Insight Editions · No. 429
Rainbow Painting
A collection of miscellaneous aspects of development and completion
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
A study guide to Rainbow Painting by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche: the nine vehicles, the three vajras, Garab Dorje's three statements, space, samaya, devotion and compassion, mindfulness, the true foundation, straying, the unity of development and completion, purity, signs of accomplishment, the four bardos and conduct, with tables, diagrams and practice notes.
A study guide to Rainbow Painting: A Collection of Miscellaneous Aspects of Development and Completion by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, foreword by Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, translated by Erik Pema Kunsang, compiled by Marcia Binder Schmidt, edited with Kerry Moran (Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1995). Shared free for personal reading; not for sale and not endorsed by the publishers. Please read the original book, and practise with proper transmission.
CORE CLAIM
Development and completion are one unity, like sunlight and the sun. Everything in Vajrayana, from samaya and devotion to visualization, phowa and rainbow body, works only when it rests on recognizing mind essence and is backed by a true foundation of preliminaries and humble conduct.
SCOPE
Nineteen spoken teachings given by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche at Nagi Gompa and in Kathmandu, on the view, the three vajras, space, samaya, mindfulness, straying, unity, purity, accomplishment, the bardos and conduct; foreword by Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, translated by Erik Pema Kunsang, compiled by Marcia Binder Schmidt (Rangjung Yeshe, 1995).
KEY FIGURES
Padmasambhava; Garab Dorje; Longchenpa; Milarepa; Paltrül Rinpoche; Chokgyur Lingpa; Samten Gyatso; Tersey Tulku; the 15th Karmapa Khakyab Dorje; Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo; Shakya Shri; Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche.
BEST FOR
Practitioners who have received pointing-out and want to join it with sadhana practice, readers who want straight talk about straying and fake lamas, and anyone preparing for death with the bardo teachings.
The Book on One Page
Rainbow Painting is a collection of talks, not a treatise. Its title is its argument: a painting of rainbow light is visible yet empty, just like development stage arising from completion. The talks move from history and view through samaya and practice to fruition, death and conduct.
The Argument in Brief
- Recognize first. Mind essence, the unity of empty essence and cognizant nature, is the ground; the nine vehicles differ only in how subtle their concepts are.
- Guard the link. Samaya, devotion and compassion are the hook and the ring that let blessings connect; pure perception is the king of samayas.
- Train in short moments. Mindfulness begins deliberate and becomes effortless; tiredness comes from effort, not from rigpa.
- Build the foundation. Preliminaries and impermanence are not optional; skipping them is getting out of the bath half dirty.
- Do not stray. Frozen emptiness and imagined emptiness are meditation, not liberation.
- Unite development and completion. The deity arises from recognition like a reflection in a mirror; everything appearing and existing is already pure.
- Fruition is real. Rainbow bodies, relics and footprints in rock are signs that fixation has collapsed.
- Death is the test. The four bardos each offer a chance; conduct should stay finer than barley flour while the view is higher than the sky.
The thread running through every talk is one sentence: as long as you don't know the key point of mind, whatever you do is upside down.
Map of the Chapters
| No. | Chapter | Payload |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Foreword and Preface | Pointed out in the gap; the butter-skin warning |
| 2 | Background | Padmasambhava; Dzogchen lineage; termas |
| 3 | The View and the Nine Vehicles | Subtler concepts; the temple of three vehicles |
| 4 | The Three Vajras | No dissuasion, no shame, pure wisdom |
| 5 | Striking the Essential Point | Garab Dorje's three statements |
| 6 | Space | Outer, inner, innermost space |
| 7 | Samaya | Snake in the bamboo; four Dzogchen samayas |
| 8 | Application | Understanding, experience, realization |
| 9 | Devotion and Compassion | The hook and the ring |
| 10 | The Qualified Master | Samten Gyatso; the pleasant obstacle |
| 11 | Mindfulness | Light switch and bell; counterfeit emptiness |
| 12 | Tiredness | The evenly taut bowstring |
| 13 | The True Foundation | Impermanence; VIP prostrations |
| 14 | Straying | Frozen emptiness; "Oh what a pity!" |
| 15 | Unity | Four empowerments; sun and rays |
| 16 | Purity | Churning milk; porter and king |
| 17 | Accomplishment | Yak horn, cow shed, zombie porter |
| 18 | Bardo | Four bardos; Sukhavati; paper tiger |
| 19 | Conduct | View from above, conduct from below |
Three Ways Through the Book
| Reader | Start with | Then |
|---|---|---|
| New to Dzogchen | Background and The View and the Nine Vehicles | The True Foundation, then Conduct |
| Practising a sadhana | Unity and Purity | Samaya, then Space |
| Meditator after pointing-out | Mindfulness, Tiredness, Straying | Application, then Striking the Essential Point |
| Facing illness or death | Bardo | Devotion and Compassion, then Accomplishment |
| Development stage | Completion stage | |
|---|---|---|
| Aspect of mind | Cognizance, the manifest side | Emptiness, the empty side |
| Image | Sunlight, a rainbow | The sun, open space |
| Purifies | Habit of solid reality and the four births | Fixation on the visualization itself |
| Fails when | It becomes construction work | It becomes frozen or imagined emptiness |
| At its best | Arising from recognition like a reflection in a mirror | Recognition that never left the display |
How the Book Reads
The talks are oral and repetitive by design: the same points about recognition, short moments and pure perception return in different settings. Stories carry much of the teaching, and Rinpoche's humour shows through in fake lamas, nine-year retreats and a corpse carrying luggage. Much of the material assumes empowerment and pointing-out; it describes practice rather than replacing a teacher.
Foreword and Preface
Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche opens the book by telling readers what to do with it: unite view and conduct, grow devotion and compassion, and do not stop at hearing. The compilers then explain where the talks came from and who they are meant for.
What the Foreword Asks
Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, Tulku Urgyen's son, describes the book's range as running from the four mind-changings at the base up to unexcelled omniscient wisdom at the top, covering Sutra and Tantra, Mahamudra and Dzogchen. The teacher behind it lived at length in mountain hermitages and spent many years in retreat, so he gives "the very quintessence" of the Buddha's words.
The "unexcelled state of unity" is not reached independently of means and knowledge. Means is proper conduct; knowledge is the view. For a bodhisattva the conduct is the six paramitas and the view is wakefulness in which emptiness and compassion are indivisible. In Tantra, conduct rests on knowing that whatever appears and exists is the display of purity and equality.
According to the pith instructions, the realization of Samantabhadra can be pointed out right now, in the gap between two thoughts, as nonconceptual wakefulness, the naked state of dharmakaya. Trained until it is unbroken day and night, this is the instruction called "equalizing buddhahood during four periods", which can bring enlightenment in this very life and body.
The Butter-Skin Warning
"As the butter skin is never cured by butter, the jaded practitioner is never touched by the Dharma." Gampopa went further: Dharma not practised correctly becomes a cause for lower rebirth, because superficial knowledge of metaphysical words leaves conceit, jealousy, competitiveness and ill-will untouched. Such a person is "a practitioner in name only." The real purpose of Dharma is to soften our rigid character.
The foreword gives a test: a time will come when you see your master as a buddha in person and feel impartial compassion for all beings like that for your parents. Regarding the vajra master as an ordinary human being, or loving others with bias, is a sign that the true view has not been reached, and that we have not even tamed our stream-of-being. "Be careful!"
The Buddha said, "The ultimate state is realized solely through devotion." Trust in masters and Dharma and compassion for beings are "not only methods; they are something that is true." The closing advice: do not separate learning, reflection and meditation training.
How the Book Was Made
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Period | Talks given 1991 to 1994 |
| Places | Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling (Boudhanath), Pema Ösel Ling at the Asura Cave (Pharping), Ngedön Ösel Ling (Swayambhu), Nagi Gompa |
| Audience | From a few people to more than 200 |
| Relation | A sequel to Repeating the Words of the Buddha: that book for beginner's mind, this for the seasoned student |
| Team | Compiled by Marcia Binder Schmidt, translated by Erik Pema Kunsang, edited with Kerry Moran |
The compilers chose talks to help those who have become "jaded and unenthusiastic" and as an offering to uplift when we fall prey to doubt and wrong views. The Bardo chapter was given for Bill Fortinberry, who was dying of cancer and listened to the tape continuously for his last six months. Tulku Urgyen himself bestowed the title.
Chökyi Nyima calls his father's style "instruction through personal experience": "just half an hour of Rinpoche's teachings is more beneficial than reading through volumes of books." The teaching is that the buddha need not be sought elsewhere; you become enlightened through experiencing what was always present within you.
Background
Tulku Urgyen sets the scene: how Buddhism reached Tibet like a sunrise, why Vajrayana blazes in the Age of Strife, how Dzogchen came down from Samantabhadra, and why termas and rainbow bodies keep appearing up to the present day.
Dawn Over Tibet
The first Tibetan king, Nyatri Tsenpo, was a semidivine prince from a Punjabi line who came down from the Himalayas into Yarlung; people thought he had fallen from the sky and carried him on their shoulders to the throne. After 35 generations, while everyone was still illiterate, three scriptures fell onto the king's palace roof. No one could read them, yet harvests came on time and harmful forces calmed: "the earliest glimmer of dawn."
| Stage | King | Image | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| First glimmer | 35th generation | Dawn | Three scriptures fall from the sky |
| About to rise | Songtsen Gampo | Sun on the horizon | Two Bodhgaya statues arrive with his Chinese and Nepalese brides |
| High in the sky | Trisong Deutsen | Sun risen | 108 panditas invited; Samye built |
| Second peak | Ralpachen | Full support | Spreads his braids on the ground for monks and ngakpas to walk on |
Why Padmasambhava Was Needed
The first great master invited was Khenpo Bodhisattva, Shantarakshita, who had "a tremendously loving and peaceful heart" and so could not wrathfully subdue the local spirits. A naga rallied the eight classes of spirits, and whatever was built by day was destroyed at night. The Khenpo told the despondent king that in India lived Padmasambhava, the Lotus-Born, at whose very name the spirits would be terror-stricken. The three of them shared a vow from a former life when, as brothers, they helped build the Jarung Khashor stupa in Boudhanath.
- Padmasambhava: not born from a womb; lived in India more than a thousand years and in Tibet 55 years; left from Gungtang pass for the Copper-coloured Mountain, carried by four dakinis.
- Vimalamitra: attained the vajra body of the great transformation.
- Vairochana: Tibetan translator and emanation of Buddha Vairochana.
- Rinchen Sangpo and Marpa: chief translators of the later Sarma revival after Langdarma's persecution.
This created the Nyingma, the Old School of the Early Translations, while the later imports became the Sarma, the New Schools. Together they formed the Eight Chariots of the Practice Lineage: Nyingma, Marpa Kagyü, Shangpa Kagyü, Lamdrey (Sakya), Kadampa (later Geluk), Shijey and Chö, Jordruk and Nyendrub. All eight were "without a single exception, the teachings of the Buddha." In short, India is the father of the Buddhadharma, Nepal the mother, and Tibet their offspring. Masters of those times flew like flocks of birds and left footprints in solid rock, which Rinpoche says you can still go and see.
The Age of Strife Favours Vajrayana
Vajrayana spreads widely in only three aeons: that of Ngöndzok Gyalpo, our own under Shakyamuni, and the future Aeon of Beautiful Flowers under Manjushri. Ours is the Age of Strife, when the five degenerations (life-span, era, beings, views and emotions) are rampant. A proverb plays on the names: "During the Muni, people compete with one another; during the Maitreya they will love each other." But in the loving era of Maitreya "they will not even hear the word Vajrayana."
"The stronger and more forceful the disturbing emotions are, the greater the potential for recognizing our original wakefulness." Recognizing mind essence when one big flame of blazing anger, when chased by vicious dogs, or when dying of a fatal illness, lays wakefulness bare more vividly than placid meditation. Pure tranquillity brings "soft pleasure" and can lead to rebirth among the conceptionless gods, which is the worst of the eight unfree states because it is the ultimate sidetrack.
