[From a teaching on Little Song to Please the Dakinis given by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche in Battle Creek, Michigan on September 22, 2012. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. Transcribed and edited by Matt Willis. All rights reserved. The complete teaching is available as an MP3 download from the KPL Bookstore.]

We don’t really understand the result of karma, the process of karma. We don’t really understand what the karmic causes of things are, or how it is that actions lead to their infallible results.

The Buddha said, “Only an omniscient buddha can really understand this.” He said, “Only with omniscient wisdom can one know the karmic cause of each and every feather that adorns the tail of a peacock.” With omniscient wisdom a buddha sees the karmic causes of each and every thing, such as the particular shape and color and tone of each eye on the tail of a peacock.

But we don’t know that; we have no idea what these things are. If we’re honest we can’t say we really know how good and bad actions lead to happiness and suffering. But what we do know is that they do. We can be certain that virtuous actions lead to happiness and that negativity, wrongdoing, leads to suffering. Even though we don’t fully understand it, we can still base our lives on it. We can still make the correct choices.

So how do you do that? How do you distinguish between virtue and wrongdoing?

He [Terchen Barway Dorje] says, “The rejection of selfishness and undertaking of altruism will make your thoughts and deeds pure.” The real basis for correct moral choices is ultimately quite simple: anything that is selfish, anything that you do for your own benefit despite its effect on others, is probably bad. Anything you do that is sincerely done with the good of others in mind is probably good. If you reject selfishness within you and cultivate altruism, this will make your thoughts and deeds pure. Your thoughts, the intentions with which we act, become pure if we are freed from selfishness or to the extent that we are freed from selfishness. With pure motivation one’s actions will become pure as well.

Therefore, in examining ourselves we need to really question both our intentions, “Why am I really doing this? Why am I contemplating saying this?” and its effect on others, “If I do this, or if I say this, what effect will it have on them?” If this is sincere, if you’re not faking it but you really try to reduce selfishness, all of your deeds of body and mind — your actions and your intentions and your thinking – will be virtuous.

[From a teaching on A Reply to Two Nephews given by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche in Chicago, Illinois in 2011. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. Transcribed and edited by Matt Willis. All rights reserved. Please do not reprint without permission. The complete teaching is available as an MP3 download from the KPL Bookstore.]

We frequently speak of samsara and nirvana, and we think of one of these – nirvana—as good, as excellent, as something that we need at all costs to attain. We think of samsara as bad, as terrible, as something from which we must at all costs escape. But, in fact, they are not separate external realities. In absolute truth, they are both equally empty of true existence. They are both merely the projections of our minds. Within samsara, each state of existence, each of the six realms or states of beings, has its own characteristic style of projection and, therefore, its own way of experiencing the world. But, all of this is just projection.

Samsara is just emptiness experienced by a mind that is in a state of delusion. Nirvana is just emptiness experienced by a mind free of delusion.

So, achieving nirvana is not escaping from one place to another by going to some alien realm where there is no suffering and no pain. Achieving nirvana is just recognizing the nature of your mind.

[From a question and answer session with Bardor Tulku Rinpoche in Evansville, Indiana in 2012. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. Transcribed and edited by Matt Willis. All rights reserved. Please do not reprint without permission. The complete teaching is available as an MP3 download from the KPL Bookstore.]

Question:

Until one has actually achieved recognition of mind’s nature, are all meditation practices not really considered authentic mahamudra meditation?

Answer:

If the recognition of mind’s nature has not yet occurred, then obviously the practices that one does are not based on that recognition. However, they are not wasted or pointless because they are ways of approaching that recognition, getting closer and closer to it. In fact, everything we do, relying on teachers, practicing and studying under their guidance, and so forth, is all designed to gradually bring us closer and closer to recognition of the mind’s nature.

It also needs to be understood that not everyone is the same. Given that a teacher gives the pointing-out instruction, not everyone is going to have the same degree of recognition or experience. But, the moment when an individual — whether that moment occurs when that introduction is given, or at some later moment — the moment when an individual has a decisive recognition of their mind’s nature is the moment where the teacher who inspired it, through direct recognition and so forth, becomes unique for them.

About this there is a saying, “You may have a hundred gurus who have achieved the bhumis, but you will only have one who introduces you to your own mind.” You may study with a hundred eminent masters. In fact, they could be incarnate bodhisattvas. But all of the teachings they give you, as vast as they may be, as profound as they may be, as elegant as they may be, unless they produce a direct recognition of your mind’s nature in you, are basically just preparing the ground for that. They are about that without being it.

Question:

How does one arrange to get the pointing-out instructions? Aren’t they supposed to be secret?

