OVERVIEW OF MAHAYOGA CHYÉRIM PRACTICE: THE CHIDÖN 1

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1 OVERVIEW OF MAHAYOGA CHYÉRIM PRACTICE: THE CHIDÖN 1 Sadhana Retreat 1999 Ösel Ling, Crestone, Colorado Morning Teaching, April 24, 1999 Introduction to the Nine Yanas I would like to request the participants here to arouse bodhicitta before we begin this session of teachings and to listen to the teachings with the proper conduct as described in the sutras and tantras. In listening to the teachings, we understand that there are teachings according to all levels of beings. This particular teaching is the teaching for those who have supreme faculties. The teachings for the beings of supreme faculties are the teachings of the Tantrayana. The teachings of the Tantrayana are known as the teachings of the fruition yana. There are also the causal yanas such as the Shravakayana, the Pratyekabuddhayana and the Bodhisattvayana. Within the Tantrayana, we have the Shravaka and the Pratyekabuddha teachings. The Shravakayana teaching are for beings of inferior faculties, the teachings of the Pratyekabuddhayana are for beings of medium faculties, and the teachings of the Bodhisattvayana are for beings of supreme faculties. Within the Bodhisattvayana there are both the causal and fruitional yana teachings. The causal yana teachings are the teachings on the Prajñaparamita that the Buddha gave in person at Rajgir, and the fruitional yana teachings are the Tantrayana teachings, like those on the Kalachakra, that the Buddha taught during his lifetime. However, for the most part, the Buddha just made predictions about the Tantrayana teachings coming into the world. Within the Tantrayana there are the Kriyayoga, Upayoga and Yogayoga tantras, and these are known as the three Outer Tantras. Then we have the three Inner Tantras in which there are the Father Lineage, Mother Lineage and the Non-Dual Lineage. Those are the general terms. More specifically, in the Father lineage, most of the teachings concern the visualization practice such as the teachings on Sangwa Düpa, Hevajra. The Mother Lineage teachings focuses on the channels, winds, and essences for example, like the Chakrasamvara teachings of the New Schools. Finally, the teachings on the nature itself, the very nature of beings, is known to be the Non-dual lineage, like the Kalachakra teachings. Whether it s the New School [Sarma] or Old School [Nyingma], the above is all general knowledge. In the Old School or Nyingma tradition, the three Inner Yogas [or Tantras] are the mahayoga, anuyoga, and atiyoga. They correspond to the Father lineage, the Mother lineage, and the Non-dual lineage. In the mahayoga teachings, the primary focus is on the practices of the deity, and visualization teachings. In the anuyoga, there are also deities, but the practice is mainly concerns the channels, winds and essences. The atiyoga focuses mainly on the teachings on the very nature of sentient beings mind. What one needs to understand is that within these, the chyérim [or mahayoga] teachings on visualization are more the outer teachings, the [anuyoga or dzogrim] teachings on the 1 This teaching was given as part of the 1999 Guru Sadhana Retreat. Rinpoche gave talks on the view, and commentary talks on the sadhana itself (which are included in full in the sadhana manual) and asked that the two types of teachings be kept separate. This teaching was the first of the view talks. OVERVIEW OF MAHAYOGA CHYÉRIM PRACTICE, April 24,

2 channels, winds, and essence are more the inner teachings, and the [atiyoga] teachings on the very nature of the mind are the secret teachings. As another way of looking at, one can understand that the chyérim or mahayoga teachings are like the ground, the teachings on the psychic channels, winds, essence and the yoga practice are like the path, and the atiyoga practice is the fruition. The purpose of secrecy in the Vajrayana For instance, the chyérim practice concerns the visualization of the environment, the individual s body, speech and mind and how it relates with the gross elements of one s existence. The anuyoga practice the teachings on the psychic winds and channel relates with the subtle part of one s existence. Finally, atiyoga relates with the nature itself. And that nature is secret. In the Guhyagarbha teachings there are two kinds of secret: self-secret and the hidden secret. Self-secret means the nature is self-secret to all sentient beings, therefore sentient beings have not realized the nature. Due to not having realized the nature, sentient beings are wandering in samsara, caught in the delusions. That is how the nature is self-secret. Then there are the hidden teachings. What does this mean? For example, if one reveals the teachings prematurely to a sentient being whose karma has not ripened to the point of their understanding and being open to the teachings, to have the teachings penetrate their mind and their emotions and do what the teachings are supposed to do the appreciation of the teachings will not be met by the being s mind. And if there is no appreciation, the opposite occurs, with there being an un-appreciation for the teachings. In that way the value of the teachings is brought down. Therefore, the teachings are kept hidden, secret, until the appropriate time. On the other hand, the secret teachings are non-conceptual they have to be practiced and they have to be experienced. People who do not have the good fortune of their karma being ripened or the ones who have the good fortune but are not there yet with their progress, will not be able to understand the teachings in this experiential way. What often happens in this case is that people will conceptualize the teachings. This conceptualization in a way defiles and corrupts the teachings. In addition, the reason to keep the teachings secret is that the teachings on the mahayoga, anuyoga or atiyoga and their view are incredibly vast and complex; they are incredibly outrageous and actually provocative to the conventional mind and the conventional narrow way of thinking. If one is not ready to take the leap from the conventional mind from the narrow way of thinking, one will not be able to appreciate the teachings. One will not only defile the teachings, but one could potentially develop negative thoughts or negative emotions towards the teachings, which