Nyoshul Khenpo

Nyoshul Khenpo

Nyoshul Khenpo Jamyang Dorje (1932–1999) was one of the lineage holders in the Dzogchen tradition known as Longchen Nyingthig, the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse, which descends from Longchen Rabjam and Jigme Lingpa. Born in Derge, East Tibet, he escaped to India in 1959. He trained many of the current generation of Dzogchen teachers, including Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, Mingyur Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Sogyal Rinpoche, and others.

Nyoshul Khenpo

Nyoshul Khenpo Jamyang Dorje (1932–1999) was one of the lineage holders in the Dzogchen tradition known as Longchen Nyingthig, the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse, which descends from Longchen Rabjam and Jigme Lingpa. Born in Derge, East Tibet, he escaped to India in 1959. He trained many of the current generation of Dzogchen teachers, including Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, Mingyur Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Sogyal Rinpoche, and others.
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GUIDES

A Biography of Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang (Khenpo Ngaga)

A Short Biography of Kathog Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang, also known as Khenpo Ngaga and Khenpo Ngakchung (1879–1941)

Excerpted from The Guide to the Words of My Perfect Teacher

khenpo ngawang pelzang khenpo ngagaKhenpo Ngawang Pelzang, also known as Osel Rinchen Nyingpo Pema Lendrel Tsel and popularly called Khenpo Ngakchung or Ngaga, is a re­markable example of a particular kind of lineage holder among the broad variety of personalities of those who held and transmitted the different tra­ditions of Buddhism in Tibet, for if they were all similar in their wisdom and compassion, they differed widely in the particular guises each took in order to pass the teachings on to others most effectively. Some lamas were recog­nized tulkus, enthroned as the heads of great monasteries, with considerable spiritual in.uence over the large communities of monks under their care and over the local lay populations. Others, like Patrul Rinpoche and Milarepa, were respected on account of their total disregard for wealth, fame, and position, inspiring and teaching through the example of their humility and simple lifestyle. Yet others chose to undertake many years of intensive academic training, mastering the texts of sutra and tantra and their com­mentaries in order to qualify as khenpos. The khenpos were learned profes­sors responsible for the education of the tulkus and monks in the monasteries and at the same time faultless upholders of the Vinaya who con­tinued its transmission in ordaining thousands of monks and supervising their training. It should not be imagined, however, that they con.ned them­selves to their duties in the monasteries, for many of them also spent years meditating in retreat and transforming the texts they taught into inner spir­itual realization. And if they did not occupy the thrones of recognized in­carnations, this did not necessarily mean that they had not been “someone” in their previous births.

In Khenpo Ngakchung’s case that "someone" was a whole series of accomplished beings in India and Tibet—scholars, yogis, translators, Dharma kings, treasure discoverers—summarized in one biography as twenty-five great incarnations. Foremost among these was Vimalamitra, the great In­dian master who was responsible, with Guru Padmasambhava, for intro­ducing the Nyingtik teachings to Tibet and who promised on his departure from Tibet to send an emanation every hundred years. Khenpo Ngakchung had also been, in a previous life, the Indian master Sthiramati, Vasubandhu’s foremost Abhidharma student, and this was to hold him in good stead when he came to study this difficult subject.

His teacher Nyoshul Lungtok Tenpai Nyima (1829–1901/2*), himself an incarnation of the great abbot Shantarakshita, spent twenty-eight years con­stantly in the company of Patrul Rinpoche, receiving from him all the Nyingtik teachings, practicing them under his guidance, and attaining full realization of the Great Perfection. When at the end of this time Patrul Rin­poche told him to return home, he could not bear to leave, but Patrul Rin­poche comforted him by telling him that in due course he would meet Kunkhyen Longchenpa. The truth of this prediction duly became clear when, following a series of signi.cative dreams, a small boy, the future Khenpo Ngakchung, was presented to him.

