe senses, such as visual forms, are unpleasant tous. For example, take the sight of someone weregard as an enemy. Perceiving them as unpleas-ant, we react to them with hatred and aversion.Then we become more arrogant, aggressive, andjealous, and we engage in various actions of body,speech, and mind in order to harm those we regardas enemies, and so on. Doing this we accumulatenegative karma which causes us to be reborn inthe hells and other lower states of existence infuture lives.

What makes these external appearancesmaras—and, therefore that which is the root of theactual substantial mara itself—is this tendency ofattachment and aversion within one’s mind. Sothat which actually has to be cut through are thehabits of attachment and aversion. In order to cut

through these habits one has tomeditate on selflessness or empti-ness. This is to say, one mustpractice shamatha andvipashyana, which is really theessence of chöd practice.

The second mara is the insub-stantial mara. The insubstantialmara is the kleshas which arisewithin one’s mind. These arecalled insubstantial because themind, of which they are the dis-play, is insubstantial. It has no

color, shape or form, and so forth. The reason thatthoughts are referred to as maras is that, inspiredby thought, we engage in a great deal of negativeaction, which causes us to experience suffering.Thoughts appear to arise of themselves. Thoughtsof attachment, aversion, pride, or jealousy cansimply just arise and inspire one to engage in agreat deal of afflicted action. Because thoughtsinspire negative actions of body, speech, andmind—which in turn create negative karma ex-

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The fourth mara isthe mara offixation, whichrefers to fixationon a self

actly as was the case with the interaction with thesubstantial mara—and because in that waythoughts can cause one to be reborn in lower statesof existence and to experience intolerable sufferingthere, they are called the insubstantial mara.

The third mara is called the mara of elation. Inessence the mara of elation is a kind of intoxicatingpride in which you think things like, I am doingvery well, I am one of the best,things are going really well for me,and so forth. How does this hap-pen? Well, for example, supposeyou have become extremely fa-mous. You think, I am the mostfamous person in the world, I amthe best. And in that way youbecome overconfident. Thatthought of overconfidence is calledthe mara of elation.

This mara of elation can also arise when, forexample, you become tremendously affluent, orwhen you acquire some kind of spiritual quality orexperience, when you have a vision of your yidamdeity, or when you experience signs of attainmentin your dreams, and so on. Anything that makesyou proud, and especially anything that you iden-tify as the best, anything that you hold to besupreme in and of itself, is the occurrence of thismara. Because when you hold something, such as ameditation experience, to be supreme, then, even ifit is something very good and began very well, itbecomes an impediment.

The fourth mara is the mara of fixation, whichrefers to the fixation on a self. This fixation on aself is the source of all of the maras. Fundamen-tally, fixation on a self or the false apprehension ofa self is the thought “I,” the thought of oneself asexisting. But we cannot avoid this thought andeven need it on the path. For example, we need toretain the concepts and intentions: “I must engagein the path so that I can attain buddhahood so thatI can benefit innumerable sentient beings.” Nowthese concepts are indeed the same concept of “I,”which is a fixation on a self, but because thesemotivations and concepts do not themselves castyou into lower states of existence, then these usesof the concept “I” are not regarded as the actual

fixation on a self.The fixation on a self which needs to be eradi-

cated is the reactive identification with yourselfand all of the things that you associate with your-self. For example, when someone with whom youidentify, someone you regard as “my friend” orsomething like that, is in anyway harmed orthreatened, or when something that you want,

something that will make youhappy, something that will makeyou wealthy, and so on, is threat-ened or is taken away from you,there is a strongly aggressivereaction. That aggressive reactionis the fixation on a self that needsto be transcended.

This concept “I” is a conceptthat we generate on an inappropri-

ate basis, which is to say, that this thing, this selfthat we assume to exist, does not in fact exist. Wegenerally apply this concept to our physical bodies,with which we identify so strongly. But the physi-cal body is like, for example, a mala or rosary. Wecan identify a mala or rosary, but this is a conceptthat we apply to 108 beads that have been strungtogether on a cord. And as long as the beads aretogether on that cord we would call that group ofthings a mala. But if the cord is cut and the beadsare separated we would not call any one of thosebeads a mala or rosary. We would just call the beada bead.

If we search for the basis of imputation of theself—for whatever it is that we think is the self—when we look at the way we react to things andthe way we think when we think, “this might harmme, this might hurt me,” fundamentally, we iden-tify this imputed self with our body. But if you lookat your body, you will see that your body is acomposite of many parts. There is skin, there isflesh, there is blood, there is lymph, there are thevarious limbs, the organs and so on. And each ofthese things is quite distinct from the others.Therefore, there is not any one thing that can becalled the body. So ultimately there is no self, thereis no “I”. But, because we have a beginninglesshabit of believing in or assuming the existence ofthe “I,” then we continue to wander in samsara.

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Once youunderstandproperly how topractice shamathaand vipashyana,then yourattainment ofliberation dependsentirely on yourown effort, yourown exertion

How is it that this habit can cause us to wan-der in samsara? The example of dreams helps us tounderstand. When you are asleep, your body isactually lying there asleep in yourbed. Nevertheless, when you dreamyou seem to be doing all kinds ofthings that your body is not reallydoing. You seem to be going tovarious places and you might seemto encounter extremely unpleasantthings like tigers and poisonoussnakes. And if you encounter theseunpleasant things in your dreams,you probably become extremelyfrightened and try to run awayfrom them. And maybe you succeedand maybe you do not. In any case,you seem to have a body in thedream. The body that seems to beyours in the dream is called a“habitual body,” and it is nothingbut a projection of your mind.

Another instance of this was spoken of byShantideva when he wrote, “Where did all of thisfire come from and who created this burningground? All of this is the display of a mind afflictedby evil actions.” The meaning of this is that whensomeone is reborn in a hell realm, they actuallyexperience a horrendous environment in which theair or atmosphere is filled with flames. All solidmaterials, like the ground of the realm and so on,are red hot metal, and all liquids which we wouldcall water are molten metal. But it is not the casethat there is anyone who could build this, thatsomeone is stoking the fires to keep them going,that someone has actually designed the burningiron ground, and that someone keeps the pots ofmolten metal filled up. These phenomena aresimply the display or the projection of that person’sprevious actions. Having engaged in certain kindsof actions, then when you reach the intermediatestate and start to take that type of rebirth, that ishow you experience everything. The ground is onfire, the liquids are molten metal, and any beingsyou encounter appear as terrifying executioners. Inthis way, all appearances are projections of themind, and the reason for this projection is the false

imputation of the mind as an inherently existentself.

The actual accumulator of karma is your mind.The body and the speech merelyassist or enable the mind’s accu-mulation of karma. And thatwhich experiences the ripening ofkarma is, in the final analysis,your mind, not really your body orspeech.

The methods of purifying thishabit of fixation on a self includeall the different kinds of Buddhistpractice. The purification or eradi-cation of the habit of fixation on aself is the purpose of all Buddhistpractice without exception. How-ever, because that which accumu-lates karma is the mind, andbecause that which experiencesthe results of karma is the mind,the main practice for the purifica-

tion or eradication of this habit is coming to recog-nize the mind’s nature, which means the practice ofshamatha (tranquillity) and vipashyana (insight).

No doubt, some of you are veteran practitionersof the dharma who have practiced a great

deal of shamatha and vipashyana. And no doubt,others of you have never even heard of shamathaand vipashyana. And there are probably all sorts ofgradations in between. But in any case, becausethis is what the essence of chöd practice consists of,for the remaining sessions of this seminar what Iwill be doing is explaining in detail how to do thesetwo practices.

Once you understand properly how to practiceshamatha and vipashyana, then your attainmentof liberation depends entirely on your own effort,your own exertion. It was therefore said by theBuddha, “I can show you the path or the methodsof liberation, but the actual attainment of it de-pends upon your own diligence.”

By exertion do we mean that in order to prac-tice properly you have to spend your entire life inretreat? No. Meditation on the mind’s nature,employing practices like shamatha and

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vipashyana, can be done in the midst of a busy life.You practice the mindfulness of these practicesthroughout all of your activities, while walking,while working, while talking, and so on. And youalso do formal sitting practice of meditation attimes when you are not specifically doing some-thing else. If you practice in this way, then you willdiscover that the path to liberation is not merelylegend or history. You will discover that the paththat we practice today has been practiced by everygeneration of Buddhist practitioners, starting fromVajradhara down through Tilopa and Naropa, andso on, down to The Sixteenth and SeventeenthGyalwang Karmapas. And you will discover thatthe blessing of this lineage is unimpaired because,in each generation, each holder of the lineage hasattained buddhahood through this path and thispractice.

These countries of Canada and the UnitedStates of America have what appears to be thehighest standard of living in this world. And livingin these countries and at the same time havingaccess to teachers and the dharma and so on, youhave excellent leisure and opportunity to practicedharma. But if you think about it properly, eventhough you possess all of this right now, if you donot practice, then it will all be wasted. Your life willstill prove to be impermanent. One day it will beover. Think of how many people you know whohave died, and remember that every single personwho is now alive one day will be dead. And remem-ber that when your life is over, this excellentopportunity will be over. All that will remain willbe your mind and the karma you will have accu-mulated. And if you have accumulated a lot of goodkarma, then you will be reborn in another fortu-nate situation in which you can practice dharmaand maybe even attain buddhahood. But if youhave been lazy and you have not practiced, thenonly the karma you have accumulated throughoutprevious lives will have power to impel your re-birth. And you do not know what you have done inprevious lives. You could easily be reborn as ananimal. Or even if you escape rebirth as an animal,you could be reborn in a situation where you cannotpractice. In short, now is the time to practice.

In the next couple of days I will explain the

practice of shamatha and vipashyana and we willpractice them together. And then after the pro-gram, if you have further questions, then you canask the lamas who live here. And especially youcan ask Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, who lives here.So if you have any questions about what I havesaid this evening, please go ahead.

Question: My question is simply the distinctionbetween the first and the second mara. SometimesI feel it is all in the mind, our aversions and ourattractions. So what’s really the distinction?

Tenga Rinpoche: As you say, both are reallykleshas that arise within the mind. The distinctionis that the first one, the substantial mara, is areaction to an external appearance of some kind, areaction to some kind of external experience orstimulus. The second, the insubstantial mara, iswhen kleshas arise in your mind independent ofwhat is going on outside of you. That is actually avery important question. It is good that you askedit. If you can ask questions like that, then yourquestions will help everybody.