would ultimately be harmful to oneself. Therefore, for the protection of beings it is very important to keep the tantrayana teachings secret. This is why the teachings are called secret. Of these teachings, mahayoga teachings are considered outer teachings; anuyoga teachings are the inner teachings and atiyoga teachings are the secret teachings. If there is no path of atiyoga, there is no path of enlightenment. That which is the path of enlightenment is the most pithy and the most essential. If it is not protected it could become more and more defiled and more and more corrupted and more and more misunderstood. Then, over time people will just be left with something that is not genuine. Over time the teachings could even turn into something fake. Even if you read, even if you study, even if you contemplate, even if you understand, if you think you understand, it will all be fake. That s why it s very important to preserve and protect the teachings. That is the general idea of it. OVERVIEW OF MAHAYOGA CHYÉRIM PRACTICE, April 24,

3 Kama and Terma In the tantrayana teachings, eight tantrayana traditions have come to Tibet over time. These teachings we are learning about today are of the Old School, the Nyingma School. And in the Nyingma School we have the kama and the terma. The kama are the oral transmissions coming from Samantabhadra himself or Vajradhara himself down to the present time. Masters pass the teachings down to the students and then the students become masters themselves and continue passing down the teachings in an unbroken golden lineage the golden chain of the lineage through oral transmission. That s the kama. The very unique thing about the Nyingma teachings are the terma teachings. The terma teachings originated even before Guru Rinpoche. In the Akanishta Buddhafield Vajradhara turned the wheel of the Vajrayana teachings and has consistently been turning the wheel of Vajrayana teachings. Ananda is the gatherer of all the Sutrayana teachings that Buddha taught. Vajrapani (Tib. Sangwa Dakpo) is the gatherer of all the Vajrayana teachings that have been taught in the past and that are being taught in the present. He hid the mahayoga teachings, particularly the mahayoga teachings of the Nyingmapa, the Kyabje, the eight Heruka teachings, in the great charnel ground of Siwatsal ( Cool Grove ) some of you have been there. In the space there, there is supposed to be a stupa that can only be seen by fortunate beings. In that stupa the Vajrayana teachings of the mahayoga were hidden by Vajrapani himself. Later each of the eight Herukas (or the eight Mahapanditas) went there and revealed each of the Heruka s teachings such as Yamantanka, Vajrakilaya etc. Subsequently, Guru Rinpoche came and revealed what had not yet been revealed by the eight Mahapanditas who are the great Herukas themselves. Guru Rinpoche also received teachings from all the Eight Herukas and brought them to Tibet. This is the terma lineage of the mahayoga teachings. Guru Rinpoche himself gave the Eight Heruka initiations to the twenty-five disciples of the Tibet. Each of the twenty-five disciples, while doing the practice of their particular deity has had the fortune to connect with the teachings. They all attained the true nature of their enlightened mind and attained the siddhi. Through attaining the siddhi they performed miracles. In some of the thangkas you can see the twenty-five disciples either flying or performing various other miracles. This happened when Guru Rinpoche gave the initiation and the twenty-five disciples did the practice. Through Guru Rinpoche s instruction, the dakini Yeshe Tsogyal hid the mahayoga teachings throughout Tibet. At different times various tertöns came and revealed those teachings. It always happened at the appropriate time to benefit beings of that particular era by that particular tertön with that particular teaching. These teachings on the mahayoga practice are not kama; they are terma. This terma tradition comes from Jigme Lingpa, Künchyen Jigme Lingpa, omniscient Jigme Lingpa. Omniscient Jigme Lingpa revealed the teachings of Rigdzin Düpa, which is the essence of all of the Eight Herukas. It is the practice of not only the Eight Herukas but the Guru Yoga of the Eight Herukas. When you practice the deity and the guru as one, there is a much more powerful effect. In the Rigdzin Düpa practice we do the practice of the Eight Herukas in the form of the guru. For instance, Guru Rinpoche is surrounded by the Eight Vidyadharas. The Eight Vidyadharas are actually the deity manifested in the form of the guru. So, this treasure was revealed by the Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa who is the founder of the Longchen Nyingthik tradition. In the Longchen Nyingthik tradition we have again, OVERVIEW OF MAHAYOGA CHYÉRIM PRACTICE, April 24,

4 the chyérim teachings, the dzogrim teachings, the dzogchen teachings. In the chyérim teachings we have the practice of Rigdzin Düpa and the practice of Palchen Düpa and other practices like Vajrakilaya, Wrathful Garuda etc. There are many of them but the main one is the Rigdzin Düpa practice. The dakini practice that we have in this terma tradition Déchen Gyalmo is an Anuyoga practice. Along with the dakini practice we go into the tsalung practice. This is the practice of the psychic channels, winds and bindus; it is the upper gate and the lower gate practice utilizing one s own body as skillful means and the other s body as a method to progress in that same practice. Chyérim practice uses manipulation of our perceptions and mind to wake up The point is to wake up. In all cases, whether it s the teachings of the chyérim practice, or the dzogrim, whether it s the practice of Ati, the essential point is for the practice to have some effect on one s mind, on how the perception perceives phenomena, how the mind functions. And beyond that, to wake up to one s enlightened nature. That is the essence. There is some manipulation involved in the chyérim practice, in the dzogrim practice, in the practice of visualization, in the practice of yoga. There is manipulation going on with one s perceptions, on one s sixth consciousness. The manipulation is done in order to transform the perceptions, to transform the continuum of the sixth consciousness and dissolve the obscurations that exist in the perception that exists in the