Bezos’ net worth on Jan. 1 was $99 billion. On May 1, it was $132 billion, meaning it rose $33 billion. If you divide that difference by the 120 days in that period, you find that he made $275 million a day. Divide that by 24 hours in a day to get about $11.5 million per hour,
Changling Rinpoche on Ocean class: as our teachers say, recognition is easy, bringing it to daily life is hard.
Song of Instructions at the Request of Gok Sangden
Let inner awareness be free.
By not clinging to outer appearances,
Free from outer and inner, it is totally open.
Hope and fear are liberated: E MA HO !
When there is distraction, it is an aspect of mind.
At that time, don’t disregard cause and effect.
By turning the wheel of undistracted awareness,
May the cocoon of body and mind be liberated.
The lord of inseparable space and awareness,
Unmoving from the space of whatever arises,
Bursts forth from the expanse of the fearless sky.
May you be inseparable from me.
At the request of Gok Sangden, Khenchen Gangshar Wangpo wrote this.
[The lord . . . of whatever arises is in italics as it is a translation of Gangshar Wangpo’s name.]
Translated by the Nålandå Translation Committee.
From Khenpo Gangshar Wangpo’s Collected Tibetan Works, p. 71.
Mind Teachings: Instructions for Dratsün Wangchuk by Khenpo Gangshar Wangpo
I prostrate to the holy guru.
O son of an excellent father, there’s no point in the activities of this life. Look at the ways people
get sick, and look at the ways they die. Look at the ways they deceive themselves; through
making plans to remain, they don’t think of their death. Do you know when you will get sick?
Do you know if you will die right now? When the conditions of sickness and death occur, will
you have fearless confidence?
Therefore, you need to examine yourself again and again. Now you have obtained this excellent
human body, and at this time you have met the profound dharma, so don’t be mistaken in your
thinking. Whatever you think needs to be in accord with the dharma. Don’t be mistaken in your
actions. Whatever you do should not contradict the dharma. You are either in accord with the
dharma or not; you have either transgressed your vows and samaya or not. Your own mind is the
judge. Having looked within, you need to correct yourself. You cannot rely on what is said by
others.
When you practice dharma, don’t follow after the mere semblance of dharma. It is necessary to
cut your selfishness and obligations to this life. If you don’t cut ego-clinging, even though others
may regard you as a dharma practitioner out of respect, there will be no benefit. Having fallen
into selfishness, one day you will deceive yourself.
If you cut selfishness and ego-clinging, even though others may not consider you to be a good
person, there’s no problem with that. If you do not fall under the power of ego-clinging and
kleshas, then because all words are just vapor, all circumstances like last night’s dream, and all
praise and blame like an echo, there is no benefit or harm at all.
However, if you cling to those as real, you will have great obstacles and be propelled into
samsara and its lower realms. Not only that, but even in this life, your circumstances will be
difficult, and you will be unhappy. Your virtuous actions will not increase, and what you don’t
want will definitely increase—that’s certain.
If you don’t cling to those as real, they won’t have any power to bind you. Ultimately, you will
attain nirvana or the level of a buddha. Temporarily, even in this life you will be happy, flourish
in the dharma, and purify your evil deeds and obscurations. In your future lives, you will be born
in a pure realm and so forth. All the happiness of this life and the next arise from cutting
selfishness and ego-clinging. Therefore, you always need to cut ego-clinging and selfishness.
If you don’t understand what ego-clinging and selfishness are, I will point this out to you. If you
ask how, it is like this: When good things and popularity come to you, it feels really good, and
then when anything undesirable arises—whether great, small, or subtle, even a single good or
bad word or look from others—it feels really painful and hurts. This is ego-clinging.
Everyone fails to examine this. But other than this, there is nothing to understand. When you
understand this, you always need to recognize it. You need to be able to tame it. That is the real
enemy.
If you are able to recognize and tame it, even if you don’t have the title “lama,” you actually are
a lama. Even if you are not thought of as a scholar by others, you actually are a scholar. Even if
you are not known as a siddha, you actually are a siddha. You are a scholar because taming egoclinging
is the root of all the sutras, tantras, and shastras. You are a siddha because you have
obtained power over your mind; what siddhi is greater than this? If you don’t cut ego-clinging,
then what point is there in even the minor higher perceptions, crushing earth, making holes in
stone, or tying knots in iron?
If you ask, “When one recognizes ego-clinging, what is the antidote to tame it, and how does one
apply that antidote?” Well, when ego-clinging suddenly arises: don’t reject it, don’t adopt it,
don’t change even a hair of it, and don’t alter its color. Don’t dwell on it or examine it again and
again. Directly rest in the natural state. Because it is liberated in its own place, there is no need to
liberate it through something else. At the moment it arises in its own place, there is nothing that
is not liberated.
