A Selection of Teachings from a Tibetan Buddhist Tradition

[From the White Khechari Practice Instructions, Part 1 of 3 given by Lama Tashi Topgyal in October 2011 at Kunzang Palchen Ling. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. Edited by Matt Willis. All rights reserved. Complete teaching available as an MP3 download at the KPL Bookstore.]

Whatever aspects of the teachings we practice, the only point of practicing is to tame our three poisons, to tame our kleshas. Therefore, if dharma practice is effective there should be some evidence of a change in our personality, in our characters, and in our behavior. If there is no such evident change, then clearly we are wasting our time and might as well not have done it to begin with.

Whether or not this change occurs depends to a great extent on the purity of our motivation. There are many different sorts of motivations that we might have. We could have a pure motivation, a neutral motivation, or an impure motivation. Pure motivation according to the mahayana — and we are all practitioners of the mahayana since we know that all beings throughout space have countless times been our mothers — is the wish to bring all to the state of buddhahood. And this purpose, the wish to bring all beings to buddhahood, has to be with us from the moment when our butts touch the cushion. A neutral motivation is to be aimless, to practice without any specific purpose or idea why you are doing it. This is as pointless as shooting an arrow in the dark of night without aiming at any target. And an impure motivation is one that is concerned with some kind of worldly ambition, typically with one or more of the eight worldly dharmas, such as the seeking of fame, and so forth.

Now any one of these motivations may arise in our minds at any time, so we need to be vigilant and ensure that our motivation is always correct. Even among positive motivations, we must ensure that our motivation is not concerned with some sort of short-term boon, such as protection from sickness or other suffering, or any other kind of temporary benefit.

[From Essence of Wisdom: Stages of the Path, Part 2 by Lama Tashi Topgyal given in June 2013 at Kunzang Palchen Ling. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. Transcribed by Alan McCoy. Edited by Matt Willis. All rights reserved. The complete teaching is available as an MP3 download from the KPL Bookstore.]

We have to understand that our access to the vajrayana is not, and could not possibly be, accidental. It is the result of our accumulation of incalculably great merit in previous lives and also the result of our having made excellent and fruitful aspirations. One cannot encounter the vajrayana teachings by accident. Therefore, the fact that we have encountered them, the fact that we have access to these teachings, is proof that we are worthy of them.

We need, therefore, to have self-confidence, and self-confidence here is twofold. It’s first the proximate or immediate self-confidence of recognizing that your access to the teachings is itself proof of your worthiness to hear them and practice them. And second, what we could call primordial self-confidence, which is the recognition that just by being a being you are automatically possessed of everything you need. Each and every being possesses the same type of aggregates, elements, and senses. If you have the five aggregates, the five elements, and the five senses, it is absolutely certain, no matter who you are, no matter what you have done, that your true nature is the mandala of all buddhas. Your five aggregates, elements, and senses are in reality the buddhas of the five families. They always have been; they always will be; they are right now.

One of the consequences of this is that through the nature of the times we live in, and through the aspirations of Guru Rinpoche, even though we live in a time which by some standards is degenerate, the teachings of secret mantra, by the very power of the degeneracy of the times, are even more powerful, even more accessible, and even more effective. In a sense we can credit Guru Rinpoche’s aspiration with this because he said, “In the future, during times of five-fold degeneracy, my teachings of secret mantra will blaze like fire.” This means that in spite of the times we live in, the evidence of attainment is unceasing. The actual success, the actual benefit of vajrayana practice, is as great as it has ever been, possibly greater. And we are worthy of it, otherwise we would not see it; we wouldn’t be interested in it; we wouldn’t be here. Our access to these teachings could not be accidental. It is a result of our previous lives’ aspiration and, in this case, our connection with Guru Rinpoche himself.

Obviously these things are concealed from us. Because of our obscurations we cannot know or do not know, at this point, what we have done in previous lives. But the fact that we are obscured does not mean that that perfect wisdom, which is our true nature, has been affected, or diminished, or degraded. That innate perfect wisdom, in spite of everything we have done, and everything we have gone through, cannot and never will diminish or change in any way. To fully enter into the vajrayana teachings and practice you need to have confidence in this; you need to have confidence in your basic nature being perfect wisdom.