When you believe in that very strongly you don’t see how things really exist and you are in the extremes
Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche
[1]
Dharma Talk 11
(Rinpoche asks people to recite Guru mantras while waiting for Him.)
Everything depends on cause and facts therefore conditions sometimes don’t allow me to be in the Zoom. For three Sundays I wasn’t able to be in the Zoom. Still, I know everyone was waiting to listen so it’s good. Your motivation is good. Your participating is good and something positive so that makes me want more to be in the Zoom.
I’m very lazy person, I also work very slow person. That’s my nature, it is difficult to change the nature. I know it’s bad, bad habits are always difficult to not have (laugh). We have bad habits, we always make mistakes, we are always slow and we can not improve much but I know everyone is trying. You guys try harder than I do, so I appreciate that.
It’s really very interesting, amazing that everyone did remember that there was teaching on Sundays and so I think that was something good. Your interest in Buddha Dharma is strong. And [being] interested in practicing or listening teachings or doing something about Dharma is diligence. So that’s the real diligence. So I think that’s something really good and very positive.
People sending some texts to ask about Amala. The surgery was pretty good. she can see very clearly now. So, I think she’s pretty happy about that. She’s happy all the time, maybe now she’s happier. The hospital was very big and very crowded and it takes a lot of time so the procedure was much longer than we expected. So, I wasn’t able to teach in the zoom. But I have a good reason for that – not laziness. Although I’m lazy all the time, but that was not because of my laziness. There was something important [happening], therefore I wasn’t able to be in the zoom. I know people understand [this], and I hope that people [now] understand a little more deeply.
We human beings are naturally respect our parents and it’s a very good habit and very good tradition. Something very important in one’s life to respect one’s own parents, and Amala is now the only one. Lamasang left us and everyone in the monastery also respects Amala and everyone is hoping that we can take care of Amala very well. So, this is something of important duty, important responsibility for me and everyone in the monastery. So therefore, we try all the time, we try the best to take care of her health and somethings that we can do. Usually, I’m lazy and I’m sometimes busy, and I am not very good son, therefore I’m not able to be with her all the time and taking care of her, serving her, but when the important comes, I try my best. That’s my first thing that I have to take care.
Many people know about Amala – she’s special, because of her life or her being here. I think she brought something that makes many things positive. Also, she was important to us, to Lamasang, Lamasang discovered many treasures. There was some special connections or special dependent originations. So therefore, her being here is not only being a mother, but also she brought something positive, something that’s good for Dharma, for our lineage and for Lamasang, lineage treasures. So that’s her story and because of that also many people, some guys here, are very faithful [to her]. That’s our story and I don’t know if you do want to hear this much – that’s a part of the life of Lamasang. So therefore, when we talk about Lamasang’s story and – life then I think it’s something that cannot be missed about Amala. Therefore, I just mentioned some important, some specials about her life.
But Amala, she went through many, many difficult situations or difficulties. She got physical problems a few times, serious problems. She got big, big surgeries – three times. One was a very big surgery on her liver. The second time, they removed her (gauge) bladder. In the US it’s very simple, but here it’s not that simple. Because of that there was a kind of big surgery. And then the third time she has to they changed her knee, both. That was very heavy. Everything is not advanced like that in the US, here, everything is not as good. So, every surgery is much heavier here in the US now. And she got her eye surgery. That was that was very simple and short time and, but she has to go again to get the surgery for the other eye in in May. She was a good person and a good practitioner. Everyone knows she is a very intelligent. She chants Mantras, Sutras for 10 hours, more than 10 hours every day and she did 5 million times of protrations. I think maybe she’s purified her karma. Still, though she is good she has through some difficulties.
