Particularly when we come to Vajrayana practice, we must also have a certain amount of courage, a certain kind of mental strength, and together with that, an openness and softness of heart. This quality does not mean we are spaced-out or preoccupied with one thought after another. Rather, we should have a willingness to understand how to practice, along with the open-mindedness. This quality of inner boldness is very important in Vajrayana: being bold not in an aggressive way, as when you’re ready to fight whoever opposes you, but rather being ready to do whatever needs to be done. That is a very important quality.
To be a Vajrayana practitioner requires a certain degree of inner strength that grows out of confidence. This is not the aggressive strength of a fighter; it is more a preparedness that refuses to succumb to any obstacle or difficulty: “I am not going to give in, no matter how hard it is. I will just take whatever comes and use the practice to spontaneously liberate that state!” Be this way rather than timid and afraid, always shying away from difficult situations. It is very hard to be a Vajrayana practitioner with a timid, chicken-hearted attitude toward life.
The teachings I discuss here belong to the vehicle of Vajrayana. The Sanskrit word vajra literally means “diamond,” which is the hardest of all substances. A diamond can cut any other substance, but it cannot itself be cut by anything else. The diamond’s strength and impenetrability signify that when the true view of Vajrayana has dawned within our stream of being, we develop a quality of being unmoved or unshaken by obstacles and difficulties. Whatever kind of harm may present itself, whether it be a negative emotion or a physical pain, we have a certain quality of being unassailable, instead of immediately becoming lost and being defeated by that obstacle. The true practitioner of Vajrayana is unassailable in the face of difficulty.
We can succeed in really improving our motivation, and that would be wonderful, not only for ourselves, but also for being able to benefit others.
My style of teaching is not necessarily a style that belongs only to me personally, although it’s one I often use. I lean toward an approach that emphasizes knowledge. Equally significant is the approach that emphasizes method, or means. Please understand that means and knowledge must always go hand in hand, that we should always practice them in combination. In other words, we need to combine the two accumulations of merit and wisdom. Another way to phrase this is to emphasize the need to combine the two levels of truth, relative and ultimate. This combination of means and knowledge, merit and wisdom, relative truth and ultimate truth is like a great eagle in flight, which needs two wings to fly. The eagle unfolds its wings and soars through the sky based on these twin supports. Shantideva said: “Unfold the two wings of means and knowledge and fly to the state of enlightenment, the realm of all buddhas.” The point is that the two wings are equally important. Imagine a bird flying with one wing: it might manage to get off the ground, but it will soon plummet without having gotten very far.
There are plenty of other analogies for this. Doesn’t a human being need two legs? When speaking, don’t we need both the upper lip and the lower lip? When eating, don’t we need both the upper and lower teeth in order to chew? And to determine a distance, don’t we need both eyes? To ring a gong, don’t we need both the mallet and the instrument to make the sound? In the same way, when practicing the Dharma, we need both means and knowledge, method and insight. This is not somebody’s invention or bright idea; this is how reality is. It is a natural law in all cases and situations.
The best situation is to practice in a way in which mind essence is recognized in conjunction with the skillful Vajrayana methods. These methods include refuge, bodhichitta, the preliminary practices, the yidam deity, and so on. To practice these concurrently, excluding neither one nor the other, is the most profound way of perfecting the two accumulations. It is the way of bringing the ground into the path. This is a topic that we might want to reflect on a little bit more.
No matter what Buddhist practice we apply, we should always remember that the two accumulations must be perfected. This holds true from the beginning level of shravaka training all the way up to and including Ati Yoga. There are various ways to perfect the two accumulations; here, I will discuss an approach unique to Dzogchen.
The recognition of empty essence—in other words, the insight that realizes egolessness, the absence of an independent identity—is the state of original wakefulness itself. Training in this state perfects the accumulation of wisdom. During whatever formal practice you undertake, do not leave behind this accumulation of wisdom beyond reference point; rather, embrace the particular practice with the recognition of empty essence. Training in this perfects the accumulation of merit, and it does so without your having to hold on to any concepts or struggle to do so. In this way, by simply training in recognizing mind essence you can simultaneously perfect the two accumulations of merit and wisdom.
Through the profound methods of Vajrayana, the two accumulations can be perfected on a tremendous scale. By utilizing certain skillful means to further enhance the recognition of mind essence, we can develop even more quickly, reaching progressively deeper levels.
Let me mention some of these methods. The first entrance to the Buddhist path, which is taking refuge, involves regarding the Buddha as your teacher, the Dharma as your path, and the Sangha as your companions on the path and using all three of these as support, as a refuge. We take refuge in the Three Precious Ones, which are called the outer Three Jewels, in order to realize the state of complete enlightenment. In other words, you could say, “I place my trust in you, the outer Three Jewels, in order to recognize and actualize the inner Three Jewels.”
It’s not difficult to understand taking refuge once we realize that we already take refuge to a certain extent in various things in the outer world during the ordinary course of our lives. For example, as university students we are helped and supported by the educational setting. We respect it for what it is, that it enables us to get our degree. Here we are taking refuge in the university, and in that sense it is worthwhile. The secular tutoring we receive enables us to reach that full degree of education, of intellectual knowledge, which is similar to the Dharma teachings. Our fellow students and the faculty are the university sangha, whom we respect as helpers on our educational path. In Buddhist terms, there is the Buddha, who represents the ultimate state of enlightenment. There are the teachings that he gave, the Dharma; using them is the path to that state of enlightenment. Then there are the Sangha companions, our fellow practitioners, who provide the support and help for us to reach that destination. When we take refuge in this way, we accept the precept of giving up harming others as well as relinquishing the basic causes for harming others.
Generally speaking, reality has two aspects: the seeming and the real. We take refuge from the seeming aspect, which is the state of confusion, in order to realize the real. As long as we haven’t realized how things actually are, there is a need to seek support in the objects of refuge. A certain beneficial influence arises though this, which, in old-fashioned terminology, is called blessings.
By taking refuge, we are actually requesting an influence. We want to be influenced by what the buddhas have experienced; we want to have their state of realization sway our minds. That is the real purpose of taking refuge. It is actually possible because the realized state of the buddhas is not a solid, material substance but something insubstantial. Since our minds are also not made of material substance, a connection can arise between these two—between our minds and the enlightened minds of the buddhas. Using material substances to influence our immaterial mind can have a certain effect, but it is superficial. True blessings can take place only through that which shares our mind’s immaterial quality.
We could distort the act of taking of refuge by thinking
