The Instructions for Yinor

The following two texts were written by Shechen Gyaltsab (1871–1926)

THE INSTRUCTION FOR YINOR

Namo Guru Vajradharaya!

If you do not have a genuine determination to leave samsara forever (knowing that it is suffering by its very nature), and if you are without loving-kindness, compassion, and the precious attitude of bodhicitta (knowing that all beings are your parents), then however much you may pretend to meditate on the stages of generation and perfection, and however much you may pretend to recite prayers and mantras – no matter what you do – you cannot be on an authentic path. If you fail to keep only to what needs to be done right now (continually forgetting impermanence and death), then everything you do will be undertaken for the sake of this present life and you will never find the time to practice the genuine Dharma.

Therefore, in the beginning, do not be hasty, but get to the heart of the mind training according to the path of beings of the three scopes. This is of the utmost importance. You should thoroughly study the Mahayana sutras that teach this path, together with the commentaries on them composed by the learned masters of India and Tibet: general presentations and especially the Seven-Point Mind Training, Santideva’s The Way of the Bodhisattva, Gampopa’s Ornament of Liberation, and so on. Moreover, the instructions for the preliminary practice of the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse contain very clear explanations that are of great benefit to beginners in the practice. In order to understand it, it is very important to study it well, to take it in hand and to practice and assimilate it as much as you can.

From the taking of refuge until the practice of the tantra vehicle, you should keep as well as you can, according to your mental capacity, all the vows and precepts you have taken, minutely observing all that is allowed and all that is proscribed. If you fail in your observation of the vows, you should immediately restore them through confession and a firm decision to amend. By means of the four forces, you should recite regularly the Confession of the Bodhisattva Downfalls and the Abridged and Detailed Confession Tantra and recite the hundred-syllable mantra as much as you can.

The Lord Buddha declared that only he and others of his kind are able to be the judge of others; ordinary beings are unable to do so. Therefore, you should not look for faults and disparage either the teachings or other people but instead train impartially in faith and pure perception.

With perfect intention and practice, make sure that whatever virtue, great or small, that you accomplish (generosity and so on) becomes the path pleasing to the victorious ones. And since it is as important for the benefit of beings, even in solitude you should never overlook the attitude of a good heart and of bodhichitta; with this pure attitude, you should dedicate to others whatever virtue you may accomplish. This is crucial.

As for the perfection stage without characteristics – Mahamudra and the Great Perfection – you must lay down the proper foundations as described in authentic instruction manuals, and implement the practice from beginning to end. With regard to the Great Perfection, moreover, there exist a great many texts composed by the vidyadharas of the past. But among them all, the writings of the omniscient King of Dharma (Longchenpa), which are indistinguishable from the teachings of Samantabhadra and Vjradhara, have a particular power of blessing. They are preeminent on account of their great wealth of pith instructions, which are filled with profound key points. You should therefore look on them as the very life force of the path.

If, on the other hand, you read many other texts that are less clear, you should understand that the terminology used in other tenet systems is not the same. Moreover, on account of the differing capacities of their disciples, certain masters have given teachings with particular implied meanings. This means that by referring to the wording of such texts, you will be unable to cut through your misconceptions, and there is the danger of a rising storm of thoughts. At the present time, therefore, while you are a beginner in the practice, if you keep to a single text of authentic instructions and if you practice principally according to the instructions of your teacher, you will reap a true harvest.

Different teachers have different ways of guiding and different ways of practicing. Their main concern, however, is what we call the “mind,” which is sometimes clearly aware and sometimes in dull turmoil – joyful when virtuous practice is quick to develop but unhappy when it is slow. You should examine well from where this mind arises; where it is, once it has arisen; and where it goes, when it subsides. You should look for its shape and color and whether it is always the same or different Don’t be satisfied with just theoretical knowledge; examine your own mind thoroughly. When you search for it, you do not find anything. It has no existence whatever – it does not belong to the kind of phenomena that are characterized by arising, remaining, and ceasing.