I think everyone, although we try to practice, and we try to purify our negative karma, since we have created so much negative karma, very heavy, very deep, it takes time to purify all the negativities. And sometimes it’s a good to pay the debts, negative results physically with the painful sort of feelings. It’s practical, powerful way to remove the power of negative karmas by going through real difficulties and painful feelings. The reason for us to practice Dharma is to remove all the negative karma and become pure. Because right now we are not pure, we are very dirty. Because of negative emotions we are dirty. We are not clean physically: we have so many problems with aging, sickness and dead and all of something related to the physical body. Of course, the root of that is the dirty mind. “Dirty” means selfish mind and all of these negative emotions that make our mind very dirty. So the purpose for us to practice that Dharma to really get rid of all of these dirty things, the outer and the inner dirty. That is the reason and that’s the purpose [to practice Dharma]. There is a way to get rid of all of these dirty things, if we practice correctly, by heart and continually.
So, we were on the 25 page. We’re talking about the Lineage of Dharma practice, or the Ngondro of our Lineage. There are stories of the great Masters of the Lineage and we were talking about the most important masters, Vidyadharas in this Lineage.
Ok So. There was a small quote:” The mind that is dualistic is, by nature, deluded. Whatever it perceives can not be true.” So, the Dzogchen or the Longchen Nyingthig teachings teach people how to understand and get the realization the nature of the mind. The nature of the mind is not the mind. We are always with the mind: the mind sees, hears and thinks. Then we say, “oh, I think this way.” “I see it.” “I hear it.” But when we want to liberate, then we must understand the reality of the nature of the mind – the nature [of mind] is Wisdom. Of course, sometimes a sharp or smart or sharp mind can be called “wisdom”. It’s not the most profound Wisdom. And the Dzogchen teaches the most profound Wisdom that is related to the mind. Why we need to understand the nature of the mind? Because the mind – thoughts or emotions – can be wrong. What we see, what we hear is wrong because our minds can be wrong, or we don’t have that kind of Wisdom to perceive everything. We perceive things through our minds, and therefore we make mistakes and we see the answer wrongly and we hear things not correct. But of course, we don’t understand this reality. Therefore, we need to make the differences between the nature and the mind. The problem is the mind that is “dualistic is by nature deluded” – that means the mind is deluded, and whatever it perceives cannot be the truth. We had to understand this reality and therefore the meaning, the purpose of the teaching. The very special [thing] about Dzogchen teachings is that it make a very clear [distinction] in between these two things: the mind and the Wisdom – the nature of the mind.
I have said everyone of the importance of reading the book, using the book while listening to the teachings so that much clear, easy to remember, easy to understand and to know where we are. Therefore, I think people should have copies of the teaching of this book. Mipham Rinpoche said that the mind that is dualistic. Any kind of mind, maybe negative mind, maybe positive mind, maybe middle mind but as long as it belongs to mind, it is a mind then that is to dualistic and as long as this is a mind it’s naturally deluded, not reality. Here says by natural means the mind itself is deluded. Any kind of mind is deluded. So therefore, the mind itself is deluded, is polluted, is not correct, is not purified. Whatever it perceives it doesn’t have the power to see how things exist, but it perceives only the external part, how things appear. It doesn’t have the power to see through the nature of how things exist. So, it is mentioned here “the mind is dualistic, is by nature deluded”.
“Ultimately, what is necessary is the intrinsic awareness that is the great peace of the complete pacification of the extremes of the aspects of the mind, and the total pacification of the concepts of there being a middle and extremes.” So, intrinsic Awareness or the Rigpa is great peace of the complete pacification of the extremes, any extremes. There are many ways to understand “the middle” but a simple way of saying this is: if you see something is good then because of that something is bad. If you see something is big then because of that something is small. If you see something small – because of that, you see th at [thing] is bigger than this. All of these delude us. When you see this is big and this is small and you believe in that very strongly, “Oh, that’s very big!” You don’t see how it [really] exists and how it appears then we are in the extreme. So, the intrinsic awareness or the Rigpa or the nature of the mind is beyond all concepts and extremes. So therefore, it’s middle way.
