Heart Advice

How amazing!

Listen my excellent, holy companion! You have now obtained a free and fully endowed human body, so difficult to find. You have now met a qualified Lama, so difficult to meet. And you have encountered tantric teachings, so hard to come in contact with.

At this time, it is important to take the first steps on the path to liberation in this life.

First, supplications imbued with irreversible faith and respect toward your Lama.

Second, pure vision and affection toward your tantric brothers and sisters.

Third, compassion and the mind of awakening toward all sentient beings.

Fourth, inspiring your mind to diligence in spiritual practice with reflection on impermanence.

These are a practitioner’s lasting wealth. Treasure them in your heart. To realize that all phenomena of samsara and enlightenment appear in as great emptiness is the view. To sustain a state of non-meditation and non-distraction without uncontrivance or intervention in present awareness is meditation. For none of your actions whatsoever to be careless and to maintain harmony with the Dharma is conduct. To have one-pointed diligence in the practice of view, meditation, and conduct as described, will lead you to the manifest accomplishment of the result during your lifetime.

I, Yeshe Dorje, who is neither a layperson nor a monk, wrote neither quickly nor slowly this so-called heart advice, which are neither true or false, and neither before nor after noon, but during the noon session break.

HH Dudjom Rinpoche Yeshe Jigdral Dorje Wisdom Nectar
translated by Ron Garry
Tsadra Foundation


.. at all times

Dudjom Rinpoche
Dudjom Rinpoche

“At all times, do not lose courage in your inner awareness; uplift yourself, while assuming a humble position in your outer demeanor. Follow the example of the life and complete liberation of previous accomplished masters (siddha). Do not blame your past karma; instead, be someone who purely and flawlessly practices the dharma. Do not blame temporary negative circumstances; instead, be someone who remains steadfast in the face of whatever circumstances may arise.”

Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoche’s Heart Advice, p. 58
The Tsadra Foundation Series published by Snow Lion Publications


Bodhichitta

To have the wish first to achieve liberation for oneself and then to benefit all parent sentient beings is the bodhichitta that is like a king. To strive diligently to bring oneself and all parent sentient beings to the state of liberation together, like bringing all the passengers on a ship along with oneself together across the sea, is the bodhichitta that is like a sea captain. To cherish others more than oneself, wishing first to liberate all beings from the suffering of cyclic existence, and then to attain the state of liberation oneself, like a shepherd who protects animals such as cattle and sheep from the fear of wild predators by taking care of the needs of the herd before considering himself, is the unsurpassed bodhichitta that is like a shepherd.

A Cascading Waterfall of Nectar
Thinley Noubu