Khenpo Ngakchung was indeed a most unusual child. Even as a baby he displayed miraculous powers and had visions of deities. From his early teens he accompanied Lungtok Tenpai Nyima constantly, serving him, listening to his teachings, and, in his spare time, practicing. Even before completing the preliminary practice he had meditative experiences usually associated with the main practice of the Great Perfection. While doing the mandala practice he had a vision of Longchenpa, in which he was introduced to the nature of mind. Lungtok Tenpai Nyima downplayed these experiences, insisting that Ngawang Pelzang go through the whole path in the proper order so that he could achieve stable realization and truly benefit beings. In this way, he com­pleted all the stages of the practice—the preliminaries, sadhana recitations, yogas, and the two aspects of the Great Perfection, trekchö and thögal—by the time he was twenty-one, when his teacher recognized him as his Dharma heir and sent him to Dzogchen Monastery to study under the learned khen­pos at the monastery’s Shri Singha shedra (college). While there he met Mipham Rinpoche, who entrusted him with the Introduction to Scholarship (mkhas ’jug) which he had just finished writing. Two years later, after Lungtok Tenpai Nyima had passed away, he performed several retreats, all marked by extraordinary signs of accomplishment. He continued to study and prac­tice, and to receive further teachings and empowerments from other great teachers, in particular the second Kathog Situ, Chokyi Gyatso (1880–1925). He also began giving teachings himself. His calling as a khenpo was no doubt encouraged by a vision he had of Patrul Rinpoche in which the latter stressed the importance of education and monastic observance. At the age of thirty he was appointed to teach at Kathog Monastery’s newly opened shedra, at first as assistant to Khenpo Kunpel (author of an important commentary that synthesizes Patrul Rinpoche’s teachings on the Bodhicharyavatara), and later as the shedra’s khenpo. He stayed there for the next thirteen years, teaching, giving empowerments, and ordaining thousands of monks, as well as receiv­ing many important transmissions.
The “experiential” instructions (myong khrid) that Lungtok Tenpai Ny­ima had received from Patrul Rinpoche and passed on to Khenpo Ngak­chung became the tradition of Nyingtik practice at Kathog Monastery, and it was Lungtok Tenpai Nyima’s Kathog followers who built the Nyoshul monastery in Derge, of which Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang became the first abbot. After his years at Kathog he traveled widely in east Tibet, establishing monasteries and shedras, giving teachings, practicing in retreat, and writing. The thirteen volumes of texts he composed include commentaries on Madhyamika treatises by Chandrakirti and Aryadeva, texts on sadhana practice, commentaries on Vajrayana, and works on the Great Perfection, many of which were teachings that he had received from Lungtok Tenpai Nyima. He was also responsible for propagating the teachings he received from Shenga Rinpoche on Nagarjuna’s fundamental texts of the Madhyamika.

The visions, meditative experiences, and miraculous events that occur throughout Khenpo Ngakchung’s life may seem to us almost the stuff of legend, yet some of them took place less than seventy years ago, and there are still one or two of his disciples living. The spiritual renaissance in east­ern Tibet with which he was intimately connected is perhaps all the more remarkable for the fact that the region was not always an oasis of calm and often had its share of troubles and unrest. His activity in benefiting beings has extended to the West, where Buddhists practicing the Nyingtik teach­ings have been taught by masters who can trace their lineage back to him through his disciples, among them Nyoshul Shedrup Tenpai Nyima, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, and Chatral Rinpoche. This, and the fact that the Zintri is now accessible to the English-speaking world, was per­haps foreseen in a dream Khenpo Ngakchung recounted to his teacher. In it he saw an immense stupa being destroyed and washed away by a river flowing west into the ocean, and he heard a voice from the sky saying that millions of beings in that ocean would be benefited. Lungtok Tenpai Nyima later explained that this dream foretold the destruction of the doc­trine in the East and its spread to the West.

Books by Khenpo Ngaga

Books Featuring Khenpo Ngaga

Masters of Meditation and Miracles

$34.95 - Paperback

By: Tulku Thondup

Compassionate Action

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By: Chatral Rinpoche & Zach Larson

Please also enjoy some downloadable translations of Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang at Lotsawa House.

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SNOW LION NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE

Get Out of the Construction Business

Nyoshul KhenpoGet out of the construction business! Stop building bridges across the raging waters of samsaric existence, attempting to reach the “far shore,” nirvana. Better to simply relax, at ease and carefree, in total naturalness, and just go with the primordial flow, however it occurs and happens. And remember this: whether or not you go with the flow, it always goes with you.

Yet it is not so easy—or so it seems. First we must recognize this profound view, innate Great Perfection, then train in it, then attain unshakable stability in it. This is the path of practice, undistractedly maintaining the view or outlook to which one has been introduced and which one has recognized. Only then can realization progressively unfold. Thus, training implies nonmeditation, noneffort, and nondistraction, a vivid presence of mind. Innate wakefulness, nonconceptual wisdom, nondual primordial awareness—buddha-mind—is suddenly unsheathed the moment dualistic mind dissolves. This can occur gradually, through study, analysis, and spiritual practice, or suddenly, through the coming together of causes and conditions, such as when a ripe student encounters a totally realized master and inexplicably experiences a sudden awakening.

