Foundation for the Preservation of Yungdrung Bön / གཡུང་དྲུང་བོན་ཉར་ཚགས་རིག་མཛོད།

Message of Advice from Yongdzin Rinpoche to his Western students

Message of Advice from Yongdzin Rinpoche to his Western students

Full transcript

9th August, 2020

I have been teaching for many years and I often speak about Guru Yoga, because this is really the basis of our practice. So now I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you all about Guru Yoga.

Guru Yoga is very important for people who are practitioners. Don’t expect to see or hear something as a result of practising Guru Yoga but when you practise Guru Yoga as you usually do with Tapihritsa or whatever you normally visualise – don’t change your visualisation too quickly from one divinity to another – it is very important to practise regularly and to visualise clearly. It is important that your practice with Guru Yoga is pure, and that you believe and have devotion. It is very necessary to keep this in mind and to trust. Believe. It is always necessary to keep this in your mind, regularly.

The result of practising Guru Yoga in this way is that you choose to practice and follow and receive the teachings; you are more and more interested and keen to practise.

These are all the results of practising Guru Yoga. Don’t expect to see something. You could see many things, but don’t expect anything to manifest visibly, or to hear anything. As you trust more, you become more and more interested, so your practice will develop more and more. That is the result.

That is why it is so important to practise Guru Yoga first of all.

I am also always saying that you have to practise this every day, all the time. There is no need to search for some special place or time.

Secondly, I wanted to tell you that there are so many different teachings but now, according to our time, we need to practise Dzogchen in general, and in particular the Zhang Zhung Nyengyu. It is the essence, the heart of our Yungdrung Bön teachings. Now you have been receiving teachings from Khenpo for days and days, maybe, and it is important for me to say that this does not only just about participating in a retreat, or sitting nicely in the meditation posture and looking around or something. That is not enough.

You have to believe in the teachings, you have to trust in the Natural State. That is very important for everybody. Don’t follow anything or search for any other place; there is no need to go to any other place. And that is not possible now.

Nature is always your Nature. It is always with you. It is always pure and nearby, if you have experienced the Natural State clearly and according to the text – don’t just trust the name of ‘dzogchen.’ You have to make it clear to yourself. Then if you receive teachings and find the real clear Nature and practise as much as you could, then that is really incomparable.

Finally I wanted to say that everybody must try to do Guru Yoga, and practise as much as you could and concentrate with the Natural State.

Don’t search for anything, don’t follow anything or do this or that. The Natural State is your Nature, it is never very far from you. It is your Nature. You need to remember and practise and it is always integrated with you – during this lifetime, during death, it is always with you. It is with you whether you care about it or not. It is very important to recognise it properly. Otherwise it is just a name. Nowadays people talk about many kinds of meditation, it is a very general term. Or they use many names like thögal and so on. There are so many things! We sometimes say you need to search for something and so on, but it is essential to practise all the time.

For a long time, for many years, I have been talking about this so everybody should take care and keep this in mind.  This is what I wanted to say.

Generally many people ask about how to practise in daily life. There is nothing new to say. Every morning, or noon time, or afternoon, or when you are eating – it doesn’t take much time – do Guru Yoga and continue practising with the Natural State for as long as you could. Don’t follow anything or worry about whether it is correct or not – maybe Khenpo has already told you, you can check from time to time by sounding PHAT very strongly or by exhaling very strongly. Then afterwards don’t change anything. Whatever happens, just leave it as it is. You can use these two methods whenever you have doubts.

So if you don’t change anything, then thoughts come, but don’t try to stop anything, don’t try to follow anything, just leave it as it is and then the thoughts still come spontaneously and stay a while and then they disappear by themselves. They come, stay for a while, then disappear and all this is your Nature. Don’t use your consciousness. Don’t try to stop anything; that is not necessary.

If you don’t stop anything, if you don’t follow anything, if you just leave everything as it is then thoughts come, stay a while and disappear. After they disappear, nothing much changes. Leave as it is. That is Nature. Always remember!

If you have any doubts – so many doubts can come – you can ask some of our people who have experience. Now there is not much time to talk or ask questions.

OK.

There is no need to search for a special place – there is not much transport now, it is not possible to travel. Now it is like house arrest! We can move around but we can’t go out of the monastery gate, we always have to stay inside. Not just for a short time – months and months! But still we don’t mind. So I hope everybody will keep themselves ‘in jail.’ Thousands and thousands of people are sick and dying every day, it is really terrible. You must take care of yourselves!

OK.

Transcribed & edited by Carol Ermakova & Dmitry Ermakov

 

2 Responses

  1. Balbina says:

    Tashi Delek! Thank you very much, Dmitri and Carol, you always so kind and sharing. I suggest that you publish the text in such a way that non-English practitioners can copy it and translate it into their language with the translator. Thank you very much and greetings with affection and gratitude.

    • FPYB says:

      Thank you, Balbina! All the content on website is protected against copying in order to prevent misuse, misquoting and changes. Automated translators, like Google Translate, are not qualified to translate Yungdrung Bon materials;) The teachings translated in this way will be misleading and will make no sense.

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