sixth, seventh and eighth consciousnesses. However, the manipulation or the contrivance alone is not going to do it. It has to be based upon reality reality of how phenomena truly exist. How phenomena truly exist has nothing to do with how we perceive them or how we mentally think of them to exist. For instance, a person with jaundice perceives the snow mountain as yellow and thinks of the mountain as yellow. That has nothing to do whatsoever with the fact of the snow mountain being white. In this way we perceive the phenomena in a dualistic way, in a defiled way. We think of the phenomena as very intrinsic, solid and in a very samsaric way. There is no need of an introduction to that; you could just experience the perceptions that you have and the mental continuum that you have now and see how much negativity there is in them. That applies to everything we perceive with our ayatanas in a subject-object way. We also perceive it in very gross and suffering ways. Anything that we think of and perceive, we do so in a dualistic way: subject and object, with a gap between the subject and object, along with many negative emotions of attachment, aggression, jealousy, pride and arrogance and their resultant confusions. With even just one thought occurring in your mind, you can observe how much pain and suffering there is in it. It s incredible. If that is reality then there is no enlightenment to be found. This would have to be enlightenment the way we perceive it, how we are actually experiencing the phenomenal world now with our mind. This has to be enlightenment. However, since this is illusion and not reality, we may be able to work with it and overcome it. We may actually be able to perceive the phenomena in a different way and experience the phenomena of our world and our existence, the whole universe, in a different way. Therefore, there is enlightenment. There is enlightenment beyond what exists for us now, how we experience it now. If this is to be taken as reality, there is no point in searching for enlightenment outside of this. Since this is not reality there is a point in searching for enlightenment beyond this. How do we search for it? We search for it through the means of engaging in practice. This practice has to be based upon view. The view has to be based upon reality. The reality is based upon how things exist in the awakened state, not in confusion, not in illusion. We have to accept that right now we are in illusion. We are trapped in OVERVIEW OF MAHAYOGA CHYÉRIM PRACTICE, April 24,

5 confusions. Otherwise there is no point in seeking enlightenment beyond what we are experiencing. But the illusion and confusion are temporary. We could actually awaken ourselves from the illusion and confusion. We have to accept that there are illusions and confusions. But we also have to accept that these are temporary, that this illusion is dissolvable. We are eligible to wake ourselves up to the reality and experience the view as it is taught in the Tantrayana teachings accurately, with a genuine sense of experience, not just hypothetically, conceptually or idealistically, but based on experience. We also have to understand and accept that it will take the study of the view, the practice of the view and it will take the path. The path has to have an unbroken lineage that has worked until this point. We need the lineage and the pith instructions of that lineage. If we do not have the lineage, if we do not have the view, the path and the pith instructions of the lineage, how is it possible to do this? It is not possible to do this. Therefore we have to appreciate the lineage and we have to join the lineage and practice, receive the pith instructions and apply them. The necessity of merit There are hundreds of lineages, hundreds of paths, hundreds of pith instructions. All are very profound. But individuals must have the merit. All of you for instance, you are all here right now receiving teachings, and you will all, at some point, do the practice. But you also have to apply yourself fully. In order to even apply yourself fully you have to have the merit. Without merit even if you had the intention you would not be able to apply yourself. Or even if you have the intention and even if you apply yourself, your mind has to be open. This openness is very important. In order for you to have and experience that openness, you have to have merit. Merit will actually provide the necessary conditions to be open and to not be stuck. In some sense, all the obstacles that you experience are karmic debts coming to fruition. Whether you like it or not, accept it or not they are karmic, samsaric seeds coming to fruition. The relationships, the struggle with jobs, struggle with your emotional states, struggle with your mental states, struggle with your physical states all are samsaric karmic seeds coming to fruition. Not having enough positive merit to counteract that or to overcome it, you are unable to truly apply yourself and replace those karmic seeds. Merit is very important and there are many ways of accumulating merit. In essence, merit is the most important, isn t it? There is no path, no enlightenment that has ever been achieved that has not been dependent on merit. Therefore, on the path, it is said that you have to accumulate merit. There are two kinds of accumulation of merit: relative and absolute. Relative merit works to set up the kinds of conditions we have been talking about. Absolute merit dissolves the obscurations. So, in some sense, from the beginning of your path, from taking refuge onwards, doing the ngöndro practice it s all relative merit. The relative merit works on one s mind and one s emotions, one s seeds. You know that you have come along this far. From this point on it will be dependent upon merit, the relative merit. How one will be able to work with one s mind and one s emotions and one s seeds to be able to do the practice well depends upon the merit. Hopefully, as you have done the practice well in the ngöndro, the practice has worked with this sort of mind and emotions and the seeds to be able to come this far. The practice has to work in that way. That is relative merit. Absolute merit comes from the practice on the nature of mind. From the beginning of the Longchen Nyingthik path you have started with the nature of mind. You were able to have a first glimpse that has awakened you from illusion for a moment. OVERVIEW OF MAHAYOGA CHYÉRIM PRACTICE, April 24,

