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with this is that, normally, we have a great deal ofthought, or many different kinds of thoughts runningthrough our minds. And some of these thoughts arepleasant, even delightful. Some of them, however, areunpleasant, agitating, and worrisome. Now, if youexamine the thoughts that are present in your mindfrom time to time, you will see that the pleasantthoughts are comparatively few, and the unpleasantthoughts are many — which means that as long as yourmind is ruled or controlled by the thoughts that passthrough it, you will be quite unhappy. In order to gaincontrol over this process, therefore, we begin with themeditation practice of tranquility,which produces a basic state of contentment and peace within the mind ofthe practitioner.AWe begin withthe meditationpractice oftranquility,which producesa basic state ofcontentmentand peacen example of this is the greatTibetan yogi Jetsun Milarepa,who lived in conditions of the utmostausterity. He lived in utter solitude, incaves and isolated mountains. Hisclothes were very poor; he had nonice clothes. His food was neitherrich nor tasty. In fact, [for a numberof years] he lived on nettle soupalone, as a result of which he becamephysically very thin, almost emaciated. Now, if youconsider his external circumstances alone, the isolationand poverty in which he lived, you would think he musthave been miserable. And yet, as we can tell from themany songs he composed, because his mind wasfundamentally at peace, his experience was one ofconstant unfolding delight. His songs are songs thatexpress the utmost state of delight or rapture. He sawevery place he went to, no matter how isolated andaustere an environment it was, as beautiful, and heexperienced his life of utmost austerity as extremelypleasant.In fact, the short-term benefits of meditation aremore than merely peace of mind, because our physicalhealth as well depends, to a great extent, upon our stateof mind. And therefore, if you cultivate this state ofmental contentment and peace, then you will tend not tobecome ill, and you will as well tend to heal easily ifand when you do become ill. The reason for this is thatone of the primary conditions which brings about states6 SHENPEN ÖSELof illness is mental agitation, which produces a corresponding agitation or disturbance of the channels andenergies within your body. These generate new sicknesses, ones you have not yet experienced, and alsoprevent the healing of old sicknesses. This agitation ofthe channels and winds or energies also obstructs thebenefit which could be derived from medical treatment.If you practice meditation, then as your mind settlesdown, the channels and the energies moving throughthe channels return to their rightful functioning, as aresult of which you tend not to become ill and you areable to heal any illnesses you already have. And we cansee an illustration of this also in thelife of Jetsun Milarepa, who engagedin the utmost austerities with regard towhere he lived, the clothes he wore,the food he ate, and so on, throughoutthe early part of his life. And yet thisdid not harm his health, because hemanaged to have a very long life, wasextremely vigorous and youthful tothe end of his life, which indicates thefact that through the proper practice ofmeditation, the mental peace and contentment that is generated calms down orcorrects the functioning of the channelsand energies, allowing for the healing ofsickness and the prevention of sickness.The ultimate or long-term benefit of the practice ofmeditation is becoming free of all suffering, whichmeans no longer having to experience the sufferings ofbirth, aging, sickness, and death. Now, this attainmentof freedom is called, in the common language of allBuddhist traditions, buddhahood, and in the particularterminology of the vajrayana, the supreme attainment,or supreme siddhi. In any case, the root or basic causeof this attainment is the practice of meditation. Thereason for this is, again, that generally we have a lot ofthoughts running through our minds, some of which arebeneficial — thoughts of love, compassion, rejoicing inthe happiness of others, and so on — and many ofwhich are negative — thoughts of attachment, aversion,jealousy, competitiveness, and so on. Now, there arecomparatively few of the former type of thought andcomparatively many of the latter type of thought,because we have such strong habits that have beenaccumulating within us over a period of time without