Answer:

The pointing out of the mind’s nature, the pointing out of mahamudra, is not a secret thing. It is not actually something that is done necessarily one-to-one, or done very rarely, or secretly. In fact, anytime anyone teaches mahamudra, whether they admit that they are giving the pointing-out instruction and they say, “Now I’m going to give you the mahamudra pointing-out instruction, get ready…” [laughter] Or, they don’t say anything. Or, they deny it: they say, “Now I’m teaching you, but this is not the pointing-out instruction.” Even if they say that, it’s still the pointing-out instruction. You can’t be really teaching mahamudra without giving the pointing-out instruction.

The issue is not arranging for this rare thing to occur, since it is occurring all the time; it’s making yourself receptive to it. The issue is not so much will teachers teach it or not; it’s will students get it or not, because you may hear it many, many times without actually getting it. It’s not the case that there is a secret, hidden form of mahamudra pointing-out that is only given to a select few, where the teacher leads you by the hand off into a dark corridor and whispers in your ear. It’s not like that. It’s given to large groups of people.

The part where you are correct about secrecy or discretion is when, after receiving it, you go to your teacher and report about your experience. You describe your own meditation experiences and based upon what you describe to them, they will give you further instructions. Those do have to be tailored to individuals because individual’s make-ups vary. That is traditionally not done in public. It would be considered indiscreet, and very gauche, to talk about your meditation experiences in a public setting; that is a one-on-one thing. But, the pointing-out instruction can be given to as many people as a teacher wishes.

[From Advice to Vajrayana Practitioners given by Lama Tashi Topgyal in Battle Creek, Michigan on September 22, 2012. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. Transcribed and edited by Matt Willis. All rights reserved. Please do not reprint without permission.]

We’re concerned here with practicing the dharma that comes from the lineage of Terchen Barway Dorje. The basis of this is to see our root guru, the present 3rd Barway Dorje, as Guru Rinpoche himself. This is valid because he is an emanation of Guru Rinpoche. He is also the emanation of many great masters of both the old and new traditions of Buddhist tantra.

With regard to Guru Rinpoche himself we have to remember that Guru Rinpoche was, in a sense, even kinder, even more beneficial to Tibet, than Buddha Shakyamuni. Really, there is no difference between Buddha Shakyamuni and Guru Rinpoche. Guru Rinpoche was the direct emanation of Buddha Shakyamuni. But the difference is, for Tibetans, that Buddha Shakyamuni never visited Tibet, never brought the teachings there; Guru Rinpoche did. So all Tibetan Buddhism really owes its existence to the kindness of Guru Rinpoche and the Kashmiri abbot Shantarakshita.

Especially, Guru Rinpoche insured that he would, and has, produced a ceaseless stream of emanations. For example, his best known disciples, the twenty-five disciples, were each his own emanation to begin with: five emanations of his body, five of speech, five of mind, five of qualities, five of activity. And, each of the five [had five emanations] — body [of] body, body [of] speech, body [of] mind, etc. He gave each of them a different set of instructions, predicted their time of rebirth, who their disciples would be, entrusted their particular teachings to particular dharmapalas or protectors, and prophesied those future events that would indicate the time had come to revive their teachings. He provided the specific teachings that would serve as remedies for those particular events or situations and then concealed all of this — the teachings themselves, the prophesies, and the entrustment — as treasure or terma, so that they would survive until the time came for those future emanations to take birth.

These terma teachings are therefore very different from most dharma. They are not the clever compositions of brilliant scholars. In fact, the tertons, the treasure revealers who had discovered them, have in many cases been utterly illiterate, or functionally illiterate, or is some cases merely poorly educated. Yet they were able through receiving, finding the physical texts, and through their visions, to transcribe sometimes ten or even a hundred volumes of teachings.

In the case of the lineage of Barway Dorje, he of course is an emanation of both Guru Rinpoche and of his disciple and consort Yeshe Tsogyal. In particular, he is the reincarnation of Nupchen Sangye Yeshe who was, among the twenty-five disciples, the body of body emanation.

Terchen Barway Dorje was born in 1836. He was a contemporary of another great terton, Chokgyur Lingpa. Also he was a contemporary of Jamgön Kongtrul the Great, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, and the supreme scholar Mipham Rinpoche. His termas were accepted and authenticated by all of these masters.

The termas themselves consist of nine volumes. In addition to those teachings, which you could call Nyingma, he also has his own lineage of the Sarma or New Translation school, which consist of two volumes of visionary teachings connected with the Barom Kagyu that he received from the dakini Akasha Yogini, or Yogini of Space, who is the wisdom body of the dakini Atroma, the consort and disciple of his [Barway Dorje’s] previous life as the dharma lord Sönam Zangpo of Chodrak.