Tomorrow we will start with the instruction inshamatha practice, beginning with The Seven

Dharmas of Vairocana, which concerns meditationposture. Now we will close by dedicating the meritto all beings. This is very important, because bydedicating the merit in this way, the merit that weaccrue by hearing and giving the teachings willnever be used up, nor can it be destroyed by ourown kleshas.

With regard to the manner of dedication, evenif you do not know how to dedicate the meritperfectly, if you refer in your thought of dedicationto the dedications of previous buddhas andbodhisattvas—such as by thinking, however Bud-dha Shakyamuni and bodhisattvas like Manjushriand Samantabhadra dedicated their merit, Idedicate this merit in that same way. Throughreferring to perfect dedications in that way, yourdedication becomes extremely powerful.

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The methods for realizing selflessness startwith the practices of shamatha, which istranquillity, and vipashyana, which is

insight. The meaning of shamatha is resting inpacification or resting in tranquillity. Normally wehave so many thoughts running through ourminds, such a great variety of thoughts, that weare distracted and consequently agitated. Thepractice of shamatha consists of pacifying that

agitation and distraction of thought and thenlearning to rest or remain in that peace and tran-quillity. The reason why we need to practiceshamatha is that thoughts obscure the nature ofour mind, which is to say, that as long as thesethoughts have not been pacified, it is very difficultfor us to actually see our mind’s nature. Throughpracticing shamatha one gradually pacifiesthoughts, which makes it very easy to see themind’s nature.

The basis for the cultivation of shamatha iswhat is called threefold isolation, which refers tophysical, verbal and mental isolation. Physicalisolation means that while you are practicingshamatha, you engage in no physical activity, such

The Venerable Tenga Rinpoche

Continuing The Venerable Tenga Rinpoche’steaching on chöd, the following is an editedtranscript from the second night. © Tenga Rinpoche

By The Venerable Tenga Rinpoche

A Teaching on Chöd

Techniquesfor Shamatha,the Practice ofTranquillity

SHENPEN ÖSEL 41

The breath, as weknow it, is afunction of karmicwind, andtherefore, workingwith the breathhas many benefits

as work or the various other things you might dophysically. Verbal isolation means that whilepracticing shamatha, in the session of shamathapractice, you stop talking. You stop using yourspeech entirely. And mental isolation means thatwhile practicing shamatha you do not intentionallyentertain thoughts, such as thoughts of what youhave done in the past or thoughts or plans youhave for the future.

It is sometimes thought that the physicalposture required for shamatha practice is TheSeven Dharmas of Vairocana. This is indeed theideal posture and should be used by someone whois physically capable of comfortably maintaining it.However, if you have an injury or some othercondition, such as a back injury or an injury to theknees that makes this posture medically inadvis-able, you should use some posture that is comfort-able.

For those who can assume this posture, thefirst of the seven dharmas or seven aspects of theVairocana posture is that your legs be fully crossedin the vajra posture. The primary function of thisis that it causes the eliminating or expelling windto be drawn into the centralchannel, the avadhuti. The secondaspect of posture is that thehands be placed below the navelin the gesture of even placementor meditation. This causes thedigestive wind to be drawn intothe avadhuti. The third aspect isthat the arms be straightened,pushing the shoulders upward,which causes the pervasive windsto be drawn into the centralchannel. The fourth is that thespine be held as straight aspossible, which causes the winds of the four mainwheels or chakras—the mahasukha chakra orwheel of great bliss in the head, the samboghachakra or wheel of enjoyment in the throat, thedharma chakra in the heart and the nirmanachakra or wheel of emanation in the abdomenbehind the navel—to be drawn into the centralchannel. The fifth is that your chin be pushedinward, slightly bending your neck. This causes the

upward moving wind to be drawn into the centralchannel, the avadhuti. The sixth is that your lipsbe allowed to rest naturally, which is to say, thatthey be neither forcibly held closed nor gapingopen, and that at the same time the tip of yourtongue touch the upper palate. This causesthoughts to lessen naturally. The seventh is thatyou gaze with naturally opened eyes slightlydownward through an imaginary line about fourfinger widths in front of the tip of your nose. Thistype of gaze causes your awareness to be naturallyclear. It protects you from the defects of torpor andsleepiness. These are the seven aspects of posturecalled The Seven Dharmas of Vairocana.

With regard to the mental techniques ofshamatha, there are a great variety. The

one I am going to present this evening, which isthe one usually taught at the beginning, is follow-ing the breath. The breath, as we know it, is afunction of karmic wind, and therefore, workingwith the breath has many benefits. When a humanbody is created through conception and gestation,the primary channels that appear within it are the

avadhuti, the central channel, inthe center of the body; the rasanato the right of the avadhuti, whichis red; and the lalana to the left ofthe avadhuti, which is white. Nowthese two side channels flow into orjoin the avadhuti below the navel.But at the top they hook forwardand end in your right and leftnostrils, respectively. Therefore,there are distinct qualities to thebreath that flow through either theright or the left nostril. The breaththat flows through the right nos-

tril, which is connected with the rasana channel, iscalled the poisonous wind of the sun, and it is theaspect of prajna. The breath that flows through theleft nostril is called the ambrosial wind of themoon, and it is the aspect of upaya, method orgreat bliss.

The breath or winds that flow through each ofthe two nostrils in both cases partake of the windsof the five elements. But they have different

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In the mahamudracommentaries, itsays that if youcan practice forshort sessionsmany timesthroughout theday, then thatis best

functions. The winds of the five elements that flowthrough the rasana and therefore emerge from andenter via the right nostril are the winds thatgenerate the five kleshas: attachment, aversion,pride, jealousy, and apathy.* Thewinds that flow through the leftnostril and are therefore connectedto the lalana, are the winds thatallow the contact of a sense facultywith its object. They are the windsthat allow, for example, for thevisual apprehension of form, theapprehension of sound by the ear,and so forth.

Therefore, when you practiceshamatha by following the breath,as your mind cools down then thewinds of these two side channelsare brought into the central chan-nel or the avadhuti. When thewinds from the rasana, the right-hand channel, arebrought into the avadhuti, because these are thewinds when remaining outside of the avadhuti thatgenerate the kleshas, then when they are broughtinto the avadhuti, the kleshas naturally are re-duced or cooled down. And when the winds fromthe left-hand channel, the lalana, are brought intothe avadhuti, because these are the winds whenleft outside the avadhuti that produce the bewil-dered experience of the senses, then when they arebrought into the avadhuti, your senseconsciousnesses naturally become clarified. Andbecoming clarified, you develop extraordinary

sensibilities, such as the ability, for example, to seethings at a great distance, to hear things from agreat distance, and so forth.

When you use the breath as a shamatha tech-nique, it is important not to ma-nipulate the breath in any way.You should not attempt to force-fully regulate the breathing or tobreathe more forcefully thannormal, nor should you attempt tostop breathing in any way. Yousimply use the natural coming andgoing of the breath as the basis formeditation.

Of course, when you are prac-ticing shamatha, thoughts willstill continue to arise. When youfind that the presence of a thoughthas distracted you from thebreathing, then simply recogniz-

ing that you have become distracted, let go of thethought and return to the technique, which in thiscase is following the breath. Now we will try thistogether, that is to say, shamatha practice usingfollowing the breath as the technique, for about tenminutes.

The period of time for which you do this prac-tice, that is to say, the duration of the session, is upto you. If you have a lot of time that you can usefor practice and if you can practice for a long timeevery day, that is excellent. But if you can practicefor shorter periods, that is also acceptable. Gener-ally speaking, in the mahamudra commentaries itsays that if you can practice for short sessionsmany times throughout the day, then that is best.

If you have any questions about this technique,for example, what exactly it means to place yourmind on the breath, how to do it, how to use yourawareness in coordination with the breathing andso on, now would be a good time to ask. And re-member that any of your questions are likelyshared by others, so that your question will helpothers.

Question: Rinpoche, I have two questions. Thefirst is that ordinarily in the instruction concerningthe placement of the eyes, the reason we are in-

*Editor’s note: The term being translated here, eithermarigpa or timug, is probably most frequently translated asignorance. However, marigpa has more the sense of funda-mental ignorance that is our basic misperception of reality,and is more or less synonymous with she chi dripa, the veil ofknowledge; while timug has more the sense of mentaldullness, bewilderment, confusion, mental wandering,stupidity, ignoring, and apathy. It seems that sometimesmarigpa is used to express the meaning of timug, but thattimug is never used to express the fundamentalmisperception of reality. All kleshas arise from one or anotherof the three basic reactions we can have within the context ofdualistic perception. Whenever one of our six senses makescontact with an object of any of the six senses, there is eithera feeling of pleasure, which gives rise to desire for the object;a feeling of displeasure, which gives rise to aversion towardsthe object; or a neutral feeling, which gives rise to apathy orindifference. Hence, Lama Yeshe’s translation.

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structed to look slightly downward with partiallyclosed eyes is to calm agitation, and that, in orderto clarify torpor, we are generally instructed to lookupward. Rinpoche seemed to teach half of it, theopposite way this time. So, would he please clarifythat, and secondly, would he say something furtherabout the all pervasive wind?

Tenga Rinpoche: In fact, the idea of this gaze isthat by preventing agitation or pacifying agitation,the mind becomes clearer. It is also true that thereare instructions to raise or lower the gaze, depend-ing upon whether you are affected more by torporor agitation. Basically, you use a gaze appropriateto the specific type of practice youare doing. For example, if you aredoing dzogchen practice, or if youare doing the luminosity practicefrom among the six dharmas in themahamudra tradition, you wouldalways use a gaze that is directedupward into the midst of space. Onthe other hand, for almost all formsof shamatha practice you lookdownward. The reason why youlower the gaze in shamatha prac-tice is that the primary problemthat shamatha is remedying isagitation. Ordinarily, sentient beings experience anuninterrupted display of agitated or agitatingthoughts, and the primary or initial function ofshamatha practice is to pacify them. Therefore, themost appropriate gaze, in order to do so, is lowered.

You might want to know why it is that loweringyour gaze pacifies thoughts. The reason is mostclearly explained in dzogchen commentaries, whereit is explained that there is a physical connectionbetween the channels or nerves of the eyes and thechannel of the heart. The channel that goes fromthe heart to the eyes is called the crystal katichannel. Because of the physical connection be-tween the eyes and the heart, there is a particu-larly intimate connection—if one considers all thevarious sense organs—between the eyes andconceptual thought. Therefore, your eyes in a senseare the gate for conceptual thought, as well as forvisual perception. This is also why, in the practice

of dzogchen itself, when working with the visions ofthe forty-two peaceful and fifty-eight wrathfuldeities, these visions can arise in the first place.The actual innate presence of the peaceful andwrathful deities within your body is primarilywithin the heart chakra, the dharma chakra,where they abide in the form of the white and redbodhicitta. But because of the physical connectionbetween the heart and the eyes, then when doingdzogchen practice, you see apparently outsideyourself these peaceful and wrathful deities, ini-tially in the forms of circles or discs of light, andthen smaller discs of light, and then finally in thefull forms of the deities themselves. Because of this

same connection, in the ordinarycontext or ordinary situation, yourthoughts are very much connectedto the physical heart, and you cantherefore affect the development ofthought by changing your gaze,specifically by lowering it.

