Heart Advice for the Fortunate Ones

Heart Advice for the Fortunate Ones 

By His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche

Dedicated practitioner at Yangleshö

fortunate one named Dawa, who practices from his heart,

I give you these instructions with love from my heart.

To take full advantage of the life that is so difficult to obtain,

resolve to free oneself from the ocean of samsaric suffering,

trust that the three jewels are the infallible source of refuge,

and do not be mistaken about the results of virtuous and unvirtuous actions.

In particular, devotion to the root teacher,

love and affection for samaya brothers and sisters,

the bodhichitta of compassion toward all mother sentient beings,

and the reduction of grasping due to the knowledge that all compounded things are impermanent

are known as the four everlasting wealths of a practitioner and should be regarded as indispensable.

The lama and yidam are inseparable from one’s own mind.

In the development stage, meditate all appearances to be as empty as the moon’s reflection on water;

all repetitions and utterances as the sound-emptiness of mantra.

All this is the display of one’s own single awareness of dharmata, the true nature.

Within the space of dharmata, benefit and harm are nonexistent.

So-called nirvana and samsara are labels corresponding primarily to hope and fear.

When you recognize the original inherent wisdom as it is,

activity will only add delusion;

Therefore, hold the fortress of awareness with nonaction.

Let naked, ordinary mind go free.

Then “abiding” and “nonabiding” will be nothing more than names.

If thoughts arise, let them come, and let them self-liberate.

If they don’t arise, then let that be, and relax in that self- occurring state.

If the faults of meditation—torpor and scattering—should arise, dispel them on the spot.

When the clear light pervades both night and day without interruption,

then, a la la! How wonderful! There’ll be no need to hope for results in a future life.

Please, practice diligently in this way.

Thus written and sent by Jigdral Yeshe Dorje.