The Everyday Practice of Dzogchen ~ A Teaching of HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

The everyday practice of dzogchen is simply to develop a complete carefree acceptance, an openness to all situations without limit.

We should realize openness as the playground of our emotions and relate to people without artificiality, manipulation or strategy.

We should experience everything totally, never withdrawing into ourselves as a marmot hides in its hole.

This practice releases tremendous energy which is usually constricted by the process of maintaining fixed reference points. Referentiality is the process by which we retreat from the direct experience of everyday life.

Being present in the moment may initially trigger fear. But by welcoming the sensation of fear with complete openness, we cut through the barriers created by habitual emotional patterns.

When we engage in the practice of discovering space, we should develop the feeling of opening ourselves out completely to the entire universe. We should open ourselves with absolute simplicity and nakedness of mind. This is the powerful and ordinary practice of dropping the mask of self-protection.

~HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Read the whole teaching here

The 3 fierce mantras of Tsangpa Gyare

“Whatever has to happen, let it happen!”

“Whatever the situation is, it’s fine!”

“I really don’t need anything!”

~Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje (1161-1211)

Demolishing the Ridge Pole

Soon after his enlightenment, the Buddha described his discovery of no-self like this:

Seeking but not finding the house builder, I traveled through the round of countless births. Oh painful is birth ever and again! House builder, you have now been seen. You shall not build the house again. Your rafters have been broken down; your ridge pole is demolished too. My mind has now attained the unformed nibbana and reached the end of every kind of craving.  ~ Dhammapada, 153-154

In the following talk, I suggest that this demolishing of the “ridge pole” of the illusion of self may occur as a natural falling away when one discovers and rests in one’s true nature as consciousness, rather than as a result of an unnatural assault on the notion of self, using concepts or artificial practices. This is a healing process of going through the fundamental sense of being a conscious being–rather than trying to destroy it.

To listen to the talk, given at the Real Dharma group on October 18, 2011, use the flash driver below

If you are unable to use the flash player, listen or download here.

Ceaselessly hearing, pondering and meditating

“At this time when the difficult to gain ship of leisure and fortune has been obtained, ceaselessly hearing, pondering and meditating day and night in order to liberate oneself and others from the ocean of cyclic existence is the Bodhisattva’s practice.”

~Ngulchu Thogme Zangpo, from The Thirty-Seven Bodhisattva Practices (trans. H.E. Garchen Rinpoche)