We reject the deceptive appearances of cyclic existence like someone with nausea seeing food. We ache with devotion and longing for the teacher, like a small child yearning for its mother. We throw ourselves enthusiastically into study and reflection, like a thirsty person longing for water. We treasure our precepts like a poor person who has found some gold or a turquoise. We delight in practicing virtuous activities like a merchant traveling to an island of gold. Our faith and interest in all the different vehicles are like th0se of a keen shopper arriving at a market. It is when these signs occur that the Dharma has tamed our mind and the teachings and the individual have not gone different ways.

 

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

Dudjom Rinpoche

Photographer: Unknown