Month: September 2004 Page 2 of 5

Devotion Ripens the Heart

On 27/09/2004

I was just reflecting on how devotion really opens one’s heart up to the blessings of the Buddhas and Gurus. I added some materials to my teachers website last night, and the words of Shangpa Rinpoche’s reflections and prayers really touched my heart deeply. Though I wasn’t present at the celebration when he spoke the words, and only have some strange shapes on a computer monitor … the words themselves … the effect of those squiggles and shapes was quite profound. How moved I was, and how uplifted my heart!

It’s amazing how deep your Guru’s words go, when devotion prepares the ground. I wonder if those words had been spoken by another teacher whether they would have hit the mark in quite the same way? I’m reminded by how a thanka or rupa which you’ve meditated before takes on such a different character to one which I’ve only seen once or twice. As devotion flows in practice before the image or statue, so that representation seems to become the locus or focus of blessings, which flow into your heart and allow the flowering of such good qualities in ones mindstream.

Devotion has such profound effects. No wonder that Guru Devotion is the heart of the Kagyu path!

My Guru’s profound words:

May the lights of wisdom always shine forth in the hearts and the minds of each and every one of you, fearless in the darkness of ignorance and courageously against the bitter cold winds of negative karma, obstacles, obscuration and the defilements of Samsara.

May it always fill each and every one of your hearts with the warmth of boundless compassion and the bliss of infinite wisdom of The Completely Enlightened Ones!

May all be auspicious!
Shangpa Rinpoche

Reflections on Tilopa – Mahamudra Pith Instructions

By Chodpa

On 23/09/2004

In Mahamudra

Mahamudra meditation instruction is often presented in terms of two-fold advice – the common, and the uncommon. These could be said to be the general and the detailed or specific instructions.

The common or general instructions seem intended to be the base or background upon which all the uncommon or detailed instructions build. For me personally, it seems that I rarely need anything beyond the common …. whose teachings are:

Do not seek to prolong the past.

Do not seek to grasp the future.

Rest evenly in cognitive lucidity,

Free from conceptualisation.
from Tilopa’s Six Nails

That seems to be all I need. Any time I recollect this, in or out of formal practice, it brings the view and method into focus, and provides the means into which to relax, and let go.

Do not seek to prolong the past

….. don’t get caught up in thoughts of the past. Once it’s gone, let it go.

Do not seek to grasp the future

… similarly, don’t get caught up in thinking about the future. It may or may not come to pass. If it does, fine, then deal with it when it does. If it doesn’t, then also fine.

In both cases, thinking of the past or the future, these thoughts can be let go of – not pushed away or rejected, or even judged or analysed, but just let go of, naturally to return to from whence they came.

Rest evenly in cognitive lucidity

… resting … relaxing the mind, with appropriate effort, neither too slack and loose, nor too tight and taut … resting, relaxing in awareness, cognitive lucidity, the awareness which knows directly that which appears to arise ….. The natural state is one of relaxation, and meditation is the allowing of that state to unfold and enfold.

Free from conceptualisation

…. resting evenly in awareness of the present moment, without thinking of the present moment, of what appears to arise, of what you are doing, meditating, or not, without any conceptual elaboration …. without unnecessary thought …

Just resting the mind in its own nature … letting go into awareness … awareness of the present moment, without conceptual elaboration …

This is just what I need, at any moment ….. the long and the short of meditation … the common Mahamudra instructions entirely suffice …

The pith instructions of the Realised Ones …..

How can we ever repay their kindness and blessings …… ?

Difficult To Differentiate …

By Chodpa

On 23/09/2004

In General Buddhism

How difficult indeed it seems to be to differentiate between fearlessly expressing one’s point of view, and indulging in pride, ill-will and ignorance.

How easy it seems to be in retrospect (often a retrospect of many years) to see how thoroughly imbued with ‘concerns of the self’, (actions designed to support my illusory sense of self), were my past actions. And how very much harder that is to see in the present moment.

Heartfelt prayer

May I (and all beings) develop the wisdom to see through ego’s little games, and allow the full flowering of compassion to shine forth, for the benefit of all beings!