Tue, 27 Jun 2006
A Project Finished
No time to say anything except to point you to my notes on Drupon Thinley Nyingpo's talk on fivefold mahamudra. This finishes getting all the notes I took online. Which frees my Alphasmart up to take notes at the Mahamudra retreat next week at KTD. Here are his opening remarks.
It is very clearly said that the fulfillment of the aspiration of one's practice depends upon the motivation of the practitioner, so establishing the proper motivation for practicing is important. When you practice with the motivation of benefiting all sentient beings, then your practice will be beneficial. Some may doubt this, thinking that if I practice for the sake of all sentient beings, that excludes me and I won't get the benefit. Milarepa clearly said that every action we do for others is also for our own benefit. There is also the possibility that for some of us, even though we say we are practicing for others, in our heart our own benefit is being given the priority. For instance, we might profess that we are practicing for all mother sentient beings, but you don't get along with your spouse and siblings. This is natural. It happens. Therefore in order to cultivate the motivation to work for all sentient beings, start from your home with your spouse or parents. Then broaden the number of beings more and more. Then the real test of whether you are a good practitioner or not comes about when you see if you get along with your family. From another angle, we know the dharma is pure and unstained. But much depends on the attitudes of practitioners. When you are able to make something possible that was impossible before, or you are able to do something you couldn't before, that will be noticed by around you. Even someone who knows nothing about Buddhism will be curious to see how it can make such a good human being. So that is the way we should practice.