O son of an excellent father, the root of both faults and good qualities is these two: you are
wandering or not; or, you are aware or not. You need to recognize these. Once you recognize
them, you need to become familiar with them. Once you become familiar with them, you need to
apply them in every circumstance. You must not give in to circumstances for even an instant.
Even if you are happy, you need to recognize these two. Even if you are sad, you need to
recognize these two.
If you are able to become familiar with them, then one day you will spontaneously give rise to
overwhelming compassion for all sentient beings, renunciation of samsara, certainty that subtle
and coarse cause and effect are unerring, faith that actually sees the guru as the Buddha,
engaging the teachings with a superior intention, and joy in sickness and happiness in death.
Until these arise, don’t let yourself wander.
O son of an excellent father, the time is now, so don’t procrastinate. All your intentions can be
accomplished on this very seat. I could show you my raw red heart, but there are no other
teachings than these. Even though these words are unpleasant, they have profound meaning.
Even if you ask a hundred scholars, the root is included within those two. Even if you meet a
hundred siddhas, it seems to me that there is no other conclusion than this.
Basically, I am stupid. I haven’t been able to bring the dharma into my own mind, let alone the
profound meaning of the practice of the great perfection. Because I don’t know how to write a
good line of poetry, or even the details of correct spelling, it is difficult for me to dare to give
oral instructions or practices to others. However, I wrote this so as not to refuse your insistent
request. Whatever faults and contradictions there are in this, from my heart I confess them all to
the guru and the deity. By the virtue of this having benefitted you, may this give rise to vast
benefit for the teachings and sentient beings.
In general, when completing any virtuous activity; when in front of representations of the three
jewels, the guru, or the sangha; or when seeing or thinking of anything—birds, insects, pack
horses and mounts, male and female lay people, and so on—with vast bodhichitta, make
dedications and aspirations, free from selfishness. Until attaining enlightenment, it is very
important to accumulate merit by offering even a grain of barley or a drop of water and to purify
obscurations. With all of these, it is always necessary to seal them with all-pervasive awareness,
free from attachment and beyond reference point.
At the request of Dratsün Wangchuck of Rigdzin Khachöling, accompanied by a khata, this was
written by stupid, old Gangshar Wangpo.
From Khenpo Gangshar Wangpo’s Collected Tibetan Works, pp. 87–96
————–
The Way to Rest in the Nature of Mind
Let inner awareness be free.
By not clinging to outer appearances,
Free from outer and inner, it is totally open.
Pleasure and pain are liberated: E MA HO !
When there is distraction, it is an aspect of mind.
When there is pleasure or pain, it is an aspect of mind.
When there is hope or fear, it is an aspect of mind.
When good or bad appear, it is an aspect of mind.
When clean or dirty appear, it is an aspect of mind.
At these times, do not disregard cause and effect.
With meticulous conduct, be humble.
Not engaging in inconsiderate, harsh speech,
Your conduct in accord with others,
May pleasure and pain be purified within.
Ask yourself, “Where am I on the path?”
When you are ill or suffer, see if you are patient.
When you are belittled or disrespected, see if you are patient.
If you are impatient like an ordinary person,
This is a sign of not yet having mastered the path.
Supplicate the guru and the deity.
Receive the four abhiúhekas and mix your mind with wisdom mind.
Within nongrasping, relax and let go.
Within effortlessness, remain loose.
From time to time, contemplate unerring cause and effect.
Take on the suffering of beings.
Give your happiness and virtue to others.
Focus on sending happiness and taking on suffering,
Not rejecting what is bad, let it be, just as it is.
Not striving for what is good, let it be, just as it is.
As you are free of good and bad, hope and fear,
Whoever you are with, you are happy.
Wherever you live, you are happy.
Whatever you do, you are happy.
When cause and effect become more and more subtle,
Your self-interest and ego-clinging diminish.
Your pleasure and pain, passion and aggression, also diminish.
When you no longer fear death,
This is a sign of having a little mastery.
In brief, at all times,
When you know how to let the uncontrived, natural state be,
You will never move from space.
These crazy words of Gangshar Wangpo
Arose spontaneously.
As you are inseparable from me,
May we bring benefit to all beings.
