A Selection of Teachings from a Tibetan Buddhist Tradition

[From a teaching on Buddha Nature by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche given in Tampa Bay, Florida, in February 2009. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso, transcribed by Ann G. Shaffer, copy-edited by Basia Coulter. Copyright 2009 Bardor Tulku Rinpoche and Peter O’Hearn. All rights reserved.]

Our basic nature—our basic being—is absolutely perfect. It is identical to the basic being or basic nature of buddhas. No distinction whatsoever can be made between the Buddha nature of a sentient being and the buddha nature of a buddha. It is not the case that the buddha nature of buddhas is greater or more than the buddha nature of sentient beings, nor that the buddha nature of buddhas is somehow better or purer that the buddha nature of beings. The only distinction between buddhas and sentient beings is that in the case of a buddha this nature is unconcealed or unveiled, and in the case of sentient beings like ourselves it is temporarily veiled or obscured. Therefore it is said that although all beings possess buddha nature, it is however veiled by temporary obscurations. These obscurations are called temporary because they are not intrinsic to the nature itself, they can therefore be removed, but they will only be removed under the conditions that remove them. What do these obscurations fundamentally consist of? They consist of our persistent belief in a self. There is no such thing, has never been such a thing, and could never be such a thing as a self. It is actually impossible, yet we continue to believe in a self.

In the Uttaratantra Shastra Maitreya said, “Because the buddhakaya is all-pervasive, because there is no difference within that, and because all beings demonstrate the potential, it is said that all beings possess buddha nature.” Here Matireya sets forth three arguments for the existence of buddha nature. The first argument is that the buddhakaya is all-pervasive. Kaya means body, in this case buddhakaya or buddha body refers to the dharmakaya, the actual state of buddhahood itself. His argument is that since the actual nature of buddhahood is the dharmakaya, and since the dharmakaya is emptiness, and since emptiness is the nature of each and every being, it is therefore certain that each and every being possesses buddha nature. Read More »

[From a teaching on Buddha Nature by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche given in Tampa Bay, Florida, in February 2009. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso, transcribed by Ann G. Shaffer, copy-edited by Basia Coulter. Copyright 2009 Bardor Tulku Rinpoche and Peter O’Hearn. All rights reserved.]

For more than one thousand years Buddhism that first appeared in India has flourished in Tibet, and the emphasis in Tibetan Buddhism has from the beginning always been the vajrayana teachings. There are four levels of vajrayana practice, which are called kriya tantra or action tantra, charya tantra or performance tantra, yoga tantra, and annuttara yoga tantra or highest yoga tantra. The primary emphasis in Tibetan Buddhism is on the fourth and highest level of tantra, the annuttara yoga.

The annuttara yoga tantra tradition that exists in Tibet, and has existed in that country for more than a thousand years, is transmitted through the medium of Tibetan Buddhism. This is not simply the mere name of this tradition. It’s not simply a matter of history such that we can say, “Well, there used to be these wonderful practices that were done in Tibet, and we know about it because the books still exist, but no one actually does this anymore, there is no longer any experiential attainment.” It’s not like that at all. The tradition exists undiminished, it has never been watered down, and its effectiveness and blessings have never been compromised. Down to the present day there still exists the experiential knowledge of all the stages of this path. The qualities of freedom and wisdom that this path produces still exist within the minds of great beings.

When I say that these qualities of the realization exist in the minds or hearts of great beings, what I mean is this: dharma has two aspects—tradition and realization. The dharma of tradition is historical. It is the history of the Buddha, the dharma, and it is the teachings given by the Buddha—the teachings that we practice nowadays. The dharma of tradition is found in books. Essentially it is a description of the path; it is an excellent description, but it is not the actual path itself. It tells you how to traverse the path. The actual realization of the path—the actual attainment—is not found in the books; it is found in the hearts or minds of great beings who embody this realization, lifetime after lifetime, to whom it has been transmitted by their masters, and who themselves transmit it to their disciples like the contents of one vase being poured into another, or like an excellent reproduction or photo copy. That is to say that the realization of awakened masters is actually transferred or transmitted to their devoted disciples. Read More »

[From a teaching on Buddha Nature by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche given in Tampa Bay, Florida, in February 2009. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso, transcribed by Ann G. Shaffer, copy-edited by Basia Coulter. Copyright 2009 Bardor Tulku Rinpoche and Peter O’Hearn. All rights reserved.]

We inhabit bodies that include the ten resources and eight types of freedoms, and especially because of our previous accumulations of merit, not only do we have these types of bodies, these types of lives, but we have the special type which includes access to dharma. Now, one aspect of this access is access to great masters who bestow liberation simply through being seen, or simply through being heard. For example, many of you have met His Holiness the Gyalwang Karmapa,, but even those of you who have not actually met either the Sixteenth or the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa have at least either seen a photograph of him or have at least heard his name. Whether you have actually met him or not, you have in some way been touched by his activity. This means that the seed of your future liberation has been definitely planted.

Now, this is very important, very significant, because although samsara, cyclic existence, will never end by itself, for you it’s end at some point in the future is certain. The seed of your eventual liberation has been planted within you, and this means that you possess a degree and a type of merit or goodness within you that is unlike that of most others. Especially since we are involved in the practice of the mahayana and the vajrayana, the seed of liberation that has been planted within you, is not merely the seed of your own liberation, although that is certain, but also the seed of your future ability to bring about the liberation of others. In part this is because in our practice of the mahayana tradition we aspire to emulate the benefiting and liberation of beings performed by all the buddhas and bodhisattvas. Because of this aspiration embedded within our practice, this is certain to occur. This is something that is extraordinarily delightful and you should recognize the power of what has already occurred for you.

We have lived innumerable times. In each of those lives we’ve had some kind of body. As it is said in the Confessions to Avalokiteshvara, “if the flesh and bone of all our past bodies were accumulated they would create a mass larger than all the mountains in the world, and if all of the blood and lymph and fluids of our past bodies were gathered into one huge basin, it would be larger than all the oceans in the world.” Nevertheless, in spite of all that we have gone through and how long this has been going on, we now at least inhabit bodies in which the seeds of our own liberations and our future ability to liberate others have been definitely planted. Read More »