The purpose of teaching the “Tathagatagarbha” is to give meditators confidence that they already have Buddha Nature. Without such confidence it is very difficult to fully rest the mind free from all conceptual contrivance, because there is always a subtle tendency to try to remove or achieve something. In the “Ratnagotravibhaga” five reasons are given […]
Just thinking, “all is empty,” without a system of proof based on sound reasons arrived at through valid reasoning is not emptiness. That is just belief about emptiness. In this particular context, entertaining a supposition about emptiness and holding a belief about it come down to more or less the same. Just to think, “all […]
Having control over appearances does not mean jumping off buildings and flying. Rather, it means that you do not cling to appearances as they seem to be in the usual worldly way of relating to them. Such appearances will not cause you suffering or tie you up once you have gained mastery over them through […]
Though shifting appearances ceaselessly rise Just be unattached as a child at play Though seeming joys, troubles, friends, enemies rise All thoughts free themselves like the waves of the sea What a wealth of thoughts – passion, aggression, praise, blame Just look at their essence, the naked clear void To walk, sit, eat, lie down […]
Clearly, in order to end one’s own suffering, there is nothing more important than to realize that when one acts as if the body and mind constituted a lasting, separate, independent self, one unthinkingly attributes to them qualities which they simply do not have. Nothing in the whole stream of mental and physical phenomena that […]
All these forms—appearance emptiness Like a rainbow with its shining glow In the reaches of appearance emptiness Just let go and go where no mind goes Every sound is sound and emptiness Like the sound of an echo’s roll In the reaches of sound and emptiness Just let go and nowhere no mind goes Every […]
Clinging to the idea of self is like clinging to the idea that a piece of rope in the dark is a snake. When the light is turned on and one sees that there is no snake there, one’s fear and suffering that arose from clinging to it as real dissolve. The snake never existed […]
Since the time we were born from our mother’s womb, the only thing we have seen is the present. We have never seen the past and we have never seen the future. Wherever we are, whatever time it is, it is only the present. The present does not remain beyond a single instant [snaps fingers]. […]
In absolute terms, each moment of experience is empty of a difference in nature of perceiver and perceived. Rather than regarding consciousness merely as the seeing or observing aspect of a moment of experience, it is also the content of that experience. Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche
You know the supreme path that is free from coming and going, And you teach the true nature of all phenomena, While never leaving a single being out of your compassion’s embrace, Great mother, noble Tara, I bow at your feet. Since all phenomena, outer and inner, are dependently existent mere appearances, They have no […]
Hey, hey, lucky students, diligent, faithful and smart, Take a look at mind’s nature – simplicity unborn When reference points and signs dissolve in certainty Don’t strive, strain, or stop, just relax naturally Look nakedly at the inexpressible – Mind’s basic nature, bliss and emptiness Relaxed, at ease, fixation-free, All that binds is free in […]
The self is simply a vague and convenient concept that we project now here and now there onto a stream of experiences, and is nothing in or of itself. Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche
For the beginning mahamudra practitioner, it is important to meditate in brief sessions. One way to do this is through singing Milarepa songs. One way to proceed is to sing a song and then rest briefly in the meditation. This is profound upaya for mahamudra practice, because what is pointed out in the songs is […]
We all act as if we had lasting, separate, independent selves that it is our constant pre-occupation to protect and foster. It is an unthinking habit that most of us would normally be most unlikely to question or explain. However, all our suffering is associated with this pre-occupation. All loss and gain, pleasure and pain […]
“Self-liberation” is like being bound in iron chains in a dream. If you do not know you are dreaming, your bondage appears to be real, you think it is real, and your experience seems to confirm that it is real. But if you know you are dreaming, you know that the iron chains do not […]
If we can see that things are not truly real – that they are mere appearances whose true nature is beyond all concepts of what it might be – then our experience of both good and bad events in life will be open, spacious, and relaxed. Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche
When looking for the self it is very important to remember it is an emotional response that one is examining. When one responds to an event as if one had a self, for example when one feels very hurt or offended, one should ask oneself who or what exactly is feeling hurt or offended. Khenpo […]
Through all of this auspiciousness Wherever its light may be seen With the love and the compassion That make bodhicitta mind supreme May this thought arise in everyone “Other beings’ happiness is as important as my own” And may excellent virtue and auspiciousness Always increase, never diminish! Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche
When we rub two sticks together that produces a fire that will eventually cease. However, the fire doesn’t come from anywhere when it starts to burn the sticks, and it doesn’t go anywhere when it dies out. Fire is empty of coming and going. Similarly, ignorance – clinging to the belief in a self, the […]
All the teachings of the victorious ones, all the different kinds of teachings given by the Buddha – if we condense them into one point, it is that they are the methods to tame your own mind. They bring peace to a mind that is not peaceful. They clear away the confusion, or bewilderment, in your […]
