While the causal condition for the path is the Buddha-nature, the dominant condition is the sublime teacher, because the path comes about through practicing his or her teachings, and realization of the ground as it is depends on the teacher. The actual practice of the path depends on the individual; the path itself is virtue that combines skillful means and wisdom and serves as the gateway to liberation.

It is said in the sutras:

Wisdom accompanied by skillful means is the path.
Skillful means accompanied by wisdom is the path.

And in the Abhidharma texts we find:

The path, in brief, is to fully recognize suffering, to abandon the origin of suffering, to realize cessation, and to follow the path of meditation.

It is by energetically and single-mindedly training in the general and specific stages of the path that comprise the Buddha’s doctrine, matching them to one’s own individual capacity, that one will gradually travel the paths of accumulation, joining, seeing, and meditation, all the way to the end. For the actual attainment of the result depends on practice.

Dudjom Rinpoche

from the book A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom: Complete Instructions on the Preliminary Practices

translated by Padmakara Translation Group


source: https://dudjomtersarngondro.com/2019/03/29/the-truth-of-the-path/


Read a random quote or see all quotes by Dudjom Rinpoche.

Further quotes from the book A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom:

• Accumulation of merit becoming perfectly pure
• Our minds and the Dharma go different ways
• Dedicating illusion like merit