WORDS OF WISDOM AUTHOR: KHENPO TSULTRIM LODRO

Patrul Rinpoche once said: “If renunciation and bodhicitta are absent, a person cannot sow the seeds of liberation even after nine years of Dzogchen retreat.” We ought to reflect deeply on this statement: it is the most sublime Dzogchen that one spends not a few days or several months but nine years to practice; in terms of methodology, it is undertaken in retreat away from any contact with the world outside; despite this, one cannot sow the seeds of liberation because one does not have renunciation and bodhicitta. This should be enough of a warning. Without renunciation and bodhicitta, we may find ourselves in a position wherein the cause of liberation cannot be established even after nine years of Dzogchen practice! Thus, renunciation and bodhicitta are extremely important to any practitioner.

~Depicted from GATEWAY TO THE VAJRAYANA PATH - Entering the Vajrayana Path

All yidam practices, whether the deity is peaceful or wrathful, involve the generation stage. One cannot do deity practice without knowing how to practice the generation stage. To properly practice the generation stage in a retreat, one should first complete all the preliminaries, also pay particular attention to the process—there are many complicated requirements regarding the time, place, format of the retreat, and the time and format of ending the retreat, and so on. We don’t need to know the details for the time being, as many people have not yet undertaken the preliminary practice; even if some people have completed the preliminaries once, the quality of the practice is still less than satisfactory. However, the method of visualization is very important. If one is unable to visualize clearly, the entire result of practice will be adversely affected. The preliminary practices, such as the ones for taking refuge, Vajrasattva, and Guru Yoga, also entail the practice of the generation stage. Therefore, it is necessary to briefly explain this practice.

~Depicted from GATEWAY TO THE VAJRAYANA PATH - The Generation Stage

A lot of people are optimistic and hopeful when they are young, especially when their career or business is successful. However, once difficulties arise, they quickly fall into despair and become very pessimistic, to the point of taking their own lives. That is true pessimism. Many people today have an extremely passive and negative outlook on life, thinking they have only a few decades remaining in their lives, following which they will turn to stone, dirt, etc. Buddhism does not see it this way.

~Depicted from THE FOUR SEAL OF DHARMA - The Practice of Suffering

The nature of desire is that it can never be contained. This year’s luxury goods become next year’s necessity which we must possess in order to keep up with the times. In two to three years, the same luxury brands are taken off the shelf. Desire is like a treadmill; our footsteps can never keep pace with the speed of the treadmill. If we continue to feel happy as our desire grows, this may still be understandable since the depletion of resources on earth is a problem that future generations have to deal with, not us. However, the question is whether we can truly be happy if our desire grows with no end in sight. We cannot! As happiness is founded on satisfaction, when we incessantly covet all things, even if we are satisfied, it is only a very temporary feeling.

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS - Spiritual Equipment for Modern Times

According to some highly respected Tibetan masters, when practicing diligently, superior practitioners can progress every day, average practitioners every month and the least capable every year. It is understandable if lay people do not make substantial progress because their attention must still be directed to the various daily chores. But monastic practitioners like us whose main concern is solely Dharma- related ought to feel ashamed if we fail to accomplish much more in spiritual practice.

~Depicted from The Right View - The Three Differences

Nowadays, some people suggest that one only needs to undertake the actual practice and not care about the theory behind it. But how should one practice without knowing why to practice first? People like Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chinese Zen lineage, and Jetsun Milarepa did not go through the traditional academic training, only relied on a long period of ascetic practice and the supreme blessing of their masters, to attain ultimate realization. But, then again, they were of incomparable faculty. How likely is it that we have the same quality? Not very likely for most of us, I would think.

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Two Truths—the Key to Unlocking

Ordinary people have a common problem – either they cannot endure the slightest bit of suffering and want to take their own lives, or they become instantly self-important with the slightest accomplishment.

The history of mankind is replete with tragedies and endless wars which all resulted from the mind and are the product of excessive desire. We all know about the inhumane treatment of slaves in the West over a period of four hundred years in which black people were bought and sold like animals. This is a manifestation of mankind’s unrestrained desire at its very extreme.

Therefore, we must subdue the mind and prevent it from steering our body and afflicting us. By taming the mind, we will have the courage to transform suffering into strength and the hope to retake the path to liberation.

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS - How to Face Suffering and Happiness-Taming the Mind as in Taming the Elephant

The alaya consciousness is the fundamental consciousness. All other types of consciousness, like the sixth consciousness, come and go; for example, they do not exist during our sleep or when the body suffers from a strong external impact and becomes unconscious. However, the alaya consciousness and the good and bad seeds, which are stored in the alaya, are always intact and unimpaired. Before the seeds ripen, we do not see them; but at some point, they mature and produce a result. Thus we have this saying, “good begets good; evil begets evil.”

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS - Spiritual Equipment for Modern Times

However, in the context of wisdom and compassion, wisdom can simply be put as realization of emptiness, which encompasses many meanings: realization of no-self, of emptiness pertaining to Madhyamaka of the exoteric school, and realization of Great Emptiness and Clear Light. From the point of view of the esoteric Buddhism, which also includes the view of the Great Perfection, emptiness and clear light are one and the same.

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - Buddhism—the Definition