Buddha-nature is pure, undefiled, unelaborated, unconditioned, transcending all concepts. It is not an object of dualistic thought and intellectual knowledge. It is, however, open to gnosis, intuition, the nondual apperception of intrinsic awareness itself, prior to or upstream of consciousness. Adventitious obscurations temporarily veil and, like clouds, obscure this pristine, sky-like, luminous fundamental nature or mind essence—also known as tathagatagarbha, buddha-nature.

All conventional practices along the gradual path to liberation and enlightenment aim to uncover this innate wisdom by removing and dissolving the obscurations, revealing what has always been present. This is the relation between how things appear to be and how things actually are: in short, the two levels of truth, absolute and relative or conventional truth. According to these two truths, there are different levels of practice.

The subtle and profound Vajrayana view emphasizes correctly recognizing the ultimate view, the wisdom inherent within oneself; this is the renowned vajra-shortcut elucidated in the Dzogchen tantras. The approach of the various sutra vehicles depends on, and utilizes, purification of dualistic consciousness, until the mind is eventually purified and freed of obscurations and defilements. The tantric approach depends upon, and from the outset utilizes, wisdom, nondual awareness, rather than mere mind. This is a crucial difference.

The sublime view of Dzogpa Chenpo, the ultimate vehicle, is that everything is pure and perfect from the outset. This is the absolute truth, the supreme outlook or view of Buddhas, which implies that there is nothing that need be done or accomplished. Based on such recognition of how things actually are, the meditation of Dzogchen is nonmeditation, resting in the evenness of being, rather than doing any particular thing, beyond hope and fear, adopting and rejecting. The action or behavior of Dzogchen ensues from such transcendence, and is totally spontaneous, aimless, and appropriate to whatever conditions arise. The fruition of Dzogchen is the innate Great Perfection itself, inseparable from the very starting point of this swift and efficacious path: rigpa itself, one’s own true nature.

—Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche
adapted from Natural Great Perfection: Dzogchen Teachings and Vajra Songs

Natural Great Perfection

$24.95 - Paperback

By: Lama Surya Das & Nyoshul Khenpo

Books by Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche

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Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche on How Not to Get Lost on the Direct Path

Nyoshul Khen's Natural Great PerfectionAlthough—or perhaps because—Dzogchen is a “pathless path,” practitioners can sometimes go astray. In this excerpt, adapted from Natural Great Perfection, Nyoshul Khenpo gives essential guidance on how not to get side-tracked.

If one practices the incredibly rare and profound teaching of Dzogchen, nondual Dzogchen, with an intention like this: “I want Dzogchen, I want enlightenment. I’m going to get it in this life,” and there is a great deal of grasping, pushy, small-minded selfishness, how can there be any Dzogchen? This is the very antithesis of the vast, unconditional openness of Dzogchen. This is how we stray from the true path and become wild practitioners and even become crazy. If self-clinging, self-cherishing, and clinging to the reality of things remains strong, how can there be any genuine Dzogchen, which is the true natural state of freedom, openness, and primordial perfection?

If you practice bodhicitta practices—mind training, loving-kindness prayers, exchanging oneself and others (tong len), and so forth—these practices may seem conceptual and relative, but they actually include the absolute truth that is the very nature of Dzogchen: vast openness, big mind, purity, freedom, and non-grasping. Unselfishness is no different than that nondual openness, vast emptiness, shunyata. Dzogchen may be as primordially pure and ever unaffected as the virgin snow, but approaching it with mixed motivation or impure selfish aspiration is a great limitation. When you urinate in the snow, the snow starts white, but suddenly it’s yellow.

The word for bodhicitta in Tibetan is sem kye. This literally means “the opening or blossoming of the mind.” It is the opposite of small mind, of self-preoccupation, self-contraction, and narrowness.

Whatever practice-path we find ourselves on—be it Dzogchen, Vajrayana, the Bodhisattvayana, the fundamental Theravadin Vehicle, or another spiritual path—if we have a pure, wholesome attitude and a spacious and tolerant mind, then our practice is really Buddhist practice; it is in line with practice that really blossoms and unties the mind.