Of course, when we use our mind to say “this is extreme, this is the middle”, that is something also not the great nature. The greater nature: there is no extreme and there’s no middle. But of course, usually we say no extremes and just be in the middle. That’s a how we teach and how we teach people to be to the middle way. But the real middle way is of course again, beyond all of these things. If you think, if you believe this is middle [then this is] also extreme. But we need to understand this reality slowly and diligently and faithfully. Therefore, we need to practice or to go through all these preliminary practices. The reason, the purpose or the power or the use of this preliminary practices is to really understand, to be in that nature.
“The preliminary practices that are taught here precede the main practice, which is this very awareness.” As I mentioned earlier, Dzogpa Chenpo, the Dzogchen Nyingthig, or Longchen Nyingthig are the same. “Longchen” means great peace, and that also has the same meaning as Dzogpa Chenpo. And the Dzogchen Nyingthig, or Longchen Nyingthig, has real instructions for us to really realize the very awareness and but of course it has to depend on many factors, such as preliminary practices. And we should go through each of these preliminary practices one by one. And it’s very necessary for us to realize the nature – if we do not understand this awareness in accordance with Dzogchen Nyingthig, or Longchen Nyingthig, teachings there is no way to achieve Buddhahood. So, the teachings of Longchen Nyingthig are very profound and very important, therefore the preliminary practices here are also very important.
“The stages of outer and inner preliminaries are factors conducive for its swift manifestation.”
Probably most of you understand what is the outer and inner preliminary practices. The Longchen Nyingthig ngondro, “The Words of My Perfect Teacher” teach three stages: the outer, the inner and the Guru Yoga. You know all of these preliminaries practices are very important because it’s very, very powerful, very genuine [and creates] conditions for this goal to manifest. “Swift manifestation” means very quickly to achieve the realization.
“The great primordial purity of awareness is the root of the interdependent appearances of samsara and nirvana, and knowing how to rest in that is the key instruction, called ‘knowing one thing liberates from everything.’”
“Knowing one thing liberates from everything” is knowing the Rigpa. Realizing Rigpa then that oneself was liberated from everything, there is no obstacles. Until we realize the very nature, the very awareness there’s not the completed liberation. The completed or the greatest liberation is how to know to rest in the awareness or the Great Perfection. Because of that, very importance of the nature, of the Rigpa is it is essential for the liberation. Because when you do not have that realization then you are not always complete, you’re not able to liberate yourself from many things. So therefore, if you want to liberate from everything, everything of Samsara and Nirvana then we have to understand that this is reality.
“All the arising and cessation of perceptions do not stain that domain of perfection with even one hairbreadth of the extremes of conceptualization.”
Awareness or the nature of the mind or Buddhahood is called Great Perfection. Because of that purity, there is the power of that nature. So it’s pure by the nature, naturally from the beginning, it is never deluded but always stainless from the beginning. Therefore, it says, “do not stain that domain of perfection with even one hairbreath of the extremes of conceptualization.” When we say stain – it means thoughts perceived like extremes. That’s dualistic thoughts. And when there’s no extreme, no conceptualization, then of course it’s basically clean. It’s very pure, by itself naturally, by nature. “This aspect of the natural perfection of the power of the three kayas is called Samantabhadra”. Of course, this aspect of nature means also the Rigpa. Rigpa is three kayas. Rigpa itself is Samantabhadra. Rigpa has three kayas – [they are] the quality of Rigpa. So, if we realize this nature perfection, then we realize Samantabhadra or the three kayas. So that’s complete Buddhahood as complete nature.
End of teaching on 23.04.2023
Transcript by Tri Minh Tara & Dieu Hue
Excerpt from MP 3 Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche teaching on 23.04.2023: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WYh-OKensqNR4NJd8WoJTyaRrI23XqRZ
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Note:
[1] This is Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche’s 11th teaching on April 23, 23 on the book “The Melodious Sound of the Laughter of the Vidyadhars of the Three Lineages”. English version and the title have been sent to Rinpoche for approval.