Translated by the Nålandå Translation Committee © 2017 by the Nålandå Translation Committee
———————————-
FIVE
Mahamudra
BEFORE WE DISCUSS Naropa’s experiences with Tilopa further, we have to understand the meaning of
mahamudra properly. So far, we have only a very rough sketch of that experience. In our earlier
discussion of continuity, we discussed it as starting from the level of the hinayana realization of pain
and then going on to the shunyata experience. Then from the shunyata experience of emptiness, we are
led to mahamudra. The sense of continuity there is rediscovering one’s basic ground; the mahamudra
experience could be described that way. Having had all the illusions and hallucinations removed by
the experience of shunyata, there is a sense of extraordinary clarity. That clarity is called mahamudra.
Mahamudra is a Sanskrit word. Maha means “big, great,” and mudra means “symbol.” But maha
doesn’t mean “big” in a comparative sense: something bigger compared to something smaller. It is not
based on a dichotomy. It is simply that such clarity as this is beyond measure. There is no other clarity
like this. It is fullness; it is without association in the sense that this experience is full in itself. And
the sense in which mudra means symbol again has nothing to do with analysis or examples; rather the
thing itself is its own symbol. Everybody represents themselves and everybody is a caricature of
themselves. There is that sense of a humorous aspect, a caricature aspect, as well as everything
having its own basic fullness. You represent yourself not by name but by being. So there is a sense of
completion.
The mahamudra experience has been compared to the experience of a young child visiting a
colorful temple. He sees all kinds of magnificent decorations, displays, rich colors, vividness of all
kinds. But this child has no preconception or any concept whatsoever about where to begin to
analyze. Everything is overwhelming, quite in its own right. So the child does not become frightened
by this vivid scenery and at the same time does not know how to appreciate it. It is quite different
from a child walking into a playroom full of toys, where his attention is caught by a particular toy and
he runs right over and starts playing with it. A temple—a highly decorated, colorful temple—is so
harmonious in its own right that the child has no way of introducing his fascination from one
particular standpoint. The experience is all-pervasive. At the same time, it is perhaps somewhat
overwhelmingly pleasurable.
So the mahamudra experience is vividness, vividness to such an extent that it does not require a
watcher or commentator; or for that matter, it does not require meditative absorption. In the case of
shunyata, there is still a sense of needing a nursing process for that experience; it is not only that the
sitting practice of meditation is required, but there is a sense of needing a registrar to record your
experience in a memory bank. The very idea of emptiness is an experience, even though you may not
have an experiencer as such, since the whole thing is totally open and nondualistic. But even the very
sense of nonduality is a faint stain, a very subtle, transparent stain. On the shunyata level, that stain is
regarded as an adornment, like putting a varnish over well-finished wood. It is supposed to protect
the wood from further stains of dirt or grease, to keep it looking fresh and new, to preserve the
newness of this well-finished wood. But in the long run, that clear varnish becomes a factor that ages
the new look of this fresh wood. It turns yellow and slowly begins to crumble, and scratches begin to
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show much more in it than they would in the original wood. So the nonduality becomes a problem in
the shunyata experience.
In the experience of mahamudra, even the notion of nonduality is not applied or is not necessary.
Therefore, it has been said in the scriptures that the only definition of mahamudra you can use is
“unborn” or “unoriginated.” Or again, often the mahamudra experience is described in terms of
coemergent wisdom—that is, born simultaneously rather than born with the delays of process. This
refers to confusion and realization existing simultaneously, as opposed to confusion coming first and
then realization taking over and cleaning out the confusion. In the mahamudra, confusion and
realization are simultaneous, coemergent.
The eternally youthful quality of the mahamudra experience is one of its outstanding qualities. It is
eternally youthful because there is no sense of repetition, no sense of wearing out of interest because
of familiarity. Every experience is a new, fresh experience. So it is childlike, innocent and childlike.
The child has never even seen its body—such a brandnew world.
Another term for mahamudra, used by Rangjung Dorje and other great teachers, is “ordinary
consciousness.” Experience ceases to be extraordinary. It is so ordinary—so clear and precise and
obvious. The only thing that confuses us and prevents us from realizing this experience is its
ordinariness. The ordinary quality becomes a kind of barrier, because when you look for something,
you don’t look for the ordinary. Even in the case of losing a pair of glasses that you are completely
used to. When you lose them, the glasses become a very interesting object. They immediately become
an extraordinary thing, because you’ve lost them. You begin to imagine: “Could they be here? Could
they be there?” You shake all the cushions, you move all the chairs and tables, and you look
underneath the rugs. It becomes an extraordinary case. But the glasses are an ordinary thing.