The mind’s nature cannot be identified, and this is said to be its “empty nature.” This emptiness, however, is not just nothing – a space-like void. All the phenomena of samsara and nirvana – those that appear and those that are imputed – manifest distinctly from it, and this aspect is said to be the mind’s “luminous character.” No matter what thoughts, virtuous or otherwise, arise through the mind’s creative power, if you watch the nature of awareness from which they arise, they will subside or fade away of their own accord. This aspect of lucid awareness is referred to as “cognitive potency,” the expression of awareness. These three: the empty nature, the luminous character, and the cognitive potency are not separate from each other. They share an identical nature. They are so designated only in terms of conceptually distinguished aspects.

In short, the mind’s fourth state, undistorted by thoughts of the past, present, and future – in other words, the self-arisen primordial wisdom, which is clear, lucid, limpid, and vividly awake – is the dharmakaya, indwelling primordial wisdom. This is what you have to recognize and preserve in its natural flow. Practitioners of Mahamudra call it the “ordinary mind,” practitioners of Madhyamaka call it the “ultimate truth,” practitioners of Pacification call it “the mind directly encountered,” and so on. Different as these and other labels may be, the truth is that they all refer to the same thing.

When the mind is not projecting thoughts but remains calm and serene, this is “stillness.” When thoughts are spontaneously projected toward the objects of the senses, this is “movement.” Whether there is stillness or movement, there is a bare state of “awareness” that is aware of these two experiences. To recognize this and to settle naturally in it, watching it nakedly, is what we call “meditation,” the maintaining of the practice.

At that time, no matter what thoughts expressive of the three poisons occur – desire that longs for its object, those one loves; unbearable anger toward one’s enemies and so on; and the vague, oblivious state of ignorance that does not know what is to be done and what is not to be done – whatever states arise, do not alter them through the application of their antidotes; do not indulge in them or push them away. Instead, watch them nakedly, directly. They will disappear without a trace, and there will arise the clear, blissful, thought-free state of primordial wisdom. In fact, the so-called transmutation of the five poisons into the five wisdoms is but another way of saying that, by watching the nature of whichever of the five poisons occurs, it will subside. It will vanish, leaving no trace.

Whatever appearance, objects of the six consciousnesses, arise (forms, for instance, which are the objects of the eye), you should remain without hope or fear, without choosing some and rejecting others. Instead, relax in the fresh state of awareness, the seer of these states. Your fixation on them as truly existent things will be released then and there. This is what we call the “self-subsiding of the six gatherings of consciousness.”

Whatever thoughts appear, be they wholesome, unwholesome, neutral, or indifferent, do not try to stop them with antidotes. Do not try to change the bad ones into good ones; do not chase after them in the ordinary way. Instead, simply relax in the nature of these thoughts, and they will subside without any antidote being used – as when a snake tied in a knot unties itself. To acquire the confidence that these thoughts in themselves can do you neither good nor harm is what is called the “confidence in the modes of subsiding of thoughts in the Great Perfection.” This is a crucial point in the pith instructions of the highest, unsurpassed vehicle.

When thoughts subside, the karmic wind gathers in the central channel, and as a sign that this is happening, many visionary experiences of awareness (snang nyams) will occur, as well as experiences of (dualistic) consciousness (shes nyams), such as bliss, luminosity, no-thought, and so on. It is said that one should not cling to them as something sublime. Instead, without nourishing any conceit, one should simply meditate, causing them again and again to collapse into a naked state, empty but aware, beyond the ordinary mind. These experiences will cease, and the final realization, the actual ultimate primordial wisdom, the truth of the path of seeing, will become manifest.

When you practice in this way, the sovereign method for dispelling obstacles and enhancing your meditation is to see your teacher as the Buddha in truth. Without ever losing such devotion, you should pray to him or her, and taking the four empowerments, you should mingle your mind inseparably with his or hers. This, you should be aware, is the life force of the path. From time to time, you should also study in detail the Questions and Answers on Meditation by Khyentse (jigme Lingpa).

