The Heart Treasure of the Fortunate by Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoch
Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2012 6:12 am
Homage to the Guru!
The Great One of Oddiyana said
"Don’t get to the root of the Teachings,get to the root of the mind.If one gets to the root of the mind, by knowing one, all is free.If one doesn’t get to the root of the mind,knowing all is but a single misery.When you engage in the actual practice of the meaning of mind, sit with your bodystraight. Relax your breath, and let it settle by itself. With eyes at ease, neither straining opennor squinting, let your gaze just rest in the space in front.Then think that, “Now for the sake of all sentient beings who have been my mothers, Iwill look into my own awareness, the reflexive face of Total Goodness.”After praying intensely to your root Guru, inseparable from Oddiyana Padma, mix his mind with yours and evenly let go. When you let go like that, there is an empty, lucid awareness. However, you will not remain in that state for long. Your mind will become stirred up, confused and wander about like a monkey. That is not the essence of mind. That is what iscalled thought.If you falter and follow after these thoughts, unconscious thinking, useless thinking and fantasy will never end. Until now, that is what has thrown you into the dark and disorientingocean of cyclic existence. And in the future it will certainly throw you there again. Now it would be good to put an end to the endless dark delusion of thought. When making this break, if you were to ask,
“What is awareness like?”Empty and fresh. Stunning. Spacious and free. Joyous and stark. It has never beensomething tangible with characteristics, yet there are no phenomena among cyclic existence or freedom from suffering that it does not pervade. It has been with you from the very beginning,and it has never been separate. It is beyond the range of the rational mind that engages inactivity and effort.So then, if you were to ask, “What is it like when recognizing ones own essence?”One recognizes ones own awareness, but one would not know how to express it–like thedream of a mute person.One would not know how to differentiate the awareness that is sustained and oneself, theone sustaining it.In that way, self-settle within the vast, expansive, inner space of awareness and let go into the nakedness.
If one can do that, those thoughts that previously could not stay still for aninstant, that endless metal wandering and fantasy, that old nemesis has nothing to do. Within theinner space of awareness that is like a sky free from clouds, the movement of thoughts fadesaway. It dissipates. It is destroyed. All of the power and ferocity of those thoughts is lost toawareness. That awareness is the naked, stark primal-knowing, the true being that is within oneself.Well then, you might ask, “Who is it that introduces that kind of awareness? How mustone be decisive? How does one gain certainty?”
At first it is the Guru who points out awareness. When thus one comes to know ones own essence, that is “discovering the essencewithin oneself”. However the phenomena of cyclic existence and freedom from sufferingappear, they do not transcend the manifest energy of awareness itself. Therefore “commit toawareness alone”. Whatever thoughts arise, they are all like waves on the ocean that dissolve back into the ocean itself. Thus “becoming certain of liberation” is to transcend the act of cultivation and the object that is to be cultivated, to be free from the mind that clings tocultivation.Well, if that is the case, you might ask, “Wouldn’t it be fine not to meditate?”
That is certainly not the case. Merely recognizing awareness does not bring one to the point of liberation. For countless lifetimes we have been completely enveloped in the delusion created by our subtle habituation. And up until the present moment, we have spent our entire humanlives as the shit-slave of thoughts. When we die, we will have no power over where we go. Wewill have to follow our karma and experience suffering. Therefore the awareness that is presently being introduced must be sustained continuously as meditation.The Great Omniscient One said:To discover ones essence, but not to become familiar with it,like a small child on a battlefield,one will be carried away by the enemy,thoughts.In general, what is meant by “meditation” is to preserve continuously the innatemindfulness of self-repose.
