Kategori: Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

When we practice peaceful samadhi, three experiences arise.
The first one is the experience of movement, which is likened to a waterfall coming down a steep mountain. When water falls down a steep mountain, it cannot be stopped even with great force. When one first meditates on stillness (Skt. shamatha) and insight (vipashyana), it is extremely difficult to control the mind. It is not possible to control it for a minute or even a second. When one gets distracted, if one thinks that it is impossible to control one’s mind and just gives up, that will not help.

If one wants to catch a monkey or a wild horse, one should first give it food and be gentle with it. In that way one can catch it. Once one gets hold of it, one can make it do whatever one wants. Similarly, if we try to catch the mind while it is wild, it is not possible to control it. Knowing that our mind is wild, we should develop renunciation and weariness when the mind is not weary. When we feel weary, tamed by that suffering, the mind will stay still. In that state of being tamed by suffering, we can develop stillness and insight. When we do not feel happy, according to the great beings from the past, that is the best time to develop samadhi.
Practicing samadhi with great diligence, in the future we will attain happiness and, eventually, the fruition of nonreturning. Thus we should rejoice and cheer the mind; in that state we can develop samadhi.

The second experience is the experience of achievement. What is achieved? We achieve a level that is quite peaceful compared to what we have had before. Once we have understood that our mind is like a waterfall coming down a mountain, we will not make the mind tense up, and it will be easier to meditate on stillness and insight. The strength of the wildness will let up. Properly concentrating on a visualization, our mind will be a little more steady than before. Even though the mind may be wild or drowsy, the force of that is not as strong as before. The mind is stronger because it is more used to samadhi. As wild as a horse may be, once it has been tamed, if one restrains it with a bridle and saddle, it will go wherever we want. In the same way, we can stabilize our samadhi a little bit. That is called the experience of achievement, which is like an ocean not stirred up by the wind.

The third experience happens when we get used to samadhi. When a yogin preaches samadhi, even if one shows him a hundred entertaining things, his mind will not be distracted in the least. He can completely control his mind through samadhi. Supported by the qualities of samadhi, the mind does not move. Even if we practice samadhi for many months or years, the mind will not become drowsy, sleepy, or weary. Even if we try to make it wild using desirable things, the mind will not be disturbed, because it has become steady. It is like a mountain on a great plain covered with a forest of all sorts of trees. No matter how much wind and rain come, the mountain cannot be moved.
To continue the samadhi practice, when drowsiness arises, we cheer the mind. When wildness arises, we tame it with mindfulness and awareness. In that way, we attain stability. When we get used to this, instead of being how we are now – cherishing ourselves above everyone else – if we meditate on bodhichitta, consider all sentient beings as our parents, give up anger toward enemies and attachment to friends, we will cherish other sentient beings above ourselves. We will not feel anger or attachment to others, and we will also not have anger or attachment to ourselves. This will come gradually as we get used to the practice.

Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche – Pure Appearance – Collected Works Vol III pp 539-40, Shambhala

These gems collected from Dharma Samye

Recognizing the nature of samsara, you will feel weary of it, and such weariness will inspire you to strive toward liberation-and by striving for it, you will attain it. Samsara will never just disappear on its own. You have to want to get rid of it actively yourself.

If you acknowledge the suffering of samsara, you will recognize that the source of suffering lies in your obscuring emotions and the negative actions they engender, and that the source of your obscuring emotions lies in your clinging to the idea of self. If you can rid yourself of that clinging, suffering will cease.

Liberation means freeing yourself from the ties of your emotions and negative actions. The way to free yourself from them is to practice the Dharma-to train in discipline; in concentration; and in prajna, the wisdom that allows you to realize the non-existence of the individual self and phenomena. Discipline is the basis of concentration; concentration is the basis of wisdom. If you practice the Dharma properly, even for as little as an hour a day, the results of countless lifetimes and kalpas of negative actions can be purified.
As you practice the Dharma steadily, even in quite a modest way, you will gradually be able to progress further and further on the path to liberation. Eventually, you will attain a true bliss that can never diminish.

– Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, The Heart of Compassion

”You will fall sick, experience pain, and encounter many adverse circumstances. At such times do not think, ‘Although I am practicing the Dharma, I have nothing but trouble. The Dharma cannot be so great. I have followed a teacher and done so much practice, and yet hard times still befall me.’

Such thoughts are wrong views. You should realize that through the blessing and power of the practice, by experiencing sickness and other difficulties now, you are purifying and ridding yourself of negative actions.

By purifying them while you have the chance, you will later go from bliss to bliss. So do not think, ‘I don’t deserve this illness, these obstacles, these negative influences.’ Experience your difficulties as blessings. When you do experience such difficulties, you should be very happy and avoid having adverse thoughts like, ‘Why are such terrible things happening to me?’”

– Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

All our different activities are projections of the mind, created by our thoughts. If you follow these deluded thoughts, there will be no end to your mind being upset by delusion, just as when the wind blows over the surface of a lake, the crystal clarity of the water is masked by ripples. It is therefore important to control the mind by applying the view, meditation, and action, both in meditation and in postmeditation, for major situations and minor ones.

– Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book ”Zurchungpa’s Testament”

The buddhas are aware of your faith and devotion, and know the very moment you take refuge. Do not think that the buddhas are far away in distant, absolute realms where your prayers and aspirations go unheard and unheeded. Buddhas are as ever present as the sky.

– Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, The Heart of Compassion

In our delusion, we see things as being permanent and truly self-existing. But in reality phenomena are impermanent, and devoid of any true substantial existence. We want to believe that our friends, partner, wealth and influence will all endure, but by nature they are bound to change. It is therefore senseless to be so preoccupied with them.

– Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

from the book ”The Heart of Compassion: The Thirty-seven Verses on the Practice of a Bodhisattva”

We are naturally attached to comfort and pleasure and bothered by physical and mental suffering. These innate tendencies lead us to seek out, maintain and try to increase whatever gives us pleasure comfortable clothing, delicious food, agreeable places, sensual pleasure – and to avoid or destroy whatever we find unpleasant or painful. Constantly changing and devoid of any true essence, these sensations rest on the ephemeral association of the mind with the body, and it is useless to be attached to them. Rather than being dragged along and trapped by your perceptions, just let them dissolve as soon as they form, like letters traced on the surface of water with your finger disappearing as you draw them.

– Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

from the book ”The Hundred Verses of Advice: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on What Matters Most”