Vajrayana is applied in three ways, shown by a farmer:
| Approach | Farming image |
|---|---|
| Ground as path | Tilling soil and sowing seeds |
| Path as path | Weeding, watering, fertilizing |
| Fruition as path | Simply picking the ripened fruit: this is Dzogchen |
How Dzogchen Came Down
Before reaching humans, Dzogchen was spread through the mind transmission of the victorious ones in three divine places: Akanishtha, Tushita, and the Heaven of the Thirty-Three on Sumeru, where Samantabhadra as Vajradhara taught in Indra's Mansion of Complete Victory. Rinpoche distinguishes ultimate Akanishtha, the dharmadhatu, from symbolic Akanishtha, the highest of the seventeen worlds of form. Then the 6,400,000 Dzogchen tantras came to Garab Dorje, the first human vidyadhara, from Vajrasattva, first in Uddiyana, later in India and Tibet.
Shakyamuni is the fourth of the thousand buddhas of this Excellent Aeon but the twelfth of the Twelve Dzogchen Teachers. He taught Dzogchen "not in the conventional manner", by manifesting mandalas for suitable retinues; ordinary listeners received what fit their aptitude, preserved in the Tripitaka. Dzogchen is sealed with three secrecies: primordial (self-secret), hidden (not evident to all) and concealed (kept secret on purpose). Even so, today "the word 'Dzogchen' can be heard as far as the wind pervades." Shakyamuni appointed Padmasambhava as his representative: body-emanation of Amitabha, speech of Avalokiteshvara, mind of Shakyamuni.
Termas and Rainbow Bodies
Padmasambhava sends a ceaseless stream of emissaries, the tertöns, reincarnations of his 25 main disciples, counted as 108 Great Tertöns. Some opened solid rock before 400 or 500 people. Atisha, seeing the library at Samye, exclaimed that tantras on such a scale must come from the dakini worlds.
Why heap up "stacks upon stacks of Dzogchen scriptures"? Because of purity of transmission. As a teaching passes down, damaged samaya can creep in and dilute blessings. A fresh terma, like Longchenpa's Nyingtik Yabshi, Konchok Chidü, Gongpa Sangtal, Chetsün Nyingtik or Chokgyur Lingpa's Kunzang Tuktik, makes the distance from the Buddha to the practitioner very short. The purity lies "not in the teaching itself, but in how distant the line of transmission is."
The king and 25 disciples all attained rainbow body, leaving only hair and fingernails; this means being awakened as sambhogakaya, which appears as rainbow light. Pang Mipham Gönpo began seven generations of rainbow-body disciples; Katok saw eight generations. About a century ago Nyag-la Pema Düdül went in rainbow body before 500 disciples, a nun in Tsang did so during the Chinese invasion, and in Golok three or four more after the occupation: "not just an old tale."
The View and the Nine Vehicles
Every vehicle aims at emptiness, and each thinks its own view is flawless. Tulku Urgyen ranks them by how much conceptual mind remains, shows that shamatha and vipashyana exist at every level, and explains why Dzogchen is the golden top-ornament on the temple.
Same Aim, Subtler Concepts
"The key point of the view in each of the nine vehicles is nothing other than emptiness." Hinayana begins with the stillness of shamatha until thought has entirely ceased. The shravakas split into 18 schools; only the Sarvastivadin monastic line (in Tibet) and the one brought to Sri Lanka survive. Pratyekabuddhas are of the "flock type" like a parrot or the "solitary type" like a rhinoceros. Mahayana has the 37 factors of enlightenment and schools like Chittamatra and Madhyamika, which establishes emptiness as "free from the four extremes and eight constructs" but still keeps a subtle fixation on emptiness.
| System | Level | Equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Sutra Mahamudra | Five paths, ten bhumis | Mahayana gradual path |
| Tantra Mahamudra | Example wisdom to meaning wisdom | Maha and Anu Yoga |
| Essence Mahamudra | Direct recognition | Dzogchen, minus Tögal |
| Great Madhyamika of the Definitive Meaning | Beyond intellect | Dzogchen Trekchö |
A saying runs: the ground is Mahamudra, the path Madhyamika, the fruition Dzogchen. Whether they differ "depends on what aspect we are discussing."
Dzogchen too has levels. The outer Mind Section is like the body and stresses cognizance; the inner Space Section, like the heart, stresses emptiness; the secret Instruction Section, like the veins in the heart, stresses their unity; the innermost Unexcelled Section, like the life-energy inside the heart, teaches ground, path and fruition, Trekchö and Tögal, like a person with all five senses intact.
Watchfulness and Buddha Nature
What matters most is to recognize buddha nature, sugatagarbha, Tibetan deshek nyingpo: just as the essence of milk is butter, the essence of all buddhas is realization. In the first eight vehicles, buddha nature is held as a point of reference and guarded by mindfulness, like a herdsman watching his cattle. There are then two things: buddha nature and the not-forgetting of it. When watchfulness slips, the practitioner is no different from an ordinary person.
Ordinary: first produce stillness, then seek insight by trying to find who the meditator is; both are "pretty much involved in conceptual thinking."
Ati Yoga: innate stability in rigpa is shamatha, the awake quality is vipashyana; shamatha is resting in true emptiness without fabrication, vipashyana is not departing from it. "Same word, superior meaning."
Dzogchen strips awareness to its naked state and does not cling to emptiness in any way. Its view is called the view of fruition, utterly devoid of conceptual formulations, like the golden top-ornament of a monastery: above it there is nothing but sky. "Dzog" means finished, done, complete: "Complete as one: everything is complete within awakened mind."
The View From the Summit
Climbing a mountain you see one direction at a time; on the summit of Sumeru you see all four at once. From the top, the lower views show subtle concepts, though each vehicle feels certain its own view is perfect. The Buddha called his teachings "a gradual progression... like the steps on a staircase, or like a newborn infant who slowly grows up."
| Capacity | Vehicles | Turned by | Transmission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highest (3 grades) | Ati, Anu, Maha | Dharmakaya buddha | Mind transmission of the victorious ones |
| Medium (3 grades) | Kriya, Upa, Yoga | Sambhogakaya buddha | Sign transmission of vidyadharas |
| Lesser (3 grades) | Shravaka, pratyekabuddha, bodhisattva | Nirmanakaya buddha | Oral transmission of masters |
The vehicles do not differ because some teachings are better; "all his teachings were excellent." Giving Hinayana to an Ati Yoga type is like handing a tiny package to a strong man; giving high Vajrayana to a shravaka type is like loading a small child with a grown man's burden: he falls over.
The Temple of Three Vehicles
Newcomers may find Tibetan Buddhism "full of different forms of deities and rituals, how odd!" Believing only your own form is Buddhism is like a person who has only one arm, or only a head. Rinpoche gives the image of a perfect temple:
Since life is too short to study everything like a pandita, follow the pith instruction: "Resolve the nature of your mind; don't resolve the characteristics of all the teachings."
Time to Enlightenment
What propels us through samsara is dualistic thinking. The Sakya say: "If fixation is present, you do not have the view." The Geluk agree that the highest view is free of conceptual mind. So the vehicles differ in how long they take: shravakas incalculable aeons, bodhisattvas lives almost impossible to count, the outer tantras sixteen or thirteen lifetimes. Recognized nondual awareness is like the flawless dharmakaya placed in the palm of your hand; practise it all day and most of the night, sleeping only three hours, and "you will not need more than thirteen years."
Lower vehicles are like talking about the moon without seeing it, drawing a diagram of it. In Mahamudra's four yogas, one-pointedness is shamatha, simplicity vipashyana. At the start of simplicity a student told on the third lunar day to look up sees a sliver; it is indeed the moon. That is recognizing mind essence. From the third to the fifteenth day the moon grows full, as recognition becomes uninterrupted.
The Three Vajras
Three resolutions from Atisha guard the practitioner's life: no dissuasion in front, no shame behind, and pure wisdom as a constant companion. Tulku Urgyen adds Atisha's Four Aims and other plain advice for living simply until death.
An Ocean With No Bliss
We have been roaming "for a very, very, very long time" through samsara. The Buddha called it "an endless ocean of sorrow," never an ocean of bliss. Not the ruler, not parents, friends, servants, fame or wealth can free us; only our own spiritual effort can.
| Vajra | Position | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| No dissuasion | Before you | Let no one, not even your teacher, talk you out of Dharma |
| No shame | Behind you | Never turn back in a way that destroys others' pure perception |
| Pure wisdom | Keep company with | Recognize self-existing wakefulness, train, stabilize |
No Dissuasion
A true master never says, "Do not pursue the Dharma." If yours does, "you have probably made a mistake in choosing that guru." Refuse bribes such as half the wealth of the world. If someone points a gun at your chest, say "Yes, I will give it up" with your mouth but never agree in your heart. The everyday use: "appearances are seductive, and mind is fickle." Pleasant forms, sounds, smells, tastes and textures capture attention; unpleasant ones repel. Dualistic mind is inherently unsteady and gets carried away, so it needs a firm, unshakable resolve.
No Shame
"The new meditator gives away gold, while the old meditator hoards his worn-out shoe soles." Two or three years in, we grow jaded and numb and start planning to cut old soles into tethers for the yaks.
Once others know we have entered the path, there is a responsibility: turning back may ruin the Dharma for them. It is better to begin slowly and progress gradually than to start out brilliantly and later become jaded. Be like a mountain deer that yanks its foot from a trap and darts one-pointedly to an unpeopled place, a "child of the mountains." Then others see that the teachings work.
Pure Wisdom
The third vajra is original wakefulness, rangjung yeshe, always with us because it is our nature. Recognize it, decide upon it, gain confidence in liberating thoughts, train, and stabilize. The resolve is simply: "I will recognize my own nature as it is!"
The Four Aims and Other Advice
- Aim the mind at Dharma: mundane aims cannot lead to liberation in any way.
- Aim Dharma at simple living: wealth must be increased, guarded and worried over.
- Aim simple living at your whole life: not a short phase before becoming rich and important.
- Aim death at solitude: die alone and friendless in a hermitage, without attendants.
- Keep a low seat: a low profile and whatever clothes you come by.
- Let food, clothing and reputation lose the case: like a settled dispute, let them take the defeat.
- Be your own teacher: live so you can rely on yourself.
"When young, we are controlled by others... in adulthood, we chase objects of pleasure... when old, we lose our strength. Alas, alas! What do we do now?" Rinpoche's realistic fallback: be a whole-hearted practitioner, or at least embody half, or take a single piece of this advice and truly live it.
The Buddha gave advice like a dying parent's last words. Study, reflection and training should have an effect: learning and reflection make one gentle and disciplined; meditation makes aggression, attachment and dullness steadily decrease, "the real sign of meditation practice."
Striking the Essential Point
Garab Dorje condensed 6,400,000 Dzogchen verses into Three Words: recognize your nature, decide on one point, gain confidence in liberation. Tulku Urgyen explains each and why liberation, not meditation, is the point.
From Samantabhadra to Garab Dorje
In symbolic Akanishtha, which is still within samsara, Samantabhadra arose from the spontaneous sound of dharmata and taught the tantras. In Ati the three-kaya teachers are Samantabhadra (dharmakaya), Vajradhara (sambhogakaya, the same buddha fully ornamented) and Vajrasattva (nirmanakaya), who passed the tantras to Garab Dorje. Shakyamuni was the last of the twelve holders, but the one who actually spread them here was Garab Dorje.
| Buddha | Ultimate view taught |
|---|---|
| Nirmanakaya | Madhyamika, the Middle Way |
| Sambhogakaya | Mahamudra |
| Dharmakaya | Dzogchen, the Great Perfection |
Recognize Your Own Nature
Buddha nature is empty in essence, cognizant by nature, and its capacity is "suffused with self-existing awareness": the universal ground from which all worlds and beings come. It is not a thing that exists, since it has no distinguishable traits; it is not nonexistent, since everything appears from it; and it is not even "beyond being and not being," since that too is a formulation. It resembles space, which accommodates everything yet fits no idea about it.
