recognizing faults

BAD DISCIPLES ~ Part II

~ DudjomTersarNgondro

 

HH Dudjom Rinpoche  ~ Photographer unknown ~  
 No copyright infringement is intended.
These are the concluding words from he previous blog post of October 25th:
The Qualifications of the Disciples Following a Master

These are described in the “Self-Arisen Awareness” as follows:
They show no honor or respect,
They pervert the secret mantras in their conduct,
They have neither the qualities of family and lineage nor a good character,
Are quite unintelligent,
Scorn kindness,
And make a meaningless mess of things.
Such disciples, unexamined, are the enemies of a teacher.

And the Omniscient One says:
On the other hand, disciples with bad fortune are the basis for all faults.
They have no faith, no sense of shame or decency, and little compassion;
Their family, nature, and behavior reflect their evil fortune.
Their minds and actions are grossly affected by the five poisonous emotions,
They break the precepts, confusing Dharma and non-Dharma, good and evil;
They fail to keep their vows and commitments and have no antidotes.
Extremely stupid and unintelligent, they are difficult to satisfy,
Their anger and harsh words ever on the increase.
These disciples follow the teacher with five wrong notions:
Seeing the teacher as a deer, the teachings as musk,
Themselves as hunters, their intense practice as a form of shooting,
And the result—the accomplishment of the Dharma—as something to be traded.
Because they do not keep the commitments they will suffer in this life and the next.
Some begin unthinkingly without first examining the teacher;
For the novelty of it, they talk about his good qualities, but later they criticize.
Others are two-faced, deceitful hypocrites,
Slyly trying to get the better of the teacher’s closest disciples.
All this results in birth in the Hell of Ultimate Torment.

Such disciples of evil destiny care vessels for numerous faults. They have little faith and hardly any shame with regard to themselves, decency with regard to others, or compassion. They are of an evil family and bad-natured. They conduct themselves badly and have little fortune. Their minds and afflictive emotions are very gross. They break the precepts and confuse positive and negative actions. They do not keep their vows or commitments. They have no control over their afflictive emotions and are ignorant of the antidotes. They are not very intelligent and are difficult to please. They get angry and shout over trifles. They are naturally diligent in non-Dharmic activities. They betray the Buddha, disgrace the Dharma, and destroy the Sangha. When they seek teachings from the teacher, since their minds are not at all at peace, they harm and despise everyone, like hunters. They think, “Apart from the fact that I am receiving this particular transmission from him, the master has this fault and that defect—he’s no better than an animal,” and, wanting to be better than others in having heard the teaching, they treat it like musk. Before they have even finished receiving the teaching, they transmit it and sell it—as a favor to others, or because they despise it, or for the sake of some small reward. Such disciples will be unlucky in this life, and in the next life they will have to wander in the lower realms, as is explained in the commentary on the “Tantra That Establishes the Three Commitments”:

Those who criticize a diamond master of the secret mantras,
Who abuse the Dharma and exchange it for riches,
And though they know the commitments, do not keep them
Will, in this life, suffer from a short life span,
The decline of their splendor and good fortune,
And the punishments of the dakinis.
In the next life, they will fall into the lower realms.

In the first place, teacher and disciple accept each other without each examining the other. Then, although the disciples, for the novelty of it, may show respect and make gifts to the teacher, they get angry over circumstantial trifles, crying insults and being rude. Even if they stay alone, they find fault in the slightest thing and discourage all the teacher’s close disciples. Some disciples may praise their teachers in their presence and make a false show of devotion, but in their minds there is neither faith nor respect, and they are secretly using their artful ways to play them false. Because of all this, and because they criticize their teachers, the negative consequences are boundless, as the “Fifty Verses” shows:

Who will endure the terrifying hells,
The Hell of Ultimate Torment and others?
Those who speak ill of the master:
As has been well explained, it is there they will remain.

For this reason teacher and disciple must first examine each other thoroughly, and not begin anything without prior deliberation. As the same work points out,

Since teacher and disciples
Will break the commitments equally,
The brave must first check the connection
Between master and disciple.

If this is not apparent within a short time, then, as the explanatory tantra the “Diamond Necklace” says, they will need to check each other over a long period:

Examine for up to twelve years.