This is the real meaning of bodhicitta. It may be that the sky is always limpid, clear, vast, infinite, and so on, but when the moment of Dzogchen arrives it is as if the sun has suddenly risen. It is not that the sky of our inherent nature has improved, but something definitely does seem to happen. This metaphor of the rising sun refers to the rangjung yeshe, the spontaneous, self-born awareness wisdom or innate wakefulness dawning within our nature. This is the moment of Dzogchen, the dawn of the self-arisen awareness wisdom, innate wisdom.

This is the meaning of what is called in Tibetan nyur de dzogpa chenpo, meaning “swift and comfy innate Great Perfection”—a path that does not require austerities or arduous practices. It is direct, swift, spacious, natural, and comfy. It is doable! In one lifetime, in one body, even in one instant of self-arisen awareness, this dawn of Vajrasattva—the self-born innate awareness wisdom—shines forth like a blazing inner sun. When you relate to this self-arisen innate awareness wisdom, when you practice Dzogchen as it actually is, this fleeting human existence is instantaneously made meaningful. And not just this life, but all our lives are made meaningful, as well as the lives of all those who have been connected with us. This experience of the natural state of the luminous innate Great Perfection implies the annihilation, the crashing into dust, of all forms of self-clinging and duality, of clinging to the concrete reality of things, to their appearances.

The inherent freedom of being is spontaneously, primordially present. All delusory perceptions are naturally nonexistent in this dawn of innate awareness wisdom. The proliferation of karma and klesha is based on dualistic clinging, ignorance: in the light of nondual awareness, the kleshas do not obtain. Everything “falls apart” because it is inherently unborn from the beginning; and the freedom of perfect being, of rigpa, spontaneously present since the beginningless beginning, is clearly and thoroughly realized in that very moment.

It is easy to stray into sidetracks in this vast, luminous profundity. Of course we know that we need a vast, open, altruistic bodhi-mind. We can see that the innate Great Perfection, the ultimate nature of things, is beyond the conceptual mind and its dualistic perceptions. But still—here the deviation point comes in—still we are spying, searching in a very constricted and pointed way, wondering: What is Dzogchen? Where is Dzogchen? What is it? I want to perceive and experience it.

This is natural, but it precedes the recognition of our true nature. This is a deviation point that, after recognition, is not necessary to indulge in. It is like after meeting and getting to know someone, one doesn’t have to think too much to imagine what that person looks like or is like: there is an intuitive freedom from such doubts and speculations, and one gets on with more direct, firsthand appreciation.

We can make many productive inquiries, such as, when a thought arises, noticing: That’s a thought. Where does it arise from? Where is it going? Where did it go? Where is the gap or open space between thoughts that I heard about in Mahamudra teachings, which I’m supposed to recognize?

This has little to do with actual Dzogchen practice: this is mind practice, mind-made meditation, not rigpa practice per se. Yet these questions are part of the explicit preliminaries to Dzogchen practice and help one to distinguish between mind (sems) and innate wakefulness (rigpa).

The danger is that we hear too much too soon. We think we have understood shunyata, err on the side of the absolute in a nihilistic fashion, and are obscured by concepts. Nagarjuna said, “It is sad to see those who mistakenly believe in material, concrete reality, but far more pitiful are those who believe in emptiness.” Those who believe in things can be helped through various kinds of practice, through the way of skillful means, but those who have fallen into the abyss of emptiness find it almost impossible to re-emerge, since there seem to be no handholds, no steps, no gradual progression, and nothing to do.

Natural Great Perfection

$24.95 - Paperback

By: Lama Surya Das & Nyoshul Khenpo

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The Dalai Lama on Dzogchen

The following article is from the Spring, 2001 issue of the Snow Lion Newsletter and is for historical reference only. You can see this in context of the original newsletter here.

The Heart Essence of the Great Perfection

by His Holiness the Dalai Lama translated by Thupten Jinpa and Richard Barron foreword by Sogyal Rinpoche edited by Patrick Gaffney 272 pages, 8 pages of photos, 6x9 1-55939-157-X, $24.95 cloth Available Now

This book offers an unprecedented glimpse into one of Buddhism's most profound systems of meditation. These teachings on Dzogchen, the heart essence of the ancient Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, were given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Western students in Europe and North America. He explains the essence of Dzogchen practice and addresses questions such as why Dzogchen is called the pinnacle of all vehicles, what are its special features, and what are the crucial principles of the other Buddhist paths which a Dzogchen practitioner should know. This is a book of uncommon richness, and a remarkable testimony to His Holiness' learning, insight and many-sided genius.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama brings to his explanation of Dzogchen a perspective and breadth which are unique...To receive such teachings from His Holiness is, I feel, something quite extraordinary.Sogyal Rinpoche, author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

The following is an excerpt from the book.