When some people hear thistalk of the connection betweenconceptual thought and the heart,they respond by saying, “But arenot the channels or the physicalconstituents that produce concep-tual thought in the brain?” The

answer is that they are also in the brain. They areactually throughout your body. For example, thechannels that allow for sensory experience, the fivemain channels of the senses, are found in thebrain, and they are surrounded by 500 minor orsubsidiary channels. The channels that produceconceptual thought are found in the heart, and arealso surrounded by 500 subsidiary channels. Thefirst channel to be generated in the human fetus isfound in the navel, and is also surrounded eventu-ally by 500 subsidiary channels. And finally, thechannels connected with procreation are found inthe lower abdomen at the level of the genitals, alsosurrounded by many other channels.

There is a certain question about the pervasivewind. The pervasive wind is the wind or energythat pervades or fills your entire body and allows,for example, for tactile sensation throughout thebody. One instance of this is the fact that any part

The reason whyyou lower yourgaze in shamathapractice is that theprimary problemthat shamatha isremedying isagitation

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The presence ofa strongundercurrent ofthought, when youare meditating, isan indication oftorpor

of your body, such as the top of your head, that youtouch even slightly with a sharp needle will pro-duce a strong sensation, and if you touch theneedle to the soles of your feet, itwill produce the same type of sensa-tion. The reason why you have thiscapacity for physical sensationthroughout your body is that youhave a wind or energy that fills yourentire physical body.

The primary function of thepervasive wind is to allow for move-ment of the limbs. That is to say, itis the wind that actually moves thelimbs. And so, when someone be-comes paralyzed in one or another of their limbs,that comes about, according to Tibetan medicine,from an impairment of the pervasive wind.

This of course, brings up the five root winds ingeneral. A human being has five primary energies,which are called the five root winds. The first ofthese is called the vitality wind or the wind ofgreat vitality. And it arises very, very early in thehuman gestation, when the white drop from thefather comes to actually reside in the upper part ofthe head in the developing human being and thered drop from the mother comes to reside in theabdomen below the navel. What is held in placebetween these two is what becomes, or is, thecentral channel, the avadhuti. And what is insidethe central channel, what flows through the cen-tral channel is the fundamental vitality or life forceof that human being, which is called the wind ofgreat vitality. The nature of this wind is essentiallythe same as the mind of that being.

The wind of great vitality is this basic windfrom the navel on upward. Below the navel thisenergy has another name, which is the second ofthe winds, the eliminating wind, which is used inthe acts of urination, defecation, and so on.

The third wind is the digestive wind and itsfunction is to digest food and drink. Specifically itseparates the nutrition from the dregs or thepoisonous or unnecessary parts of the food, andcauses the nutritive parts to enter the bloodstreamvia the kidneys and the dregs to be expelled intourinary and other systems.

The fourth wind is the upward moving wind,which controls all functions of speech, allowing youto speak and sing and do everything that you do

with your speech and your voice.So those four plus the pervasivewind make the five root winds.Any more questions?

Question: Rinpoche, in thecontext of shinay or shamatha,how do we relate to the subtleundercurrent of thought? It seemsthat once coarse thoughts arepacified, then what one finds isthis okgyu, or subtle undercurrent

of thought, and while it doesn’t seem to create animpediment to the meditation, it doesn’t at thesame time seem to be a state of perfect shinay orstillness.

Tenga Rinpoche: Well, the presence of a strongundercurrent of thought, when you are meditating,is an indication of torpor. The undercurrent isactually a function of torpor. It is actually part ofthe process of falling asleep. So, if you find that theundercurrent becomes evident, then that meansyou need to exert the force of awareness more so asto put more energy into alertness.

Now I will explain a second shamatha tech-nique. In this technique, you place in front of

yourself in your line of vision an image of theBuddha. This may be either a photograph of apainting of the Buddha or it may be a statue. Ineither case, you direct your awareness to the heartof the image and rest your mind on that. Thistechnique was taught by the Buddha himself in theSamadhiraja Sutra, the Discourse on the Monarchof Meditative Absorptions. It was said by the Bud-dha that the power or benefit of this technique liesin the fact that the physical form of the Buddha isactually an embodiment of the qualities of thedharmakaya. Therefore, by using the physical formas a basis for meditation, you come to be a greatbodhisattva who is constantly in a state of medita-tive absorption. This technique is varied slightlydepending upon what occurs in your meditation

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practice. If while using this technique you find thatyou are afflicted by agitation, then you shoulddirect your gaze and your awareness downward tothe lion throne, lotus and moon-disc seat on whichthe Buddha is depicted as being seated. If, on theother hand, you find that you are aware of theundercurrent of thought and that in general youare afflicted by torpor, then you can direct yourgaze and awareness either to the area between theeyebrows of the Buddha or to the crown protuber-ance on the top of the Buddha’s head. So we willtry this technique for five minutes. In this case, itwill involve your visualizing the Buddha in front ofyou. So, imagine that the Buddha is seated on agolden throne upheld by eight lions on top of whichis a lotus and moon-disc seat. Imagine that theBuddha himself is brilliant gold in color. He isseated with his legs fully crossed in vajra posture.His right hand is extended palminward over his right knee touch-ing the ground in the earth press-ing gesture, his left hand is palmupward in his lap in the gesture ofeven placement or meditation. Heis adorned with the three robes ofa monk and so forth. Visualizingthe Buddha in this way, thendirect your awareness to his heart.

Both of these techniques—following the breathand directing your awareness to the form of theBuddha—are called shamatha with focus, becauseyou are using a support or an intentional focus foryour cultivation of shamatha. [meditation]

Do you have any questions specifically aboutthe second technique, directing your awareness tothe body of the Buddha?

Question: I have two questions. The first questionrelates to the first technique. Would Rinpoche talkmore about the volume, the repetition, and theduration of the breath? For me my in-breath willbe like this: [breathes], and I will stop breathingnaturally, and then I will slowly have a very shortout breath. It seems as though it is just circling inmy head. I wonder if there is torpor? And should Itry to have deep breath or light breath? The secondquestion is about visualization. Do you actually

visualize whatever it is in space as being solid? Ijust can’t visualize anything.

Translator: Are you talking about the body of theBuddha technique?

Question: Yes.

Rinpoche: With regard to your first question, ifyou find that your breath is very short or quick, orthat the rhythm is irregular, it does not matter. Itdoes not affect the validity or effectiveness of thetechnique. You should breathe naturally, whateveris natural for your body. People do naturally havedifferent rhythms of breathing. Some people, forexample, tend to breathe very, very quietly orgently. And other people tend to breathe very, veryforcefully, just naturally. These differences are

connected with the constitution oftheir channels as individuals. Somepeople, not necessarily male orfemale, have very coarse channels,which are called male channels,irrespective of the person’s gender.And other people have very finechannels, and those are calledfemale channels, again irrespective

of the person’s gender. And then some people havechannels which are kind of halfway in between thetwo, which are called neuter channels. You simplyjust work with whatever kind of channels youhave.

With regard to your second question, if youwere asking about visualizing the body of theBuddha, it should not be visualized as substantial,but as luminous, like something made entirely outof light, like a rainbow. This is true not only invisualizing the body of the Buddha in this particu-lar shamatha practice, but also of any visualizationof any deity in any practice. The deity is alwaysvisualized as clear and vivid, but insubstantial.

Question: Rinpoche, I am wondering if, when youare visualizing in this shamatha practice theBuddha in rainbow light or the lions, are youallowed to move from the heart? Let’s say that youlose partial focus on the heart, can you then move

The deity is alwaysvisualized as clearand vivid, butinsubstantial

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When [people]cannot get a clearappearance, or aclear visualizationof the deity, thereason is usuallysimply that theyhave not cultivateda habit throughfamiliarization withthe deity’sappearance

to one or another object, like the lotus or the lionsor the golden throne? Or is that a distraction?

Rinpoche: In this technique you direct yourawareness one-pointedly to the Buddha’s heart,and you do not try to generate a clear appearanceor a clear visualization of the other details—if youare doing this technique as a visualization. Thismeditation can also be done with an externalsupport, like a physical image or a statue, in whichcase there is no visualization. But if you are doingit as a visualization, then you do not need to gener-ate a clear visualization of all the details. Yousimply direct your awareness to the Buddha’sheart. This is a little bit different from the genera-tion stage practice. In generation stage practicesthere is a gradual clarification of each and everydetail of the visualization. For example, you beginby clearly visualizing the lotus pedestal, and thenthe moon seat or sun and moon-disc seat or cush-ion, and then the body of the deity in each detail.Of course, while you are visualizing the partial orcomplete form of the deity, you may no longer havea clear visualization of the lotus and the moon, andso on. But that is okay, because youwent through it. So you do it bit bybit.

Here, in directing your mind tothe Buddha’s heart, you are nottrying to generate that kind of clearappearance. But in generation stagepractices, when people have theproblem that they just cannotvisualize the deity, when theycannot get a clear appearance or aclear visualization of the deity, thereason is usually simply that theyhave not cultivated a habit throughfamiliarization with the deity’sappearance. The deity is not ahabitual object of their mind yet. Sothe way to rectify that problem is,apart from the times in which youare engaged in a generation stage practice, simplyto sit in front of a painting, an accurate painting ofthe deity, and in that way, by directing your aware-ness and your physical gaze at the painting come

to familiarize yourself with the deity’s appearance,color, scepters, ornaments, jewelry, robes, costume,and so on. And once your mind has become habitu-ated to this image of the deity, then it becomesextremely easy to produce a clear image of thatdeity in generation stage practice.

The other type of shamatha practice isshamatha without a focus, which means that

there is no technique used to anchor the mind inany way. You simply allow your mind to rest natu-rally, which means basically to allow your mind torest in emptiness. When doing this technique,when thoughts arise, then you simply let go ofthem and return to a state of the mind at rest.