Such examination must be carried out before any connection is made through empowerment or teaching. But once one has received an empowerment or teaching, even if one’s teachers have broken their vows by committing all four radical defeats, it is improper to examine them or lose faith, or do anything but regard them as objects of devotion and respect. As it is said,

If you don’t consider as your teachers
Those from whom you’ve heard a single verse,
It’s as a dog you’ll be reborn a hundred times,
And as an outcast, you’ll take birth.

Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche
A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom: Complete Instructions on the Preliminary Practice of the Profound and Secret Heart Essence of the Dakini
Padmakara Translation Group

We cannot know who is a sublime being.

~ DudjomTersarNgondro
Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje giving teaching in Dordogne
on the field by Rinpoche’s house. This photo was selected to celebrate the return of Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche to Dordogne this August 2019.

Do not examine the faults of beings. Recognizing that they have been your mothers and thinking of their kindness, meditate on love and compassion. In particular, avoid looking for faults in those who have entered the gateway of the Dharma. Regard them as people in the same boat and reflect only on their good qualities, rejoicing at these and cultivating devotion. More especially, never look for defects in your teachers. Realizing that everything they do is full of excellent qualities, make an effort to train in devotion and pure vision.

A greater fault than stealing the possessions of all the beings in a billion worlds and destroying all the stupas there are is criticizing a single Bodhisattva. If one scorns and insults a Bodhisattva, whatever the circumstances, one will be reborn in the Screaming Hell with a body five hundred leagues in size, with five hundred heads, each with five hundred mouths, each containing five hundred tongues, and each tongue plowed by five hundred plows.

Take note of this passage from the Sublime Sutra of the Marks That Inspire the Development of Faith

In general, it is a boundless crime to criticize a sublime being.  In this respect, Bodhisattvas are particularly dangerous objects, and Secret Mantra Vehicle practitioners even more so. We cannot know who is a sublime being or whether someone is inwardly a genuine practitioner. It is said that only a fully enlightened Buddha can judge; no one else can do so. If we speak badly of anyone or criticize them, we are sweeping away our own qualities. It is in the nature of things that by finding faults in others, we ourselves are destroyed. Change your attitude, therefore, and examine only your own faults.

“For beginners, it is not the time to struggle with afflictive emotions, but time to run away from them.”

as said by the incomparable Dagpo Rinpoche

A Torch Lighting the way to Freedom
Dudjom Rinpoche Jugdral Yeshe Dorje
Padmakara Translation Group

Faults in Meditation ~

~ DudjomTersarNgondro
image
Faults in Meditation

If you experience dullness and drowsiness, arouse awareness. If you experience excitement and agitation, relax your mind. Always, the mediator’s vivid mindful awareness should not impose a disciplined mindfulness. Mindfulness is simple recollection of the recognition of your own nature.

Continuously sustain vivid mindful awareness at all times as you go about your daily activities, whether eating, sleeping, moving or sitting, whether during meditation or post-meditation. Never harbor hope or fear toward whatever thoughts arise, such as those of happiness or suffering, or of the passions; do not accept or reject them; and do not destroy them using antidotes, and so forth. Instead, whatever feelings of happiness and suffering are there, settle in their naked, vivid, lucidly present essence. This single vital point, and none other, applies to everything. Do not confuse yourself with a lot of thinking.

A separate meditation upon emptiness as an antidote to what must be relinquished—thoughts and passions—is unnecessary. Awareness of what must be relinquished liberates it naturally with that recognition, like a snake’s knot uncoiling.

Most people know how to say the words “the ultimate concealed meaning of the Clear Light Vajra Essence,” like a parrot’s chatter, but don’t know how to practice it. We are all so incredibly fortunate! Carefully consider this once again—there’s something to be understood. During our beginningless series of lives until now, our mortal enemy, dualistic clinging, binds us to the wheel of life. Now, thanks to our spiritual master’s kindness, his introduction to naturally abiding dharmakaya releases both poles of grasping, like a feather consumed in fire, with nothing following and without a trace. Isn’t that really satisfying?

If you do not practice once you’ve obtained the swift path’s profound instructions such as these, it is as if a wish-fulfilling jewel were placed in a corpse’s mouth. What a waste! Practice without being discouraged!