beginning. And it’s only by removing these habits ofnegativity that we can free ourselves from suffering.You cannot simply remove these mental afflictions,or kleshas, by saying to yourself, “I will not generateany more mental affliction,” because you do not havethe necessary freedom of mind or control over thekleshas to do so. In order to relinquish these, you needto actually attain this freedom, which begins, accordingto the common path, with the cultivation of tranquility.Now, when you begin to meditate, [when] you begin topractice the basic meditation of tranquility meditation,you may find that your mind won’t stay still for amoment. But this is not permanent.This will change as you practice, andyou will eventually be able to placeyour mind at rest at will, at whichpoint you have successfully alleviatedthe manifest disturbance of thesemental afflictions or kleshas. On thebasis of that, then you can apply thesecond technique, which is calledinsight, which consists of learning torecognize and directly experience thenature of your own mind. This natureis referred to as emptiness. When yourecognize this nature and rest in it,then all of the kleshas, all of the mental afflictions thatarise, dissolve into this emptiness and are no longerafflictions. Therefore, the freedom, or result, which iscalled buddhahood, depends upon the eradication ofthese mental afflictions, and that depends upon thepractice of meditation.make up our experience of samsara. And in order totranscend this process, we need to transcend theseimpure projections, together with the suffering that theybring about. A very effective way to do this is to replacethese gradually, replace these projections of impurity,with pure projections, based on the iconography of theyidam, the dharmapala, and so on. By starting toexperience the world as the mandala of the deity and allbeings as the presence of that deity, then you graduallytrain yourself to let go of mental afflictions, let go ofimpure projections, and you create the environment forthe natural manifestation of your own innate wisdom.Now, all of this occurs graduallythrough this practice of the generationstage. The actual deities who are usedcan vary in appearance. Some of themare peaceful and some of them arewrathful. In general, the iconographyof the wrathful deities points out theinnate power of wisdom, and that of thepeaceful deities the qualities of lovingkindness and compassion. Also, thereare male deities and female deities. Themale deities embody the method orcompassion, and the female deitiesembody intelligence or wisdom.For these reasons, it’s appropriate to perform thesepractices of meditation upon deities. And because thesepractices are so prevalent in our tradition, if you go intoa vajrayana practice place or temple, you will probablysee lots of images of deities — peaceful deities, wrathful deities, and extraordinarily wrathful deities. Andyou’ll see lots of shrines with some very eccentricofferings on them. Initially, if you’re not used to all this,you might think, “What is all this?” And you might feel,“Well, the basic practices of tranquility and insightmake a lot of sense, and are very interesting; and allthese deities, all these rituals, and all these eccentricmusical instruments are really not very interesting atall.” However, each and every aspect of the iconography, and each and every implement you find in a shrineroom, is there for a very specific reason. The reason ingeneral is that we need to train ourselves to replace ourprojection of impurity or negativity with a projection orexperience of purity. And you can’t simply fake this,you can’t simply talk yourself into this, because you’retrying to replace something that is deeper than a con-The ultimateor long-termbenefit of thepractice ofmeditation isbecoming freeof all sufferinghe practice of tranquility and insight is the generalpath which is common to both the paths of sutra andtantra. In the specific context which is particular to thevajrayana, the main techniques are called the generationstage and the completion stage. These two techniquesare extremely powerful and effective. Generation stagerefers to the visualization of, for example, the form of alineage guru, the form of a deity or yidam, or the formof a dharma protector. Now, initially, when first encountering this technique, it’s not uncommon for beginnersto think, what is the point of this? Well, the point of thisis that we support and confirm our ignorance andsuffering and our kleshas through the constant generation of impure projections or impure appearances whichTSHENPEN ÖSEL 7

cept. It’s more like a feeling. So, therefore, in thetechnique by which you replace it, a great deal offeeling or experience of the energy of purity has to beactually generated, and in order to generate that, we usephysical representations of offerings, we use musicalinstruments in order to inspire the feeling of purity, andso on. In short, all of these implements are useful inactually generating the experience of purity.That is the first of the two techniques of vajrayanapractice, the generation stage. The second technique is called the completion stage, and it consists of avariety of related techniques, of which perhaps the mostimportant and the best known aremahamudra and dzogchen or “thegreat perfection.” Now, sometimes, itseems to be presented that dzogchen ismore important, and at other times itseems to be presented that mahamudrais more important, and as a resultpeople become a little bit confusedabout this and are unsure whichtradition or which practice they shouldpursue. Ultimately, the practices inessence and in their result are thesame. In fact, each of them has a variety of techniqueswithin it. For example, within mahamudra practicealone, there are many methods which can be used, suchas a candali* and so forth, and within the practice ofdzogchen alone there are as well many methods, suchas the cultivation of primordial purity, spontaneouspresence, and so on. But, ultimately, mahamudrapractice is always presented as guidance on, or anintroduction to, your mind, and dzogchen practice isalways presented as a guidance on or introduction toyour mind. Which means that the root of these is nodifferent, and the practice of either mahamudra ordzogchen will generate a great benefit. Further, we findin The Aspiration of Mahamudra by the third GyalwaKarmapa, Lord Rangjung Dorje, the following stanza:It is not non-existent, it is the basis of all Samsara and Nirvana.This is not contradictory, but is the great Middle Way.May I come to see the nature which is beyond elaboration.And that is from the mahamudra tradition. Then, inThe Aspiration for the Realization of the Nature of theGreat Perfection by the omniscient Jigme Lingpa, anaspiration liturgy from the dzogchen tradition, we find thefollowing stanza:It does not exist, it has not been seen, even by the Victors.It is not non-existent, it is the basis of all Samsara and Nirvana.It is not contradictory, it is the great Middle Way.May I come to recognize dzogpa chenpo, thenature of the ground.Meditation,however, dependsin part upon thegeneration ofloving-kindnessand compassionIt does not exist, and has not been seen, even by the Victors.*gtum-mo in Tibetan, meaning fierce or wrathful and referring to akind of psychic heat generated and experienced through certainmeditative practices of the vajrayana. This heat serves to burn up alltypes of obstacles and confusion. Included in the Six Doctrines ofNaropa, the Six Doctrines of Niguma, and the Six Doctrines of Sukhasiddhi.8 SHENPEN ÖSELIn other words, these two traditions are concerned entirely with therecognition of the same nature.So both short-term and ultimatehappiness depend on the cultivationof meditation, which from the common point of view of the sutras [thepoint of view held in common by alltraditions of Buddhism] is tranquilityand insight, and from the uncommon point of view ofthe vajrayana is the generation and completion stages.Meditation, however, depends in part upon thegeneration of loving-kindness and compassion. Andthis is true of any meditation, but it is especially mosttrue of vajrayana meditation. The reason is that thespecific vajrayana practices — the visualization ofdeities or meditation upon mahamudra and so on —depend upon the presence of a pure motivation on thepart of the practitioner from the very start. If this puremotivation or genuine motivation is not present — and,since we’re ordinary people, it’s quite possible that itmight not be present — not much benefit will reallyoccur. For that reason, vajrayana practitioners alwaystry to train their motivation, and try to develop themotivation that’s known as the awakened mind, orbodhichitta.Now, as an indication of this, if you look at theliturgies used in vajrayana practice, you’ll see that thelong and extensive forms of vajrayana liturgies alwaysbegin with a clarification of, or meditation upon,bodhichitta, and that even the short and shortest liturgies