To place the practice of shamatha in the largercontext of the path, especially in the specific tradi-tion of the vajrayana, one should know that all thepractices of the vajrayana path are included in twoclasses of techniques, which are called the genera-tion stage and the completion stage. The genera-tion stage is fundamentally the practice of thevisualization of deities, and also includes, of course,the recitation of their mantras, and so forth. At the

end of every session of generationstage practice one dissolves thevisualization and rests the mindwithout contrivance or alterationin emptiness. That resting of themind in emptiness, which is theessence of the completion stage, isthe actual profound path of thevajrayana itself, and the cultiva-tion of shamatha and vipashyanais the cultivation of the aspects orresources which make up thatprofound and quick path of thecompletion stage. The function ofthe generation stage is to be asupportive method or supportivetechnique, one which enables oneto actually practice the comple-tion stage. Therefore, by exten-

sion, we could say that the function of othervajrayana practices—such as the gathering of theaccumulations of wisdom and merit through pros-trations and mandala offerings, and the purifica-

SHENPEN ÖSEL 47

tion of obscurations, andso on—is that they aresupportive techniquesconducive to the cultiva-tion of both the genera-tion and completionstages.

With regard to ourparticular approach toshamatha practice, itwas said by JetsunMilarepa, “Not beingattached to the pond ofshamatha, may theflower of vipashyana beborn.” This means thatyou need to cultivate astate of stableshamatha, but that thiscannot be viewed as anend in itself. Havingcultivated shamatha,you need to go beyondshamatha and gainexperience of your mind’snature, which isvipashyana, the experi-ence of insight. Whenyou begin actually tocultivate insight orvipashyana, you begin the actual practice ofmahamudra itself. So, if you can integrate as muchshamatha/vipashyana practice as possible intoyour daily practice, for however much time youhave, that will make your practice, whatever else itmay be, extremely profound and genuine. So nowwe will try a shamatha practice without a focus orsupport for five minutes. [meditation]

If you have any questions about shamathapractice without a focus please ask them.

Question: Rinpoche, one question, basically aboutwhen we are meditating in shamatha practicewithout a focus or with a focus. When we came intothe room this evening we recited the Dorje ChangTungma, the lineage prayer, and cultivated refugeand bodhicitta, and then later we will dedicate the

merit. Is that enoughduring one session likea two-hour teaching? Itend to take refugeagain before and todedicate merit after-wards each time youask us to go into a five-or ten-minute medita-tion session. Is thatnecessary or not?

Tenga Rinpoche:When a long session isbeing broken up likethis into small periodsof meditation, then it issufficient if the lineagesupplication, the refugeand bodhicitta, and soon, are done once at thebeginning. If you canrecollect refuge andbodhicitta at the begin-ning of each shortsession within thatlonger session then thatis excellent, but you donot need to.

Tomorrow night, Iwill begin by explaining the technique ofvipashyana or insight meditation. I will also ex-plain some of the reasons for practicing it, and thebackground of it, and then, after that, I will givethe reading transmissions for Jamgon KongtrulLodro Thaye’s commentary on chöd practice, TheGarden of All Joy, and for a concise liturgy thatgoes with that. The day after tomorrow I will givethe empowerment for chöd practice, and after thatI will teach the most concise form of chöd practice,which was written by Jamgon Lodro Thaye. It isfound in a book that he wrote called Post-medita-tion Practices For Between All Sessions. I willexplain the practice to you, and then we will do itonce together. So let us conclude by dedicating themerit to all beings.

Buddha inside the MahaBodhi temple at Bodhgaya

48 SHENPEN ÖSEL

Last night, I explained several different methods ofshamatha practice and then we performed themtogether. About the meaning of shamatha, it wassaid by The Third Gyalwang Karmapa, RangjungDorje, in his Aspiration of Mahamudra, “May thewaves of coarse and subtle thoughts be pacified,

and may the mind come to be unmoving and atrest.” The essence of shamatha is a state in whichthe waves of thought have come to rest or havebeen pacified, and the mind rests or abides withinthat tranquillity. The stanza continues, “Free fromthe defects of torpor, obscuration, and agitation,may the ocean of shamatha remain unmoving orfree of waves.” Torpor, dullness, and agitation aredefects that can afflict shamatha practice. Torporand dullness are essentially a state of unclarity oreven sleepiness within the mind, and agitation isuncontrolled distraction. There are several ways toalleviate these, through physical position, throughvarious visualizations, and so on. Whichevermethod one may care to use, some method needs tobe applied in order to remove whichever of thesedefects has arisen, and then one can return to thebasic practice of shamatha.

In the practice of shamatha there are threestages of tranquillity or rest. The first is called thewaterfall stage. This describes the movement ofthoughts within the mind when they resemble thequick flow of water over a cliff forming a waterfall.Just as the flow of the drops of water is unceasingand is so forceful and agitated that, when they hitthe body of water at the bottom of the waterfall,you cannot see the pebbles under the surface of thewater, in the same way, at this initial stage ofshamatha practice, thoughts flow so continuouslyor uninterruptedly that it seems to you as thoughyou actually have more thoughts than you hadbefore you started meditating. In fact it is not thecase that you have more thoughts than before.What is going on is that for the first time you areaware of how many thoughts are passing throughyour mind. Because this is actually an increase inawareness and not an increase in the presence ofthought itself, this is actually the first sign that

By The Venerable Tenga Rinpoche

The Venerable Tenga Rinpoche

Continuing The Venerable Tenga Rinpoche’s teach-ing on chöd, the following is an edited transcriptfrom the third night. © Tenga Rinpoche

Experiencing the Nature of MindThrough Vispashyana

A Teaching on Chöd

SHENPEN ÖSEL 49

Stable shamatha isthe gateway to thepreparation forvipashyana orinsight

your mind is starting to settle down.The second stage is called the stage which is

like a slowly moving or slowly flowing river. Whena great river flows along its course, the flow of thewater may produce some bubblesand so forth but not many waves.In the same way, at this stage ofshamatha practice, from time totime thoughts will continue toarise but they are not as agitatednor as continuous or uninter-rupted as they were in the previ-ous stage. Therefore, this is astage of some degree of stability ofshamatha.

The third and final stage is like an oceanwithout waves. When an ocean has no waves, ofcourse it is completely tranquil and unmoving, andin the same way, when this degree of stability ofshamatha has been reached, no thoughts arise inthe mind. This is therefore the highest degree ofshamatha practice.

While meditating on the nature of your mind,according to the mahamudra tradition, there

are four stages. The first of these four is called one-pointedness. One-pointedness is described or sum-marized by Jamgon Lodro Thaye in his Song ofMahamudra when he says, “In brief, one-pointed-ness is the stage at which the mind remains ineven placement for as long as you wish.” What thismeans is that when you have reached the stage orcultivated the stage of one-pointedness, then yourmind will remain in a state of even placement foras long as you intend it to. So, for example, if youdecide you are going to rest your mind in its ownnature for two hours, then for those two hours nothought will arise that prevents you or distractsyou from recognizing that nature. Or if you say atsix in the morning, “I am going to rest my minduntil six p.m.,” your mind stays at rest for thatlong. In short, one-pointedness is a state of free-dom or control over meditative absorption ingeneral. As is well known, there are three grada-tions to it, which are called lesser, intermediate,and greater one-pointedness. What is being de-scribed here is essentially greater one-pointedness.

When you have achieved this, which is the perfec-tion of shamatha, you have achieved the first of thefour paths of mahamudra. Having achieved thatkind of stability in shamatha, you become able

actually to see the nature of yourmind directly for the first time.Therefore, that kind of stableshamatha is the gateway to thepreparation for vipashyana orinsight.

The practice of vipashyana isdescribed by The Third GyalwangKarmapa, Rangjung Dorje, in theAspiration of Mahamudra in the

following words, “By looking at that mind, whichcannot be looked at, one sees that which cannot beseen.” The meaning of this is that, when you lookat your mind, you are not looking at anything perse, because there is not anything to be looked at.That is to say, there is not any substantial charac-teristic or quality that you can detect, conceptuallyapprehend and describe, such as color, shape,origin, location, destination, and so on. The mindhas no color, it has no shape, it has no size, it hasno origin, it has no location, and it has no destina-tion. If the mind were something substantial,surely it would have such characteristics. But notbeing something substantial, it does not possessthese characteristics and, therefore, what the mindis cannot be conceived of, cannot be conceptuallygrasped or apprehended, and therefore, cannot bedescribed. So in that way, the mind cannot belooked at. In a sense, it cannot be seen. Neverthe-less, the practice consists of looking at that, againand again.

The stanza goes on to say, “Through looking atthe mind in that way, you come to see vividly, justas it is, that which cannot be seen.” The meaningof this is that, although there is not any object inthe mind or that is the mind that you can see ordetect, because of the blessing of the guru and yourown accumulation of merit, there is a realization inyour direct experience of the meaning of this notseeing. This realization of that which cannot beseen is what is called insight or vipashyana.Through having that kind of experience, then youcut through, within your own mind, which is to say

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When the blessingof the root guruenters your heart,then there will bea spontaneousrealization ofvipashyana

within the direct experience of your own mind, anydoubt about what the mind is and what the mindis not—whether it exists, whether it does not exist,and so on. This kind of certainty or resolutioncomes from your own direct experience of yourmind’s nature.

The ability to see the nature of your minddepends primarily upon two things: cultivating astable state of shamatha, and receiving the bless-ing of your root guru. Most importantly, when theblessing of your guru enters your heart, then therewill be a spontaneous realization of vipashyana.The way to receive the blessing of the root guru isfundamentally through cultivating faith in, trustin, and devotion to the guru, andthen, with those as a basis, prac-ticing in the following way: Visu-alize in the sky in front of youyour root guru seated on a lionthrone, lotus, sun and moon discseat, either in the form in whichyou ordinarily perceive him or her,or in the form of the dharmakayaVajradhara.* Then supplicateyour root guru one-pointedly andfinally think that from the fore-head of your root guru rays ofwhite light shoot out. These strike and enter yourforehead, granting you the blessing of the guru’sbody. From your guru’s throat center rays of redlight shoot out. These strike and enter your throat,granting you the blessing of the guru’s speech.From your guru’s heart center rays of blue lightshoot out. These strike and enter your heart,granting you the blessing of the guru’s mind. Andfinally, from your guru’s forehead, throat andheart, rays of white, red, and blue light respec-tively, shoot out, strike and enter the same threeplaces, granting you the blessings of your guru’sbody, speech and mind, causing you to attain thesupreme siddhi of mahamudra. Then, finally, thinkthat the guru melts into a mass of light and dis-

solves into yourself, at which point your mind andyour guru’s mind, which is the wisdom of thedharmakaya, are utterly mixed. Then simply restyour mind without alteration.

