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Sometimes people say, 'I am going through a hard time right now, but after two more years, I will retire and become a dedicated meditator.' This way of thinking is actually a deceptive form of laziness. If you obey this thought, you will wait two years before practicing in earnest. Then, after two years have passed: 'Look at my body. I am 60, but unlike the old days, people now live to ninety, so I still have 30 years to go. Thanks to modern technology, diet, dietary supplements, exercise, and so on, making it to 80 is no problem. I have at least 20 years to practice. Twenty years is a lot of time! I have an easy five years before I must bother to practice seriously.' Carrying on like this, one day you discover that your life is over. |
Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche |
We should reach a certain readiness so that we are willing to practice immediately, no matter where we are, without having to prepare a whole setting and then practice.
Please keep a good posture. If your body droops, your mind will become clouded; if your body is forcefully erect, the airs will go into the heart and the mind can go up into the head. The neck should not be crooked too much nor straightened too much; the head should just be nicely erect. All together, your posture should be relaxed but firm.
Wherever you are, if you have five minutes, practice, without a lot of preparation. The moment you have the thought to practice, do it. If you only practice after staging it, you might never get around to it. Preparation is just another way of taking counsel from your ego. Ego knows you like to practice, so he plays along and says, 'Practice is good; I like it, but you must be comfortable and do it right. Your environment should be clean and peaceful. If not, your mind will wander. Make sure everything is right first and then practice—then I am happy too.'
Ego-clinging cannot be totally and permanently erased from one moment to the next. This is a process that happens through disciplined training. Still, the temporary suspension of ego-clinging is in itself something truly remarkable.
Carefree is being really simple, from the inside. You need to be relaxed, yet without stupidity. Sometimes people relax like this. (Rinpoche lies back limply with eyes half-closed and a vacant expression.) You’re very relaxed, but you’re relaxing into stupidity. You’ve relaxed peacefully into a very dull state. The point is to be relaxed and yet very clear. There is no need to create something by meditating; no need to achieve something—simply be very clear. Relaxed and bright."
Carefree Dignity, p. 161
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Milarepa
The three qualities—devotion, compassion, and intelligence—should come about naturally. Although you may not have much attachment, anger, or stupidity, the absence of the three qualities is a sign that you might be doing 'freeze training.' If the three qualities do not come easily, from time to time you have to manufacture them. Sometimes remain in composure, then destroy the meditation state and instead do the compassionate practice of tonglen, exchanging yourself for others, as in the traditional Kadampa style from Atisha. Occasionally, alternate between the threefold sky practice. At that time, whatever happens, do not fixate, do not meditate: practice nonmeditation.
Fearless Simplicity, p. 257
If you do not know that you are distracted, several hours can pass by without realizing that you are distracted. Conduct joins you to the path through the function of mindfulness and the kind of conduct that joins you to the path through mindfulness with effort is called ‘conduct that is connected with a view.’ You need that kind of conduct in post-meditation. You also need love for all sentient beings. And you also need to deal with whatever difficulties appear in your experience. The sign of the difference between an ordinary person and a practitioner is that a practitioner deals with their problems effectively. The ordinary person has no method for their problems and doesn’t know how to deal with them.
Ground, Path, Fruition, p. 121
Honestly, there is no fixed time for this practice. But there are two modes of training: one while your buttocks are on the cushion and one while they are not. The main training is to allow rigpa to be in equanimity. Train in the state of naked awareness, free of concepts. ‘Concept’ here means perceiver and perceived, subject and object. That’s how it really is.
Carefree Dignity, p. 85
In Tibet, there is a small mammal, a predator that eats mice and other small rodents. When it wants to catch a mouse, it sits at the entrance to the mouse hole as if it is meditating and waits. Then, when a mouse sticks its head out, the bigger creature grabs it. 'There must be more in there,' he thinks. 'Rather than eat this one now, I’ll save it and catch some more.' So he sticks the victim under his butt and sits on it and goes on waiting. When the remaining mice don’t come quickly, he leans forward to look in the hole, and the one wedged under his butt sneaks off and escapes. Another mouse comes, and he grabs it and sits on it. He manages to catch 10 mice, one after the other, but they all escape, and he ends up having nothing to eat. Why? Because he keeps preparing for what he will eat later and ignores the present. He ends up going to bed hungry. With that attitude toward practice, you will never practice. Wherever you are, whatever you are going through, whatever the setting, practice right there.
