Sat, 08 Nov 2008
Buddhist Alchemy
Here's an excerpt from an old talk by Traleg Rinpoche on mahamudra.
Naturalness is what mahamudra is all about. It's not what arises that is important it is how it arises and seeing how it arises. Mind is playing so many games and it always tricks us. We don't have worry about others tricking us. We are always tricking ourselves. We're always thinking this is real. Our fixation on our own experience is what keeps us from prospering. We have to embrace life. We have to embrace whatever life gives us, whether it is good or bad, constricting or liberating. Otherwise we are in denial. We have to be vividly present with our experience. When you do this, you have the mahamudra experience. Otherwise you will be so judgmental. "I'm so pure, don't come near me." Everything we experience in life we have to transform as a liberating spiritual experience. If we really see it properly, see its nature, it will be a liberating experience.
In life we think we have to achieve something, to become someone. Here it's not trying to become somebody. It is being without fixation. Let whatever arises in your mind be without fixation or clinging to this or that. The notion of letting go is very important. Nothing is evil as far as far as the buddhas are concerned, everything is good. Letting go is the essence of the teaching. Desire, anger, and attachment are not bad things. It is how we deal with them that is important. Even if you live in a cave you have the desire to live in a cave. Whatever you experience has to be seen as self-liberated. Experiences don't have to be transformed, only seen as they are. If you don't think that way you become to harsh on yourself and others. We judge our teachers and ourselves and everything becomes unnecessarily complex. We have to practice. There is no doubt about it. But if you are aware when you practice, everything you experience will become something good.