In that way, mahamudra is self-secret because of its ordinariness. Ordinariness becomes its own
camouflage, so to speak. It has also been said that mahamudra cannot be expressed, that even the
Buddha’s tongue is numb when it comes to describing mahamudra. And it’s true. How much can you
say about ordinary things? And the more you see that it is very ordinary, the more that becomes an
extraordinary case, which creates a further veil.
The experience of mahamudra is also somewhat irritating, or even highly irritating, because of its
sharpness and precision. The energies around you—textures, colors, different states of mind,
relationships—are very vivid and precise. They are all so naked and so much right in front of you,
without any padding, without any walls between you and “that.” That nakedness is overwhelming.
Although it is your own experience, we often find that even when you have only a small glimpse of
mahamudra experience, you want to run away from yourself. You look for privacy of some kind—
privacy from yourself. The world is so true and naked and sharp and precise and colorful that it’s
extraordinarily irritating—let alone when other people approach you. You think you can avoid them,
run away from them physically, put a notice on your door, or take a trip to an unknown corner of the
world. You might try to dissociate yourself from the familiar world, run away from your home ground,
disconnect your telephone. You can do all kinds of things of that nature, but when the world begins to
become you and all these preceptions are yours and are very precise and very obviously right in front
of you, you can’t run away from it. The process of running away creates further sharpness, and if you
really try to run away from these phenomena, they begin to mock you, laugh at you. The chairs and
tables and rugs and paintings on the wall and your books, the sounds you hear in your head, begin to
mock you. Even if you try to tear your body apart, still something follows you. You can’t get away
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from it. That is why it is called the ultimate nakedness. You begin to feel you are just a live brain with
no tissue around it, exposed on a winter morning to the cold air. It’s so penetrating, so irritating, and
so sharp.
It is a fundamental and very profound irritation. The irritations we discussed before are relatively
simple and seem to be ordinary ones. The irritation of the mahamudra experience is very insulting in
many ways, disconcerting. That is why the experience of mahamudra is also referred to as “crazy
wisdom.” It is a crazy experience, but not exactly ego madness. It’s wisdom that has gone crazy. The
element of wisdom here is its playfulness, humorousness, and sybaritic quality. Even though you are
irritated and naked and completely exposed without your skin, there is a sense of joy or, more likely,
bliss.
One of the definite characteristics of the Buddhist tantra, on the mahamudra level at least, is not
running away from sense pleasures, but rather identifying with them, working with them as part of the
working basis. That is an outstanding part of the tantric message. Pleasure in this case includes every
kind of pleasure: psychosomatic, physical, psychological, and spiritual. Here, it is quite different
from the way in which spiritual materialists might seek pleasure—by getting into the other. In this
case, it is getting into “this.” There is a self-existing pleasurableness that is completely hollow if you
look at it from the ordinary point of view of ego’s pleasure orientation. Within that, you don’t actually
experience pleasure at all. All pleasure experiences are hollow. But if you look at it from the point of
view of this nakedness, this situation of being completely exposed, any pleasure you experience is
full because of its hollowness. On the mahamudra level, pleasure does not take place through the
pores of your skin, but pleasure takes place on your very flesh without skin. You become the bliss
rather than enjoying the bliss. You are the embodiment of bliss, and this contains a quality of your
being very powerful. You have conquered pleasure, and pleasure is yours. One doesn’t even have to
go so far as to try to enjoy pleasure, but pleasure becomes self-existing bliss.
In this way, every experience that might occur in our life—communication, visual experience,
auditory experience, consciousness, anything that we relate to—becomes completely workable,
highly workable. In fact, even the notion of workability does not apply. It’s yours. It is you, in fact. So
things become very immediate.
This is what is often called vajra pride. Pride in this case is not arrogance, but is nondualistically
self-contained. You are not threatened by your projections or projectors, but you are there, and at the
same time, everything around you is you and yours.
It took a long time for Naropa to realize that. Having visited the freak show, he failed again.
Finally, at the last moment, when he thought of killing himself and was just about to relate with the
totality of himself, finally then he experienced that penetrating pain in himself. He thought that maybe
if he eliminated his body, he might be able to relieve that pain. At that point, Tilopa finally appeared.
Through the twelve tortures that Naropa went through (with the help of Tilopa), sometimes he
understood this nakedness, experiencing it fully, totally, completely, and sometimes he didn’t
understand it and instead tripped out into the highest spiritual mishmash. The perfect example is when
Tilopa put sharpened pieces of bamboo between his nails and his fingers, put little flags on the ends
of the pieces of bamboo, and asked Naropa to hold them up into the wind. That exemplifies (through
the medium of pain, of course) how real the nakedness could be if it were blissful.
reformatted