Fearless Simplicity, p. 282
The purpose of shamatha is to improve our presence of mind. We all have an innate ability to pay attention, to know. To improve upon this presence, to make it steady instead of being scattered and distracted, we try to remain attentive in a stable way.
Fearless Simplicity, p. 66
Shamatha has three components: being mindful, alert, and settled. Imagine a shepherd at work. When the sheep are tethered, they remain settled. They have a rope tied around their necks to prevent them from walking too far away. That rope is mindfulness. But there is also the shepherd supervising the whole affair, not paying too much attention to each individual sheep, but looking to see if everything is okay, keeping an eye out in case something goes wrong. Some really stupid sheep may get tangled up in their ropes, and if there’s no shepherd around to undo it immediately, they can strangle themselves. Then the shepherd walks over and undoes the rope so the sheep can again roam and graze.
Fearless Simplicity, pp. 66-67
The correct practice of shamatha further and further strengthens [the] alert quality. It transforms into an increasing sense of being awake. Meanwhile, the mindful quality becomes more and more mindful, so that it requires less and less effort. You are just naturally mindful, naturally present. And the sense of being settled, of dwelling in the nowness, becomes more and more of the same identity as the alertness, until finally the alertness pulls this state into something that is no longer just shamatha: it has become vipashyana, the state of seeing clearly. The Mahamudra teachings say that when the division between stillness and thought occurrence falls away, this is the recognition of one-pointedness. This one-pointedness is actually shamatha.
Fearless Simplicity, p. 67
We do not have control over the arising of discursive thoughts. Discursive thoughts do not arise according to a schedule; they can and do arise at any time whatsoever. Exactly in accordance with that, meditation needs to be something which can and does arise at any time whatsoever. In other words, given that the arising of discursive thoughts is unscheduled, to have meditation which is liberating we need a meditation in which the arising of discursive thoughts comes together with the meditation, and the meditation comes together with the arising of discursive thoughts.
Ground, Path, Fruition, p. 64
There are many ways of grasping at the meditative state. Some of you might be so blissful that you feel, 'Wow, it is so great to feel this. Even if I were to be pricked with a needle right now, it will probably also be a pleasant sensation. It won’t hurt at all.' According to Dzogchen, it’s perfectly all right to feel blissful. You don’t have to avoid it, but neither should you hold on to it by clinging to or yearning for the feeling of bliss. Instead, recognize that which experiences, and simply allow the bliss to be a reflection in this mirror. Do not fixate upon it at all.
Carefree Dignity, pp. 108-109
Experiences of bliss, clarity and non-thought do come. There is nothing wrong with that; just don’t hold onto them as being something special. Actually, it’s good to have experiences like that, probably some of you already had them, some not. Some of you probably are still staying in what is called ‘dry meditation,’ meaning there’s no juice in it. It’s just dried–up meditation. Slowly, with practice, this dry meditation becomes saturated, juicy, so that you feel blissful, clear, and thought-free. Such experiences are okay; they’re a sign of practicing. Just don’t get caught up in them! These different experiences are temporary stages or states on the path of meditation, just as along the road there may be a big field of beautiful flowers or a nice little café. The problem is not that you stopped to admire the flowers, but that you liked it so much you felt like staying there. Similarly, the real mistake here is to hold onto that temporary experience as the final result.
Carefree Dignity, p. 112
Do you understand what is meant by resting or dwelling? Like the flower lying atop this rupee note which is resting on the table. That is dualistic fixation. It’s like grasping hold of the money, dwelling on the money, and ignoring the direct experience of the table. The present awareness which experiences right now is resting on this moment. Present mind is dwelling on the present moment, but in a fixated sort of way. According to Dzogchen, that becomes an obstacle for meditation practice. From the viewpoint of another vehicle, it may not be an obstacle. There are many spiritual paths in this world and plenty of instructions that say, 'Don’t worry, just be here now!' This is basically okay, it can be very helpful—but in the end, you still are stuck with this 'Be here now.'
