Between One Breath and the Next

"Breathing gently, people enjoy their slumber.

But between one breath and the next there is no guarantee that death will not slip in. To wake up in good health is an event which truly deserves to be considered miraculous, yet we take it completely for granted."

- Dza Patrul Rinpoche

"Words of My Perfect Teacher"

Good morning; good studies and practice!

The Pearl of the Cloud, from The Kingdom of the Pearl - Edmund Dulac 1882 – 1953

The Thirty-Seven Practices of All the Bodhisattvas states:

“When one has abandoned evil lands, afflictions gradually wane. When one is without distraction, virtuous practice waxes on its own. When one is clear-sighted, certainty in Dharma is born.

Keeping to solitude is the bodhisattva’s practice.”

Mahasiddha is basically no more fear of missing out & no more feeling rejected.

That is mahasiddha.

& no need to apologize; you will be so polite.

& without putting any effort, you actually end up becoming like a magnet for others.

Because on the most fundamental level, people will think you're harmless.

Because you have no agenda, or the only agenda you have is the bodhicitta.

—Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

"Monks; give up what’s not yours. 

Giving it up will be for your welfare and happiness. 

& what isn’t yours? 

The eye isn’t yours: give it up; giving it up will be for your welfare & happiness.

The ear...nose...tongue...body...mind isn’t yours: give it up; giving it up will be for your welfare & happiness.

Suppose a person was to carry off the grass, sticks, branches, & leaves in this Jeta’s Grove, or burn them, or do what they want with them.

Would you think: ‘This person is carrying us off, burning us, or doing what they want with us’?”

“No, venerable sir. Because to us that’s neither self nor belonging to self.”

“In the same way, the eye isn’t yours: give it up; giving it up will be for your welfare & happiness.

The ear...nose...tongue...body...mind isn’t yours: give it up; giving it up will be for your welfare & happiness.”

—Pathamanatumhaka Sutta

Don’t expect to practice hard & not experience the weird.

Hard practice that evades the unknown makes for a weak commitment.

So an ancient once said, 'Help hard practice by befriending every demon.'

—Kyong Ho

In fact, essential reality (dharmata) transcends all conceptual fabrications, & the Buddha taught this to his disciples very clearly.

In this way the Buddha taught the path that dissolves all conceptual fabrications and thereby leads to the peace that is free from samsara's suffering.

Suffering comes from taking things to be real—from taking friends & enemies to be real, from taking birth and death to be real, from taking clean & dirty to be real, & from taking happiness & pain in general to be real.

The Buddha taught that the true nature of reality actually transcends all these concepts...& he also taught us how to realize this.

Since putting the Buddha's teachings into practice leads to the complete transcendence of suffering & the perfect awakening of the omniscient enlightened mind, then these teachings are the greatest words ever spoken, and the Buddha himself is the supreme of all who speak.

For these reasons, the Buddha is worthy of our respect & our prostration.

—Khenchen Tsultrim Gyamtso