The Ground, Path and Fruition of Dzogchen

Let us now consider the teachings particular to the Secret Mantra Vehicle of the early transmission school of the Nyingma tradition, and what these teachings say about the three phases of ground, path, and fruition. The way in which the ground of being abides, as this is definitively understood and described in the Nyingma teachings, entails its essence, its nature, and its energy, or responsiveness. In particular, the first two aspects define the ground for the Nyingma school, its essence being primordial purity or kodak, and its nature being spontaneous presence or Ihundrup.

Nagarjuna, in his Fundamental Treatise on the Middle Way called Wisdom', states:

The dharma that is taught by the buddhas,

Relies completely upon two levels of truth:

The worldly conventional level of truth,

And the ultimate level of truth.

All that is knowableall phenomena and all that is comprised within an individual's mind and bodyis contained within these two levels of truth, conventional and ultimate. In the Dzogchen context, the explanation given would be in terms of primordial purity and spontaneous presence, and this is analogous to a passage in the scriptures:

It is mind itself that sets in place the myriad array

Of beings in the world, and the world that contains them.

That is to say, if we consider the agent responsible for creating sam- sara and nirvana, it comes down to mind. The Sutra on the Ten Grounds states, These three realms are mind only. In his commentary to his own work, Entering the Middle Way Candrakirti elaborates on this quotation, stating that there is no other creative agent apart from mind.

When mind is explained from the point of view of the Highest Yoga Tantra teachings and the path of mantra, we find that many different levels or aspects of mind are discussed, some coarser and some more subtle. But at the very root, the most fundamental level embraced by these teachings is mind as the fundamental, innate nature of mind. This is where we come to the distinction between the word sem in Tibetan, meaning ordinary mind' and the word rigpa signifying pure awareness'. Generally speaking, when we use the word sem, we are referring to mind when it is temporarily obscured and distorted by thoughts based upon the dualistic perceptions of subject and object. When we are discussing pure awareness, genuine consciousness or awareness free of such distorting thought patterns, then the term rigpa is employed. The teaching known as the Four Reliances' states: Do not rely upon ordinary consciousness, but rely upon wisdom. Here the term narnshe, or ordinary consciousness, refers to mind involved with dualistic perceptions. Yeshe', or wisdom, refers to mind free from dualistic perceptions. It is on this basis that the distinction can be made between ordinary mind and pure awareness.

When we say that mind' is the agent responsible for bringing the universe into being, we are talking about mind in the sense of rigpa, and specifically its quality of spontaneous presence. At the same time, the very essence of that spontaneously present rigpa is timelessly empty, and primordially puretotally pure by its very natureso there is a unity of primordial purity and spontaneous presence. The Nyingma school distinguishes between the ground itself, and the ground manifesting as appearances through the eight doorways of spontaneous presence', and this is how this school accounts for all of the perceptions, whether pure or impure, that arise within the mind. Without ever deviating from basic space, these manifestations and the perceptions of them, pure or impure, arise in all their variety. That is the situation concerning the ground, from the point of view of the Nyingma school.

On the basis of that key point, when we talk about the path, and if we use the special vocabulary of the Dzogchen tradition and refer to its own extraordinary practices, the path is twofold, that of trekcho and togal. The trekcho approach is based upon the primordial purity of mind, kadak, while the togal approach is based upon its spontaneous presence, lhundrup. This is the equivalent in the Dzogchen tradition of what is more commonly referred to as the path that is the union of skilful means and wisdom.

When the fruition is attained through relying on this twofold path of trekcho and togal, the inner lucidity' of primordial purity leads to dharmakaya, while the outer lucidity' of spontaneous presence leads to the rupakaya. This is the equivalent of the usual description of dharmakaya as the benefit that accrues to oneself and the rupakaya as the benefit that comes to others. The terminology is different, but the understanding of what the terms signify is parallel. When the latent, inner state of bud- dhahood becomes fully evident for the practitioner him or herself, this is referred to as inner lucidity' and is the state of primordial purity, which is dharmakaya. When the natural radiance of mind becomes manifest for the benefit of others, its responsiveness accounts for the entire array of form manifestations, whether pure or impure, and this is referred to as outer lucidity', the state of spontaneous presence which comprises the rupakaya.

