If you look at all the different religions, maybe except for Islam, then you will definitely see that in these religions certain people had certain experiences. They had moments in their lives when they went beyond their own thing, their own little world, and their own little understanding. This was so convincing that others got on the trip, and they started working with it and moving on from there. I mean that’s generally how religions start. Somebody is turned on, and he’s wise enough or convincing enough that others get on the trip. Then they spread out and it works like that.
However, among all these religions, in Buddhism the really important thing is that it doesn’t happen by accident for us. We can engineer those moments of beyond-personal clarity. They are not something we need to pray for or hope for. They are something we can work towards. They are something we can build in one of three ways: we can build them by running around with bricks and mortar ourselves; we can build them by inviting some friends to help and getting some very fine and effective tools; or, most effectively of all, we can build them by sitting on a high crane and swinging the different segments over and putting them down and putting the roof on top of the house in the end. This is the fastest possible way we can build them.
Also, we can explain the whole thing. It’s not that we have to talk about some divine grace or something coming from somewhere else. This is not what we talk about in Buddhism. We have a very meticulous, very straight understanding of mind: how it is, how it works, how it functions, why it functions that way, and we can actually explain the whole thing. We can explain the different forces which step in at different levels of enlightenment very precisely, and we can show how to work with them in a completely scientific way. We’ve been doing this for the last 2,500 years and it continues today. There’s no belief involved and no dogmas involved. It’s just seeing, understanding, asking one’s questions, becoming clear and using what has been understood in meditation, and finally being smart enough not to throw away whatever has been reached. These different steps and these ways of working with Buddhism is what it’s all about.
Let’s begin by getting a little bit of an understanding of Buddhism before we start getting into the methods of it. Two thousand five hundred years ago, the Buddha discovered that mind is clear light while he was sitting under a tree in the North Eastern part of India, on a full moon morning in the month of May. He discovered that it hasn’t been born, that it cannot die, that even though bodies and thoughts and feelings appear, change and disappear again, that mind itself, being open, clear, limitless space, can in no way be hurt or harmed or anything like that.
So, recognizing that, he obtained what we call liberation. First he got to a state where he was not the target anymore, where he couldn’t be hurt or harmed because he wasn’t that body which could be in trouble. He wasn’t those thoughts or feelings that could change. He was radiant awareness. Then after that, he also reached enlightenment, really recognizing that space and energy at all times and places are totally the same, that there is no separation or cutting off between the two. Becoming one with all things, he also knew and was aware of all things. He felt the great joy and expressed the great love which is the meaning of all things, which makes every atom stay together and vibrate and which makes all things happen in the world.
After this experience, this full opening up and the development of these qualities, this full bringing out of what he had inside, from this experience and from this first understanding that he had there, then he started teaching. Three kinds of people came to him. Some people had quite narrow minds. They were not so brave or big inside. They were thinking mainly of getting rid of their own problems. So he taught them about cause and effect. He helped them to calm their minds. He told them what things to avoid, not as a dogma or something that one has to do, but as good advice from a friend. It was not given as advice from a creator, or a punitive or a jealous god, rather just as a friend passing on what he had seen.
Then other people came with more space between their ears or ribs or wherever we think the mind is situated. I mean they had bigger, stronger, more courageous minds—more open, wide minds. When they came to him, he would teach them about compassion and wisdom: how to develop compassion to a level where they didn’t separate others from themselves and how to develop wisdom to a state where they didn’t see what they hoped or feared but what was really there. On this second level, he also told people to avoid anger.
Finally some people came to him, or developed from these two other groups—mainly it’s a question of developing—but some already had these qualities from former lives, and they came to him directly. They were just confident that the Buddha was not a man or a person or a god or something else out there, rather that he was a mirror to their own mind. He showed them their own nature. He was that which showed them their own radiant face. So, recognizing that, he taught them to understand that all beings are really buddhas who just haven’t found it out yet, that this is already a pure land, that every atom is vibrating with joy and kept together by love, that everything is meaningful and wonderful and round just because it happens like that. This is how he taught. This is how he passed the things on. So this was the fullness of his teaching.
On the third level where people had the confidence that they were really buddhas, they met him with devotion and openness. This actually means that one is ready to make contact with one’s inner buddha essence, this kind of deep interest and devotion and feeling that things are really alive and so on. This kind of feeling, this kind of experience means only one thing: that we are looking in the mirror and seeing our own face, that the things have to do with us, that it’s not something else somewhere else, but that we are really looking at our own face, that we are recognizing something we have.