Carefree Dignity, p. 115
If you notice that your meditative state shuts out other things to some extent, that you don’t really want to receive any message about anything else, that you’re closing off; if when something happens it feels like a disturbance, an irritation, that is a sign of conceptual meditation, of being occupied. Also, if you notice there’s a huge difference between the state of composure and post-meditation, that’s no good either.
Fearless Simplicity, p. 138
Generally speaking, perseverance is the remedy against
laziness. When do we feel lazy? One situation is when we are
supposed to be composed in meditation. There is an invitation
to be lazy that we give in to, and then the state of composure,
the meditation state, is lost or dissipated. As a matter of fact,
laziness arises because of a habitual pattern. It arises as a
pattern, gets accepted in the moment, and one then gets carried
away by it. But resting very nicely in the state of unfabricated
rigpa is itself the perfection of diligence, transcendent perseverance.
Why? Because when the tendency to be lazy recurs, it is naturally
freed. As laziness is self-freed, there is no need to apply the
normal remedy against being lazy, which is conceptual diligence.
If we deliberately try to be diligent, then rigpa becomes conceptual.
Therefore, there is no need to be specifically diligent at that
time. Remaining in the state of rigpa is itself the perfection
of diligence.
Fearless Simplicity, p. 278
Among these points—view, meditation, and conduct—conduct means the way of freeing, how to be free. The best situation is for a thought to be either freed upon arising, naturally freed, or freed beyond benefit and harm, so that the continuity of the view is not interrupted by the occurrence of thought. This is essential! But if it doesn’t happen, if we really get distracted—and let’s just say that we occasionally do get distracted from rigpa’s continuity—then we need to conceptually remind ourselves, 'Hey, recognize mind essence!' This is like the metaphor of striking the gone one more time. And then let go. And when again we forget—hit the gong again. That’s our life’s task.
Letting be . . . means knowing how to be in a way that is free of hope and fear. In other words, when recognizing, we simply let the view be, without trying to modify or correct it. To know exactly how to let be in the right way and to then train in that is called meditation, which is the second among view, meditation, and conduct. Meditation here is to sustain the continuity of the view. Its purpose is to maintain the view; the view is the simultaneous knowing of essence, nature, and capacity, which is recognized by merely looking. When one sets free one’s basic state, it is empty, cognizant and unconfined. In the same moment, all three qualities are present. That view needs to be allowed to continue, and this continuing is called meditation. In this context, several words could be used: natural continuity, natural mindfulness, intrinsic mindfulness. In other words, what is seen in the first moment needs to be allowed to continue. What is recognized should be allowed to be like that continuously—like this sound. [Rinpoche strikes the gong.]
Fearless Simplicity, p. 132
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
Honestly, meditation is simply to sustain the view. It is nothing other than that. Artificially trying to extend the recognition spoils it. You need to know how to allow it to continue. This is why the Dzogchen instructions are incredibly special. The whole point of Dzogchen is to sustain the continuity.
Fearless Simplicity, p. 134
There is one point that is very difficult, the most difficult. Within the context of mind there is the particular point of the liberation of mind. You need to understand this well; if you do not understand it well, it will give you a lot of difficulty. To sit and meditate is not that difficult—to do shamatha meditation or to stay in meditation on emptiness is not hard—but to have liberation in the context of discursive thoughts arising—that is difficult. Your meditation must be capable of providing liberation while discursive thoughts are arising.
Ground, Path, Fruition, p. 64
Rigpa is not something that you can extend. It is something that you have to develop a habit of, you have to train in it. In fact, what you are training in is the removal of the obscurations in order to be able to see the rigpa which is always there. There are two methods of doing this. One method is to get involved in creating virtue and to set about accumulating a lot of merit. The other method is to look directly at rigpa. To make an example for this: I have paper and I need to cut it. To cut it I need to have a knife and then to actually cut it. Accumulating merit is like making the knife. Continuing to accumulate merit is like continuing to improve the knife, but not using it to cut the paper. Using rigpa practice is like actually cutting the paper. As far as these two methods are concerned, you could put a lot of effort into creating or furthering the tool that you already have by working on the accumulation of merit, but in the end you have to do the practice of rigpa which is the actual cutting.
Fearless Simplicity, p. 230 |
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