Whatever meditative experiences occur, sublime or otherwise, do not stop them or indulge in them, but from deep inside you, let go of any hope or fear. Be diligent at all times and, as much as you are able, blend your meditation with the activities of the postmeditation period. Even if serious situations occur, don’t let yourself be distracted by them, but remain firmly in the natural, uncontrived state. From time to time, you should implement whatever might strike to the essential point. For instance, you could strike at the essence through the practice of the threefold space, or come to a state of certainty by tracing everything back to awareness.

In short, by taking support of a continuous, riverlike, effortless and perfect mindfulness, it is imperative that you train continually in bodhichitta, the precious mind of enlightenment: emptiness endowed with the core of compassion. If you do this, then – thanks to the blessings of your teacher and the strength of your meditation – understanding, experience, and realization will, after some time, arise from within. Your misconceptions will be dissipated in their own nature, and with a mind that is happy and relaxed, you will experience a profound certainty – such that you will not need to ask anyone any more questions. This I have heard from my peerless teacher, the true and perfect Buddha in person.

The teachings of the self-arisen Lotus King we now have met. These sacred teachings we have now the power to practice.

Training in the crucial points whereby we realize openness and freedom, May we, myself and others, reign in the primordial kingdom.

In order to fulfill the wish of the distinguished Yinor, I, an idle person, wrote this text on the spur of the moment and offered it to him. Virtue!

CONCLUDING INSTRUCTION

To my teacher I bow down!

At the very outset, the door of the Dharma is the determined wish to escape from samsara. Therefore, right from the start, make sure that you assimilate the four reflections that transform your mind. The root of the path of the Great Vehicle is loving-kindness, compassion, and bodhichitta, therefore cherish others more than yourself. Bring all this to bear within your mind as much as you can. Since the swift arising of the primordial wisdom of the ultimate transmission of realization depends upon the blessing of your teacher, strike upon the essential point, which is devotion, the universal panacea, whereby you are able to look upon your teacher as the buddha, the dharmakaya itself. It is hard to bring low the mountain range of tight clinging to true existence – a habit you have nourished from beginningless time. Therefore, you must at all times turn the wheel of investigation and endeavor in the practice, regarding all phenomena of samsara and nirvana as unreal illusions.

When a firm conviction arises in you to the effect that all phenomena are empty and devoid of self, that their fundamental nature is beyond the reach of conceptual ascription and is the union of appearance and emptiness – emptiness endowed with every perfect quality – relax at ease in the natural flow of the uncontrived fundamental nature, the fourth state (of the mind), free of every thought relating to past, present, or future. The trammels of mediative concentration will be loosed then and there.

Do not get trapped in expectations and anxieties or in different kinds of alterations and changes of mind. Since all states of mental stillness and movement are never outside the dharmata – that is, awareness, settle confidently in a state that is free of grasping and in which everything simply subsides as soon as it arises. In that state, there is no fixation on positive states of mind; they are like rainbows appearing in the sky. And since negative states of mind subside just where they are, there is no need for antidotes. Whatever arises naturally subsides, as when a knot into which a snake has been tied comes loose by itself. And all neutral states of mind simply vanish quite naturally like clouds in the sky. All (deliberate) action and habitual tendencies naturally dissolve without leaving any trace behind, just as when one hits the surface of the water with a sword. They are naturally cleared away; they naturally subside. In the expanse of the great equality of the dharmata, remain in a state of rest, like someone who has just finished a piece of work and is relaxed and content.

In the postmeditation periods, remember that all phenomena are like magical illusions, but do not ignore the relative truth of conditioned phenomena and strive in many ways to gather the two accumulations, clearing away the veils of obscuration.

In brief, when you are in a group of people, don’t be an embarrassment to your friends. When you are alone, don’t do anything to shame the enlightened ones. Practice steadily with untiring diligence for as long as you live.

Turn your mind to the Dharma, turn the Dharma to the path, and on the path, rid yourself of delusion. At all times, recite whatever prayers of aspiration you know, so that delusion arises as primordial wisdom.

Virtue!