The Secret of Accurate Practice
I ran across an extraordinary book of teachings by one of the great contemporary teachers of nonduality (named Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche) called Vajra Speech, and I wanted to read some of the teachings from this book. We should have his photo on the wall, so, can you find one? OK.
I’ll start from the beginning because there are so many interesting and very subtle points in it. I may end up going through the whole book over a period of meetings. So the first section of the book is called “Accomplishment”. By the way, he’s a teacher of the Vajrayana School of Tibetan Buddhism, which is one of the Tantric schools, and they have a three-level process that they refer to as, “The View, The Development, and The Fruition”. Right?
The View literally is the theory, theoria, right, the vision of what is it like to be in Buddha-consciousness, what is it like to realize nonduality as one’s constant state. So there is first a level of teaching that gives the gyana, and then there is the development phase in which they tend to use a lot of visualizations, which they admit are imitations of that state, in order to develop two basic qualities within the soul, that are usually not present in the ego. One is Bodhicitta, which means both compassion for every being—because every being is a manifestation of the Buddha Mind, and one has compassion for their state of ignorance of their true nature, which is responsible for their suffering—and one wants to, out of loving kindness, help souls stop suffering. Alright? That makes sense.
So if that becomes your motivation in life, it means you have to have stopped suffering if you’re going to be of help to anyone else to stop suffering. Right? So there’s an implicit, then, vow of being free of dukka, of suffering, of any kind, because one is totally in love with the Buddha Mind. And the way they develop that love is through devotion to buddhas and bodhisattvas that have images; like Kuan Yin, for example—she’s the Chinese version—but Avalokiteshvara, or any of the many varieties of Dhyani Buddhas that are developed in Tibetan Buddhism, as well as various gods and goddesses and dakinis, and they have a whole menagerie of ascended beings, and you can choose your Ishtadev, like the Hindus do, and then visualize that being, and feel a bond of love. OK?
Now, they admit that, and they don’t hide it from the students, that this is purely a projection of love that actually should be turned inward—it shouldn’t be turned toward an image of a goddess or a buddha, or any of that that’s just—the only reason you have to do that in that phase, is you don’t yet realize that you are the Buddha that you’re worshipping and loving. And so you have to have an image of it, so at least you feel love, because the ego doesn’t love itself; it hates itself, and it is the object of hatred of its superego; so it’s always suffering, it’s getting nightmares, and it’s getting physical symptoms, because it’s being attacked by its own mind, OK?
This is the problem with split mind: one part of it attacks the other part, and there’s a constant battle going on within. And so to eliminate that battle, there’s a figure of love that then takes the energy that would go into internal conflict, and turns it into devotion.
Then in the final phase, they say, OK, let’s stop imagining Buddhas and goddesses and all of that, and realize that it’s yourself you love—but not your ego, your Real Self—and stop believing you’re an ego, please. That’s the last phase. You’re not a body. You’re not in a world. This is a hologram. None of it is real. You are simply pure awareness. You’re not even in the dream of the world—the holographic dream is not your habitat. You are the transcendent Self that is like a mirror that contains the dream as a reflection, but the reflection is not really part of the mirror—it’s temporary. And when the reflection is gone, all you have is the gleaming light of the mirror itself—that’s who you are.
And so if you can reach that realization, then you know what Buddha Mind is. And you realize that that’s all that is, because everything else is just part of a simulation that is a flux, it’s temporary, nothing has reality within the realm of form and duality—what is real is only consciousness itself. And consciousness itself is blissful, always. And it’s eternal. And it’s changeless, because there’s no time in consciousness. There’s time only in the dream, because of change, movement; but nothing moves within the eternal consciousness. It’s pure light, and pure love, that is always emanating, but without any kind of change within itself. It’s just a constant glow of blissful energy. That’s what we are. OK? So if you’re not in that constant state of glowing with joy, and bliss, and in a state of total peace, then you are not in your Real Self. You’re ignorant of who you are, and what you are. And so the process is coming out of that ignorance and realizing the Real Self, the Buddha Mind, the Buddha Nature, which is the nature of reality—of everyone—because we are all made of the same stuff, which is just consciousness. Alright? OK.
All that is prologue, to now let’s listen to Urgyen Rinpoche. The first section of the book is called “Accomplishment”.
“Among the signs of practice, there is experience and accomplishment.”
OK? So he’s dividing it into these two phases, which is very interesting; even in the preliminary phase, people will have experiences of momentary joy, or bliss, or even think they went through ego death—and they’ll talk about it as if “I reached enlightenment”—and all of that. It’s not true, of course. You can have a glimpse, you can have an experience, but that’s not the same as realization. OK? And so, many people settle for these temporary breakthroughs that then lead to a fall back into the ego, because they have not truly recognized the reality of the Real Self, and it was only caused by either a drug, or some special circumstance, or vibrational frequency, of a vortex, or a situation that caused it, but it wasn’t internally grokked as one’s being. OK?
So, experience, even if it’s of a very high kind, and you have a vision of God, or whatever—it’s meaningless. It’s only the accomplishment of the realization that whatever you’re experiencing (which means you’re in duality, right, there’s someone experiencing something)—that’s false, because there is nothing to experience, there is only the Self. Any experience—ex means “outside” of oneself—it means one is still in delusion. The Self, once it is accomplished, does no longer live in the realm of experience. OK?
So: “The true sign of practice is that you are naturally and effortlessly without fixation.”
Now, I think that’s a very important statement. What does he mean by fixation? Who has an idea? What does fixation mean?
Audio File: The Secret of Accurate Practice – Audio File.mp3
This Post Has 3 Comments
Kathleen Nerney
21 Feb 2022Hi Folks
Thank you so much for putting out these teachings. They resonate with me completely, tell Shunyamurti I am grateful for the words. I am in Ireland and I am almost clear of the inner baggage but it has taken me about 15 years so far or more of work on myself and Im still going. I will make a donation to you after this note and I hope it helps you to build your ashram further. Its a long way from Costa Rica to Ireland but you never know if I master this interdimensional travel we may meet. All the very best. Hari Om Kathleen
Vajra Sat Yoga
22 Feb 2022Dear Kathleen,
Thank you so much for your lovely words and expression of gratitude. We will certainly pass along your message to Shunyamurti!
Om Shanti.
David
23 Feb 2022Beautifully said brother…Ty so much for this…Love to all