What is meant by not altering the mind is thatwhen you rest your mind at that time, in that way,do not think about the past, do not attempt toprolong the past by thinking about what you didyesterday or what you did last month, for thatmatter. And do not beckon the future, by which ismeant, do not think about what you are going to dotomorrow or what you are going to do next yearand so forth. And with regard to now, do not at-tempt to alter or change the nature of your mind,

just rest in it as it is, as you find it.Do not attempt to do anything to it.If you can preserve this way ofresting the mind through the appli-cation of mindfulness and of alert-ness, then you will vividly see yourmind’s nature. The mind’s naturecannot be meaningfully describedwith words or language of any kind.People have applied various termsto it, such as saying that it is lucidor that it is resplendently brilliantor that it is glaringly brilliant. But

basically mind’s nature is beyond any kind ofspeech; it is something that you simply have toexperience for yourself. In any case, when youexperience the nature of your own mind, that is therealization of vipashyana.

When you are resting your mind without alter-ation in that way, and then when you have someexperience of your mind’s nature, in the firstinstant there will be an experience or a recogni-tion, and in the next instant there will arise thethought, “This is it,” at which point you are think-ing. Do not be frightened by the emergence ofthought in that situation. You do not have to try tochase that thought away. Simply use that thoughtor whatever thought you become aware of as thebasis for meditation by looking directly at it. Byresting within the thought, by looking directly atthe thought rather than attempting to banish thethought, the thought will dissolve, and when itdissolves, you are back in the experience of

*Editor’s note: Kalu Rinpoche, commenting on this questionof how to visualize the guru, said in 1977, “If you have seenme as Vajradhara, then you may visualize me in my ordinaryform. If you haven’t, then you had better visualize me in theform of Vajradhara. Otherwise you might just get the bless-ing of a little old man.”

SHENPEN ÖSEL 51

If you can practiceshamatha andvipashyanaproperly, then youdo not needvisualizations

vipashyana itself.So, you need to try this to see if you actually

recognize your mind’s nature or not. In order to doso, first, as I explained, visualize your root guru,whoever it is, in the sky in front of you. Then,supplicating the guru, receive the fourempowerments in the sequence that I mentioned.Then dissolve the guru into yourselfand mix your mind with the guru’smind, and in that way, rest withoutalteration or fabrication. And nowwe are going to do it. [meditation]

Through applying this method ofpractice, you can gain a vipashyanaexperience. And also, through apply-ing this method or technique, youcan determine whether or not youactually have vipashyana experi-ence. If however, you want to ask any questionsabout this, about what you experience when you dothis, or whether or not you can deal with whateverarises when you attempt to do this—thoughts,emotions, and so on—please go ahead.

Question: Rinpoche, although I have experiencedsome success with both shamatha and vipashyanameditation, I have never been able to visualizeclearly. I find myself manifesting the intention thatI am experiencing some visualization, I react as ifthere were something there, but the screen hasalways been clouded and still is.

Tenga Rinpoche: If you can practice shamathaand vipashyana properly, then you do not needvisualizations, because shamatha and vipashyanaare the actual, the main, or ultimate practice ofworking with the mind itself in the completionstage.

Question: Rinpoche, I have a question concerningthe gaze. We had instructions from ThranguRinpoche for doing mahamudra wherein the gazeis raised slightly, and what I was wondering aboutis whether one raises the gaze by actually raisingthe head or by raising the gaze itself.

Translator: You mean by moving the eyes or

bending the neck?

Question: Yes, because the reason I ask is thatthe neck is placed in a certain position for a certainreason and it seems a little bit weird if you were tochange that posture.

Tenga Rinpoche: In the case ofa raised gaze, all you are doing israising the angle at which theeyes are looking. You do not alteror move the chin or the head.

If you have vipashyanarecognition through your medita-tion practice, then you havereached the border of the secondof the four stages of mahamudra,which is called simplicity or

beyond elaboration. The meaning of beyond elabo-ration or simplicity is that the nature that you arestarting to experience is beyond any kind of con-ceptual elaboration or conceptual complexity.Therefore, it was said about this nature by TheThird Karmapa, “It does not exist,”—or you couldalso think of it as “It is not something,”—“becauseit is not seen even by buddhas.” But also, “It doesnot not exist,”—or you could think of it as, “It is notnothing,”—“because it is the basis for all ofsamsara and nirvana.” The meaning of this is thatwhen you experience your mind’s nature there isnothing substantial or nothing there that you areexperiencing. But nevertheless, that nature itself isthe cognitive capacity which allows for all experi-ence—both experience in the state of bewilder-ment, which we call samsara, and experience inthe state free of bewilderment, which we callnirvana, and which consists of the experience ofthe kayas and qualities and realms of buddhahood.

Even though you may have gained some recog-nition of your mind’s nature, gaining this recogni-tion once and then stopping the practice of medita-tion will not get you anywhere. It is like beginninga journey but stopping as soon as you start. Whatyou need to do once you gain recognition is to fosteror cultivate this recognition through the applica-tion of mindfulness and alertness.

Mindfulness is recollection of the mind’s nature

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*Editor’s note: This could be stated, “When you are actuallyable to realize the inseparability of appearance and mind.”

When you aregoing about yourdaily activities,when youremember thepractice,immediately exertthat meditativeawareness

and alertness is the faculty of examining themeditative state to see whether you have becomedistracted, that is to say, to see whether or not youhave lost mindfulness. In a sense this is dualistic.After all, that which you are viewing is the mindand that which is viewing it is that same mind.There is not really a separate subject and a sepa-rate object. Nevertheless, in the beginning, wehave to be a bit dualistic and, to some extent,artificially split the viewer and the viewed in orderto preserve the initial consciousness and the some-what fabricated faculties of mindfulness andalertness. In any case, continually viewing themind with mindfulness and alertness is the prac-tice of what we call mahamudra or vipashyana.

Even though you preservemindfulness and alertness as themethod or substance of the prac-tice, nevertheless, until you reacha very high level of meditationpractice, there will never come atime in which you are completelyfree of distraction. The nature ofdistraction is that you are un-aware of when you have becomedistracted, but you are aware ofwhen you recognize that you aredistracted, and as soon as yourecognize that you are distracted,you simply return to looking at thenature of your mind.

This undistracted mindfulness and alertnessneeds to be maintained, not only in even place-ment, which is to say, during formal meditationpractice, but also throughout all of your actions.When you are going about your daily activities,when you remember the practice, immediatelyexert that meditative awareness. For example,when you are walking, or talking to someone, andyou remember the practice, then at that momentlook at your mind, be mindful of your mind’s na-ture.

The most important factor in practice is beingundistracted. It was therefore said by the learnedand accomplished Karma Chime Rinpoche, “Theheart essence of the Kagyu lineage gurus is therepetitive or the continuous cultivation of mindful-

ness, the watchperson of mindfulness.” That iswhat we call practice.

When you are practicing mindfulness, some ofthe thoughts that arise will be quite disturbing,such as thoughts that are very, very strong kleshasor thoughts of great suffering, or thoughts ofintense fear. The key point in dealing with any ofthese disturbing thoughts is that, if you can lookright at them such that they dissolve in their ownplace, that is to say, dissolve of themselves withoutyour having to rely on any conceptual remedy orantidote for that particular thought, then thatindicates that you are able to bring that thought tothe path of mahamudra.

If you practice this path of meditation, thengradually you will be able to de-stroy the thought or concept that isthe grasping at a self and thegrasping at the reality of things ingeneral, and as you destroy thisvery subtle concept, you becomefree from it. When you have de-stroyed all grasping at the realityof anything whatsoever, then youhave reached the third level orthird stage of mahamudra practice,which is the point at which in yourexperience appearances and mindare mixed. They are no longerexperienced as two separate things.This third level is called one taste.

The meaning of one taste is that, at that point, yourealize in your direct experience that all externalappearances arise as the display or appearance ofyour own mind, and that therefore, they are thedisplay of your own habits. When this is a decisiverealization in direct experience, then there is nolonger a split or division in your experience be-tween experienced appearances and the experienc-ing mind. They are perceived or experienced ashaving the same fundamental flavor. This level ofrealization is therefore called one taste.

When you actually are able to experience thismixing together or unification of appearances andmind*, at that point you are able to display the

SHENPEN ÖSEL 53

So many peoplehave attainedawakening thatthey arenumberless

types of miracles which characterized the siddhasof India and Tibet. However, even though you mayhave realized one taste, you still need furthertraining. You still have to continue to work withyour mind.

If you continue to practice after the stage of onetaste, then eventually you will reach the fourthand final stage of mahamudra, which is called nomeditation. It is called no meditation because thereis no longer the conceptualization or the experienceof an object of meditation or a meditator. There-fore, you rest without effort throughout the dayand night, throughout waking and sleeping, in thedharmakaya, in mahamudra. At that point all ofyour bewilderment or confusion has been purified.

About this stage, it was said by JetsunMilarepa, “When I look at my mind I see that it isthe actual buddha. Even if the predecessors, theforebears, were to see this, they would surely bedelighted.”

What he is saying is that at this stage, whenyou look at your own mind, you experience the fullforce or full presence of buddhahood or awakening,but nevertheless, you continue to abide within anillusory body for the duration ofyour physical life for the benefit ofothers. At this stage of full realiza-tion, for your own benefit you haveattained the dharmakaya, and forthe benefit of others you begin todisplay the sambhogakaya andnirmanakaya.

This is a method that we canactually practice, and if we practiceit with diligence, we can actually reach the stagethat I have just described, in this life. It is appro-priate therefore to reflect upon this again andagain, because by thinking of this you will gener-ate more enthusiasm and more delight in practice.

This has been a brief description of themahamudra path. If you have any questions,please ask them.

Question: Rinpoche, in the current practice andin the cases of past lineage masters, I am curiousabout how many people have attained this level ofmahamudra simply by relying upon mahamudra

and no other method. It seems as though many ofthe past masters accomplished this state throughreliance upon the path of method, tap lam. Howmany people can actually accomplish this or haveaccomplished this in the past without relying uponthe path of method?

Tenga Rinpoche: So many people have attainedawakening that they are numberless. There is noway to count them and say, “this many.” But sincethe Buddha Shakyamuni appeared in this world,attained buddhahood here, and began to teach andpresent the various vehicles, through his variouspresentations of dharma an uncountable number ofbeings have attained awakening. With regard,however to the relative emphasis on the path ofliberation and the path of method, which are, in asense, both aspects of what we call mahamudra,then some who have attained realization haveemphasized the practice of mahamudra per se—that is to say, the path of liberation—and havesupplemented it to some degree with the path ofmethod. The path of method in the mahamudracontext is The Six Dharmas of Naropa. Other

teachers have emphasized one ormore of The Six Dharmas ofNaropa, such as chandali or theillusory body and so on. In thatway they have taken the path ofmethod as their primary practiceand then have supplemented orenhanced that path with thepractice of mahamudra. There aremany, many different ways, in

terms of proportion, in which these can be com-bined.