Forms and sounds are being experienced right now, so the nature is not nothing. Yet search for the perceiver and there is no "thing" to find. While perceiving, it is empty of a perceiver; while empty, there is still experience. Experience removes the extreme of nothingness; emptiness removes the extreme of concrete existence. Unlike space, buddha nature is cognizant. This unity of awareness and emptiness cannot be devised intellectually.
Decide on One Point
Empty essence is dharmakaya, cognizant nature is sambhogakaya, unconfined capacity is nirmanakaya. To decide on one point is to see that the three kayas of all buddhas are present simply in that. Knowing that the nature cannot be pinpointed already proves the cognizant quality. "There is nothing higher or superior to this to decide upon."
Gain Confidence in Liberation
"Meditation is not the most important thing; liberation is." Shamatha stillness while still deluded leads only to the dhyana and formless worlds, which do not lead out of samsara. "If you know how to meditate, but not how to be free, then aren't you just like the meditation gods?"
The ordinary mind runs in "black diffusion": no idea who thinks, where thoughts come from or where they go, not even "the scent" of awareness. Vimalamitra gave three stages of liberation:
| Stage | Image | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Beginning | Meeting someone you already know | Once you get "a whiff", thoughts free on recognition, like a drawing on water |
| Growing stable | A knot tied in a snake | Unravels by itself; no extra technique |
| Perfection | A thief entering an empty house | Nothing gained, nothing lost |
Rinpoche lists modes rather than steps: self-liberated (needs no remedy), liberated upon arising, directly liberated (instantly), naturally liberated (no entity to free) and primordially liberated (rigpa, already free). A fifth, universally liberated, ta-drol, means all 84,000 emotions are freed in a single moment without remainder. Dualistic mind is not primordially free; it must be purified. Sangye, "buddha," plays on purified and perfected.
Where Thoughts Come From
Thoughts arise only as the expression of your essence. Search "for a billion years" and you will never see a thought arise from earth, water, fire or wind, or from flesh, blood or heat. A corpse has eyes but does not see, ears but does not hear. So the basis of experience is mind, whose essence is empty. Recognize the source, and thoughts dissolve back into yourself; unrecognized, they go astray into the six classes of samsara.
The real is your essence, the seeming is your thoughts; "recognize the real state, and the seeming way vanishes." The indivisible kayas are the svabhavikakaya, also the three vajras: "don't you have the three kayas right in the palm of your own hand?" Recognition is "free from thought, yet everything is vividly known."
The Hammer and the Sparrow
"All the thousands of books and scriptures are taught for the sole purpose of realizing these Three Words." A blacksmith swings his hammer in all directions but always lands it on the anvil. To kill someone you do not cut off the arms or stab the foot; you stab the heart, and the Three Words are the weapon against delusion. A Kham proverb says the mountain Ngomo Langtang is still visible after two days' walk. Rinpoche says his teaching is like the chirp of a small sparrow: "I chirp one day and on the following day I make the very same chirp."
Space
The innermost teachings rest on ying and rigpa, basic space and the knowing of it. Tulku Urgyen explains the threefold sky practice, why you cannot mingle three spaces without rigpa, and why space and awareness are as inseparable as water and wetness.
Three Spaces
| Space | Defined as | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Outer ying | A clear sky free of clouds, mist and haze | Example and support |
| Inner ying | The nature of mind, already empty | The meaning |
| Innermost ying | Recognition of buddha nature | Rigpa itself |
The sky is used because it is without support; nothing in it gives the mind something to grasp. A calm ocean or great lake also serves. A cloudy sky or a tiny room still works, since it is just an example. "When training with space, do not remain in thoughts: remain in awareness."
Beyond Arising, Dwelling, Ceasing
Ying means not arising, not dwelling, not ceasing. Look for where earth, water, fire and wind come from, stay and vanish to; there is no source, no location, no destination. That is "discovering the basic space of external phenomena." Ask the same of the thinker, and you find inner space. If both are beyond arising, dwelling and ceasing, any separation is only two names. In Sanskrit ying is dhatu.
Some think basic space is vacant and consciousness separate. Not so:
| If space is... | Wakefulness is its... |
|---|---|
| Water | Wetness |
| A flame | Heat |
| Sugar | Sweetness |
This unity is called Samantabhadra, the Primordial Protector. Buddhas are empty cognizance suffused with awareness; beings are empty cognizance suffused with unknowing.
There are two ways to the view: inference (intellectual) and direct perception. Development stage is inference; completion stage is direct perception. By utterly letting be, the unity is vividly present, meaning not governed by dualistic fixation.
Mingling Three Concepts
Without pointing-out and recognized rigpa, you can only mingle two spaces, the empty sky and empty mind; any ordinary person relaxing and looking at the sky does that. Thinking "There's the sky outside, here's the sky within, now I'll add rigpa" is "mingling three concepts," and it makes concepts seem more important than awareness.
The right way: "Simply and totally disown all three." They do not need to be mingled; they are already mingled. Direct the eyes upward into space, not at the ground, and leave the empty mind within rigpa. This is called "already having mingled the threefold space."
Why Practise Outside
Space has no centre and no edge, so gazing into it helps you experience unconfined, all-pervasive rigpa. Means is the sky; knowledge is the awareness the master pointed out. Go to a high mountain-top where you can see sky even below you. The Drukpa Kagyü master Lorepa spent 13 years on an island in one of Tibet's great lakes and said the surface of water helped him greatly.
The Chöying Dzö says: "everything seen, heard or thought is the adornment of space." Think of the space inside and outside a vase, then shatter the vase.
Form Is Emptiness
Rinpoche throws his mala on the table: it seems solid, yet "form is emptiness." The proof is that everything will be destroyed; the world goes through formation, remaining, disintegration and voidness, four equal periods. "Emptiness is also form" seems contradictory to what we see. Remember: "Sense-objects are mere perception and therefore do not have concrete existence."
If only the mind were empty while objects were concrete, there could be no mingling of space and awareness. Because both perceived objects and perceiving subject are beyond arising, dwelling and ceasing, training in their unity is possible.
Samaya
Vajrayana commitments carry the greatest reward and the greatest risk. Tulku Urgyen explains the snake in the bamboo, the samayas with guru and vajra siblings, why Vajrayana breaks mend like a dent in gold, and why nondistraction is the king of all samayas.
Three Sets of Precepts in One Empowerment
All the vehicles' precepts condense into the four samayas of the Dzogchen view (nonexistence, all-pervasiveness, oneness, spontaneous perfection) and the three root samayas of Body, Speech and Mind. Every empowerment begins with refuge (the shravaka precepts) and bodhichitta (the bodhisattva precepts). When you drink the samaya water from the conch, it becomes Vajrasattva resting in your heart; keep samaya and you are never separate from him.
A snake inside a hollow bamboo shaft cannot go left or right, only up or down. Upward directness leads to a buddhafield; downward directness awaits those who break samaya: "I hate to mention this, but such a person can only go downward." Once you receive the four empowerments, "the snake has already crept into the bamboo shaft." Broken samaya turns the Vajrasattva in your heart into "a fierce yaksha" that shortens life and consumes the essences of the heart-blood.
The higher the vehicle, the narrower the defile. For shravakas and bodhisattvas it is simple: keep disciplined in thought, word and deed. In Vajrayana, never let body depart from being the deity, voice from mantra, or mind from samadhi. Toward the vajra master: do not disparage his bodily presence, break his command or upset his feelings.
Vajra Siblings
| Sibling | Who | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Distant | Everyone at a big empowerment, sometimes thousands | Still binding |
| Close | Those with the same empowerments and instructions, often the same monastery | Closer |
| Very close | Those who received mind-essence instruction from the same master | As precious as your heart or eyes |
Stay clear of seeing them as imperfect, resentment, ridicule, belittling or criticizing behind their backs.
The Four Dzogchen Samayas
Nonexistence and all-pervasiveness are the samayas of Trekchö; oneness and spontaneous perfection those of Tögal. Remaining in them, not a single breach is possible, "not even as much as a hair-tip." Until then, breaches are unavoidable and come in four stages: infraction, transgression, violation, breach, graded partly by time since the damage. After three years without apology, a samaya becomes irreparable.
"Samaya violation is my worst enemy; the guru is my best friend." Broken samaya can damage the master's health and life, brings misfortune among siblings, and hinders samadhi, learning, reflection and meditation.
Patience and a Shut Mouth
The best way to keep samaya is proper view, meditation and conduct; failing that, patience: "Don't retaliate with anger when attacked with rage... with abuse when reviled... with blows when threatened." An Eastern Tibetan saying: "Words are the wellspring of all strife," which is the main reason for silent retreat. The tongue "does not want to stay silent" (Rinpoche laughs). Stay as quiet as a stone, and keep your mouth shut as tightly as a squeezed ball of tsampa.
No Exemption From Precepts
Some who call themselves Vajrayana practitioners think they need no precepts at all. "Is there any empowerment ceremony that excludes taking refuge?" Refuge gives the Hinayana precepts; the thrice-repeated bodhisattva vow gives the bodhisattva trainings; and the four empowerments authorize the entire path:
| Empowerment | Authorizes |
|---|---|
| Vase | Development stage |
| Secret and wisdom-knowledge | Completion stage with characteristics |
| Precious word | Trekchö and Tögal |
For a layperson, keeping the ten virtues suffices as samaya. But to become a noble being, the tools are all in the empowerment.
The Bardo Test
Pure samaya gives the six recollections in the bardo: guru, instructions, yidam and so on. Broken samaya feels like being shrouded in dense fog. Even without much yidam practice, sincere trust and unspoiled samaya allow the fourfold liberation through seeing, hearing, remembering or touching. It is much better to be a simple practitioner who has not violated samaya, even without a high view or deep meditation. In the bardo there is no one to be pretentious with; it is "the revealing mirror." However high your view or powers, break samaya and "the road upward is blocked."
Kongtrül's Calling the Guru From Afar names the common fault: "Though my faults are as huge as a mountain, I hide them within. Though others' faults are as tiny as mustard seeds, I proclaim them far and wide." The remedy: "Whether they are pure or defiled, it is none of my business!" Be your own teacher.
To reach Vajra Hell, ordinary evil deeds "will not suffice"; "first you must diligently break your samayas" (Rinpoche laughs), and the other 18 hells are thrown in for free. To reach Akanishtha, keep samaya pure. There is no third alternative.
Purification Is Always Possible
"The only quality of evil deeds is that they can be purified through apology and resolution," ideally before three years pass. Even the five acts with immediate result (killing mother, father or an arhat, splitting the sangha, drawing a buddha's blood) can be purified: arrange the peaceful and wrathful mandala, invite a master and disciples, loudly confess before them, strip off your clothes and prostrate while reciting the Hundred Syllables 108 times. Breaking pledged discipline is far worse than "unformulated evil" done without vows.
Misdeeds from beginningless time lie dormant as habitual tendencies and will not disappear by themselves; hence Vajrasattva and the four powers. Karma as huge as Sumeru burns like a mountain of dry grass set on fire. "Realization occurs automatically when misdeeds are purified," as stars appear when clouds clear.
Nondistraction is the king of all samayas: there you transcend the dividing line between keeping and breaking, and there is no samaya to observe. Until then, "isn't claiming 'I don't break any samayas!' only pretentious self-deception?"
Application
Practice moves through intellectual understanding, experience and realization, and through recognizing, training and stability. Tulku Urgyen uses a buffet, a flower seed and a sneak-thief to show how short moments of rigpa grow into buddhahood.
Understanding, Experience, Realization
| Step | What it is | Buffet image |
|---|---|---|
| Understanding | The idea that our nature is empty cognizance | A guided tour of the dishes: "this is Indian, that is French" |
| Experience | A glimpse of recognizing mind essence | Putting the food in your mouth |
| Realization | Total and permanent collapse of confusion | A full stomach |
Thoughts are like clouds; rigpa is like sunlit space, an image for space and awareness being indivisible. We cannot push the clouds away, but each time thought dissolves back into awareness progress is made. Grasping, as in "I hate these thoughts! I have to be enlightened!", "will never give way to enlightenment."
