Three Jewels. While possessing the precepts that are the foundation of your training,1 whenever you go in a certain direction, take refuge in the buddhas and bodhisattvas of that direction.
Always have unwavering faith in the Three Jewels. By so doing, you create a karmic connection right now, and in the future you will become the disciple of the buddhas. It is therefore essential to make offerings and supplications to the Three Jewels.
Master Padma said: Practice the Dharma of the ten virtuous actions and have confidence in what should be avoided and what should be undertaken concerning the “black and white” types of the effects of these actions. By doing so your actions will hold great strength.
Since the power of truth is great, give up all nonvirtue and misdeeds, apply the remedy that works against your disturbing emotions, and put great effort into meritorious actions.
One who has not gathered merit will not engender a noble attitude. One who accumulates merit will have a noble frame of mind. Once you hold the noble attitude in your being, you will put effort into virtue and refrain from misdeeds. It is therefore essential to arouse diligence in the different types of means for gathering merit through your body, speech, and mind.
Master Padma said: To arouse bodhicitta, the mind set upon supreme enlightenment, before undertaking any Dharma practice, is most important. The person who has aroused bodhicitta will cultivate the feeling of equality that all beings are his mothers, free from partiality and prejudice, in order to serve all sentient beings.
Of all sentient beings there is not a single one who has not been your own father or mother. So as a way of repaying the kindness of all sentient beings, set out to work for their well-being.
Cultivate loving-kindness and compassion for all sentient beings. Constantly train yourself in bodhicitta. Train yourself to benefit sentient beings through all your actions. Train yourself in cherishing others as more important than yourself.
In short, the most essential point is that the determination of arousing bodhicitta must precede all the outer and inner practices and the stages of development and completion.
Generation of bodhicitta is the very root of all Dharma practice.
Master Padma said: If you desire to attain the buddhahood of omniscience then train yourself in understanding that all ego clinging and fixation on phenomena have no self-nature.
No matter what meritorious action you may be involved in, understand that all phenomena are like dreams and magic.
In accordance with my oral instruction, train yourself in the emptiness of all phenomena without clinging either to the six paramitas or to great compassion.
By the power of meditating on emptiness you should come to realize that the six paramitas and the engendered great compassion are also like a magical illusion.
Although you meditate on emptiness, make sure that it becomes an aid to virtuous practice and a remedy against your disturbing emotions.
Whatever root of virtue you engage in, fuel it with bodhicitta and never be separate from the six paramitas.
Whatever you then do, always have the intention to increase virtue and decrease misdeeds.
Whatever physical actions you engage in, make them virtuous. Whatever words you utter, make them virtuous. Whatever thoughts you entertain, make them virtuous.
In short, exert yourself in nothing but wholesome and virtuous actions of body, speech, and mind. Shun even the tiniest nonvirtue or misdeed.
If you do not keep the protection of the armor of mindfulness and conscientiousness, the weapons of disturbing emotions will cut the aorta for attaining the higher realms and liberation. During the four kinds of daily activities, it is therefore essential to guard yourself with the armor of mindfulness and conscientiousness.
Master Padma said: First of all, have confidence in the cause and effect of your actions.
Keep in mind that before long you will definitely die. This life lasts only for a short while so do not strive for the things of this life.
Keep in mind the future is lasting and strive for the benefit of the future.
Make ready and certain now, for the benefit of future lives, that you do not slip onto a downward track.
Do not be conceited about anything. If you retain the pride of thinking that you are learned, great, or noble, you will not acquire any good qualities. So cast away conceit and train yourself in Dharma practice without wavering for even a single moment.
Apply the remedies against misdeeds. If even the slightest disturbing emotion or unvirtuous deed arises in your being, think of it as an unbearable suffering, the size of Mount Sumeru.
Actions engaged in with doubt will not accomplish anything, so do not harbor the slightest doubt.
As long as you have not abandoned ego-clinging, then misdeeds, no matter how small, will still yield results. So it is essential to shun misdeeds.
Master Padma said: Having taken the vows of the greater or lesser vehicles,2 do not abandon them even at the cost of your life. If you do damage them, it is most important to immediately make confession and retake your vows.
Some people, when their vows are damaged, become disheartened and commit nothing but acts of further transgression. But like cleansing oneself by washing and sprinkling fragrant water after slipping in the dirt, purify your obscurations and acts of downfall and violation so that broken vows never accumulate.
Do not keep company with or befriend a person who has degenerated his discipline or samayas for even a single moment. If when wearing white robes you go to an oily swamp, the black stuff will surely discolor the white. Similarly, even though your own samayas are pure you will surely still be defiled by the broken samayas of others. If your own samayas are not pure, it is like black not being tainted by black. So be very careful.
It is there essential not to associate with evil people or with bad company who have lost their vows.
In any case, one should take care not to be ashamed of oneself.
Master Padma said: Whatever actions you engage in, do not do anything nondharmic that fails to become the accumulation of merit and wisdom.
Do not desire anything other than omniscient buddhahood and benefiting sentient beings.
Do not be attached to anything. Attachment itself is the root of bondage.
Do not criticize other teachings and do not disparage people. All the teachings are ultimately indivisible, like the taste of salt.
Do not criticize any of the higher or lower vehicles. They are identical in being the path to be journeyed, just like the steps on a staircase.
You cannot know another person unless you can perceive with superknowledge. So do not criticize others.
In general, all sentient beings are by their very nature spontaneously perfect buddhas. They possess the essence of enlightenment. Do not examine other people’s faults or delusions.
Do not examine the limitations of others. Examine how you can change your own.
Do not examine the shortcomings of others but