Question: As Buddhists we revere the life history,teachings, and practices that have come down to usfrom Shakyamuni Buddha. But very often we hearreferences, like this morning, reference to a previ-ous birth of the Karmapa, that refer to much olderdharma traditions and practice. What canRinpoche teach about the dharma beforeShakyamuni?

Tenga Rinpoche: All buddhas pass through the

54 SHENPEN ÖSEL

same process, the same path, and attain the sameawakening. They all begin by generatingbodhicitta, and then they all go through a processof three periods of innumerable kalpas, gatheringthe accumulations of merit and wisdom. Finally, atthe culmination of this process, they attainbuddhahood at an extraordinary place likeVajrasana.* Then they all turn the dharmachakrathree times.** But what happens in the case ofeach buddha? Using the examples of the first fourof this eon [kalpa], we know that first the BuddhaKorwagig attained buddhahood and turned thewheel of dharma. Then his teachings persisted fora period of time and eventually vanished. Onlyafter his teachings had vanished, did the secondbuddha, Buddha Serthub, attain buddhahood.Then his teachings persisted for a time, and theneventually they vanished. Only then did the thirdbuddha, Buddha Ösung, attain buddhahood. Histeachings persisted and then finally vanished.Only then, did the fourth buddha, BuddhaShakyamuni, the historical Buddha, attainbuddhahood and his teachings still persist. Histeachings are still around. In general, this is calleda fortunate eon because 1,000 buddhas, of whomBuddha Shakyamuni is the fourth, will appear. Inparticular, we are living in a fortunate periodwithin this eon, because we are living within theperiod of a buddha’s teaching, not in the break inbetween the disappearance of the one buddha’steachings and the appearance of the next buddha’steachings. And the teachings of this fourth buddha,Buddha Shakyamuni, are particularly distin-guished, because he not only turned thedharmachakra three times, he also taught thevajrayana, which was not taught by the first threebuddhas and is not taught by most buddhas.

Now I will give the reading transmission for theliturgy for chöd practice, which is called The Gener-osity of the Body, and for the commentary on thatpractice which is called The Garden of All Joy.Both of these were composed by Jamgon Lodro

Thaye, Jamgon Kongtrul the Great.As I explained a few days ago, chöd is essen-

tially a way of implementing the view of the inter-mediate dharmachakra presented by the Buddha.Chöd was emphasized and practiced by themahasiddha, Padampa Sangye, who brought itfrom India to Tibet and passed it on to his disciple,Machig Labdron, who began the lineage andtradition of chöd. Machig Labdron’s birth waspredicted by the Buddha, who said that in thefuture, in the north in the region called Lap, therewould appear a woman who would be a wisdomdakini known as Drolma. In accordance with thatprediction, Machig Labdron was born in the area ofLap and exhibited the activity of a wisdom dakini,benefitting countless beings through this tradition,as was predicted by the Buddha. Machig Labron isconsidered to be identical externally with AryaTara, internally with Vajrayogini, and secretlywith the wrathful dark Vajrayogini or MachigTröma Nakmo. She is considered to be an embodi-ment in one person of all wisdom dakinis.

Machig herself inherited three distinct lineagesof chöd. One is the father lineage of the fathertantra of method, which she passed on to her son,Gyalwa Döndrup. The second one is the motherlineage connected with the mother tantra of knowl-edge, which she passed on to her son, TönyönSamdrup. And the third is the non-dual lineage ofthe non-dual tantra of the ultimate meaning,which she passed on to her disciple, KhugomChökyi Senge. Now this particular empowerment,which uses a torma to give the empowerment ofMachig Labdron herself, is connected primarilywith the third lineage, the non-dual tantra accord-ing to Chöyki Senge.

[Rinpoche proceeded to prepare and bestow theempowerment of Chöd, and gave a concise teachingon an extremely concise twelve-line daily practiceof Chöd.]

Finally, let us dedicate the merit to the longev-ity of all the glorious gurus who hold the lineageand to the happiness and prosperity and welfare ofall sentient beings, in general, and, in particular tothe speediest possible attainment of unsurpassableawakening by ourselves and all beings.

*Editor’s note: Tib., Dorje Den, more commonly known inthis realm as Bodhgaya.

**Editor’s note: They all turn the wheel of dharma threetimes, which is a way of saying that they all teach threemajor cycles of teachings.

SHENPEN ÖSEL 55

By The VenerableKhenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

1. EMPTINESS OF THE INNER

Since it has no inherent nature,The eye is empty of being an eye.The ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are the

same way.They are all described in a similar way.(Chap. 6., v. 181)

They are not stable nor forever lasting,Nor do they remain for a short time and

decay.The eye and the rest that are the six

inner onesAre things that have no essential nature at all.This is what is meant by “emptiness of the

inner.” (182)

These two verses are in accord with the expla-nation in the third chapter of The FundamentalWisdom of the Middle Way that the sense facultiesare empty of true essence. And they are empty oftrue essence because they exist neither as one noras many. So we first gain certainty about that andthen we rest the mind in that certainty.

2. EMPTINESS OF THE OUTER

For these reasons, form’s nature is emptiness;Therefore form is empty of being form.Sounds, odors, things that are tasted, and

what the body feels too,All these phenomena are exactly the same.

(183)

Form and so forth have no essential nature:This very lack of essence is called “emptiness

of the outer.” (184)

Form—what is smelled, what is tasted, what istouched, what is heard, what is seen—none ofthese have any inherent nature. They are just likethe appearances in dreams. Remembering that, werest the mind in meditation. This is the same asthe view expressed in Chapter 14 of Nagarjuna’sFundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, whichlooks at the object that is seen, what sees, and theseer, and shows that none of them have any trueexistence.

So for example, in a dream the form that isseen, the eye that sees, and the person who isseeing, none of these ever really meet because theydo not have any essence. In the Heart Sutra itsays, there is no form, no sound, no smell, no taste,no touch, no phenomena. It is the same meaning.

3. EMPTINESS OF THE INNER AND THE OUTER

That both inner and outer lack an essentialnature

Is what is called “emptiness of the inner andthe outer.” (184)

On the TwentyEmptinesses

A Commentary on SelectedVerses from Chandrakirti’sEntrance to the Middle Way

The Venerable Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

The Venerable Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpochespoke about the Twenty Emptinesses on June 22,1997, at Kagyu Shenpen Ösel Chöling in Seattle.The following is an edited transcription of thatteaching, which was given in Tibetan and orallytranslated by Ari Goldfield.

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[There was a gap in the tape here, but, basedon the reasonings in other teachings on emptiness,one could surmise that Khenpo Rinpoche reasonedthat once the emptiness of the inner had beendemonstrated and the emptiness of the outer hadbeen demonstrated, then it followed logically thatthe emptiness of their composite, the inner and theouter, had also been demonstrated.]

4. EMPTINESS OF EMPTINESS

All phenomena lack the essential nature, andThe wisest of all call this “emptiness.”Furthermore, the Wise One said,This emptiness is empty of being an

inherently existent emptiness. (185)

The emptiness of what is called “emptiness”Is the “emptiness of emptiness.”The Buddha taught it to counteractThe mind’s tendency to think of emptiness

as something truly existent. (186)

In order to reverse our tendency to turn empti-ness into some kind of object, the Buddha taughtthe emptiness of emptiness. We might think, “Oh,emptiness is emptiness.” To free us from the beliefthat emptiness is emptiness, the Buddha taughtthe emptiness of emptiness.

5. EMPTINESS OF THE GREAT

The “great” is what the ten directionsencompass:

All sentient beings and the entire universe.The “immeasurables” prove the directions’

infiniteness:They pervade the limitless directions, so they

cannot be measured in extent. (187)

That all ten directions in their whole vast extentAre empty of essence is the “emptiness of

the great.”The Buddha taught about its emptinessTo reverse our conception of the vast as

being real. (188)

The directions are truly great, and the reasonwhy is that they pervade all sentient beings in allof the worlds and places in the universe. So, inorder to reverse our conception of the directions as

being something real Buddha taught the emptinessof the great, because until we realize that thedirections are not real we will not be able to realizethat everything in the directions is not real.

6. EMPTINESS OF THE ULTIMATE

Because it is wanderer’s supreme of all needs,Nirvana’s cessation is the ultimate here.Nirvana, the Truth Body, is empty of itself,And this is what the emptiness of the

ultimate is. (189)

The Knower of the UltimateTaught the “emptiness of the ultimate”To counteract the mind’s tendencyTo think that nirvana is a thing. (190)

Our greatest need of all is to attain nirvana;that is why it is called the ultimate. It is the ulti-mate necessity. And yet even this ultimate neces-sity is neither one nor many. So it is not a trulyexistent entity. And it is empty. So in order toreverse our clinging to it as something real, theBuddha taught this emptiness of the ultimate. Ifwe cling to nirvana as something real, then we willalso think that its opposite, which is the cycle ofexistence, is something real. And if we think thatboth are real, then it is difficult to get out of ourclinging to true existence. And so that is why it isimportant to understand that nirvana does nottruly exist either.

This is analytical meditation according to theview of the middle way. Think about the reasonsuntil you get certainty about it. After that, rest inmeditation.

7. EMPTINESS OF THE COMPOSITE

Because they arise from conditionsThe three realms are “composite,” it is

taught.They are empty of themselves,And this, the Buddha taught, is the

“emptiness of the composite.” (191)

Anything that is arisen from causes and condi-tions is called a composite phenomena. And thesecomposite phenomena are beyond being one or many.(See note on page 62.) They have no true essence at

SHENPEN ÖSEL 57

all. That is why the Buddha taught the emptiness ofthe composite. Understanding the emptiness of thecomposite helps to free us from our beliefs that thephenomena that we see [and experience] that arisefrom causes and conditions are truly existent. Inshort, this meditation on the true nature of thecomposite is a meditation on the true nature ofsamsara. Let’s recite this again. [recitation] Again.[recitation]

8. EMPTINESS OF THE UNCOMPOSITE

When arising, cessation, and impermanenceare not among its characteristics,

A phenomenon is known as being “uncomposite.”They are empty of themselves.This is the “emptiness of the uncomposite.”