Furthermore, beginners will lose their mindfulness in distraction due to unwholesome thoughts that get out of control; these thoughts coalesce in the form of underlying mental activity. At some point, a piercing mindfulness returns, and the thought of regret arises, “Oh, I’m distracted!” Nevertheless, do not do anything whatsoever at that moment, such as stopping the flow of previous thoughts or regretting having been distracted. When this vivid mindfulness returns, it is sufficient just to sustain naturally resting in precisely that mindfulness.

A famous saying advises, “Do not reject thoughts; see them as dharmakaya.” However, until you perfect higher insight’s subtle power, you might dwell upon the thought, “This is probably dharmakaya!” and remain in a blank state of peaceful abiding. You thus risk getting trapped in a spaced-out, indifferent, unreflective state. Therefore, in the beginning look directly at whatever thoughts arise; do not examine, analyze or reflect upon them at all. Rest upon the recognizer of thoughts, without making it a big deal, disinterested in what arises, like an old man watching children at play.

Once you’ve placed your mind as I described, the deepening of the experience of stillness in a non-conceptual natural state will be suddenly, abruptly destroyed. At that instant, primordial wisdom beyond mind will nakedly and clearly manifest.

While you tread the path, this experience of primordial wisdom will not come untainted with one or another of three meditative experiences—bliss, clarity or conceptionlessness. Nevertheless, placing your mind without the slightest bit of hope, fear, attachment or conceit, due to holding such experiences as supreme, prevents errors. It is very important to constantly give up distraction and to meditate with one-pointed vigilant mindfulness. When you lapse into sporadic practice and mere intellectual understanding, arrogance will arise out of just a little peaceful abiding. If you do not carefully observe your spiritual experiences, you will merely be skilled in pretense and knowledgeable of the right words, which is not beneficial.

As the Great Perfection tantras state:

Intellectual understanding is like a patch, tt will fall off.

And,

Spiritual experiences are like mist, they will evaporate.

As this says, even some slight positive and negative objective event has deceived great meditators, and many lose their bearings in the midst of circumstances. Even when meditation is planted within your stream of being, the profound instructions will be left on your book’s pages if you do not meditate consistently—your mind will become insensitive: you will become insensitive to the teachings, you will become insensitive to practice, and genuine meditation will never arise. Even old great meditators are in danger of dying completely lost, in the state of a newcomer to practice. Therefore, be very careful.

When you continually familiarize yourself with this over a long period of time, devotion or some other suitable catalyst will at some point cause these spiritual experiences to overflow into realization, and you will vividly see naked awareness, as if a veil were instantly lifted from your head. You will become utterly free and spacious. This is called “the supreme seeing that does not see anything.” Thereafter, thoughts arise as meditation; mental stillness and movement are simultaneously liberated. Moreover, at first, recognition of thoughts liberates them, like meeting someone familiar. In the middle period, thoughts are liberated by themselves, like a snake’s knot uncoiling. Finally, thoughts are liberated without benefit or harm, like a thief entering an empty house. These three ways of liberation will occur gradually. A deep, decisive trust manifests within you that all phenomena are the magical display of your awareness alone—waves of realization of emptiness and compassion will surge. Choosing between either cyclic existence or enlightenment ends. You realize that buddhas are not “good” and sentient beings are not “bad.” Whatever you have done, you will be carefree beyond words without knowing how to move from the sole nature of phenomena, and therefore you will uninterruptedly abide in this infinite space, day and night.

As it is said in the Great Perfection tantras:

Like the sky, realization is changeless.

This kind of Great Perfection practitioner appears to have an ordinary human form, but his or her mind is dharmakaya. He or she abides in wisdom mind free from effort and activity and, without doing anything, traverses all paths and stages. Finally, ordinary mind and phenomena exhausted, like the space of a broken vase, the body vanishes into atoms, and the mind vanishes into the nature of phenomena. This is called attaining the youthful vase body, which is the inner clarity of the original ground, stainless space. This will come about. Since this is the ultimate consummation of view, meditation and conduct, it is called “the fully manifest unattainable result.” The stages of spiritual experiences and realization arise either in a progressive order, without a progressive order, or all at once. This occurs according to the particular faculties of people, but there is no difference when the result is achieved.

Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoche’s Heart Advice
translated by Ron Garry
© Tsadra Foundation, 2005
Photo Source: unknown

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this post has been reprinted under the Fair Use Law.