So when people came who had this kind of confidence, then he would really show them their buddha nature. He would sometimes use forms. He would emanate out forms of energy and light like the ones which correspond to our potential wisdom and compassion and joy and power and stuff like that. He would emanate out those forms, and then he would also show people their minds as really being clear light. He would take them from a level where their mind would stay wherever it was, to a level of not being artificial anymore, to a level of experiencing consciousness through all its objects, always being aware of the mirror through all the pictures in the mirror. Then he would advise them to never lose the pure view. That would be the most important holding action that he did, to tell people, “Really, don’t ever let go.”
Finally, then, he would take them to a state where no effort was needed anymore, where they were so fully integrated with themselves and all beings and all situations, that there was no falling out of that state, no losing or disappearing from that state again. And that corresponds to the teaching that highest truth is highest joy, that fulfillment and perfection and the constant state of freshness, ecstasy, and happiness is really the true state of being, and that this is the real expression of our nature. Truth is not something neutral or something like that. Truth is actually the state of highest bliss and meaning.
So among these three levels, the teachings on the Ngöndro belong on the third level. They belong to people who already have developed so much clear light on the inside that they are actually capable of identifying with the buddhas outside themselves—people who have a natural openness, natural confidence, natural trust, whatever we call it, people who naturally just feel attracted to the vision that one can become a buddha very quickly and that the mind is really enlightenment whether we know it or not.
This level of teaching, this Ngöndro teaching, belongs on the level of identification. It belongs on the level of basically behaving like a buddha until we become a buddha and putting all experience on the highest level of purity until one day we cannot fall down again, of constantly identifying with the buddhas till one day we cannot take that beautiful buddha mask off our face anymore because it became our face, that level of being it until we really become it, until we really are it. That is the level we’ll be on today.
We are working on this level of spontaneous confidence in our buddha nature, of trust that we can really make it, that the true nature of our mind is wisdom and love and clear light, of trusting our joy and staying in our joy and not cutting it down or considering it sinful or throwing it away or something like that, but knowing that this is our true nature. On this level, we actually work with a two-fold process. It’s like a ladder: we do something positive, and then we get some resultant wisdom because some knots and problems are loosened inside us. We have an “aha!” experience. We have another reason for doing something good because we see that everybody is like us: they want happiness; they want to avoid suffering. It’s very clear how their minds are. So we do something else which is good, and then we have another “aha!” experience. We go on like that, until we come to levels where the ego can’t hold on anymore, and we begin to have real liberating and enlightening experiences.
It’s also compared to another dual process where doing, thinking, and saying what is positive is like getting the sun to stay up at its zenith or to stay in its full shining power. The steps or purification that are involved are like removing the clouds so that the full power, the full essence, the full radiance of the sun can come through. This is what the Ngöndro has to do with. On one hand it fills our mind to the brim with positive happiness–bringing results or impressions so that every time we backtrack into the mind, every time the mind is directed towards itself, it will experience richness and joy and surplus and power. And on the other hand, we are working out from there and removing the different veils and confusions that are there so that we really do get that benefit of the shininess of the sun, so that it’s not clouded over or made unclear. That’s then the purification process.
The text of the Ngöndro that we work with is actually an interesting thing. As far as we know, nearly none of the Buddha’s original teachings were lost. He gave 84,000 teachings in 108 thick books, and they are all still there. So far we’ve translated eight percent of the Buddha’s teachings into Western languages, but one thing we’ve not found is the place where the Buddha advises using all four parts of the Ngöndro in unison. We have the places where he shows the Prostrations, where he manifests as the Buddha Diamond Mind, where the Mandalas are explained, and where the Guru Yoga is given. So the four steps of the Ngöndro that we are working with are clearly shown individually by the Buddha. There’s no doubt about that, but the place where he said do them together in that sequence, that’s missing so far.
On the other hand, the old Buddhists were so true to the letter. I mean they were so conservative. They were not at all inventive, so we can be quite sure that they were using it that way because it was given like that. For instance, when Buddhism went from India into Tibet, there were three highly learned people who were really super professor scholar-like types. Sometimes they spent a day or more translating one single word to really get to the meaning. So I mean they were not just saying what sounds good, or what seems to fit the spirit of the time, or what’s modern right now, or something like that. There was a deep analysis and a really great fidelity to the material. For that reason there’s no doubt that the Buddha gave the teachings like that and that the Ngöndro was practiced like that shortly after his time. It’s just that we cannot really say when or where in the text he said, “Do the Ngöndro in this sequence,” but he did show each one of the four practices. I’m just saying this for scientific correctness because it’ll be a big chunk out of your lives if you decide to do the Ngöndro; it’s a big thing. It’ll not be just a weekend or an exotic seminar somewhere, you know. It’ll be a lot of hard work. So for that reason, you should just know everything that you can about it.