In the context of the path, then, this explanation of primordial purity and spontaneous presence, and what is discussed in the newer schools of Highest Yoga Tantra both come down to the same ultimate point: the fundamental innate mind of clear light.

What, then, is the profound and special feature of the Dzogchen teachings? According to the more recent traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, collectively known as the Sarma schools of the Secret Mantra Vehicle, in order for this fundamental innate mind of clear light to become fully evident, it is necessary first of all for the coarser levels of ordinary mind, caught up with thoughts and concepts, to be harnessed by yogas, such as the yoga of vital energies, pranayoga, or the yoga of inner heat, tummo. On the basis of these yogic practices, and in the wake of those adventitious thought patterns of ordinary mind being harnessed and purified, the fundamental innate mind of clear light-'mind' in that sense becomes fully evident.

From the point of view of Dzogchen, the understanding is that the adventitious level of mind, which is caught up with concepts and thoughts, is by its very nature permeated by pure awareness. In an experiential manner, the student can be directly introduced by an authentic master to the very nature of his of her mind as pure awareness. If the master is able to effect this direct introduction, the student then experiences all of these adventitious layers of conceptual thought as permeated by the pure awareness which is their nature, so that these layers of ordinary thoughts and concepts need not continue. Rather, the student experiences the nature that permeates them as the fundamental innate mind of clear light, expressing itself in all its nakedness. That is the principle by which practice proceeds on the path of Dzogchen.

The Role of an Authentic Guru

So in Dzogchen, the direct introduction to rigpa requires that we rely upon an authentic guru, who already has this experience. It is when the blessings of the guru infuse our mindstream that this direct introduction is effected. But it is not an easy process. In the early translation school of the Nyingma, which is to say the Dzogchen teachings, the role of the master is therefore crucial.

In the Vajrayana approach, and especially in the context of Dzogchen, it is necessary for the instructions to be given by a qualified master. That is why, in such approaches, we take refuge in the guru as well as in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. In some sense, it is not sufficient simply to take refuge in the three sources of refuge; a fourth element is added, that of taking refuge in the guru. And so we say, I take refuge in the guru; I take refuge in the Buddha; I take refuge in the Dharma; I take refuge in the Sangha. It is not so much that the guru is in any way separate or different from the Three Jewels, but rather that there is a particular value in counting the guru separately. I have a German friend who said to me, You Tibetans seem to hold the guru higher than the Buddha. He was astonished. But this is not quite the way to understand it. It is not as though the guru is in any way separate from the Three Jewels, but because of the crucial nature of our relationship with the guru in such practice and teachings, the guru is considered of great importance.

Now this requires that the master be qualified and authentic. If a master is authentic, he or she will be either a member of the sangha that requires no more training, or at least the sangha that still requires training but is at an advanced level of realization. An authentic guru, and I stress the word authentic','must fall into one of these two categories. So it is because of the crucial importance of a qualified and authentic guru, one who has such realization, that such emphasis is placed, in this tradition, on the role of the guru. This may have given rise to a misconception, in that people have sometimes referred to Tibetan Buddhism as a distinct school of practice called Lamaism', on account of this emphasis on the role of the guru. All that is really being said is that it is important to have a master, and that it is important for that master to be authentic and qualified.

Even in the case of an authentic guru, it is crucial for the student to examine the guru's behaviour and teachings. You will recall that earlier I referred to the Four Reliances.' These can be stated as follows:

Do not rely upon the individual, but rely upon the teaching.

As far as the teachings go, do not rely upon the words alone, but rely upon the meaning that underlies them.

Regarding the meaning, do not rely upon the provisional meaning alone, but rely upon the definitive meaning.

And regarding the definitive meaning, do not rely upon ordinary consciousness, but rely upon wisdom awareness.

This is how a student should examine a teacher, using these four reliances. Our teacher, Lord Buddha, said,

O bhiksus and wise men,

Just as a goldsmith would test his gold

By burning, cutting, and nibbing it,

So you must examine my words and accept them,

But not merely out of reverence for me.

All of the foregoing comments have been my way of introducing you to the background to this empowerment. What is most important during an empowerment of this nature is that: as Buddhists, we place great emphasis on taking refuge; as Mahayana Buddhists, we place great emphasis on the bodhisattva vow and arousing bodhicitta; and, as Vajray- ana practitioners, we lessen our fixation on perceiving things in an ordinary way, and rely upon pure perception. This is how you should receive an empowerment, ä_æ

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