Post
by conebeckham » Fri May 25, 2012 6:53 pm
Dorje e gabbana-
In my opinion, a lot of people who "practice Dzokchen" may have had "introduction," but they didn't "get" it.
Same with Mahamudra, by the way.
For those that "got it," maintaining a daily practice--for example, Guru Yoga, the essential practice for Dzokchenpas (and Mahamudra folks, BTW)--still doesn't mean one can "rest in the natural state" unimpededly or "simply." I don't think I need to tell anyone this, but anyway...there it is, for anyone who cares. BUT-that practice is recommended as the "access point," or "access method," as it were....so, do your best!
And those that didn't "get it"-well, practicing one thing, esp. something as simple and yet profound as guru yoga-is, IMO, the best way to develop the potential to "get it." Especially if one practices with a teacher whose entire system rests on the Direct Introduction. So, Do your best!
Other, so-called Lower Methods may be stressed by those teachers who either don't endorse the idea of "direct introduction," or feel that a gradual approach is "safer" or more likely to create good causes. And, perhaps, they may be right--depends on the student, too. If your teacher, who you have faith and confidence in, gives you a 100 page sadhana to recite daily, well...do your best!
The other thing I want to put out there, is that whether one is half-heartedly "faking" Guru Yoga of the White A, or whatever, or ploughing one's way mechanically through one's daily Tantric Recitation Commitments, the key thing is faith in the efficacy of the method. That faith allows one to attempt to maintain awareness of the meaning, and what one is actually doing, instead of mere "rote" activity. And that takes me back to faith and confidence in the teacher--for, really, faith and confidence in the methods can only develop with application--but in order for one to apply the method, one needs to feel it's worth applying, and one's teacher is the root of Blessing in that regard.
So can one embrace all samaya in a single practice? I believe so. Can one break samaya by abandoning all one's previous recitations and engaging in a single practice? I also believe this to be so. It's depends on the attitude of the practitioner--and that, really, is what Samaya is about--the Mind. Not the "activity," really-not "doing the recitations."
Last edited by
conebeckham on Fri May 25, 2012 6:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།
"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")