Repeating the Words of the Buddha by Urgyen Tulku Rinpoche

Author:Urgyen, Tulku Rinpoche [Urgyen, Tulku Rinpoche]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9789627341789
Publisher: Random House Inc Clients
Published: 2011-12-13T02:00:00+00:00

DEVOTION AND COMPASSION

The play of overwhelming compassion being unobstructed,

In the moment of love the empty essence nakedly dawns.

May we constantly practice, day and night,

This supreme path of unity, devoid of errors.

Lord Karmapa Rangjung Dorje

The most perfect circumstance for realizing the correct view of emptiness is upwardly to generate devotion to all the enlightened ones and downwardly to cultivate compassion for all sentient beings. This is mentioned in The Aspiration of Mahamudra by the third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje. This incredibly profound song of realization expounds teachings on the ground, path, and fruition, as well as all the key points for Mahamudra, Dzogchen, and Madhyamika. One of the lines is “In the moment of love the empty essence nakedly dawns.” Here “love” should be understood as both devotion and compassion. In the moment of devotion we bring to mind the eminence of our master and lineage gurus, doing this sincerely, not just superficially. One thinks of their great qualities with such genuine admiration and devotion that the hairs of one’s body stand on end and one’s eyes are filled with tears. This heart-felt appreciation should be genuine, because it is only through the kindness of the guru that the mind essence can possibly be understood. From this gratitude, strong devotion is felt, stripping our minds bare. That very moment, we unmistakenly and unerringly recognize the natural face of rigpa.

It is the same way when thinking with compassion of all sentient beings. Although they possess self-existing wisdom they are unaware of it, remaining completely deluded life after life. Chasing after samsara’s illusory experiences, they undergo tremendous suffering. It is not like we, as Buddhist practitioners, have an enlightened essence of rigpa and they don’t. Everybody is totally equal; yet, not knowing their own nature, sentient beings suffer incessantly. Thinking in this way, one is overcome with great pity and compassion. At that instant of true compassion, as in the moment of true devotion, the empty essence dawns nakedly.

In the Kagyü and Nyingma traditions it is said that devotion is the universal panacea, the medicine that can cure all sicknesses. If one just focuses on devotion one does not need to spend years studying debate, philosophy, grammar, art and so forth. In the past, thousands of practitioners attained accomplishment through the path of devotion combined with the paths of Mahamudra and Dzogchen. To ignore compassion, devotion, and renunciation is like a bird trying to fly without wings: it’s not possible. One should remember the famous statement: ‘Devotion is the head of meditation, revulsion is the foot of meditation and nondistraction is the heart of meditation.’ To take a similar example, consider a person: if we call the view of emptiness the heart, devotion the head, and compassion the feet, how can he travel anywhere using only the heart of emptiness? How can he walk without legs?

Devotion and compassion are not mentioned here simply because we ought to feel them, There is a direct reason for cultivating them. The teachings mention that compassion and devotion should be unfabricated, but this doesn’t happen automatically in the beginning.

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