6 However you experienced that, it introduced you to a different level of consciousness and has given you hope of being able to awaken completely. If that hope is not present, if that hope is not given, there won t be any belief that it is ever possible to get off one s ordinary mind and get on with something else. Being able to do the session practice, the nature of mind practice until this point, you have seen how setting conditions in a different way enables you to manipulate the mind. You have seen how thinking in terms of the Dharma and applying yourself with the practice of the ngöndro or The Words of My Perfect Teacher, it does work. Ultimately speaking, if it s all manipulation of thoughts and emotions and not something beyond that, it won t work; it would reverse. If it is all conditioned, it will not work, ultimately. There is a great chance of reversing. There is a great chance of becoming totally lost again and feeling like you have to hold onto the views. It is important to have that experience of something else happening, beyond applying the teachings. Beyond applying the wisdom of the Words of My Perfect Teacher. Something else has happened. What has happened? You have seen the true benefit of practice. Whether big or small, the true benefit of practice has to be some sense of liberation. Not just liberation from one thought to another. If it is just one thought to another thought, it is still a thought and there is still the distress of having a thought. Liberation is a sense of being able to go beyond all thoughts and all emotions and being able to find peace from the effects of the dualistic mind and the experience of confusion and distress of the dualistic mind. That s why, I believe, you are all still here. Otherwise, I very much imagine that you would be not so loyal to your lineage or to your guru or your own practice, to your own path. That taste, even though it is not much of a taste, has kept you, in some ways, interested and inspired and longing to go forward, and is why everyone is here. Fragility and insisting to remain stuck in who we are But at this point it is very fragile. That inspiration, that longing, that sense of experience is very, very fragile. The experience itself is actually momentary in your practice. The effect of that experience is very fragile. Right now, it s very easy for you guys to get confused about the Dharma, about the guru, about the lineage, about one s sense of purpose of being a practitioner. Any time any the conditions change slightly in your environment you re all in flux and very vulnerable. But as time goes by, hopefully, things will change and you will become much more stable. The way to get stable is not through the thought education. Of course, the thought education is very important. But the experience and the true sense of growing confidence in the experience is what can make you a stable practitioner and make you progress as a practitioner and go forward on the path; it is what allows you to get closer and closer to the sense of being a genuine practitioner and the ultimate purpose of that. There is both a temporary purpose and an ultimate purpose of that. The temporary purpose of that is to actually cope with samsara, to be able to live in samsara but not sink in it. The ultimate purpose is to attain enlightenment, to awaken. But if you stay where you are and insist on staying where you are, then you will always be where you are. It won t happen on it s own. You will stay where you are, without even knowing it. The way you insist on staying where you are is by being attached to your conventional life, conventional world, all of your samsaric perceptions, samsaric mental continuum or emotions that we have all inherited. If you insist on staying there, you re going to stay there. There s really no way to get in there and get somebody out if somebody is insisting. Therefore, it is important to make even little steps in one s emotional mind or in one s mental continuum to be able to take a leap, a leap towards embracing the Dharma and the view of the Dharma and show the courage to become a true practitioner. Some people say, Oh, I m practicing the nature of OVERVIEW OF MAHAYOGA CHYÉRIM PRACTICE, April 24,

7 mind, I m practicing Mahamudra, I m practicing Dzogchen. But if their emotions stay the same and they insist on staying the same and being caught and totally bewildered by it even more so than ordinary people then it is really questionable how the practice is actually serving or doing any good. There has to be a balance, with the absolute nature really loosening your mind and freeing you from your ordinary ways of thinking and ordinary ways of being stuck in your emotions. At the same time you are also making the leap. It cannot be all manipulation of thoughts and emotions with the conceptual view. Likewise, we cannot just expect that the practice alone will do its work. You have to understand karma. The practice works, but also requires taking a leap Practice may work immediately, as all of you have experienced at those times when you are really practicing and are able to connect with the practice. There seems to not be much struggle. There seems to not be much struggle even if there are things you re struggling with. In that moment, there seems to be no struggle. But then when you close your pecha or you come out of your practice, struggle is back fully, the same way as before. And then you feel discouraged. Quite discouraged. Why is it that when I m practicing there seems to be no struggle but when I close my pecha or when I come out it seems to be the same old struggle? Same old stress or distress, the pain and suffering are all there. Why? That s because practice works. The remedy is not powerful enough to overcome all of the obscurations at once or all of the defiled states of mind, from beginning to end. It works for that period of time. And to have that period of time s experience, it s evidence that it works. It s proof for you, not for anyone else, that it works. But it doesn t take care of everything completely without you applying it in the relative, and actually working with your mind. You have to work with your mind with the teachings, and if you work with your mind with the teachings it won t be so simple and easy. It will take a leap. And making the leap will over time, work with the seeds, work with the habitual tendencies, the bagchak. Over time the bagchak becomes weaker and weaker and you become much more able to find freedom from your own bagchak and from your own tendencies. And that s how one can make progress. So, one has to make a leap in the relative sense. The practice must become experiential to work and for the lineage to survive There are many paths within the Vajrayana. I have tremendous faith in all of the teachings of the Vajrayana and particularly in the path of the Longchen Nyingthik the path that we are all on. It is not going to survive, nor could we keep peoples interest and inspire them to go further if there is no actual experience, if it s just a dry conceptual thing. Dry conceptual things can only work for the time being. People who are interested in dry, conceptual things will be interested in dry, conceptual things. But at some point, that becomes boring and stale. If it isn t experiential then why would this lineage survive? Why would peoples interest and inspiration be continuous even though they make very little progress, even though they find very little openness to make a change in their life due to lack of merit? I call it lack of merit that way it s clear that it is not the person s fault. Even though the person is in some sense responsible, it s not as though the person is bad. It s more like one s karma is making the person the way they are. And yet, we can t simply think that karma just runs one s life and we have no freedom or choice within our own hands. It s not like everything is predestined by karma. Karma is present and there are delicate contemplations to do with that. It is one s choice, but it s also karma. Karma reflects one s mind and mind reflects the karma. In essence, what I m OVERVIEW OF MAHAYOGA CHYÉRIM PRACTICE, April 24,

8 trying to say is that the lineage of Longchen Nyingthik is going to survive and benefit beings, bring people along in the path to the ultimate fruit ONLY if there is actual experience. That is, the real sense of experience that relates with your everyday mind and everyday emotions and everyday suffering, and through that, finding yourself becoming more and more free and liberated. But if you insist to be a sufferer then there will not be that effect. Developing faith in the teachings and in one s experience In many people I see lack of faith in the Dharma, lack of faith in the teachings, lack of faith in their own experience and in their own mind. They have much more faith in the confusions, have more loyalty to their defiled emotions, and are validating their confusions. Think about this; it is a very interesting thing validating one s confused emotions. People often insist on suffering and on not making a jump. Now, if people are doing that, what can the lineage do? What can the teacher do? The teacher can t do anything, if you insist. In that sense, you have to understand your obstacles or your negative karma. Karmic seeds are working on you at those times. Even while I m talking it may sound like I m trying to trick you into believing something that you don t want to believe, or that you want to be suspicious of. You would rather be suspicious. But the reality is that there is very little time. Even if we live to be eighty, there s very little time. For instance, Gary or Kelly and Ann, you are already in your 40 s and 50 s. Time is very limited. We can be patient with ourselves or with the students, but at the same time it s not like we have infinite time. We are faced with that and we have to consider it. It really boils down to how badly you want this path. How badly do you want liberation, how badly do you really want to believe in the path and liberation? If you do, I think any necessary stretch to embrace the view, even though in the beginning it feels a little awkward or foreign or conceptual, unsettling, provoking many doubts and different things, you would make the jump. Like Naropa made the jump off the ten-story tower because he wanted the teachings from Tilopa. I m not suggesting for anyone to jump like that, but this can be interpreted on many different levels. Everyone can relate to this with his or her own mind. You also have to be perceptive of your mind and where you are closed and where you are stuck, where you are not making the jump. I realize everyone is fragile. But even though peoples minds are unstable, fragile and vulnerable to obstacles and confusions and negative conditions taking over their lives, still peoples faith in the lineage, in the teachings, in the relationship with me, is there. Based on what? The existence of this faith is based on your experience and because of that experience I think you are all still Dharma students, still practitioners and find inspiration and longing to go forward. I rejoice in that. That is still the ground; we still have ground. If you actually look outside not to put down other people but many people don t even have that ground. They are much more vulnerable. They are Buddhist and practitioners today, but tomorrow they might actually become a butcher. There s a very big possibility of that because the conditions of one s mind and emotions are all that is there, and those always change. In those cases, there is no other reference beyond the conditions of one s mental thinking and emotions. I rejoice that we have the ground and you and I both have to accept that. It s not a personal thing; I don t take it personally. When somebody actually shows openness and inspiration and longing to go forward, I don t take it personally. I see that as that person s own experience working, working on their own mind. Personally speaking it is very unimportant, in some sense, isn t it? Even if how the student relates with the guru may seem very important to the guru, actually it OVERVIEW OF MAHAYOGA CHYÉRIM PRACTICE, April 24,

9 is important only in principle. It is not the case that the guru needs someone to tie his shoes and that will please the guru, or that the guru is dependent on the student to tie his shoes. It s much more in the principle, and if the experience is working, then the person comes along better. But if the experience is not working no matter how close the person is to the guru physically, they are in the same breath going farther and farther from the meaning of the whole thing. So, you have to accept and I have to accept that we have an experience here as a ground of Dharma. We have the practice truly working with one s mind and emotions on the thought level with application of teachings. In essence the teachings are thoughts working with our confusions and our confused thoughts and emotions. Glimpsing the nature as the very root of all our inspiration and determination On the level of experience, we are able to have a glimpse of the nature. The nature has to work. If it s just the nature and not anything in relation to the mind and emotions then what good will come of that nature? It has to work with the mind and emotions, and yourself. And you have seen it work, you have experienced it at work in your meditation practice; you have found liberation on your own cushion. That s why people are changing. Otherwise how would people ever change? People wouldn t change; people are rigid, more rigid than a horn. You could carve a horn and make it into any shape, but people are much more rigid than that. Yet, there are many rigid people here who have changed and made tremendous progress. Some people have made progress in an easy way; some people made progress in a hard way. Those people who have made changes in a hard way, I don t think it is a result of being able to work better with me and being able to listen to me or cultivate a relationship with me on a different level. A lot of people think that way, but that s not it. It s actually one s own mind and one s own experience that are making the difference. For instance Natasha or Deana things that are changing in you are changing because of your experience not because of outer things, something outside of your own experience. You have to honor that experience, otherwise, you would be insisting on staying the same. The reason I am emphasizing all of this is to lay the foundation in this first sadhana talk. I want to, in a way, visit where you are, where your mind is and what is happening to your mind and put things in perspective. Take a look at what your life as a practitioner has been or is now. In this way you can see what to do next, how you can progress. If you don t know where you are, where your mind is as a practitioner, how would you know where you are going or what you have to do and how to do it? It would be very difficult to know that. In all the teachings it is a leap. In the Vajrayana teachings it s a bigger leap. Before we make this leap we have to know that we have two choices: make the leap or insist on staying where we are. If you insist on staying where you are even though the practice has a great effect on you, it becomes pointless. It defeats the purpose. But again, you have to understand that you have a choice here. I am trying to communicate that you have a choice here because if I don t try to communicate that you have a choice here, most likely, unconsciously you ll insist to stay where you are. While at the same time trying to make a leap. Both at the same time are not going to work. So, one has to work. You can t move one step forward and one step backwards and then expect to get far. This is what I sometimes feel that people are doing with their mind. I don t blame you for having doubts. Everybody has doubts. It s not such a big deal to have doubts. It s not such a big deal to have emotions. It s not such a big deal to have confusions we re all OVERVIEW OF MAHAYOGA CHYÉRIM PRACTICE, April 24,

10 samsaric sentient beings. But if you insist on staying confused, if you insist on finding reasons to hold on to your emotions and validate your perceptions, then it s not just only having confusions. It is that fundamentally something is shifting and you don t want it to shift. You want to come back, close back up. You want to close it off because you are afraid, threatened by going to another level of being. So, you want to go back to your old ways right away. I find this to be the biggest obstacle for the students. Going deeper is more important than just doing all the right things At the same time it s not like you just have to do the right things and that will take care of everything. Its not just that you apply the teachings, follow the guru s commands or the words, and be a sincere, serious practitioner, doing all the right things and then it will all work out. It s not going to work out. We have evidence of that kind of thing, for instance, with Vern. It s not going to work out that way. There has to be something happening in a deeper level of a person, deeper level of a person s being. The person has to go through some process of falling apart and then be able to put oneself together, going into a state of confusion and also clarity. And one has to know the confusion and the clarity and accept the experience of the falling apart of your old habits and all your conditions. Then putting yourself back together with a sense of well being that comes, not from outer conditions and trying to insist on your conditions but from deep within, but from a deeper sense of who you are as a practitioner, who you are as a realized being a being who has realized the nature. So, in that sense, the process is not bad. The process is really not bad, but the closing off of the process, solidifying the process in one way or another works against one s benefit. Most of the time people don t get to that point. I feel in many cases people don t even get there. They re floating on the surface. They know it and I know it. Its like they re not in touch. They re just superficially applying the teachings and doing the right things and there isn t anything happening in the deeper levels. Everyone has an experience. But as to how far that experience goes, there is a depth and a level to that. How it works against your well being or the core being. For instance, David here, he s such a nice guy. Because he s too nice a guy, sometimes maybe what s happening underneath, deep down, is unknown. Hopefully being a nice guy and being in touch with what s happening underneath comes together or becomes one. And who David is, a nice guy, a wonderful person if it s a true reflection of what s happening underneath despite his struggles, his confusions, his pain, despite feeling lost much of the time, it would be like two parts of David coming together. What s core and what s surface coming together and becoming one. Shinjang Please don t take me wrong I don t want you guys just to behave well. This is not a talk on the behaving well and doing the right thing. It s not. It s more about really observing what s happening on a deeper level and how practice is actually helping or not helping. How you could make practice help you and make the leap, not insist on being confused. In that sense there will be shinjang all the way through. Shinjang is like when you work out in a gym, you go through a lot of pain. At the same time after going through the work out, the pain also has a sense of well being to it. That sense of well being comes from going through the pain of the workout. It is the same in the practice of meditation. When you are just sitting, at first you are very agitated, your body is a hurting, you have OVERVIEW OF MAHAYOGA CHYÉRIM PRACTICE, April 24,

11 aches and pains but you are still remaining on the cushion and you re still holding a good posture and you re just letting go. And when you let go of that for a while then there is shinjang in the body; your body feels a great stillness. Everybody has felt that, right? After going through the agitation and the pain and the aches, your body gets to a state where it s very still and you discover an almost unknown pleasure that exists in your body. A kind of evenness in your body, the energy is even in your body. You don t want to move even a little bit because you don t want to disturb that. That is physical shinjang. Mental shinjang is when you go through so many agitations and emotions and struggles with the practice, applying the instructions and it not working and sometimes working. Then after a while you get to a point where your mind is actually very calm and peaceful. It s not that you have no thoughts. It s not that you have no emotions. On the contrary, you could have the same thoughts, the same emotions that you used to have and that you were struggling with. You could be applying the same kind of instructions on your mind. But this time it s different. It is all very light. It is all synchronized and it s working. Even if it s not working, it s not a struggle. And there comes a mind in a simple state in essence it s a simple state. In essence it s a calm, peaceful, simple state experience of light synchronization. That is mental shinjang. I hope everybody knows this experience. People have been practicing a lot. Does everybody know this experience? Put your hands up. Most probably everybody knows. So, that s your mental shinjang. In the whole path there will be shinjang all along. Everything that one goes through on the path, the many different things that you go through in practice, it will all get you further. This is particular to Vajrayana we call it nyönmong lamcher in Tibetan. It means utilizing the defilement and the confusions as part of the path. What does that mean? If you get stuck in those, you ll be a samsaric person the same as anyone else. It won t be different in any way. If we go through those things and apply the view and the practice, we get to where we want to be. In the Hinayana path we shove away the perceptions of negativity and the confusions of the different mental states and negative emotions and try to stay peaceful conditionally. In the Vajrayana we get where we get due to what we go through. If we get stuck, it s not going to be that way. I was just telling Natasha this in regards to her situation the kind of experience of going through the struggle of moving down to Crestone, to a totally different situation. I feel very encouraged that the path can work; it will work. I ve seen it working. As a teacher, I see it working even better here than in Tibet. So, I m encouraged in that way. But at the same time what I want to emphasize is that it takes a lot of patience. It takes so much patience to wait for people to make the small progress that they are making. And being understanding with the ways people are getting stuck and why they are getting stuck and how they are insisting to stay the way they are. It takes so much patience and so much tolerance. But I think I have the patience and the tolerance with all of the people. So, based on that, we re going to be hearing these teachings. And based on that, these teachings will be another step. When we had our first sadhana retreat we didn t have this kind of view or this kind of clarity. So, this is another step and there will be another step and another and another and many more, to the end. As Nyöshul Lungtok, one of the great lineage teachers said, What does it have to do? It has to benefit your mind. In the end it has to be a benefit to your mind. Not in an ordinary way, but a benefit in a true sense. That true sense of benefit; at this point, even within this group, if I were to mention what the true benefit actually would be, it would be like me describing OVERVIEW OF MAHAYOGA CHYÉRIM PRACTICE, April 24,

12 a mango and you thinking about it as a pear. You will have a totally different image. But over time what you go through with your mind will bring you closer to the true benefit. For instance, take someone like Ann. In the beginning of our relationship we were just talking about depression. How to work with depression and that was all that mattered; anything beyond that was not going to be relevant. But at the same time going through that and then taking another step from that and then another step from that, another step from that and now I hope that when I am speaking, Ann is making a connection to what I m talking about. Still, I feel that in this room if I were to talk about the true benefit people would not be that inspired. The reason is because there is no opening for that benefit. People often think that they are fine the way they are. Scott Gallagher s big neurosis is that he thinks he s fine the way he is, the way his mind is. At the same time I can see that we all have to live a human life and living that human life intelligently, we go through many things. And going through many things we are brought further and further to seek more and more truth, the deeper levels of the truth. We are not fooling around as much with the surface layers of the truth. In that sense I m very confident and I hope it works for all of us, myself and all of the students. My confidence right now is based on the goodness of the people rather than their performance. Based on that goodness I have trust in people. I hope the performance and experience will come as time goes on. For instance, Jenny is going into retreat. I am hoping that it works out, that the benefit will be there in the end. At the same time I am totally open she might want to come out after two weeks. That s totally possible. So, it s like that with everyone: I am hopeful but I really have no expectations. For instance, I wanted Scott Gallagher to do a one-year retreat. He really wanted to do a one-year retreat. But I don t think this one-year retreat is going to do much. It s good to wait for now. Right now he serves the sangha much more and brings the benefit to the sangha just where he is. Disrupting this and putting him in a retreat is not going to do much. At some point he will have to get beyond where he is now, with the practice particularly, not so much with the service. Really going through some things gets you beyond. Then it is helpful. I think it would be like that with everyone. Andy asked to be in retreat. And I said it s not time. The reason I said it s not time is that you could go into retreat and come out and be the same old Andy. It s not going to make that much difference. But when the right time comes I hope everybody gets a chance to do retreat. Doing retreat, we have to consider that it is like cocooning. It is cocooning, but a good kind of a cocooning. A caterpillar cocoons and then transforms into a butterfly and comes out. The point of cocooning is to become a butterfly, not to stay in the cocoon the whole time. All this discussion are ngöndro, preliminaries for just setting up the mind, setting up the mind and the conditions for people to digest the teachings and bring a perspective of what we are trying to do here. I could just go into the text right away and read it and you could intellectually connect. But I don t know whether that would be anything helpful. The Five Auspicious Coincidences of Place, Teacher, Teaching, Assembly, and Time So, we will be starting the Rigdzin Düpa teachings now. Listen to this with an open mind. It might be a stretch for you; it is a stretch for you, but the stretch is important. In the Tantrayana teachings, to visualize the five auspicious coincidences being present is very important. Here we are in Crestone, in the sangha house and in this OVERVIEW OF MAHAYOGA CHYÉRIM PRACTICE, April 24,

13 room. We are cramped and receiving the Rigdzin Düpa teachings those are all ordinary perceptions of the place. But if you think this place is Akanishta and this house is Buddha Samantabhadra s palace with all its ornaments and all the richness present in the environment you can see how your mind changes. There is much more of a leap and the benefit of the leap. So, perceiving the place like this is the first auspicious coincidence. Likewise, when you see the teacher as just an ordinary human being, with a mind and emotions the same as your own, who is similarly relating to his mind and emotions like you do, if the teacher has the same kind of mind and emotions as you have, then who s going to teach what to whom, and how? There won t be anything special about that. But if you visualize or perceive the teacher as Samantabhadra a completely enlightened, awake person with complete freedom and qualities of enlightened mind manifested in this form in order to relate to your mind and emotions, to liberate your mind and emotions from the state they are in then there is some inspiration, some interest or warmth growing in your heart, with a sense of making a connection to the teacher. Therefore in the Vajrayana teachings we have to visualize the teacher as the Samantabhadra or Vajradhara himself. Of course, you won t see it with your eyes; it is more of a mental thing. (To see the environment, the place, the teacher like this, you won t experience it with the sense perceptions; it s a mental thing. That mental thing has to override itself and the perceptions). That is the second auspicious coincidence of purely perceiving the teacher. Then there is the third auspicious coincidence the teachings. The teacher is giving the teachings. If you consider these teachings the same as going to any other kind of teachings, then it won t be so significant, important or special. You are more or less going to want to get down to the dining room and eat. Maybe what s on your mind. There is nothing wrong with that, but at the same time if that s what s on your mind, this time and the auspicious coincidence of coming together is going to be very ordinary. On the contrary you could think that the teachings being given here are the Tantrayana teachings, the very same teachings that bring sentient beings to enlightenment within one lifetime. What is being introduced here is the true reality and the true nature of one s mind, which will remedy all your confusions, all your pain and all your suffering and ignorant mind. Thinking in this way there is some openness, a sense of warmth and joy, a sense of mind that wants to connect to the teachings. Then there is the auspicious coincidence of the assembly. When we look at ourselves sitting here among the people and think, This is Michael, this is Scott and Scott has this kind of personality; Michael has that kind of personality and Rebecca has this kind of personality and get stuck in that state of mind, it s not going to work. It will be, more or less, a hassle to be around each other. On the other hand if we look at the people around us as future buddhas and understand that buddhahood is present within them, then it gives you another feeling, another sense of inspiration, warmth in the heart and openness. So that is the fourth auspicious coincidence. Finally, there is the time, the fifth auspicious coincidence. If we consider this just one week of time, within which we will get together to hear these teachings, if the time is being taken for granted by thinking that this could happen any time, at any moment and in any year, then it feels quite ordinary. But if you actually see this time as the time that makes the most difference in your life which it is supposed to and understand that this is enlightened time where there is actually no beginning, no end and no middle, that it s OVERVIEW OF MAHAYOGA CHYÉRIM PRACTICE, April 24,