“The Light of the Sun”
July 16th to 20th, 2014
Tsegyalgar East, USA
Rinpoche teaching the Four Dharmas of Longchenpa at the Mohawk School Sunday July 20, 2014
Photo courtesy of Paula Barry
by Margaret Jasinski
There was a bevy of activity in Conway, Buckland and Shelburne Falls as the members of the Tsegyalgar East community happily welcomed our precious master, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, for a retreat based on The Four Dharmas of Longchenpa. The retreat brought Vajra brothers and sisters from four continents assembled for five days from July 16 to 20 to hear these teachings that accompanied a new text entitled, “ The Light of the Sun,” a commentary on Longchenpa’s teachings by Rinpoche.
Reflective of the breadth of methods for Dzogchen teachings, there were numerous presentations throughout the week including: Yantra Yoga with Fabio Andrico, an explanation of Ganapuja by Jim Valby, the Vajra Dance of the Twelve Ahs was presented by Prima Mai, the dance of Harmony and Space was presented with Catherine Diamond and many enthusiastic community members practiced Tibetan dancing and singing practice with Rinpoche. As an additional treat, the dance competition between Tsegyalgar and Namgyalgar delighted the audience with thoughtful movement and music.
On Thursday July 17th, Rinpoche said in his evening teaching, “I am asking one thing – to be in your real nature. We are pronouncing ‘Ah’ and we are remaining in this presence beyond mind; this integrates body speech and mind as much as possible in ordinary life. It is important to do Guru Yoga – it is not for the teacher – it is for your realization.”
The following is a synopsis of Rinpoche’s teachings:
We are in duality and so we are discovering a path to alleviate the suffering of duality. We use methods and teachings associated with the path, having the intention of being in our real nature. In Buddhism there are nine interdependent vehicles (paths). Dzogchen teachings can integrate all of these paths. On a path, we use our capacity, which is comprised of participation, diligence, presence, understanding, and intelligence. If we are lacking in an aspect of capacity, we can cultivate it. In conjunction with capacity we use the unique experience of our lives to learn how to apply Dzogchen teachings in the perfect way, this matches our real nature, perfect from the beginning. We notice that we have not only this primary qualification, our real nature, we also have secondary circumstances that produce karma. In Dzogchen teaching we use our karma to discover our real nature. All beings have Buddha nature, yet the actual discovery of this condition is the state of Dzogchen. We must discover this for ourselves, no one can show us.
As practitioners, we work with teachings to go beyond experience and the mind. In so doing, we profoundly understand that our potentiality is perfect from the beginning and expressed in three aspects of primordial nature: essence (emptiness), nature (clarity), and energy (without interruption). We work with Guru Yoga to wake up the potentiality of our personal condition. Guru Yoga helps us to understand in essence, so that we are not going after words or concepts.
When we concentrate on teachings we have access to the lineages of our teacher for support. Rinpoche received the teachings of The Four Dharmas of Longchenpa from one of his teachers. This lineage is more than a support in the ordinary sense; lineage and transmission helps us to understand in essence what we could not ordinarily understand.
On the path, we slowly apply our knowledge that includes the understanding that we are in a state of transmigration. To find a path means the possibility of the cessation of suffering: we are in a relative state with constant fluctuation, we are also aware of time knowing that with birth there is also death. When we know suffering, not in an intellectual way, but in essence, we become less attached to our conditioning: we are not distracted, we are not accepting and rejecting, we observe well and listen, noticing how subject and object manifest. The main point is that we understand our perfected human state is being present.
We may collect dharma practices throughout our lives; they are for re-educating the mind, but we must not lose the essence of practices by going after words or imaginings. We must use these practices; in order to do this, we must find a qualified teacher, one who has the capacity to apply the teachings. A teacher with real knowledge will introduce real knowledge to students and show how to apply it in the perfect way. In the perfect way, there is no difference between teacher and student. In working with a qualified teacher we go after something concrete, then dharma is something useful for our lives, not simply a collection of practices. When we follow a teacher we apply ourselves by listening, reflecting, and integrating. When we apply ourselves, our personal condition becomes alive in the teachers real knowing: this re-educates the mind. We do not make these actions only for ourselves; when we are aware of other beings, compassion arises. Compassion is alive when we understand the essence of samsara. When we are aware of other sentient beings, then we have the potential of their wisdom, then everything is becoming in the perfect condition, our mind is in a perfect way. We are satisfied.
True teachers help students to gain capacity for discovering their real condition, which is emptiness. The essence of emptiness is compassion. Without compassion, emptiness has no value. We become aware that all phenomena are conditioned by both emptiness and the five aggregates (form, feeling, perception, conception, and consciousness). When we learn the perfect correspondence between emptiness and our egoistic condition then we don’t fall into duality vision. We go beyond concept – we are in perfect understanding- there is no difference between samsara and nirvana. The truths of samsara and nirvana are seamlessly interdependent. We are not conditioned by our own illusions. This is sutra teaching.
In Vajrayana teaching we purify our illusions. In all schools we develop our clarity. Slowly we use methods to get into real knowledge.
In the pure dimension something is alive. The function of energy is aliveness. We notice this to get in the state of Mahamudra in which everything is integrated. We use our energy to notice the qualification of wisdom that corresponds to our real nature. We understand that from the beginning, karma is not concrete, but we see it that way; we think we are producing something. When we give importance to the mind it becomes powerful. We work with presence and in this way circumstances are not conditioned by the min: all sense perceptions, all contacts with objects, all thoughts are in the state of realization. In Dzogchen teaching, all illusion is a pure dimension of wisdom – we must become familiar with this; then we are not distracted by the five emotions. When we have presence in any circumstance, we are not searching for what to do.
With Dzogchen methods, we slowly discover our real nature, purified since the beginning – there is nothing to purify – all qualifications are qualified or self- liberating in their own condition. We notice that manifestations are not separate because we are no longer conditioned to see them that way. Everything is unified. Being in contact with real teaching brings benefit to all sentient beings. With awareness capacity develops more and more and the teaching goes into essence. Our ignorance comes into light.