always begin with a meditation upon bodhichitta, lovingkindness and compassion, the point of this being that this typeof motivation is necessary for all meditation, but especially forvajrayana practice.The only real meaning that we can give to our being bornon this planet — and in particular being born as humanbeings on this planet — and the only really meaningful resultthat we can show for our lives is to have helped the world: tohave helped our friends, to have helped all the beings on thisplanet as much as we can. And if we devote our lives or anysignificant part of our lives to destroying others and harmingothers, then to the extent that we actually do so, our liveshave been meaningless. So if you understand that the onlyreal point of a human life is to help others,to benefit others, to improve the world,then you must understand that the basis ofnot harming others but benefiting others ishaving the intention not to harm othersand the intention to benefit others.Now, the main cause of having such astable intention or stable motivation is theactual cultivation of love and compassionfor others. Which means, when you findyourself full of spite and viciousness —and it is not abnormal to be so — then youhave to recognize it, and be aware of it aswhat it is, and let go of it. And then, eventhough you may be free of spite orviciousness, and you may have the wish toimprove things, you may be thinking onlyof yourself; you may be thinking only ofhelping or benefiting yourself. When that’sthe case, then you have to recollect that theroot of that type of mentality, which isquite petty and limited and tight, isdesiring victory for yourself even at theexpense of the suffering and loss experienced by others. And, in that case, you have to graduallyexpand your sympathy for others, and therefore this cultivation of bodhichitta or altruism in general as a motivation is anessential way of making your life meaningful.The importance of love and compassion is not an ideathat is particular to Buddhism. Everyone throughout theworld talks about the importance of love and compassion.There’s no one who says love and compassion are bad and weshould try and get rid of them. However, there is an uncommon element in the method or approach which is taken tothese by Buddhism. In general, when we think of compassion, we think of a natural or spontaneous sympathy orempathy which we experience when we perceive the sufferingof someone else. And we generally think of compassion asbeing a state of pain, of sadness, because you see the suffering of someone else and you see what’s causing that sufferingand you know you can’t do anything to remove the cause ofthat suffering and therefore the suffering itself. So, whereasbefore you generated compassion, one person was miserable,after you generate compassion, two people are miserable. Andthis actually happens.However, the approach [that the Buddhist tradition takes]to compassion is a little bit different, because it’s founded onthe recognition that, whether or not youcan benefit that being or that person intheir immediate situation and circumstances, you can generate the basis for theirultimate benefit. And the confidence in thatremoves the frustration or the miserywhich otherwise somehow afflicts ordinarycompassion. So, when compassion iscultivated in that way, it is experienced asdelightful rather than miserable.The way that we cultivate compassionis called immeasurable compassion. And, infact, to be precise, there are four aspects ofwhat we would, in general, call compassion, that are called, therefore, the fourimmeasurables. Now, normally, when wethink of something that’s called immeasurable, we mean immeasurably vast. Here,the primary connotation of the term is notvastness but impartiality. And the point ofsaying immeasurable compassion is compassion that is not going to help one personat the expense of hurting another. It is acompassion that is felt equally for allbeings. The basis of the generation of such an impartialcompassion is the recognition of the fact that all beingswithout exception really want and don’t want the samethings. All beings, without exception, want to be happy andwant to avoid suffering. There is no being anywhere whoreally wants to suffer. And if you understand that, and to theextent that you understand that, you will have the intensewish that all beings be free from suffering. And there is nobeing anywhere who does not want to be happy; and if youunderstand that, and to the extent that you understand that,The only reallymeaningfulresult that wecan show for ourlives is to havehelped the worldSHENPEN ÖSEL 9

you will have the intense wish that all beings actually achievethe happiness that they wish to achieve. Now, because theexperience of happiness and freedom from suffering dependupon the generation of the causes of these, then the actualform your aspiration takes is that all beings possess not onlyhappiness but the c

the clear light of the Buddha’s teachings so that they might derive the benefit that dharma practitioners have derived from these teachings now for 2,500 years. In particular, we have sought to present the teachings transmitted by the many lineages of what is loosely known as “Tibe