(192)

A phenomenon that neither arises, nor ceases,nor has the quality of impermanence, is somethingthat is uncomposite. There are three examples,three things which fit into this category. One isspace. The other two fall into the category ofcessation. One is the cessation of the afflictionsthat happens when there is wisdom realizingselflessness. That cessation is something that is bynature non-existence. The second type of cessationis ordinary cessation. For example, in this roomthere is no ox, no elephant, there is no snake. Sothat non-existence, in all three cases, is somethingthat does not arise, that does not cease. It is notsomething impermanent. So these are uncompositephenomena, and these, too, are empty of essence,they are empty of themselves. Let us recite thistwice. [recitation]

9. EMPTINESS OF THAT WHICH IS BEYOND EXTREMES

That to which extremes do not applyIs expressed as being beyond extremes.Its emptiness of its very selfIs explained as the “emptiness of that which

is beyond extremes.” (193)

That which is beyond extremes—there are three.First is emptiness. Emptiness is beyond extremes.Second is dependent arising. Dependent arising isbeyond the extremes. The third is the middle waypath. That, too, is beyond extremes. For example,

Rinpoche has been teaching that the true nature ofreality is the complete freedom from all conceptualelaborations about it. But if we take that to besomething real, then that is also a problem. So weare taught that that, too, is empty. So let us recitethis twice. [recitation]

We will recite the next two from the tenthemptiness.

10. EMPTINESS OF THAT WHICH HAS NEITHER

BEGINNING NOR END

That which has no point from which it beginsNor boundary where it ends is the cycle of

existence.Since it is free from coming and going,It is just mere appearance, like a dream. (194)

Existence is void of any existence:This is the emptiness ofThat which neither begins nor ends.It was definitively taught in the

commentaries. (195)

What is traditionally taught as being withoutbeginning or end is the cycle of existence. Since thecycle of existence is without beginning or end, thensentient beings are without beginning or end.Ignorance is also without beginning or end. Butthis is not to say that they are without beginningor end in any permanent way; this is not to say inany way that they are permanent. It is like what iswithout beginning or end in a dream. That whichappears in a dream is without any real trulyexistent beginning, and it is without any real trulyexistent end. It is the same thing. The cycle ofexistence, just like dreams, is without any trulyexistent beginning or any truly existent end.So, in order to reverse our clinging to that which iswithout beginning or end as being truly existent,the Buddha taught the emptiness of that which iswithout beginning or end. Two times. [recitation]If we think about samsara as something that doesnot come from anywhere and does not go any-where, then we will understand this too. And thatis something that is also taught in the text, TheFundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way.

11. EMPTINESS OF WHAT SHOULD NOT BE DISCARDED

To “discard” something means

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To throw it away or to abandon it.What should not be discarded isWhat one should never cast away from

oneself—the great vehicle. (196)

What should not be discardedIs empty of itself.Since this emptiness is its very nature,It is spoken of as the “emptiness of what

should not be discarded.” (197)

That which should not be discarded is thedharma of the great vehicle, the mahayana. It sayswe should not discard it, we should not throw itaway, we should not abandon it. They all mean thesame thing. But at the same time we should under-stand that this dharma of the great vehicle has noessence. So it is empty also. Two more times.[recitation]

If we take the great vehicle’s teachings to besomething truly existent, then we think that thevehicle of the hearers, the first turning of thewheel of dharma, is something unimportant andhas flaws in it. We should meditate on this.

12. EMPTINESS OF THE TRUE NATURE

The true essence of composite and all otherphenomena is pure being,

Therefore, neither the students, the solitaryrealizers,

The bodhisattvas, nor the buddhasCreated this essence anew. (198)

Therefore, this essence of the compositeand so forth

Is said to be the very nature of phenomena.It itself is empty of itself.This is the emptiness of the true nature. (199)

All composite and all other phenomena have notruly existent essence. Their true nature is empti-ness, but this true nature which is emptiness alsodoes not truly exist. The true nature is also empty ofbeing any kind of true nature. This is the emptinessof the true nature. If you think that all phenomenaare empty and the nature of all phenomena is empti-ness, and you cling to that as being something real,then you should meditate on the emptiness of that,too. Two more times. [recitation]

13. EMPTINESS OF ALL PHENOMENA

The eighteen potentials, the six types of contact,And from those six, the six types of feeling,Furthermore, all that is form and all that is not,The composite and the uncomposite—this

comprises all phenomena. (200)

All of these phenomena are free of beingthemselves.

This emptiness is the “emptiness of allphenomena.” (201)

There are an incredible number of divisions anddistinctions that we make between all different kindsof relative phenomena, all of the different kinds ofphenomena that appear to us. If we take all of thesedivisions and distinctions to be real, then we need tomeditate on the emptiness of all phenomena and allof the distinctions that go along with them. To everydifferent appearance that appears we give a name.And we say this is this, and that is that, and all ofthese different kinds of things. What we need torealize is that there really is no basis for giving anyof these names. All of these things that we see arejust imputed by thoughts. They do not truly exist.Sometimes when we are studying we are buriedunder all the different distinctions that are made bythe books that we are reading, or whatever it is thatwe are studying, and we get very tired. We get aheadache from all of these different things that wehave to learn. At that time it is good to meditate onthe emptiness of it all. [laughter, then recitation]

14. EMPTINESS OF DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS

All composite and uncomposite phenomenaHave their own individual defining

characteristics.These are empty of being themselves.This is the “emptiness of defining

characteristics.” (215)

This verse is one of a pair with the thirteenthemptiness because it is talking about the empti-ness of the characteristics of phenomena. Forexample, if you have fire, then “fire” is the name,and the characteristics are the basis, that basiswhich is actually hot and actually does the burn-ing. So the emptiness of all phenomena is talking

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about the emptiness of all of these names anddivisions. The emptiness of characteristics istalking about the fact that the bases for thesenames and divisions are also empty of any inher-ent existence.

According to the Sautrantika (sutra) school thenames and the thoughts about phenomena do notreally exist, but the phenomena, the bases them-selves, do truly exist. So if we have thoughts likethat, that these bases are things which truly exist,then we need to meditate on the emptiness ofdefining characteristics. [recitation]

In the song, To Speak Truly of the Middle Way byMilarepa, when Milarepa says that therefore noteven the name samsara exists, what he is saying isthat not only do the bases of imputation not exist,but also even the name “samsara,” even the nameswhich we give to these bases do not exist.

15. EMPTINESS OF THE IMPERCEPTIBLE

The present does not remain;The past and future do not exist.Wherever you look, you cannot see them,So the three times are called,

“imperceptible.” (216)

The imperceptible is in essence empty of itself.It is neither permanent and stableNor impermanent and fleeting.This is the “emptiness of the imperceptible.” (217)

If we have thoughts that the three times reallyexist, then it is important for us to meditate on theemptiness of the three times, the emptiness of theimperceptible. We think a lot about the past. Wethink a lot about the future. We think a lot aboutthe present. And based on those thoughts alldifferent sorts of suffering arise. So at those timeswe should think about how it is that the threetimes really do not exist and meditate on that. Weshould think about the proofs which are found inThe Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, likethe one in the examination of time, where it says,if the present and the future were dependent on thepast, the present and the future would exist in timepast. So let us say this three times. [recitation]

The past and the future do not exist now, andthe present does not even remain for an instant. So

where is time? Since the past does not exist thenthere is no suffering from the past. Since the futuredoes not exist, there is no suffering from the future.And since the present is something that is fleetingand does not even remain for a moment there is nosuffering in the present either. Since we think ofthe past, present, and future as existing in somecontinuum, where there is a connection betweenthem, then we suffer as a result of that. We sufferbecause we confuse them all and we take all ofthem to be present somehow at the same time.

16. EMPTINESS THAT IS THE ABSENCE OF ENTITIES

Since an entity arises from causes andconditions,

It lacks the nature of being a composite.This emptiness of there being anything that

is a compositeIs the “emptiness that is the absence of

entities.” (218)

Because they arise from causes and conditions,phenomena are said to be composite or are said tobe a combination. But as we have seen, therereally is no such thing as a combination, therereally is no such thing as an entity formed by acombination. That entity is really a non-entity. Andthe emptiness of this non-entity is also the empti-ness that is the absence of entities. So if we seethat all entities really have no essence, that therereally is no entity there when there is a combina-tion, we might cling to that as being true. So that iswhy the sixteenth emptiness is taught. If we realizethat all entities have no essence really and that therereally are no entities at all, and then that makes usdepressed because there is nothing, then we shouldmeditate on the emptiness of that nothingness.

The sixteen emptinesses are condensed into fouremptinesses that follow. These four

emptinesses are a summary of the previous six-teen. The reason why they are presented is thatthere are so many things that are empty in thesesixteen that it is easy to forget. So when thathappens and you get to the end and you haveforgotten what was at the beginning, then thesefour sum it all up very nicely. The first two talkabout the relative, the world of apparent reality—

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basically entities and non-entities, and nothingelse. The second two talk about the ultimate truth.In the ultimate truth there are no divisions really,but from the perspective of thinking about theultimate truth we can come up with lots of divi-sions. Basically here though there are two: There isthe nature of all phenomena, i.e., the emptiness ofentities, and also the ultimate truth is called theentity which is other. This means, basically, thatwhich is different from relative truth.So let us say the first one together. [recitation]

1. EMPTINESS OF ENTITIES

In short, “entities” areEverything included in the five aggregates.Entities are empty of being entities,And this is the “emptiness of entities.” (219)

There are limitless numbers of entities that wecan think of. But basically they are included in thefive aggregates: the aggregates of form, feeling,mental discriminations, mental formations, con-sciousness. If we take those all into one, then wehave “entities,” and those are all empty. So that isa helpful way to think about it. So this first oneteaches the emptiness of all of that. Let us say thistwice. [recitation]

The second is the emptiness of non-entities.

2. EMPTINESS OF NON-ENTITIES

In short, “non-entities” areAll uncomposite phenomena.Non-entities are empty of being non-entities,And this is the “emptiness of non-entities.”

(220)

The non-entities are again these three non-composite phenomena: space; the cessation of theafflictions that happens when there is wisdomrealizing selflessness—that cessation is somethingthat is by nature non-existence; and the ordinarycessation, for example, there is no ox, no elephant,there is no snake in this room. These three areuncomposite phenomena, non-entities, technicallycalled. And non-entities are also empty of them-selves, they are empty of being non-entities, andthis is the emptiness of non-entities. Two times.[recitation]

3. EMPTINESS OF THE NATURE

The nature of phenomena is that they haveno essence.

It is called their “nature” because no onecreated it.