Now all of these teachings of Barway Dorje, both the terma teachings and the other teachings, were principally entrusted to Kagyu Tashi, a great lama of Chodrak monastery in eastern Tibet. And many disciples, not only of Terchen Barway Dorje himself, but also of Kagyu Tashi, achieved great siddhi. Especially Kagyu Tashi had achieved the same state as his guru. He accomplished the celestial lady, Khechari Vajrayogini, until he could converse with her at any time he wished and had mastered his channels, winds, and essences to the point where he only needed to take one breath in a twenty-four hour period.

It was Kagyu Tashi who transmitted the teachings of Barway Dorje to the 2nd Bardor Rinpoche. This 2nd Bardor Rinpoche transmitted all of the empowerments and transmissions and secret instructions principally to the young Tulku Kunzang, and to my grandfather, Karma Tupten.

Tulku Kunzang, who is also still alive, was quite young when he received these teachings from the 2nd Bardor Rinpoche. He received them formally but was not extensively trained in the meditation practices or the ritual details by the 2nd Bardor Rinpoche himself. However because my grandfather, Karma Tupten, was the inseparable attendant of the 2nd Bardor Rinpoche, he received the complete training, all the hidden instructions, oral guidance, and detailed instructions in the rituals and artistic traditions, such as the drawing of mandalas, the construction of tormas, and everything, from the 2nd Bardor Rinpoche.

In fact, one time the previous Bardor Rinpoche said to my grandfather, Karma Tupten, “You know, you are going to be of greater service to these teachings than I am.” When he heard that, Karma Tupten was somewhat nonplussed. He thought, “What can he possibly mean? These are his teachings.” But nevertheless it was a prediction, because of course the 2nd Bardor Rinpoche passed away in his thirties and Karma Tupten, who is now well into his eighties, has lived a long and healthy life.

Karma Tupten’s karmic connection with Terchen Barway Dorje goes back a very long time. According to Terchen Barway Dorje, we was, in a previous life, a disciple of Nupchen Sangye Yeshe called Lharje Rokjung. Then when Nupchen Sangye Yeshe was later reborn as Jetsun Milarepa, he was his disciple Repa Shiwa Ö.

One of the predictions of Karma Tupten’s line of incarnation was that because of his previous accumulations of merit he was always to be born into a wealthy family. And sure enough, Lharje Rokjung and Repa Shiwa Ö were both born into wealthy families by the standards of their time.

As a disciple of Terchen Barway Dorje, he was the teacher Trime Loden, whose direct reincarnation is my grandfather, Karma Tupten.

His predicted service to the teachings has been tremendous. In spite of the destruction of not only infrastructure, but also of texts and transmission lineages and so on, which ensued upon the Communist invasion and Cultural Revolution in Tibet, he has been able, over the last many years, to reassemble, almost in their entirety, the nine volumes of the termas of Barway Dorje. Sometimes [he found] one or two pages hidden behind someone’s false wall. [Sometimes he found pages] in scattered places throughout Tibet, and even other parts of China. So he has preserved not only the literary tradition but also the complete transmission lineage, which he received. And so he has continued to teach this tradition, to preserve it, to practice it, to teach the meditations, the visualizations, the ritual details, the artistic and crafts aspects, and so on.

So, it is really to a great extent that because of my grandfather that this lineage is a living and available thing.

As for the 3rd Barway Dorje, the 3rd Bardor Tulku Rinpoche, he’s in the next room. We see him; we know him; we receive teachings from him, [such as] all of the empowerments and transmissions and instructions, which he has received from the disciples of the previous Bardor Rinpooche, such as Tulku Kunzang and Karma Tupten. In his case receiving these teachings was not really so much learning anything new as being reminded. It is a matter of reminding a buddha that he is a buddha. But if we see him as what he is, as Vajradhara, then we will receive the blessings of Vajradhara and the full transmission of all three lineages [ed. for information on the three lineages see Tantra is Not Dangerous]. His wisdom certainly is the same as Vajradhara, but we need to be aware of it. If we do not understand our guru’s wisdom to be that of the dharmakaya, then we really have no basis for the practice of tantra. And if in fact his wisdom were not the wisdom of Vajradhara, there would be nothing for us to practice. Fortunately, this is not the case.

[From a teaching on The Song of the Young Bee given by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche in Evansville, Indiana in 2012. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. Transcribed and edited by Matt Willis. All rights reserved. Please do not reprint without permission. The complete teaching is available as an MP3 download from the KPL Bookstore.]

By this twenty-first century, regardless of what part of this planet we live in, whether we live in the East or the West, we have opportunity to encounter the Buddha’s teachings. In fact, at this point in history, these teachings are gradually becoming less prominent in the East and more prominent in the West. The evidence of this is the continued visits of and presence of so many great masters in this country. This is not an accident or coincidence. According to the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa, this is a result of the ripening of the aspirations of buddhas and bodhisattvas and the accumulation of merit by beings in these countries to which the buddhadharma is now spreading. We see that the dharma has been threatened in some Asian countries like Tibet. And, in some others such as Japan and China, people appear to be losing interest in it. We, on the other hand, have a growing opportunity to encounter these teachings, and especially through the vision of the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa, there are so many dharma centers like this one [Palchen Study Group Evansville] present in this country.

I don’t consider myself particularly learned, but I do feel that I have the responsibility, the duty, and the honor, to continue to serve the vision of my guru, the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa. About this we have a saying, “It is better to serve your guru for one day than to spend your whole life in intensive practice.” Now this sounds odd, even contradictory. But remember that according to the vajrayana, as is said, “The guru is the buddha; the guru is the dharma; the guru does everything.”

The guru is our permanent and true source of refuge, and his only concern, his only wish or aim, is to help beings. Even though we ourselves in attempting to facilitate or assist the enactment of our guru’s vision may feel that we lack great ability, the guru that we serve is the embodiment of the activity of all buddhas of past, present, and future. Therefore, when we engage in service of our guru, we are in fact pouring the paltry, little drop of water of our own ability into the vast, inexhaustible ocean of his ability, which means that until his aspirations for beings have been achieved, this ocean of activity will never dry up; it will continue. We take part in something that is tremendous and we gain a source of inexhaustible merit, a source of endless benefit for ourselves and others. For example, here at this Palchen Study Group you all practice together in harmony, helping one another, sharing what knowledge you have with one another, and so on. By doing this you are serving the Buddha’s teachings.

We say the buddhadharma is twofold — tradition and realization. All the Buddhist organizations that exist throughout the world exist for no other purpose than to serve these two aspects of dharma — tradition and realization. Whenever we facilitate someone else’s access to the teachings, access to practice, whenever we share what we know with them, whenever we make it easier for them to understand or access the dharma, whenever we teach, compose writings, or debate, or discuss the dharma, we are serving the dharma of tradition. Whenever we practice, whenever we study, whenever we meditate, we are serving the dharma of realization. Our purpose in practicing is that we are trying to emulate and reproduce the realization of our guru in our own minds.

If you continue in this way, as you are now, you will be doing the best thing possible to eventually bring all beings to a state of liberation. And in the short term, you will certainly assure that you will be able to continue to take human rebirths without obstacle or impediment.

So whether you are practicing or assisting others, do so with all of this in mind, and especially with an attitude of empathy and benevolence, with a motivation of bodhichitta, with the aspiration, “May this help them.” This will ensure that everything you do — your involvement, your study, your practice, and your service — lead to the best results for yourself and others.

[From a public talk entitled Loving Kindness and Compassion given by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche in Battle Creek, Michigan on September 21, 2012. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. Transcribed and edited by Matt Willis. All rights reserved. Please do not reprint without permission.]

When you want to achieve something but there is no basis for its achievement, it is a pointless hope. But if you want to achieve something and you know that the basis, the ground, or the potential for its achievement is already there, then it becomes a realistic hope, a realistic vision. When we aspire to achieving a state of awakening – what the Buddha did – we are not aspiring to something that we cannot achieve, because each and every one of us possesses that same fundamental nature. And if we can recognize that nature, see ourselves as we really are, then we will be fully capable of transcending this fiction we have been telling ourselves throughout beginningless time that imprisons us.

The problem is that we have never seen our true nature, what in the Buddhist tradition is called sugatagarbha or buddha nature. We have never seen ourselves as we are. It is because we do not see our own nature that we come up with this fictitious idea of “I” or “me.” And the concept “I,” and all the concepts that go along with it, are what we come up with because we’re not seeing what’s really there. But we feel we have to account for experience and so we try and conceptualize it.

To give an analogy, it’s a little bit like the sun and the clouds. The sun is always in the sky, and it’s always more or less of the same brightness. But on a cloudy day, you do not see the orb of the sun, and the light that the sun emits appears to be reduced. It’s as though the sun has been dimmed. But in fact the sun has not been dimmed. It is purely from the perspective of us as viewers of the sun that it looks that way. So just as clouds conceal the sun, but do not affect it, do not weaken it, or get rid of it, our beginningless ignorance of our own nature has definitely restricted our access to it, but it has not polluted that nature itself. We are what we always have been, but we don’t see it.

When you look at the sky on a cloudy day, you don’t see the sun. You see clouds, and the most light you see is the dim light that comes through the clouds. But the sun is still there. In the same way our nature is merely concealed or covered. Unfortunately, we identify with the clouds and not with the sun. We think that’s all the light there is. And so we come up with this idea: “this is me; I am this; this is all I am.”

The way to reverse this, the way to clear away the clouds in our minds, is by cultivating love and compassion. Because the fiction under which we live is of our own separate, solid existence, and since that fiction is protected by the selfishness that we come up with, by attacking our own selfishness we also attack the delusion that led to it.