[From the Four Sadhanas of the Vajradhara Guru’s Mind taught by Lama Tratop, translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso, transcribed by Ana Carabajal-Guerra, edited by Basia Coulter. Copyright Lama Tashi Topgyal and Peter O’Hearn. Please do not reprint without permission.]
Even if you managed to learn everything about Buddhism—everything in the sutras and everything in the tantras—if you did not practice any of it, you would not achieve buddhahood. For this reason it is said in the Dzogchen teachings, “Even a cowboy without any understanding can achieve awakening if they practice, and even the most learned person who understands everything will not achieve buddhahood if they don’t practice.”
As for what we are studying here [ed: the treasure teachings of Terchen Barway Dorje], the blessings of these treasures are tremendous and completely unimpaired. Therefore we say that these treasures remain warm with the steamy breath of the dakinis.
As for the authenticity of the treasures of Barway Dorje, we have the testimony of every great master of our tradition, starting with the 14th Gyalwa Karmapa, Thekchok Dorje, and including great masters such as Khenchen Mipham and others. Many of those masters not only made statements testifying to the authenticity, but also composed liturgies, prayers, aspirations, and so on, for the propagation of these teachings. So, we can be certain that Terchen Barway Dorje was not a charlatan who made this stuff up.
In addition to the authenticity of the teachings themselves, the transmission of them since the time of Terchen Barway Dorje has been pure. There has been no diminishment of the blessings through broken samaya. Therefore the blessings of these teachings are tremendous. It is said, “Even if you open the books of these teachings the blessings start to enter you.”
This type of great blessing, where any contact with the teachings brings blessings, such as even opening the book before you even begin to read it let alone practice it, is a special feature of the Dzogchen teachings in general. As the omniscient Longchenpa wrote in The Treasury of the Dharmadhatu, “It is a special feature of the teachings of the Great Perfection that all contact with them, however minimal, brings great blessing. To see the books of these teachings and to read them causes the blessing to enter those who come in contact with them even if they do not practice those teachings.” And this is true in the case of these treasured teachings.