The nature is empty of itself,And this is the “emptiness of the nature.” (221)

This emptiness has the exact same meaning asthe twelfth emptiness which is the emptiness ofthe nature. If we have attachment to emptiness asemptiness, as being the true nature of phenomena,we need to meditate on the emptiness of thenature, too.

4. EMPTINESS OF THE ENTITY THAT IS OTHER

Whether or not buddhas appear in the world,The natural emptiness of all entitiesIs proclaimed to beThe “entity that is other.” (222)

Other names for this are the “genuine limit”and “suchness.”

They are empty of themselves and this is the“emptiness of the entity that is other.”

In the sutras of The Great Mother, TheTranscendent Perfection of Wisdom,

These twenty emptinesses are explained ingreat detail. (223)

There are two reasons why the true nature ofreality is the entity that is other. The first is that itis different from apparent reality, that is, the falseappearance that appears to all of us. And second, itis the object of primordial awareness, the object ofour inherent awareness, pristine awareness. Andon the other hand the cycle of existence is theobject of our ordinary consciousness. So for thatreason it is other. [recitation]

If we get attached to the idea that emptiness isreally something different from this cycle of exist-ence on the one hand, and on the other hand, thatit is the object of primordial inherent awareness,and that samsara is only the object of our ordinaryconsciousness, and if we cling to these things asbeing real, then we need to meditate on this empti-ness of the entity that is other.

It is true that ultimate reality is just the objectof our inherent awareness and not of our conscious-

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ness, but this ultimate reality is empty of essence,it has no true existence to it. And neither does thisinherent awareness have any inherent essence toit. So in that way the entity that is other is emptyof essence.

When these four emptinesses, which are thesummary of the sixteen, are explained, then we gettwenty. There are these twenty divisions and thesetwenty different types of emptiness talked about,but from the perspective of emptiness itself, thereare no divisions. These divisions do not really exist.Then if you think that this non-existence of anydivisions is something real, then you should knowthat the true nature is beyond there being eitherdivisions or no divisions.

This way of teaching the twenty emptinesses isin accordance with the way that Machig

Labdron, the great yogini of Tibet, attained herrealization. She read the entire hundred-thousandline, twelve-volume Prajnaparamita Sutra once aday for a month. Then at the end of that month shehad direct realization of emptiness, and she be-came a siddha. She taught her students sixteendifferent types of meditation based on the sixteentypes of emptiness. So there are sixteen differentverses based on the sixteen different emptinesses,and then there are four more based on the fouremptinesses, which are the condensed version. Sowe end up with twenty different verses which wecan recite.

It would be very good if in the future you madea course like this one, where you would get to-gether and make four sessions in a weekend, andhad four different emptinesses for every session.Recite a verse and then meditate, recite anotherand meditate, like that. If you do four each sessionthen you can do all sixteen in one weekend. If youdo all sixteen together, as we did now, then that iscalled analytical meditation. That gets you to be anexpert in both the meaning and the words.

Because Machig Labdron could read the wholetwelve volumes of the Prajnaparamita Sutra in oneday, she became incredibly renowned for her wis-dom, for her learnedness. When Machig Labdronpassed into nirvana, then they built a cremationbox for her, and as her body was being cremated,

her son, Gyalwa Döndrup, sang a praise to her ateach of the four doors of her cremation shrine. Andin one of those praises he said, “Mother,Prajnaparamita Siddha,” which means that he wassaying she was a really great siddha, an extraordi-nary siddha, because she attained her siddhahoodnot through the vajrayana like other siddhas, butthrough the prajnaparamita.

Machig Labdron’s son, Gyalwa Döndrup, whenhe was young was kind of a bum. He stole, he wasa thief, and he was not really any good at all. Butthen based on the blessing of Machig Labdron, helistened to her instructions and turned it aroundand became a great siddha himself. One time heand his friends got together and they stole an ox,and they killed it. When the ox died it made a veryloud and weird noise. When they ate the meat theyall got really sick. So Gyalwa Döndrup went run-ning to his mother’s house and finally startedlistening to her teachings, and then he became agreat siddha. That shows how it is that doing badthings can lead to good results, because there aremany siddhas like that who first engaged in allsorts of negative action and hurt people and ani-mals, and that led to their feeling regret, and thenthey practiced the dharma and attained greatsiddhahood. In that way bad actions become yourfriends on the path, because, based on bad actions,you practice the dharma.

Others became great siddhas because theyexperienced great suffering. There is the exampleof Gampopa, Dakpo Rinpoche. First his son died,then his daughter died, then his wife died. He hadintense suffering, but as a result, he became agreat siddha. In that way suffering is a friend ofour dharma practice.

Also anger is a friend of our dharma practice.There is the example of Marpa the translator who,when he was a child, had a ferocious temper andgot into fights with every single kid in his village.So his parents said, “If you don’t practice thedharma, if you don’t go that way, then life is goingto be really tough for you because you have a reallybad temper.” So he practiced the dharma andbecame a great siddha. An example again of hownegative actions can be a friend of our dharmapractice is the example of Milarepa, who commit-

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ted intensely bad deeds and felt intense regret as aresult of them, and then devoted himself to thepractice of dharma with intense diligence andbecame a great siddha.

Then there is the example of how sickness is afriend of our dharma practice, and that isGötsangpa, who when he was up meditating in thecaves got really sick all of the time, and meditatedon the essence of his illness. By meditating on theessence of his illness, he attained realization.

Rinpoche’s departing aspiration prayer for us is

that, based on the merit we have accumulatedfrom his explaining and our listening to his expla-nation of Nagarjuna’s Fundamental Wisdom of theMiddle Way, of Milarepa’s To Speak Truly of theMiddle Way, and Chandrakirti’s Entrance to theMiddle Way, may all of our bad circumstances ariseas our friends on the path. May all bad circum-stances actually bring us benefit. May we realizeemptiness, the complete freedom from all elabora-tions. And as a result of fulfilling these aspirationsmay we bring great benefit to all sentient beings.

A Note on the Log ic That Arri ves at Emptiness

Much of what Rinpoche is talking about in this teach-ing is based on the following logic: Whatever the phenom-enon is, if it is one, it must have one essence, one essentialquality, or one intrinsic nature. So, for example, if we positthe existence of a human body, then under thoroughanalysis we must be able to find one unitary thing which isthe body; it must logically be indivisible. What we findwhen we analyze the body is simply a collection of parts,and no unitary phenomenon called a body. In turn each andevery part of which the body is made up—the torso, thethumb, the leg, etc.—when examined in the same way alsofails to have any singular, unitary essential quality,essence, or intrinsic nature.

If, on the other hand we say that a phenomenon ismany, that it is made of smaller units or particles, thenthere must logically be a smallest unit of which saidphenomenon is compounded, which exists intrinsically andhas a singular, unitary essential quality. But if we takeagain the phenomenon of the human body, regardless ofhow small a unit of matter that one designates as existingintrinsically and having a singular, unitary essentialquality, you will find nothing. Because, no matter howsmall the unit of matter, no matter how small the particle,you must logically still be able to touch the left side of oneagainst the right side of the other, which means that eachparticle must have a right and a left side, as well as a topand a bottom side, as well as a fore and an aft side. And ifeach particle has even two of these dimensions, it is stilldivisible into smaller particles of matter. Since this logiccan be repeated ad infinitum with ever smaller particles ofmatter, it cannot be said that there is any such thing as asmallest unit of matter. And if there is no smallest unit ofmatter, then matter cannot be said to exist inherently.Therefore, material phenomena cannot be said to exist asmany, and in fact must exist in some other way than asinherently existent entities. Therefore, our posited humanbody cannot be said to exist as many.

The same logic can be applied to mind. In the words ofThrangu Rinpoche, “As for the nature of the mind, we alltend to feel that we have a mind which we experience andwith which we recognize things, and so on. But if weexamine the experience of mind, we see that there is not asingle thing which is the mind we are said to have. Con-sciousness has many different components—awareness ofvisual objects (forms, shapes and colors), awareness of

sounds, tactile consciousness, and mental consciousness—which are all separate ways of knowing. Each type ofconsciousness recognizes a particular field of experience inits own terms. Thus each of these six consciousnessesfunctions in its own terms. Thus each of these sixconsciousnesses functions in its own frame of reference andis at least somewhat independent of the others.

“So mind too is not a single, unitary thing, but acompound, just as external objects are [not single, unitarythings]. If we examine in turn visual consciousness, we seethat it has the potential to perceive various objects, withvarious forms and various colors, all arising in succession,with prior appearances disappearing at the moment thatsucceeding appearances occur. Thus visual consciousness ismultiple and successive, has many different potentialobjects, and so cannot be a single unitary thing.”

Then again, in the words of Thrangu Rinpoche,“Examining the successive manner in which consciousnesscognizes its objects, we might be led to believe that each‘flash’ of awareness, each moment of consciousness, is afundamental unit of time, comparable to supposedlyindivisible particles. However, if we could ever isolate sucha particular unit of time, we would see that it could onlyoccur within a framework of on-going consciousness—forawareness is never static—and hence would have to relateto a previous moment and future moment. That is, such amoment would not be a partless whole. Rather it wouldconsist of three parts, that part relating to a previousmoment being past relative to a postulated present, andthat ‘present’ being past in relation to the future moment.”

So there is no unitary essential quality, no singleidentifiable reality, in either the world that appears in anobjective frame of reference or the subjective mind.

This same type of analysis can be applied to allphenomena, and in every case we find that there is nounitary essential quality, no single identifiable reality. Andso we discover that no phenomenon exists as one, and sinceno phenomenon exists as one, no phenomenon can possiblyexist as many, since many is simply a composite of many“ones,” which we have seen do not exist with a singular,unitary nature. Therefore all phenomena are empty.

For further presentation of the meaning of emptiness,see the three teachings of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso inVolume 2, Number 2 of Shenpen Ösel, and The Empty Doorto Emptiness, by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche.

SHENPEN ÖSEL 63

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SATURDAYS

9-10:30 a.m.Chenrezig practice

11 a.m.-1 p.m.Mahamudra verses recitation and meditation astaught by The Venerable Khenpo TsultrimGyamtso Rinpoche at KSOC in August of l998, ledby Lama Tashi Namgyal; question and answersession at end of meditation

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64 SHENPEN ÖSEL

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PERMIT NO. 1257

May all of our bad circumstances arise as ourfriends on the path. May all bad circumstancesactually bring us benefit. May we realizeemptiness, the complete freedom from allelaborations. And as a result of fulfilling theseaspirations may we bring great benefit to allsentient beings.

—The Venerable Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche