The following is an excerpt from the magazine Palyul Times:
Dearest disciples,
This is a talk on dharma, always bear in mind. We havenothing else then the concern for this and next life. The most crucial is to be concerned for the next life lest we will astray into the boundless realm of samsara and undergo bottomless sufferings. The triple Gem is the only protector which can save us from that. So it is very imperative, first of all, to generate enthusiastic devotion in the Triple Gem and then to properly put into practice what to take on and what to give up. Do not essentially concert, without any sense of contentment, in achieving the hard-to-accomplish wealth and pleasures for this life. Bascially, supplicate the Triple Gem. To depend on an authentic master is of utmost consequence, and whatever the spiritual master says has to put into practice. The difficulty of obtaining the precious human life endowed with freedoms and riches, uncertainty of life, the infallibility of cause and effect, the imperfection of cyclic existence and virtue of liberation — as explained in the outer Preliminary Practice by the master, train your mind with these four senses of reversing mind from the cyclic existence. Unless we have genereted the sense of renunciation from the world of samsara, we will not become any perfect but the apparition of the dharma practitioner. Until we attain enlightenment, we have to contemplate on the four senses of reversing mind from cyclic existence. If we practice thus, we can be able to merge our mind with the dharma. The essential foundation of Mahayana Buddhism is to generate the mind of attaining enlightenment, Bodhicitta. If generated, that alone will do, if not all is ruined. Bodhicitta has to be free from any bias or secterianism or else it will not become ideal. First, we have to generate bodhicitta towards our own beloved mother and subsequently, at all times, generate towards immeasurable sentient beings until unbearable sense of compassion is aroused in us. If, now, we constantly practice the twofold bodhicitta of aspiring and practical, diligently pefect in the six transcendent paths and meditate on the emptiness that is an aspect of ultimate bodhicitta; eventually and progressively the twofold obscurations along with intrinsic tendencies will be cleansed and the realization of ultimate bodhicitta will dawn. At that time, we can broadly benefit untold numbers of beings. The specific inner preliminaries are as such: taking refuge in the Triple Gem with deep respect and longing, and thinking that ‘whatever happens or suffering may overcome me, I rely upon you’; generation of Bodhicitta has to base on considering all beings as mothers and appreciating their infinite kindness, the practice of Vajrasattva that cleanses all obscurations of self and others, mandala offering, the method of accumulating merits for self and others; and Guru Yoga that bestows immediate blessings– to appreciably complete these practices and to make sure that our three doors (body, speech, and mind) blend with the dharma, is of utmost significance. Of course, we are untainted and liberated since the beginning-less of time, the outer existence is the pure realm, all the males and females are deities; however, we are bonded by the attachment to ‘I’ due to ignorance and perverted point of view. Thus, we perceive everything as impure and wrongly indulge in them, constantly falling victim to unending sufferings. Buddhas, due to their spontaneous and intense compassion, manifest into male and female peaceful wisdom deities, male and female wrathful deities, as the Lord in union with consort and so forth. All these are for the imperfect beings to realize and perk up. Visualization of their outer existence as the blissful sphere, all the beings inside as wisdom deities, all sounds as the resounding of mantras, all conceptual thoughts as the enlightened mind or wisdom, also to visualize the emergence and merging of the rays from the mantras and wisdom of concentration at the heart, to see everything as the supreme excellence existing from the beginning-less of time, to merge into the expanse of emptiness in order the perfection not be sanitized by attachment, to arise again as the wisdom deity with one face and two arms– all these practices of generation completion phases have to be put into practice, by all, as the daily routine in order to finally the level of Primordial Buddha, Samantabhadra. In addition, for realization of the ultimate point of view generate devotion towards the perfect master bearing him in your mind as equal to the unblemished Buddha. And then receive instructions on mindfulness (Shamatha) and, in stages, the instructions on directly revealing the special insight (Vipashyana). Be able to actualize realization on the naked awareness, and diligently practice without being dissipated the point of view until you accomplish the four visions (of Dzogchen). If you practice thusly, without the slightest qualm, you wil attain the perfect Buddha-hood in one lifetime. Due to intense distraction, if you are not able to accomplish this despite your ardent diligence, then it is impossible, if truth be told, to realize the ultimate meaning. So, try to accomplish as I told you and be of utmost advantage for your own sake.
Although, I, the lowly one, deprived of any quality or accomplishment of special abandonment and realization, have written this being unable to turn away from my disciples’ request for an easy-to-understand direction on practicing the dharma.
Patrul Padma Norbu