Also, maybe before I start getting into the Ngöndro itself, you should know the frame that it all happens in, because everything in Buddhism is part of the totality. It’s not like somewhere else where you pay a few hundred dollars, you get a mantra, and you are told you can do that no matter what you think, you just do that and it’ll calm you. Or you get some other methods, like just stand on your head for a while, that’s all you need, or whatever. It’s not like that in Buddhism. Everything we teach is part of a totality. There has to be a basis, a way, and a goal, and if we don’t know that basis, way, and goal, then we’re not benefitting ourselves very much because our full mind is not working with the things on the deepest levels. We are also not benefiting others very much because we won’t be able to tell them what it’s all about. So for that reason, in Buddhism we always have the totality. Everything is there. All the different sides, all the different aspects are really there.
The first thing in Buddhism is that we start by analyzing our life. Others may start by wanting to be high or saved or become very holy very quickly or something like that, but we’re sort of stuck in the mud a little bit. We want to know what’s going on, just on a very basic level. If we start with this very broad, basic analysis of our life—with the broadest possible foundation and big deep roots, because they have to do with our totality, not just with a search for something or a wish to experience something but really with everything that happens—then we notice four things.
First, that our chance right now to meet with enlightening teachings, to be able to understand them and use them and so on, is something very rare and marvelous. There’s no being in this world who doesn’t want happiness and who doesn’t want to avoid suffering. The smallest worm will crawl a long way to avoid being killed. An ant will do the same. People make up incredible games to feel good. If we look at what’s going on then this is totally clear. So, understanding that we are now in the lucky situation of being able to meet with methods that bring real and lasting happiness; that is very important. This is really essential and very important.
The next thing is that we understand we cannot have this chance forever: whatever is born will die, whatever came together will fall apart, and whatever appeared will disappear. We don’t have endless time. We all know people younger than ourselves who died, and people die all the time. So recognizing that it’s important to use this chance now when we have it and where we have the different conditions for practicing is also very important.
The third thing is understanding that the world is really cause and effect; that words, thoughts, and actions now become our future. Whether we think of it or not, everything we do, think, and say makes impressions inside and outside, and later they will come back to us. Unless we do meditations and dissolve them, they will come.
And finally, then, there’s also the fact that, well, there is no alternative, right? Enlightenment is the highest joy. There is no greater joy; there is nothing more fulfilling and total than this state of oneness with all things, all beings, all times, in all directions. This total experience of non-separation awakens all the energies, the joys, and the powers inside us and goes totally beyond anything that we usually know. And more than that, there is no place one can just hide away and say, “This stuff with enlightenment is too difficult for me. I’ll just stay with my little world and that’ll be fine.” Because if we were born, we will die. If we have bodies, we’ll get old, sick, and die, and we can’t take our things with us. No matter how many vitamins we eat, they will take us away one day.
We cannot avoid suffering if we stay with ordinary values, if we keep thinking, “I’m my body, and my things are mine.” In this way, these four things are the foundation for it all: that we have the chance, that we don’t know how long it will last, that we can direct things by working with cause and effect, and that enlightenment is the highest joy which cannot be lost again. If some of you use our meditations, then you’ll see that at the beginning of every meditation, we quickly think over these four things because they ground us, give us the roots to work from. They are not pessimistic; actually they are realistic, and they’re a very good basis.
After this we discover that we are not usually able to keep our minds the way we wish, that our minds do all kinds of things we don’t want them to and that we cannot just say, “Be happy, don’t be insecure,” but that the mind does many things that are funny. In the same way we went to an English teacher to learn English or to a math teacher to learn math, then we go to a buddha to learn about the mind. Why? Because he knows about the mind. Buddha’s specialty is mind. Some creators of religions gave a lot of laws and many different things, but the Buddha taught especially about mind. He said if people know their mind there is nothing else you need to teach them. If they recognize mind to be open space, they’ll be fearless. If they recognize space to be rich and playful, they’ll be joyful. And if they recognize mind to be without limit, they will be naturally loving. So if you can teach people about their mind, that’s all they need. There’s nothing else they need to know.