Once recognition happens, "meditation training can truly begin," yet it is not meditating in the common sense. There is no emptying an essence that is already empty, and no making cognizant what is already cognizant. Just let it be as it naturally is: "nonmeditation." What matters is not to be distracted for even a single instant; distraction is the return of "I'm hungry; I wonder what I should say," and the remedy is simply to recognize again.
When recognition lasts throughout the day, you are at the level of a bodhisattva; uninterruptedly day and night, buddhahood. The sky and sunshine "are not of our making"; they show fully when the clouds are gone.
The Madman in the Market
Shout "All things are the unity of empty cognizance!" in the marketplace. Some think "He's crazy!" Another reasons: "Things don't know themselves... there is nothing other than mind that knows things," so the madman is right. That is correct understanding, still only intellectual. Experience is recognizing the empty essence when the master points it out and whenever you remember. What a master does is simply tell you how to look.
Some refuse to recognize their nature, thinking "First I must get rid of my nasty old dualistic mind so the amazing buddha mind can come down from above, like a beautiful god." Waiting for a fabulous vision is "molding the circumstances for some kind of demonic force to enter." "Nothing very special is going to happen, because the real, true state is already present."
The Flower Seed
Recognizing is like acquiring a genuine flower seed; training is giving it warmth, moisture and protection, not leaving it on bare stone; stability is the full bloom. Support training with devotion to the enlightened and compassion for the unenlightened, "a universal panacea." "In the moment of love, the nature of emptiness dawns nakedly." Development and completion stages also facilitate nondistraction.
The infant today and the adult 25 years later are the same person; so too our nature now and at enlightenment. "A single candle flame can set the whole of a mountainside ablaze." Our nature is unfabricated naturalness, like the space in the room that needs no making.
Signs and Obstacles
Running commentary like "This is not exactly right... Now I've got it! Now it slipped away" is not unfabricated naturalness. The sign of training is that thinking grows less, gaps between thoughts grow longer, and "the continuous instant of nonfabrication" lengthens by itself.
Negative circumstances (illness, mishaps) are easier to see through. The worst obstacle is when crowds of followers gather saying "You are so wonderful... please guide us." Unless you are the foremost type, you will think "Hey, maybe I am special." Stability means being carried away by neither positive nor negative conditions.
| Signs of accomplishment | Kind |
|---|---|
| Good health, long life, fame, influence | Superficial |
| Compassion, devotion, an acute sense of impermanence, fewer thoughts, longer rigpa | True, as established by the lineage |
Jigmey Lingpa: "When you do not lose the innate stability of awareness even if questioned by a hundred great masters or a thousand scholars, then no doubt remains."
Thought in the Flame
"Just as a single hair cannot remain in a flame," a thought cannot remain in recognition. Sem, dualistic mind, keeps up perceiver and perceived; drop that and duality crumbles. Thought is a sneak-thief: invite him in in broad daylight before a crowd and he cannot steal anything. Train with utmost diligence and you can be enlightened "after no more than a few years"; practise moderately and at least die without regret.
Talk Is Cheap
Saying "Everything is illusion" does not make delusion fall apart. The Kagyü masters who said "the rock here is totally transparent" could pass through rock, walk on water and fly, not from special powers but because everything is unreal from the outset. Without experience, "there is nothing to worry about in the bardo" will fail us in the raging river of fear.
A glimpse does not show the ten powers or eighteen unique qualities, which need stability to manifest. Do not expect drama. Yet one thing is amazing: in rigpa thought and the three poisons are totally absent. "We can drop a million nuclear bombs on this world", and it would not stop deluded thinking.
When ordinary visitors to Uddiyana saw only boulders and a small pond, Gendün Chöpel asked: "While you don't even see the unchanging nature of mind which is inseparable from yourself, how can you ever have visions of deities?" As fire is hot and water wet, our mind's nature is always awareness.
Devotion and Compassion
Recognition alone does not carry a practitioner far. Tulku Urgyen calls devotion to the enlightened and compassion for the unenlightened the means that lets the knowledge of mind essence actually grow, and he says it is the advice he has "wanted to say for a long time."
Means and Knowledge in Every System
| System | Means | Knowledge |
|---|---|---|
| Sutra | Compassion | Emptiness |
| Tantra | Development stage | Completion stage |
| Mahamudra | Six Doctrines of Naropa (path of means) | Mahamudra (path of liberation) |
| Madhyamika | Relative truth | Ultimate truth |
| Dzogchen | Spontaneously present nature (Tögal) | Primordially pure essence (Trekchö) |
An airplane needs both the parts and a skilled pilot; neither alone can fly. Buddha nature was never apart from our mind, yet unfamiliarity leaves us "as helpless as a baby on a battlefield" when thoughts arise as enemies. Another line: "Apart from the two accumulations and the blessings of a qualified guru, relying on other methods is delusion." Without experience, our idea of emptiness varies wildly from year to year with our current intellectual fantasies.
The Hook and the Ring
| Image | Meaning |
|---|---|
| The buddhas' hook | Compassionate activity waiting to catch open beings |
| An iron ring | A being with faith and devotion: easily caught |
| A solid iron ball | A closed being: not even the buddhas' hook can catch it |
| A north-facing cave | The sun shines on all, yet never reaches inside |
| A mirror turned to the sun | The moment we think of them, their rays contact us |
Buddhas have no preferences; each being is like their only child, and their compassion is beyond partiality and distance. Enlightenment is beyond time and space: a finger-snap can become an aeon, an aeon a single moment. All buddhas are like butter lamps lit in one room: separate flames, indivisible light. Our mind too is dharmakaya, a lamp whose wick has not yet been lit, and "the link between us and the state of enlightenment is faith and devotion."
Why Compassion
Every being has been our mother. Roll the whole world into small pellets, and their number would still be less than our past mothers. A mother gives constant, unconditional care and is "continually saving her baby's life."
Rinpoche's stark example: imagine your mother surrounded by slaughterers who cut off her limbs, eyes, ears and nose and finally her head. The desperate grief you feel "is compassion." All beings want only happiness yet, through attachment, anger and delusion, keep forging a path into the lower worlds. To abandon them, thinking "I will do a little meditation, attain enlightenment and be happy," is "a totally heartless way to behave."
A compassionate person is naturally honest and heeds cause and effect; one without it "can easily become a complete charlatan." "It is not enough to practice by merely sitting and saying, 'Empty, empty. This mind is empty!'"
Without devotion and compassion we are like someone who sees a buddha fly past and says "So what!" (or "they are probably holding their breath"), or watches a creature chopped up and says "That's their karma." Such practice is a seed on bare stone: "It will never grow."
Trusting What We Cannot See
"I don't see any buddhafields, so they don't exist" is like someone who refuses to believe in American houses and gadgets because he has never been there, or who says no villages lie behind the hill. Rinpoche trusts Buddha Shakyamuni, who saw the three times and all buddhafields, and the masters down to his root guru: "I don't feel that any one of them ever told a lie." His three perfect measures are the Buddha's words, the bodhisattvas' statements and the root guru's instructions.
Doubt hampers every activity. Offered a diamond in one hand and glass in the other, the doubter "would never be able to purchase the diamond" however good the bargain.
Keep It in the Centre
With devotion and compassion in place, the main training is nondistraction, since "the demon of distraction lies in ambush." People who say "I've tried to meditate for years, but nothing happens" lack the right means, like knowing how to drive without the car's parts.
"Please think, 'That old Tibetan man said devotion and compassion are essential. I'll keep that right in the center of my heart.'" "I am telling you the truth here. I am being honest with you. I am not lying." Practise this way and each month and year will yield progress, and no one will be able to pull you back.
The Qualified Master
The path begins with a qualified master. Tulku Urgyen defines one as a vajra-holder with the three precepts, then gives a living portrait: his uncle and root guru Samten Gyatso, a hidden yogi whom even the Karmapa feared, forced onto the throne of vajra master.
Three Kinds of Teacher
If your schoolteacher is "a complete moron," you learn nothing. We need someone who can guide us to liberation (rebirth in a pure buddhafield) and omniscient enlightenment.
| Holds | Title |
|---|---|
| Pratimoksha vows | Virtuous guide |
| + Bodhisattva trainings | Spiritual teacher |
| + Vajrayana competence in samadhi | Dorje lobpön, vajra master |
The "vajra-holder possessing the three precepts" is the best. A true vajra master has liberated his own stream-of-being through realization and can liberate others through compassion.
Samten Gyatso's Lineage
Rinpoche is "a little shy" to praise a relative, and offers "a crude example": his guru was excellent and he is related to him "in the same way that excrement is akin to the very good food it initially was."
- Identity: Tulku Urgyen's paternal uncle, the fourth Ngawang Trinley (Tsangsar Ngaktrin).
- Family line: Barom Kagyü, from Barom Dharma Wangchuk, disciple of Gampopa; ten generations to Tsangsar Lhatsün, who attained rainbow body; the family were once kings of Nangchen before becoming white-robed ngakpas.
- Mother: Könchok Paldrön, daughter of Chokgyur Lingpa.
- Seen as: an emanation of four-armed Mahakala; in a pure vision, of Vimalamitra.
- Gurus: Karmey Khenpo Rinchen Dargye, Tsewang Norbu, and the 15th Karmapa Khakyab Dorje.
Three Precepts in One Life
Outwardly, he kept the Vinaya so purely that he never tasted alcohol or meat. Inwardly, he kept a low profile, wearing an ordinary monk's robes, no brocade. Innermost, he once said: "At a young age I was introduced to mind essence... there does not seem to be any difference between day and night." He gave the entire Chokling Tersar to the 15th Karmapa, Drukchen Rinpoche, Taklung Tsetrül, the king of Nangchen, part of it to Situ Wangchok Gyalpo at Palpung, and sections to Dzongsar Khyentse at his hermitage Randza Dzong-go.
At the Nangchen palace, haughty ministers sat in brocade on hard wooden benches (the eccentric king allowed no upholstery). Hearing Samten Gyatso's slight cough approaching, they all tried to stand by leaning on each other's shoulders and tumbled here and there. Even the Karmapa said: "I'm really terrified of that lama. I don't know why." Tulku Urgyen hesitated at his door every morning, and the eloquent young Khentrül would forget his words and tremble at the sight of his bald head.
The Hidden Yogi Style
Samten Gyatso never flattered, spoke without adding or subtracting, and scolded anyone who began "Rinpoche, you are very learned..." He never blessed with his hand, forbade prostrations, never sat on a high seat, lived mostly in caves, and built no temples or statues. His one effort was having almost 40 volumes of the Chokling Tersar copied exactly by four or five scribes.
Forced Onto the Throne
- Tsewang Norbu, Chokgyur Lingpa's son, was to give the Karmapa the Chokling Tersar, but a self-important benefactor in Lhasa delayed him and he died.
- Tersey Tulku, Samten Gyatso's learned brother, refused: "How can a dog put his paw on a man's head?" The Karmapa's tough Golok servant Jampal Tsültrim slapped him and called him "You lowlife!" The Karmapa said only, "We'll see."
- Years earlier at Riwoche, during the Rinchen Terdzö, Tsewang Norbu had glared at the tulkus, pointed at Samten Gyatso sitting silently by the door, and said "He will be much more influential in maintaining the lineage," later giving him his vajra and bell.
- The Karmapa invited Samten Gyatso without saying why, showed him a throne with brocade robes and a crown, and said: "I command you to sit there."
After evenings of talk, Khakyab Dorje joined his palms and told his young consort Khandro Chenmo: "At this time and during this age, probably no one except Samten Gyatso has authentic realization of the innermost essence of the Great Perfection." She later told Tulku Urgyen.
The Pleasant Obstacle
Near the end, sleeping at his uncle's feet, Tulku Urgyen heard him speak for the first time about his realization: "I really fell under the power of the demon of distraction called the 'heavenly son'... I was happy just to live in caves." He was introduced to mind nature at eight.
"Being successful is actually called the 'pleasant obstacle'." Unpleasant obstacles (scandal, sickness, misfortune) are easy to spot and use as path. Fame, a following and superficially acting for others are much more deceptive: one thinks "My capacity for benefiting others is expanding!" while failing to notice the obstacle.