Letting go into awareness without grasping or distraction is what is called “becoming familiar with the innate nature.”So how to become familiar? When meditating, if thoughts arise let them arise. One doesnot need to see them as enemies. Relax in the arising itself. If thoughts do not arise, do notwonder if they will. Let go into the non-arising.Moreover, if gross thoughts suddenly arise during ones practice, it is relatively easy torecognize them. When a subtle thought insidiously arises, after it has arisen other thoughts follow after it without one knowing. That is called the “underlying movements of thought”. It will surreptitiously steal ones meditation, so establishing the lookout of mindfulness is crucial.When the continuity of mindfulness is present at all times–whether eating, sleeping, walking or sitting, whether practicing equipoise or the times between–that is it!The Great Master said:The hundreds of teachings and thousands of practices have but one meaning,sustain the self-awareness of ones own essence,the knowing of one that becomes the liberation of all.It is also said that,If one does not practice, one will not attain certainty.If one practices, one will achieve certainty
You might ask, “What is this certainty that is to be attained?” By practicing as has beenexplained with intense diligence, one will become genuinely accustomed. The sign of this is thatdualistic appearance, that uptight grasping and clinging to a sense of reality, will progressivelyrelax, and the myriad plans and efforts arising from happiness and suffering, hope and fear, willgradually diminish. Ones devotion to the Guru will increase, and one will develop heartfelt confidence in his instructions.Eventually, the rational mind that grasps at a dualistic sense of reality will disappear byitself. Then gold and stone become equal. Food and shit become equal. Devas and demons become equal. There even comes a time when one would not know how to distinguish between pure realms and hell realms.However, until that does occur one is in the grasp of dualistic appearance, and there isindeed virtue. There is indeed non virtue. There are also pure realms, and there are hells.Because all of the happiness and suffering that result from actions is inescapable, the Great Master said,
“My view is high as the sky, but my concern for the results of actions is as fineas flour.”
So it won’t do to say, “I am a practitioner of the Great Completion! I am a great meditator!” while remaining in a stupor with the stench of liquor wafting from ones mouth and the stench of fornication billowing from ones crotch.Holding to a firm foundation of completely pure faith, devotion and sacred commitment,follow the straight and narrow path with intense diligence that neither lapses nor strays to excess.If you have the strength to completely abandon all of the meaningless activities of this life and to practice, the special feature of the profound path of the Great Completion is to decisively seize the primordially impregnable ground in this very life without needing to rely on future rebirths.These concise, naked instructions called The Heart Treasure of the Fortunate were spoken by Primal Knowing.My own Guru told me, “I, the old one, have nothing to think of but the Guru, nothing tosay but prayers of supplication, nothing to sustain but non-action. This state is my mode of being. Now I am in a state of vast and spacious ease without intentionality.”In order to accomplish the considered meaning of ones enduring wishes,the profound instruction of the Great Completion is sufficient in itself.This mnemonic outline, an array of instructions easy to understand,was written and offered by Crazy Dudjom.Virtue!
The Great One of Oddiyana said
"Don’t get to the root of the Teachings,get to the root of the mind.If one gets to the root of the mind, by knowing one, all is free.If one doesn’t get to the root of the mind,knowing all is but a single misery.When you engage in the actual practice of the meaning of mind, sit with your bodystraight. Relax your breath, and let it settle by itself. With eyes at ease, neither straining opennor squinting, let your gaze just rest in the space in front.Then think that, “Now for the sake of all sentient beings who have been my mothers, Iwill look into my own awareness, the reflexive face of Total Goodness.”After praying intensely to your root Guru, inseparable from Oddiyana Padma, mix his mind with yours and evenly let go. When you let go like that, there is an empty, lucid awareness. However, you will not remain in that state for long. Your mind will become stirred up, confused and wander about like a monkey. That is not the essence of mind. That is what iscalled thought.If you falter and follow after these thoughts, unconscious thinking, useless thinking and fantasy will never end. Until now, that is what has thrown you into the dark and disorientingocean of cyclic existence. And in the future it will certainly throw you there again. Now it would be good to put an end to the endless dark delusion of thought. When making this break, if you were to ask,
“What is awareness like?”Empty and fresh. Stunning. Spacious and free. Joyous and stark. It has never beensomething tangible with characteristics, yet there are no phenomena among cyclic existence or freedom from suffering that it does not pervade. It has been with you from the very beginning,and it has never been separate. It is beyond the range of the rational mind that engages inactivity and effort.So then, if you were to ask, “What is it like when recognizing ones own essence?”One recognizes ones own awareness, but one would not know how to express it–like thedream of a mute person.One would not know how to differentiate the awareness that is sustained and oneself, theone sustaining it.In that way, self-settle within the vast, expansive, inner space of awareness and let go into the nakedness.
If one can do that, those thoughts that previously could not stay still for aninstant, that endless metal wandering and fantasy, that old nemesis has nothing to do. Within theinner space of awareness that is like a sky free from clouds, the movement of thoughts fadesaway. It dissipates. It is destroyed. All of the power and ferocity of those thoughts is lost toawareness. That awareness is the naked, stark primal-knowing, the true being that is within oneself.Well then, you might ask, “Who is it that introduces that kind of awareness? How mustone be decisive? How does one gain certainty?”