Mindfulness
Most of us are not the instantaneous type, so practice starts with deliberate mindfulness, the finger on the light switch. Tulku Urgyen shows how it turns into effortless mindfulness, walks through the Mahamudra pointing-out, and warns against counterfeit emptiness.
Deliberate and Effortless
| Type | Who | Risk if used alone |
|---|---|---|
| Deliberate attention | Most practitioners, especially in Mahamudra | Subtly conceptual, but it shows whether you are distracted |
| Effortless | The highest, instantaneous type, carrying former training | Others may not even notice distraction, or convince themselves they are never distracted |
Mahamudra's "original innate nature" is simply buddha nature; Mahamudra, Madhyamika and Dzogchen are different words for the same natural state. Once the view is recognized, mindfulness is taken as the path. Lose it and you fall into "black dissipation," forgetting practice and drifting into ordinary activity. Kongtrül's Rain of Wisdom: "Within complexity I discovered dharmakaya; within thought I discovered nonthought."
A light does not turn itself on: you must press the switch. Noticing "I have wandered off" and recognizing who was distracted is that press, and you are back in the view. Once the light is on, you do not keep pressing. Strike a bell, and the sound continues for a while; leave recognition alone and it lasts. "The artificial leads to the natural."
Nonfabrication means not straying from this continuity; within the continuity, distraction is impossible. When you notice "I lost the view," recognize again, without anxiety or fear, which are only more thoughts.
Snowflakes on a Lake
"In the beginning, thoughts are like snowflakes falling on the surface of a lake." Both are water, so they mingle indivisibly.
Do not focus on the expression; recognize the essence, and the expression folds back into the essence. Thoughts have followed one another "like beads on a string" since beginningless time, yet each one's essence is emptiness. Thoughts come from buddha nature as rays from the sun; the sun does not come out of the rays. "Scan the entire universe. You will not find a path superior to this."
Seen in the Moment of Looking
Remembering to recognize and recognizing should be simultaneous: no need to "dance around... turn right, then left, then look up and down." This is prajnaparamita, beyond the conceptual mind, and not lying a little to the left or right.
"When you point at space, do you point first and then reach space, or do you contact space the moment you point?" Not the blue daytime sky, but actually touching space. That is "seen in the moment of looking; free in the moment of seeing." The first moment is deliberate mindfulness; the second is an ongoing naturalness, without "Now, where is it? I had better look closer!"
The Mahamudra Pointing-Out
- "Look into that which feels happy or sad." The student finds the thinker is not a real thing, yet thoughts occur.
- "Keep a close eye on that thinker." It sometimes thinks, sometimes rests; a diligent person reaches this in two or three months.
- The teacher names the two states "occurrence" and "stillness", like a worker who sometimes moves and sometimes sits. This is only "knowing the character of the mind," not buddha nature.
- "When there is thinking, look into the thinker; when stillness, look into what feels still." The student returns bewildered: "I'm at a complete loss."
- "No, you are not at a complete loss. Now you have arrived at Mahamudra." Train for months and years.
Trained like this, there is no difference between Mahamudra and Dzogchen, and the system is "perfect for both a beginner of little capacity and a person of great capacity." Earlier practice is externalized, watching thought as an object; now we internalize it by recognizing what thinks and what feels still.
Counterfeit Emptiness
Telling yourself "My attention never wanders" is "a severe sidetrack," very hard to cure. Thinking "I am undistracted" is a fabrication like any other thought. Likewise "It's empty, I see it!" makes it not empty: "a fabrication, a fake" that does not cut the root of the three poisons. Other traditions may see the essence yet fail to let go of the idea of emptiness.
"Thought cannot conquer thought." Only nonconceptual wakefulness, which does not have to be made (that is what "self-existing" means), cuts through thoughts and with them the basis of the three worlds. Deliberate mindfulness is "the preliminary, not the main part."
Kinds of Mindfulness
Some lists give deliberate, effortless, dharmata, wisdom and all-pervasive mindfulness, mapping the seven impure and three pure bhumis. Dzogchen names six; others name two. The Dzogchen phrasing: "Sustain primordially free awareness with innate mindfulness." The ultimate is all-pervasive mindfulness, where "awareness reaches as far as space reaches," day and night.
Do not expect that "someday the egg will hatch" and all the qualities will pour in. The temporary moods of bliss, clarity and nonthought may come, but they breed more fixation ("Wow! This must be it!"). We are not Garab Dorje, enlightened the instant mind nature was pointed out; we plant, water and wait for the bloom.
Tiredness
Students complained that practice made them tired. Tulku Urgyen turns the complaint around: what is exhausting is aeons of deluded thinking and the effort of keeping score; unfabricated naturalness, like space, cannot get tired.
The Evenly Taut Bowstring
Compared with aeons of delusion, we have trained only a short time, so stability in a few months or years "does not happen." Diligence here means constancy, like a bowstring evenly taut along its whole length, not sometimes pushing and then giving up.
| Continuous instant of... | Suffused with | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Delusion | Unknowing | Each moment sets up the next; months, lives, aeons fly by |
| Nonfabrication | Knowing: self-existing awareness | Rigpa, which counters the habit |
"This is not what we need to train in; we have already been doing so for countless lifetimes!" The yogi's mind is "like space mingling with space." Both states are the unity of empty cognizance; the only difference is knowing or not knowing.
What Is Really Tiring
"What is truly tiring is the state of deluded mind that creates completely pointless activity," the vicious wheel of anger, desire and dullness, so habitual we do not notice. Unfabricated naturalness "is not like doing prostrations or carrying a heavy load." What can tire you is strenuous checking: "Now I recognize. Oops! Now I've forgotten!" The best relaxation brings the best meditation. "We need to destroy the effort: that is what is making us tired." How can space become tired?
Tighten Tight, Loosen Loose
At first the master says "Look into your mind!" again and again; once you have caught the scent, there is no need to look here or there. Machig Labdrön: "Tighten tight and loosen loose: there you find the key view."
| Instruction | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Tighten tight | Look into mind essence; without looking, no recognition |
| Loosen loose | Totally let go of any idea of recognizing |
What is recognized is that there is no thing to recognize. Holding a recognizer and a recognized is "the root of samsara." Adding "Now it's rigpa! I got it!" clouds it over. "Whether it lasts or not is okay either way"; artificially extended, recognition turns dualistic. Some people with former training do find it lasts a while.
Some meditation is like a cat waiting at a mouse hole, tied up in hope and fear, ready to pounce: "Aha! There it is, now I've got it!" "Trying to catch the natural state is tiring!" As long as there is a faint observer and observed, samsara is not left behind.
Instead be like an old person watching children play: they say "Today I will be a minister, tomorrow a king," and he attaches no reality to it. Lean back and rest freely in the openness of basic space.
Three Ways of Freely Resting
| Rest | Like |
|---|---|
| Body | A mountain |
| Breath | An ocean with undisturbed surface |
| Mind | Awareness: the nature of mind |
Spend your life within these three.
Light in a Dark Room
A room pitch-black for 10,000 years is lit the instant the switch is pressed. In recognition, the three poisons are interrupted, and with them past, present and future obscurations. Put a hair in a flame: only the flame remains. Were you born wearing clothes? No; take them off and you are naked again, as with the naked dharmakaya.
We keep the awakened state imprisoned, guarded by 84,000 types of prison guards; even "I'm doing Kriya Yoga, Anu Yoga, Dzogchen" installs new bars.
| Stage | Prison image |
|---|---|
| Shravaka or bodhisattva | Parole papers served |
| Three outer tantras | About to be released |
| Maha and Anu | Prison door almost open |
| Ati Yoga | "Open the door. Walk out!" |
| Full realization | Totally free; you are in charge |
When the sun of dharmakaya rises above the peak of bliss, clarity and nonthought, it lights the whole world. With some stability you wonder "Why didn't I get tired before of all this thinking?" Keeping score is "strenuous mindfulness; it is not liberation." Deluded thinking is a charlatan.
The True Foundation
Without the four mind-changings and the preliminaries, the higher teachings have nothing to stand on. Tulku Urgyen argues the preliminaries are "more profound than the main part," and gives vivid images of mortality, the "VIP prostrations" to avoid, and how the view multiplies their effect.
Why the Foundation Comes First
Keep training in the general and specific preliminaries until their truth is assimilated within your being.
| Set | Contents |
|---|---|
| General: four mind-changings | Precious human body, impermanence and mortality, karma, the defects of samsara |
| Specific | Refuge and prostrations, bodhichitta, Vajrasattva, mandala offerings, guru yoga |
Without the four thoughts we ask "Why bother with exhausting things like prostrations?" and Dharma feels "extremely tiring." A good foundation can hold a hundred-storied tower. Relying only on teachings about the view is like trying to fly when you can only walk. Unless you are like Garab Dorje, introduction alone is not enough; "we are ordinary people, and we are mistaken if we think otherwise."
The preliminaries cover all three yanas in one session: refuge holds the Hinayana, bodhichitta holds the Mahayana, Vajrasattva holds the quintessence of Vajrayana. Padmasambhava and other masters distilled them from the canon, which no one could practise entirely in one lifetime. A hundred years of planting seeds on a stone yields no harvest.
The Measures of Taking It to Heart
The four thoughts are not beyond our comprehension; intellectual comprehension is not enough. Past masters regarded worldly aims like a gob of phlegm spat on the ground. The Kadampa advice: "Give up your homeland; wander in unknown lands; be a child of the mountains; wear the mist as your garment." They did this not by forcing hardship but by genuinely taking the four thoughts to heart.
- Precious human body: you are unable to waste time, filled with deep joy at holding something so rare.
- Urgency: like a vain maiden whose hair catches fire, you do not hesitate a single second.
- Impermanence: "I will die. I do not know when and I do not know how; but it is unavoidable!" People think impermanence "comes later on"; in truth nothing lasts from one moment to the next.
Reasons for Impermanence
| Reflection | Point |
|---|---|
| The universe | Destroyed by "seven suns and one water"; only uncompounded space remains; formation, abiding, destruction, voidness repeat as a great aeon |
| Noble beings | Even buddhas who could turn an aeon into a second have passed away |
| The mighty | Chakravartins of the gold, silver, copper and iron wheels, who dined with Indra: "where are they now?" |
| Causes of death | 404 diseases, 80,000 attacks of spirits; life is a butter-lamp flame in a storm; even medicine can kill |
The difference between alive and dead is a single breath. Nagarjuna: "It's amazing, a wonder, that one wakes up in the morning."
The cliff: you stand on a half-inch ledge above a nearly bottomless abyss with a raging river, clutching two handfuls of grass the size of a goat's beard (life-span and life-force). Two rats, the Lord of Death and Lord of Life, gnaw the grass blade by blade; two crows, your guardian spirits, hover uselessly. The abyss is the three lower worlds. "What can I do?"
The chopping block: your head is on the block and the axe is raised when someone offers you a beautiful consort and a magnificent palace. Is it enticing in the least?
The universe forms and dissolves without any creator, purely through beings' karma, an unfailing law. Nowhere in the six classes is there a sanctuary free from suffering.
Longchenpa's Thorn Bush
At Gang-ri Tökar, White Skull Snow Mountain, Longchenpa lived three years under a cliff overhang with a single hemp sack for garment, bedding and seat. A thorn bush at the entrance pierced him every time he went out. Going out he thought "I should hack it down!"; coming back, "Maybe this is the last day of my life. Why spend it cutting down a bush?" After three years he attained complete realization, and he never cut down the thorn bush.
VIP Prostrations
Trying to avoid pain is not the style of an honest practitioner. A Lhasa dignitary prostrating on a soft mattress with cushions on knees, ribs and elbows does "VIP prostrations," and "this style does not purify any karma or obscurations whatsoever." Paltrül Rinpoche prostrated in the open meadows outside his black yak-hair tent, chanting Karma Chagmey's Sukhavati Aspiration, until he wore a body-sized hollow into the soil. People skinned their foreheads, hands and knees.
The guideline for how long to practise is total purification, not a count. "We should not be emerging from our bath or shower still dirty." The aim is neither comfort nor self-mutilation but motivation, devotion, compassion and diligence. Rinpoche gives an age-based scale:
| Age | Sets of 100,000 needed |
|---|---|
| Age of Perfection (Buddha's time) | One |
| Two-endowed | Two |
| Three-endowed | Three |
| Present age, adhering to superficial attributes | Four |
Joining Merit With the View
Obscurations are embedded in the alaya, the all-ground, so its ignorant aspect is what must be purified. After visualizing, look into who is performing the practice.
| How you practise | Effect |
|---|---|
| Mechanically | Baseline |
| With mindfulness | Multiplied 100 times |
| While recognizing mind essence | Multiplied 100,000 times |
One prostration without losing the view of mind essence equals 100,000 prostrations. Merit with reference point manifests the twofold rupakaya and purifies emotional obscurations; wisdom without reference point realizes dharmakaya and purifies the ignorant all-ground. "When obscurations are removed, realization occurs spontaneously." Habitual tendencies are like the smell of camphor that lingers after washing. A single diamond beats a room full of glass beads; boasting of five or ten sets is irrelevant.
Living Examples
Samten Gyatso never missed 100 prostrations a day in his whole life, even old and sick, walking with two canes so people said he walked on "four legs." His ngöndro was Chetsün Nyingtik; he died at 64. Tulku Urgyen's father Chimey Dorje did the ngöndro of Chetsün Nyingtik and Kunzang Tuktik daily. "Because they are the foundation, the preliminaries are more profound than the main part," say the Kagyü masters.
"I fled to the mountains to practice in solitude because I was frightened of death. Through practicing, I realized the nature that is beyond birth and death. Now I have captured the stronghold of fearlessness." Take the preliminaries to heart and you act like a wounded deer fleeing to solitude, not "acting" like a practitioner.
The Wolf-Skin Hat
Without a change of heart we remain seduced by appearances and become the butter skin that holds butter yet stays stiff. "Do not grab at the higher teachings of Trekchö and Tögal." They are like the impressive wolf-skin hats of Kham, but "what keeps your ears warm in the winter is the unimpressive collar of plain sheepskin!" Rinpoche admits this may be like giving the reading transmission of OM MANI PADME HUNG to Avalokiteshvara, but he says it to refresh your memory.
Straying
True samadhi is not concentration but the originally empty and ungrounded nature allowed to continue. Tulku Urgyen exposes the subtle thought that keeps up "meditation", settles the court case of the view, and tells stories of frozen shamatha and Kongtrül's "Oh what a pity!"
Three Kinds of Thought
| Thought | Description |
|---|---|
| Surface thoughts | Coarse labelling and emotional response |
| Undercurrent | An ongoing mental commentary we do not notice |
| Meditation thought | "Me" noticing "samadhi": "Now, this is the state and it is ongoing!" |
What lasts in many sessions is the subtle notion of subject and object, felt as clarity, brightness or maintained mindfulness. The tiredness afterwards is "in exact proportion to how much effort was applied." "Any idea we hold about the view is a chain": whatever chain holds a bird, it cannot fly. Drop especially "sustainer and sustained," the judge who checks whether it is happening and tries to restore it.
Rinpoche holds up a protection cord: "the string of thought formation is what keeps samsara continuing." It is the aggregate of formation, which "This is the empty state" quietly keeps alive. The remedy is "short moments, repeated many times." Trying to sustain a continuous state is attachment to "the taste" of the view, fear it will slip through our fingers. "I am not directing any blame toward you. This is merely how samsara is."
The smooth, free feeling where you no longer notice the body, and the wish "I should feel like this all the time!", is attachment, "our arch enemy, the old demon." Our nature differs from physical space because of the knowing quality; "buddha" simply means that dualistic consciousness is not overtaking buddha nature.
Settling the Court Case
Look for mind for a billion years and you will never find it as a lump; yet it is not blank, for we feel, know and experience. The Tibetan for "settled" means "touching the horns," like two yaks colliding head-on: it takes two things, the false and the true, and when they touch it is obvious which is which. The mind is already empty; "All we must do is acknowledge that this is how it already is."
At recognition there is only a single sphere: nirvana is no longer to be achieved and samsara no longer to be abandoned. "Knowing one thing liberates everything." Wanting to get rid of thinking and attain wisdom is still accepting and rejecting, two thoughts.
Frozen Emptiness
In Bangkok some monks' bodies remain "neither dead nor alive," in "a frozen emptiness," a cessation not allowed to dissolve. A monk told Rinpoche in Malaysia: "My teacher is still there in his body... I didn't dare to cremate." Burning such a body is the karma of killing; best is transference of consciousness. When the force runs out they wake thinking "I have not gotten even a cup of water's worth of benefit!", and bitterness can open the door to hell.
In eastern Tibet such meditators sat in caves; Chinese workers cut open the bodies for a substance used in gunpowder and found organs "almost like red fresh meat." The tantras give "the method to revive a rishi": soak the body in lukewarm water, pour medicine in, mouth-to-mouth, then whisper "Now enough shamatha... practise its essence, vipashyana."
At a longevity ceremony, a cook walking in with a large hot clay teapot froze in the doorway in inert shamatha. Chimey Dorje said "Do not disturb him... let's see how long it lasts." After three or four hours he whispered the cook's name in his ear. Asked what happened, the cook said: "What do you mean? I am walking in with the tea."
"Oh What a Pity!"
- A lama after nine or ten years in retreat boasted of clairvoyance, unshakable focus and bliss, clarity and nonthought. Kongtrül: "Oh what a pity!"
- Next day: the three poisons no longer hold me. "Oh what a pity!" The lama suspected Kongtrül was jealous.
- He could see three or four days into the future. "Oh what a pity!"
- Kongtrül's prescription: "Don't meditate any more!" Spend three years in retreat without meditating even slightly.
- Year one was "so difficult," year two better; in year three he found true nonmeditation, and his powers and bliss, clarity, nonthought vanished. "Now my meditation is totally lost!"
- Kongtrül: "Right on! Right on! Those three years made your meditation successful!" "Don't meditate by keeping something in mind, but also don't be distracted... spend the rest of your life training in that."
The lama later reached a high level of realization.
Unity
Development and completion are the two faces of mind essence, cognizance and emptiness. Tulku Urgyen shows how the four empowerments, the three samadhis and the guru supplications all point to one indivisible unity, like the sun and its sunlight.
Four Empowerments, One Principle
| Empowerment | Introduces the unity of |
|---|---|
| Vase | Appearance and emptiness |
| Secret | Clarity (luminosity) and emptiness |
| Wisdom-knowledge | Bliss and emptiness |
| Word | Awareness and emptiness |
Their intents differ, but the principle is one: the unity of emptiness and cognizance, which is exactly the unity of development and completion. Development stabilizes the manifest aspect; completion stabilizes the empty aspect. The fruition is the kayas and wisdoms; "the awakened state is not empty of kayas and wisdoms."
| Level | Body | Wakefulness |
|---|---|---|
| Dharmakaya | Unconstructed body of space | Dharmadhatu wisdom |
| Sambhogakaya | Rainbow light | Five wisdoms |
| Nirmanakaya | Vajra body of six elements | Knowing the nature as it is and all that exists |
At the subtlest level, Tögal is the manifest aspect, Trekchö the empty. "Abiding in the ground" means the kayas are already there; development stage is "manifesting the ground."
The Masked Dancer
Development stage is "not a real meeting with the actual deity but a facsimile," "white training" that temporarily stops impure thoughts. It is like a monk in a mask at a lama dance pretending to be a deity. Yet by imitating our intrinsic qualities we purify the habit of solid reality: house as celestial palace of rainbow light, body as deity, talk as praise, sense impressions as offerings. "We should never believe that the development stage is useless."
The true form is "instantaneous recollection": the deity is already present in the mandala of our mind; "we merely need to think that we are Buddha Samantabhadra." The four ways of appearing as the deity counter the four births: egg (densest, "twice-born"), womb, heat-and-moisture and instantaneous (fastest). Enlightened Body is buddha nature's unchanging quality, Speech its unceasing quality, Mind its unmistaken quality.
| Birth type | Way of arising as the deity |
|---|---|
| Egg (densest) | Elaborate: seed-syllable, attributes, then the full form, step by step |
| Womb | Medium: syllable then form |
| Heat and moisture | Simple: the deity from the name or syllable alone |
| Instantaneous (fastest) | Complete in a flash of recollection |
"When some swear to development, and some to completion, development and completion will then pick a fight." One camp: completion "leaves us with nothing to do... quite meaningless." The other: development is "all fake... superfluous scenarios." "Both of these statements display a lack of understanding." It is conceptual thinking that splits a unity into a duality.
The Susiddhikara Tantra praises Mantra: "though of identical purpose, it is undeluded," with many means and few hardships. In Rinpoche's tradition Maha is in Anu, Anu in Ati, all three in the sadhana, and the sadhana in personal application.
Two Ways to Join Them
The development stage has many layers because beings differ: some need elaborate visualization, some need just a flash of recollection. In Kriya, Upa and Yoga the deity is outside, a lord to be served; in Mahayoga the practitioner is the deity; in Anu the mandala is the body's channels and energies; in Ati it is the self-display of mind essence. Each layer is a more intimate way of saying "the deity was never apart from you."
Egotistical thoughts cannot arise as rigpa's expression, but pure forms can, since recognition is like a clear mirror; without recognition we are like a stone with no reflecting power.
The Supplications of Body, Speech, Mind
"Visible, yet empty; empty, yet visible... is the form of the guru." "Audible yet empty... is the Speech of the guru," including the spontaneous sound of dharmata. "Blissful yet empty... is the Mind of the guru." Bliss here is not conditioned pleasure but the intrinsic absence of the pain of conceptual thinking.
The Nyingma Supplication in Seven Chapters to Padmasambhava says the same: whatever you see, beautiful or ugly, whatever you hear, harsh or pleasant, do not accept or reject; whatever thoughts arise, "do neither welcome nor escort them."
Three Samadhis, Sun and Rainbow
| Samadhi | Kaya | Quality | Image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suchness | Dharmakaya | Emptiness | Open space |
| Illumination | Sambhogakaya | Cognizance | Sunlight |
| Seed-syllable | Nirmanakaya | Their unity | A rainbow |
Because suchness is unblocked, illumination and the seed-syllable can freely take place; once suchness slips, the display becomes conceptual thinking. That is why every development instruction starts with the three samadhis.
Completion is the sun; development is its light. If the sun had to run after every ray in every direction, it could not keep shining. Lose recognition and you lose the sun; "how can there be any sunshine without a sun?" Ordinary beings are the sun chasing its light, caught in one reflection after another in pools of water.
Purity
The innermost principle is primordial purity and spontaneous presence as one. Elements and aggregates are already the male and female buddhas, impurity is temporary like clouds, and the levels of tantra differ in how fully they see this. Tulku Urgyen ends with the enlightened porter and the Buddha's poverty.
Already the Mandala
Spontaneous presence, the perceiving quality, cannot be separated from primordial purity, emptiness, just as a rainbow appears only in space. We solidified the five-coloured lights, the ground's natural radiance, into elements and aggregates: "a nonexistent presence."
| Pure nature of | Is |
|---|---|
| Five elements (what appears) | Five female buddhas |
| Five aggregates (what exists, the experiencer) | Five male buddhas |
Deities in union show female as emptiness, male as cognizance, both with the five wisdoms. This is "the all-encompassing purity of whatever appears and exists," not something meditation suddenly makes pure.
If impurity were primordial, no one could become a buddha. The sky is pure; the clouds are temporary. "When you churn milk, you get butter... If you churn water, will you get butter?" Everything is like milk. Receiving teachings on deity, mantra and samadhi is the idea "if I churn, butter will appear"; training is churning and churning; the result: "You are Samantabhadra: it's all the same butter."
How the Tantras See Purity
| Level | View of purity |
|---|---|
| Hinayana, Mahayana | Not this view |
| Kriya | On the verge |
| Upa, Yoga | Close, but not there: the deity is like a king descending to an ordinary person |
| Mahayoga | All that appears and exists is the mandala |
| Anu Yoga | This body is the mandala |
| Ati Yoga | Mind is the mandala; the three vajras complete in experience |
A sadhana is adapted to samsaric mind: we invite deities, feed them and tell them how nice they are, as with guests. "The heart of sadhana practice is not these social niceties."
Not Construction Work
The visualization must unfold from the expanse of the three kayas and dissolve back into it. In the Sarma approach you recite the shunyata mantra and imagine emptiness, then the dark blue triangular space mandala, the elements, Sumeru and the palace. "Without recognizing the natural state of emptiness, no authentic development stage can take place." Hence pointing-out is unavoidable.
Merely imagining the sadhana is "labor, mere construction work," like building mud and stone walls: "merely another human dwelling-place." If the deity had flesh, you could build a palace and say "Samantabhadra, please sit down here. Dinner is on its way!"
From emptiness let compassion emerge; from emptiness and compassion the seed-syllable appears. Duality should become oneness, and the oneness should be objectless and traceless, not something to maintain.
Knowing 100, Lacking One
"As long as you don't know the key point of mind, whatever you do is upside down." An expert in a hundred subjects can still land in the lower worlds.
The Buddha owned no house; he had robes, a begging bowl and a water strainer, and sometimes seven peas made a meal. He said: "Be poor. Stay in solitude for the rest of your life, and die all alone in a cave." Today people get rich and become slaves of their possessions, unable to sleep for worry. "Rich and poor have equal opportunities," yet "beggars can become enlightened; rich people usually do not." The Kadampas: "Entrust yourself to the Dharma; entrust the Dharma to poverty; entrust poverty to living in a cave until death."
Accomplishment
When fixation on solidity dissolves, the world shows itself as an insubstantial play. Tulku Urgyen tells first-hand stories: Milarepa in a yak horn, footprints in rock, a nun's rainbow body in a cow shed, a zombie carrying luggage, and the clairvoyance of the Karmapa and Khyentse Wangpo.
Two Kinds of Reality
How things seem is "the shared karmic phenomena of the same species"; how they are is a seeming presence where nothing really arises. At "the exhaustion of all phenomena," a yogi's deluded experience ceases for him, not for others. "Do not expect that your deluded experience will cease because we have a glimpse"; what dissolves is fixation on appearances. Gotsangpa sang that relative forms "are wide open and penetrable, like the rock behind my back," and left an imprint of his head and back in the rock.
Such yogis "have simply realized the original nature of things as insubstantial." "No one else created them but us," so when inner fixation caves in, the elements' falsehood collapses: walking on water, passing through rock, unharmed by flames. Padmasambhava was burned at the stake several times, unscorched.
Stories of Accomplishment
| Master | Sign | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Milarepa | Sat in a yak horn without shrinking; told Rechungpa "come in," who could not fit his hand | The horn hangs above the Jokhang entrance |
| Padmasambhava | Used a tunnel only a rat could pass between Asura and Yanglesho caves | Pharping; the caretaker joked "Maybe Padmasambhava was that size!" |
| Seltong Shogom's flock | Flew across the valley to catch the sun, leaving 30+ sets of bare footprints | Tulku Urgyen counted them |
| Seltong Shogom | Dakinis enshrined him in a cave 15 storeys up; the stupa is now covered in gold leaf | Reached by the King of Nangchen's ladders |
Longchenpa, the Sky Yogi
Longchen Rabjam, "all-encompassing vast expanse," was a sky yogi: realization without centre, edge or end. To fathom him you would need to be Jigmey Lingpa, or his disciples Tra Drubchen and Do Drubchen. His Seven Treasuries came "from the indestructible vajra sphere in his heart... onto his vajra tongue." Jigmey Lingpa had three visions of him at Samye Chimphu.
Longchenpa passed in "rainbow body with remainder," more beneficial because it leaves relics; the earth quaked six times. His brain became one white relic with an ivory-like design. Lamas chipped off pieces with hammer and chisel, and within a year it regrew. Tulku Urgyen's monastery had a piece the size of a finger-joint; the Tibetan government sealed it away and later the temple was destroyed.
Rangjung Dorje, the Third Karmapa, shared Longchenpa's teacher Kumararaja; Vimalamitra dissolved between his eyebrows and he wrote the Karma Nyingtik. Milarepa sang of going "crazy": the Middle Way from the front, Mahamudra from behind, the Great Perfection in my heart. "The cubs of the snow lioness are often more eminent than their mother."
Rainbow Bodies Witnessed
- Seven Treasuries written from the vajra sphere in his heart.
- Three visions granted to Jigmey Lingpa over three years and three fortnights at Samye Chimphu.
- Six earthquakes and six thunderclaps at his passing.
- One relic from his brain, regrown within a year after pieces were chipped off.
- A finger-joint fragment kept at Dzong-go Ling, sealed by the Tibetan government, lost when the temple was destroyed.
Nyag-la Pema Düdül is another recent example. The Kagyü saying explains the pattern: "Mind dissolves into dharmata, body into atoms." What people today lack is not the teaching but the diligence.
Told by Jamgön Kongtrül the Second, whose tall brother was present.
- An elderly nun on pilgrimage asked a wealthy household for a week's strict retreat: "Please pile stones against the door."
- After three days, swirling rainbow light seeped from the wall's cracks; spheres of light moved outside.
- No one had been feeding her, and there was no fireplace. They opened the door: her limbs lay scattered, rainbow light coiling from the bone ends.
- Someone said "Let's leave her alone"; they sealed it again.
- On day seven only finger and toenails and a hank of hair remained, "lying there very neatly."
After the Chinese arrived, Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche documented two rainbow bodies in Golok and a man who, while being beaten, levitated until he vanished. None of the 84 mahasiddhas left a corpse; of Padmasambhava's 25 disciples only Langchen Palgyi Senge did, enshrined at Paro Taktsang. The only difference from the past is that people today are not diligent; the teachings themselves have not disappeared.
The Zombie Porter
At the camp of Shakya Shri, with his 700 meditators, a Kham lama arrived with a corpse carrying his luggage; at "Phat!" it fell down. It was his benefactor turned zombie, walking to Sitavana charnel ground to be cremated, feet worn to bare bone. If a zombie touches your head, you become one, so the lama kept it in sight and waited on mountaintops. Tersey Tulku, who saw it, was never sure whether it was a big joke; "even if that was the case, it was quite a remarkable joke."
Unimpeded Knowing
Without thought-cover one can know others' minds, since thoughts move in the same basic nature, like images in a mirror. Samten Gyatso often spoke out what people were thinking, so many did not dare approach.
Khakyab Dorje, the 15th Karmapa, often wrote out a tulku's rebirth before anyone asked, but for some lamas said "It's shrouded in mist." The cause: disharmony between the lama and his disciples. "The worst obstacle for recognizing tulkus clearly is disharmony between the guru and disciples."
Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo described every detail of Khenpo Tashi Özer's busy day, and once cried "Oh no!": a bald monk far away had fallen off a cliff calling his name and was caught in tree branches. The next morning the monk arrived and told the same story. When Khyentse set, Dzongsar Khyentse appeared; when he set, Dilgo Khyentse rose.
Bardo
Given for Bill Fortinberry, who was dying of cancer, this chapter walks through the four bardos and the chance for liberation in each: dharmakaya at death, sambhogakaya in dharmata, Sukhavati in becoming, and a good rebirth if all else fails.
The Bardo of This Life
Bardo means an intermediate state between two points in time. Right now we are in the bardo of this life, which contains two more: the bardo of meditation (trained by day) and the bardo of dreaming (trained by night).
| Bardo | Spans | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| This life (with meditation and dream) | Birth to fatal illness | Train in recognition |
| Dying | Fatal illness to last breath and ground luminosity | Dharmakaya liberation |
| Dharmata | Waking after three and a half days | Sambhogakaya liberation |
| Becoming | Up to 49 days on average | Nirmanakaya pure land, or a good rebirth |
Meditation here means the period when thought has ceased; repeating that "from the cessation of thought to its re-occurrence" is training in the bardo of meditation.
Told to Chokgyur Lingpa's daughter Könchok Paldrön, Tulku Urgyen's grandmother, who repeated it in Paltrül's thick Golok accent: "Don't entertain thoughts about what has passed, don't anticipate what will happen in the future. Leave your present wakefulness unaltered, utterly free and open. Aside from that, there is nothing else whatsoever to do!"
Present ordinary mind is conscious in everyone from Samantabhadra to the tiniest insect, and it is empty. Dreams: where did they come from, where did they go? Daytime experience is the same. Buddhas are like people who never fell asleep; cut through daytime confusion and "the double delusion of dreaming atop deluded samsaric existence" ends.
The Bardo of Dying
The best is dharmakaya phowa: mingling awareness with the openness of basic space, where "there is no ejector and no thing to eject." Its foundation is having recognized and trained in self-existing wakefulness.
After the outer breath stops and while the inner breath still moves:
| Stage | Cause | Experience |
|---|---|---|
| Appearance | White element from the father descends from the crown | Whiteness like moonlight |
| Increase | Red element from the mother rises from below the navel | Redness like sunlight |
| Attainment | They meet at the heart | Blackness, like earth and sky merging |
| Ground luminosity | The 80 innate thought states (40 desire, 33 anger, 7 delusion) cease | Dharmakaya itself |
The unfamiliar black out into pure undiluted ignorance, usually until "the sun rises on the third day." The trained practitioner recognizes: the mother and child luminosity merge as naturally as a child jumping onto his mother's lap. "In one moment, the difference is made. In one moment, complete enlightenment is attained." Very evil people plunge immediately into lower rebirth; advanced practitioners are immediately liberated; ordinary people take about 49 days.
The Bardo of Dharmata
Dissolutions follow: mind into space, space into luminosity, luminosity into unity (the deities' forms), unity into wisdom, wisdom into spontaneous presence. Colours, lights and sounds appear; only four colours, since the green light of all-accomplishing wisdom is missing while the path is unperfected. Peaceful then wrathful deities appear, some like mustard seeds, some like Sumeru.
Feel 100% confident that whatever appears is yourself: "Emptiness cannot harm emptiness, so there is no point whatsoever in being afraid." The colours are Body, sounds Speech, light rays Mind of the enlightened state. Without this recognition, beings are drawn to the pale, soft lights of the six classes, which pull the mind back into samsara.
The Bardo of Becoming
Perception is seven times clearer than now, with the six recollections of teacher, teachings, yidam and so on. First acknowledge you have died, then that nothing here is real: fire cannot burn, stones cannot crush. The force of intention is now unobstructed.
| Pure land factor | Detail |
|---|---|
| Easiest destination | Sukhavati, thanks to Amitabha's thirteen vows; full purification is not required |
| Key requirement | Freedom from doubt, one-pointed like an eagle |
| Obstacle | Attachment to anything, "even a needle and thread" |
| Cost of doubt | Rebirth there, but inside a closed lotus for 500 years |
Before death, mentally offer everything to Amitabha. Consciousness leaves the body like a hair pulled from butter; small attachments make the spirit "like a dog chasing a scrap of meat." If rebirth comes, see the parents as the yidam and consort, enter the womb as HUNG, and resolve to be a pure practitioner. "If we miss one opportunity, we get another chance," as long as samaya is unbroken. Karma Chagmey: "May I soar like a vulture directly to Sukhavati, without looking back for a single moment!"
How to Practise When Dying
- Begin: refuge and bodhichitta.
- Main part: imagine yourself as the yidam, then gently ask "Who is it that visualizes?"; finding nothing is completion stage, like the sky lit by sunlight, not the night sky.
- End: dedication and pure aspiration.
- In pain: replace "How terrible it is for me!" with taking on the sickness of all beings and of the upholders of the Dharma.
"The resolve the mind forms at the verge of death will definitely be fulfilled, whether it is pure or evil." Dying with "May I take revenge!" can produce a powerful evil spirit. Make pure aspirations, and they will be fulfilled.
A Paper Tiger
"Time does not change, experiences change." Bardo appearances are a paper tiger: frightening if mistaken for real, harmless once seen as imitation. At Bong Gompa, a dying bursar, watched by Tersey Tulku, narrated: "Now this element is dissolving... the vajra chains are fluttering like crystal garlands. Dharmata is truly amazing!" He laughed, and then he died.
The appearances come to everyone, because everyone has buddha nature; only their duration differs with stability. Do not feel sad or depressed; go with "the attitude of a traveler who is returning home while joyfully carrying the burden of the suffering of all sentient beings."
Conduct
The closing chapter answers "prevalent attitude problems." Tulku Urgyen's rule: descend with the view, ascend with the conduct. He warns against losing conduct in the view and losing the view in conduct, mocks fake lamas and three-year boasts, and ends with water that has really boiled.
View From Above, Conduct From Below
Conduct climbs like a staircase: four mind-changings, specific preliminaries, yidam practice, then the three great views of Mahamudra, Dzogchen and Madhyamika. "You will not find any teaching anywhere that says, 'Keep the view of a shravaka while acting like a Dzogchen yogi.'" The three views are identical in essence; approach the Vajra Seat at Bodhgaya from north, south or west and you arrive at the same spot.
Losing Conduct in the View
The saying "the ground is Mahamudra, the path is the Middle Way, the fruition is the Great Perfection" gives each a place, but "in the view itself there is no difference whatsoever." In Tulku Urgyen's tradition no one of the three is chosen over the others. A real yogi of the three great views goes through three phases: recognize the natural state, develop its strength by sustaining continuity, and gain stability. "That is the only authentic way."
Some want only the view, skipping preliminaries and yidam, thinking "There is nothing to do! I can give up all activities!" The result: no purification, no accumulation, and no real progress in the view; it remains an idea while behaviour ignores good and evil. Padmasambhava called this "losing the conduct in the view" and said: "Though your view is higher than the sky, keep your deeds finer than barley flour."
"Ultimately it is definitely true that there is nothing to do," but only after passing through understanding, experience and realization. In Tibet "there may have been more people with a 'make-believe view' than with genuine insight," so Westerners cannot really be blamed yet.
It is easier to glare at benefactors with wide-open eyes and look about with an air of Dzogchen. An upstart lama had to brag: lineages held, years in retreat, gods and demons tamed. Then he would be "swarmed by sponsors and followers like a piece of rotting meat covered with flies." "Honestly, there were more fake lamas in Tibet than authentic ones." Others never lowered their vacant, glaring gaze and spouted "All phenomena of samsara and nirvana are great equality!" (Rinpoche laughs.)
Enlightenment Is Not a Degree
People expect that after ten or fifteen years you end up with a degree: "I can do enlightenment!" But "you cannot make enlightenment, because enlightenment is unconstructed." After three years of retreat with a constructed view, one despairs; practise authentically with devotion, compassion and loving kindness and "you will definitely become enlightened."
| What the materialist wants | The real signs |
|---|---|
| "Such bliss! Such clarity! I feel totally transformed!" | An acute sense of impermanence |
| Altered states, extraordinary dreams | Certainty that the Dharma is unfailing |
| Powers to show results | Benefit from samadhi; thinking can be overcome |
On "the even plains of nonthought" there is nothing exceptional to see, and one may switch to a power mantra, while subtle emotions stay intact.
"I have not had a single special experience. As the years pass by, my trust in the authenticity of the Dharma grows... From the age of eight I looked into the essence of mind, and since then I have never forsaken it." He was so precise people compared him to Marpa; his word was never forgotten; his eyes burned "like the flame of a butter lamp at its end... like the bright eyes of a kitten."
Losing the View in Conduct
Medicine and schools are virtuous if done with the four immeasurables, without "I am kind to others!" That is the best conditioned virtue; thought-free wakefulness is unconditioned virtue. "Only after liberation can you immeasurably benefit all beings." The safeguards are knowledge and trust: without the Buddha the world would be blind; without the Dharma our congenitally blind eyes stay shut; without the Sangha the teachings would not have lasted a hundred years. The Buddha named 360 wrong views, mostly eternalism and nihilism; a sentient being cannot find a concept-free view alone.
Tulku Urgyen counts his own debt: "My role is to be teaching the Dharma, and regardless of whether it is pretense or not, I definitely have received the blessings of the Precious Sangha... the kindness of the Three Jewels is absolutely incredible! So how can I help having trust in them?" Knowledge broadens, fixation diminishes: "Isn't fixation and clinging the root of samsara?"
Tilopa: "You are not bound by what you experience, but by your clinging to it. So cut through your clinging, Naropa!"
Short Moments and Big Boasts
"How do three years compare with beginningless samsara? It is nothing more than a speck of dust!" An old man in Nepal said: "I have done slightly better than the Buddha. He stayed six years... I have done nine years of retreat!" (Rinpoche chuckles.) Planning to practise later lets obstacles in before the practice begins. "Westerners are quite sharp when it comes to comprehending the natural state. If they would also practice it afterwards!"
Good karma shows differently. A great Kagyü master sang: "Even in my mother's womb, my spiritual aspirations were awakened... At the age of eight, I remained in equanimity." For most of us, though, faith and kindness come rarely, while negative impulses come by themselves.
Ten non-virtues need no training: insects need no lessons in killing. Rolling a boulder downhill takes a nudge; uphill takes pushing all the way. "Those who don't practice are as abundant as the stars at night; those who do practice are as scarce as morning stars."
When the Water Has Boiled
"The sign of learning is to be gentle and disciplined," soft like paper burned in the fire. "The sign of meditation training is a decrease in disturbing emotions": the three or five poisons are the unrecognized expression of your essence, and they vanish without a trace, like flames extinguished, the moment it is recognized. "Nothing other than mindfulness can really block off or halt your karma." The buddhas "have captured the stronghold of the view," which is why karma and emotion no longer rule them. Stability in the view is like the sky: it cannot be dyed any colour, nothing sticks to it, yet it never vanishes.
Keep a refined training in impermanence until there is no distraction at all, when even sleep is luminous. Jangchub means "purified perfection," like a lotus blooming out of the mud. The masters' advice: go to a forest or mountain retreat, supplicate the guru, and inspire yourself with impermanence and compassion.
A Kham saying: "When you want to boil water, you can blow on the flames or pump the bellows, as long as the water boils." Imagined or constructed awareness remains a concept; carried away, it is delusion. "When nondual awareness is totally free of confusion and distraction, then your water has really boiled."
Master Takeaways
Rainbow Painting returns again and again to one recognition and the conduct that protects it. These are the points that last.
Twenty-Two Takeaways
- Mind essence is empty and cognizant, inseparable like water and wetness.
- The vehicles share one aim and differ in the subtlety of their concepts.
- The load fits the carrier: teachings match capacity.
- No dissuasion, no shame, pure wisdom: the three vajras.
- Recognize, decide, gain confidence: Garab Dorje's three statements.
- Space and wakefulness are one; mingle them outdoors.
- Samaya is a snake in a bamboo tube: up or down.
- Pure perception is the king of all samayas.
- Understanding, experience, realization are three different things.
- Devotion is the ring, blessings the hook.
- Success can be the worst obstacle.
- Mindfulness starts deliberate and becomes effortless.
- Counterfeit emptiness is just an idea of emptiness.
- Effort, not rigpa, is tiring.
- Do not get out of the bath half dirty: do the preliminaries.
- Frozen emptiness is meditation, not liberation.
- Development and completion pick a fight only in concepts.
- The sun does not chase its rays.
- All that appears and exists is already pure, like milk holding butter.
- Knowing a hundred but lacking one still lands you upside down.
- Emptiness cannot harm emptiness in the bardo.
- View higher than the sky, deeds finer than barley flour.
Frameworks in the Text
| Framework | Content | Chapter |
|---|---|---|
| Nine vehicles | Shravaka to Ati | 3 |
| Three vajras | No dissuasion, no shame, pure wisdom | 4 |
| Three statements of Garab Dorje | Recognize, decide, gain confidence | 5 |
| Three spaces | Outer, inner, innermost | 6 |
| Four Dzogchen samayas | Nonexistence, all-pervasiveness, oneness, spontaneous presence | 7 |
| Understanding, experience, realization | Stages of application | 8 |
| Means and knowledge | Devotion and compassion | 9 |
| Deliberate and effortless mindfulness | Two kinds | 11 |
| Three kinds of thought | Gross, subtle, undercurrent | 14 |
| Four empowerments, four unities | Appearance, clarity, bliss, awareness with emptiness | 15 |
| Three samadhis | Suchness, illumination, seed-syllable | 15 |
| Elements and aggregates | Female and male buddhas | 16 |
| Four bardos | This life, dying, dharmata, becoming | 18 |
| Appearance, increase, attainment | Dissolution at death | 18 |
| View from above, conduct from below | Right order of practice | 19 |
Rainbow Painting is a teacher's living speech, so it repeats itself and assumes empowerment, pointing-out and a lineage setting that print cannot supply. Its accounts of rainbow bodies, regrowing relics and walking corpses come from witnesses Rinpoche trusted, and he himself tags one as possibly a joke; readers will weigh them differently. Its claims about hells, bardo timings and Sukhavati are stated, not argued. What can be tested is the practical core: recognize mind essence for short moments, many times, and keep your conduct humble while you do.
Common Misreadings
| Misreading | What the book says | Chapter |
|---|---|---|
| "Completion makes development pointless" | Development purifies the solid-house habit; both are one unity | 15 |
| "Visualization is fake" | It is a facsimile that purifies, like a masked dancer | 15 |
| "Imagining emptiness is enough" | Pointing-out is unavoidable; otherwise it is construction work | 16 |
| "Nothing to do, so no precepts" | True only after realization; before that it is losing conduct in the view | 7, 19 |
| "A blank mind is the view" | Frozen emptiness is meditation, not liberation | 14 |
| "Spectacular experiences prove progress" | The real signs are impermanence, trust, fewer emotions | 8, 19 |
| "Helping others comes first" | Virtuous, but only after liberation can you benefit beings immeasurably | 19 |
| "Three years of retreat is a lot" | A speck of dust against beginningless samsara | 19 |
| "Miracles are made by yogis" | They are what happens when fixation collapses | 17 |
Practice Notes
- Daily session: begin with refuge and bodhichitta, visualize the yidam, then ask "Who is it that visualizes?" and rest in what is not found; end with dedication.
- Short moments, many times: recognition is brief at first; repeat it rather than prolong it artificially.
- Check for straying: if emptiness feels like a blank, a thing, or an idea, it is frozen or imagined; return to looking.
- Keep the foundation alive: the four mind-changings and preliminaries are the ground until distraction has ended.
- Guard samaya: pure perception of teacher, siblings and world; when broken, confess and mend at once.
- Prepare for death now: offer possessions mentally to Amitabha, train in recognizing dreams, and keep one-pointed resolve for Sukhavati.
- Keep a low profile: view higher than the sky, deeds finer than barley flour, no boasting about years in retreat.
Who's Who
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche | The teacher |
| Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche | His son; foreword |
| Erik Pema Kunsang | Translator |
| Marcia Binder Schmidt | Compiler |
| Padmasambhava | Founder of Vajrayana in Tibet |
| Garab Dorje | First human Dzogchen master; three statements |
| Longchenpa | Sky yogi; Seven Treasuries; regrowing relic |
| Milarepa | Yak horn; "crazy" song |
| Paltrül Rinpoche | Pith instruction on present wakefulness |
| Chokgyur Lingpa | Tertön; Rinpoche's great-grandfather |
| Samten Gyatso | Root guru; "not a single special experience" |
| Tersey Tulku | Uncle; witness of the zombie and the bursar |
| Khakyab Dorje | 15th Karmapa; tulku recognitions |
| Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo | Clairvoyant master |
| Shakya Shri | Yogi with 700 disciples |
| Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche | Recorder of rainbow bodies |
Connect It
Vajra Heart gives the same view in a sadhana setting, As It Is expands short moments, many times, and Repeating the Words of the Buddha has the plainest version of the four mind-changings that the True Foundation chapter insists on. Vajra Speech collects many of these sayings in short form.