At first it is the Guru who points out awareness. When thus one comes to know ones own essence, that is “discovering the essencewithin oneself”. However the phenomena of cyclic existence and freedom from sufferingappear, they do not transcend the manifest energy of awareness itself. Therefore “commit toawareness alone”. Whatever thoughts arise, they are all like waves on the ocean that dissolve back into the ocean itself. Thus “becoming certain of liberation” is to transcend the act of cultivation and the object that is to be cultivated, to be free from the mind that clings tocultivation.Well, if that is the case, you might ask, “Wouldn’t it be fine not to meditate?”
That is certainly not the case. Merely recognizing awareness does not bring one to the point of liberation. For countless lifetimes we have been completely enveloped in the delusion created by our subtle habituation. And up until the present moment, we have spent our entire humanlives as the shit-slave of thoughts. When we die, we will have no power over where we go. Wewill have to follow our karma and experience suffering. Therefore the awareness that is presently being introduced must be sustained continuously as meditation.The Great Omniscient One said:To discover ones essence, but not to become familiar with it,like a small child on a battlefield,one will be carried away by the enemy,thoughts.In general, what is meant by “meditation” is to preserve continuously the innatemindfulness of self-repose.
Letting go into awareness without grasping or distraction is what is called “becoming familiar with the innate nature.”So how to become familiar? When meditating, if thoughts arise let them arise. One doesnot need to see them as enemies. Relax in the arising itself. If thoughts do not arise, do notwonder if they will. Let go into the non-arising.Moreover, if gross thoughts suddenly arise during ones practice, it is relatively easy torecognize them. When a subtle thought insidiously arises, after it has arisen other thoughts follow after it without one knowing. That is called the “underlying movements of thought”. It will surreptitiously steal ones meditation, so establishing the lookout of mindfulness is crucial.When the continuity of mindfulness is present at all times–whether eating, sleeping, walking or sitting, whether practicing equipoise or the times between–that is it!The Great Master said:The hundreds of teachings and thousands of practices have but one meaning,sustain the self-awareness of ones own essence,the knowing of one that becomes the liberation of all.It is also said that,If one does not practice, one will not attain certainty.If one practices, one will achieve certainty
You might ask, “What is this certainty that is to be attained?” By practicing as has beenexplained with intense diligence, one will become genuinely accustomed. The sign of this is thatdualistic appearance, that uptight grasping and clinging to a sense of reality, will progressivelyrelax, and the myriad plans and efforts arising from happiness and suffering, hope and fear, willgradually diminish. Ones devotion to the Guru will increase, and one will develop heartfelt confidence in his instructions.Eventually, the rational mind that grasps at a dualistic sense of reality will disappear byitself. Then gold and stone become equal. Food and shit become equal. Devas and demons become equal. There even comes a time when one would not know how to distinguish between pure realms and hell realms.However, until that does occur one is in the grasp of dualistic appearance, and there isindeed virtue. There is indeed non virtue. There are also pure realms, and there are hells.Because all of the happiness and suffering that result from actions is inescapable, the Great Master said,
“My view is high as the sky, but my concern for the results of actions is as fineas flour.”
So it won’t do to say, “I am a practitioner of the Great Completion! I am a great meditator!” while remaining in a stupor with the stench of liquor wafting from ones mouth and the stench of fornication billowing from ones crotch.Holding to a firm foundation of completely pure faith, devotion and sacred commitment,follow the straight and narrow path with intense diligence that neither lapses nor strays to excess.If you have the strength to completely abandon all of the meaningless activities of this life and to practice, the special feature of the profound path of the Great Completion is to decisively seize the primordially impregnable ground in this very life without needing to rely on future rebirths.These concise, naked instructions called The Heart Treasure of the Fortunate were spoken by Primal Knowing.My own Guru told me, “I, the old one, have nothing to think of but the Guru, nothing tosay but prayers of supplication, nothing to sustain but non-action. This state is my mode of being. Now I am in a state of vast and spacious ease without intentionality.”In order to accomplish the considered meaning of ones enduring wishes,the profound instruction of the Great Completion is sufficient in itself.This mnemonic outline, an array of instructions easy to understand,was written and offered by Crazy Dudjom.Virtue!