Also see: Career Advise
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Got some messages recently asking me whether they should quit their job to meditate full time
As in a video I have been said doing so..
Just to clarify, I didn’t plan to do so and for me it was just a coincidental arrangements.
I would encourage and strongly recommend everyone to have a strong skill in the world, finish Your degree, then choose a good and less stressful job, and have a backup plan always ..
If you are a new doctor, Do finish your required house job or service no matter how shitty it is and get a full registration no matter where U are.
House job is shitty, that is the law of the universe. No choice.
Then you can choose a more comfortable career. GP or sthg.
Don’t quit before your full Registration.
The world now is complex. Without full Reg you are not a doctor and your med school degree doesn’t function.
If you are a student, please study hard and finish your course.
Meditate on the side.
Or take a gap year once it’s ok to do so.
If you wake up, you wake up to your life
You don’t want it to be shitty ok
You want to have earning power
I am a v rational person ok and that’s my opinion
Unless your family is very rich then ignore all the above
80 Comments
John Tan
Just last sentence I don't agree. Even if ur family is ultra rich, it is still important. Lol.
Angelo Grr
John Tan ESPECIALLY if your family wealthy, important to challenge oneself independent of fortuitous conditions
John Tan
Angelo Grr well said!
William Lim
Start a GoFundMe page
Yin Ling
William Lim who will give lah
John Tan
But I think the op is a good one. This question probably has surfaced in the mind of many practitioners, me included.
Yin Ling
John Tan glad you agree
It is hard. Bec the job is very very hard esp Singapore. Ppl work too hard there. 30 hours shifts still happening .
And the gov don’t give full registration easily to Keep doctors in service
So ppl suffer. And they want to find a way out.
I remember when I suffer a lot those times I dissociated to wide open awareness
Angelo Grr
John Tan
me as well. Wanted to join a monetary or go live in a cave several
times, but some instinct kept me engaged in conventional life.
John Tan
Angelo Grr
yes I understand. Several times infact even when I was quite young.
During anatta it was strong. When the background self is gone, mind
wants to feel itself so much -- the sand of the beach, the smell of the
rain, the colors of flowers...Worldly definitions really don't matter
anymore and a feeling of no time to waste on such trival persue. But
now secluded or worldly doesn't matter any longer, everywhere is
practice.
Yin Ling
Me too family and friends were worried I ordain For some usual Asian ppl reasons
Only the ordination process for nuns/female is very complex and strive with drama here
I don’t like drama and I realise this could waste more time compare to if I just live normally and practise as I could.
So now just arrange career to be as less life consuming as possible
But I can’t do nights like u Angelo
Yin Ling
Interesting. I have always been curious of how you are able to run worldly businesses with your powerful insights
For
me at one point the ability to push hard for business to flourish drop
so much that I know I’m not gonna do well if I stay long in this. The
values also change so much.
The wish for wanting to expand and push for more revenue is gone, just want to stay stagnant thank god business partner still retain normal business principles
Angelo Grr
John Tan I agree
John Tan
Yin Ling
yes setting clear business principles help to eliminate lots of inner
conflicts. Very often it involves a lot of practice on non-attachments
and refinement of our understanding on what anatta, non-action and
essencelessness mean as greed, angry and unwholesome thoughts are more
obvious when meeting such situations. I learn to see and associate
insights to business challenges over time. Many of my partners r at the
age of 75+ and filthy rich, knowing their life styles and actual needs
help me also. Seeing entrepreneurs grow in the right direct is also a
joy. It is all abt how every situation triggers and refine depth of our
insights if we have practice in mind.
Sarah Zulaikha Samad
I want to go to Makkah madinah again now. Haha
Just the escapism being able to go to mosque and be mindful of my praye4s is amazing
But alas, I need to the money to come back
Someone told me I can go there with my mrcp. Maybe once my kids are bigger. That's an option for "retirement"
Yin Ling
Sarah Zulaikha Samad go where with your mrcp? Makkah kah?
Hahahaa Sarah I need my money to come back too I have just applied for gp training .. have to do those rotations again macam house job
Sarah Zulaikha Samad
Yin Ling penat weh. Dah tua tua ni. Haha
All the best chok.
Saudi
Arabia recognises mrcp. Apparently I can a consultant post, but need to
enquire once I finish gazettement..but probably madinah. Mekkah ramai
sangat orang. Memang banyak pahala pi kaabah semua but so many people.
Sakit kepala i
Sarah Zulaikha Samad
Xpe chok. Will not be as bad as Malaysia. And I thought setahun aje suffer rotation lepas tu kat gp aje mostly?
Yin Ling
Saudi
is good money I heard, go for it .. tapi I don’t know if you will like
the job from the cerita I dengar. If you have powerful equanimity
whatever la boleh je.
Go la uk. Earn pounds, get free education, then retire in Madinah
I am trying to apply for rotations Yang without night shifts coz I can’t recover well now I’m no spring chicken
But paeds have nights and I think I need to learn some peads so satu rotation I tahan lol
Sarah Zulaikha Samad
Yin Ling
oranf dia memang lain macam. I lost my sim card and they used it till
almost 1000 ringgit. So, yeah, Holy land and stuff with no shaitan but
the people are a different level
It's
not an amazing place for foreigners. My husband has relatives there who
have been in thay country for two generations minimum and they don't
have nationality due to Arabian nonsense. I guess just have to find a
place to work like u said, earn lots then retire early. Hahaga
Yin Ling
I actually don’t know lah what’s going on I’m so blur. But I know it will be better than med Reg so it should be ok.
I
apply for all those non medical one. I won’t know a thing but I think
if can do medicine the rest shouldn’t be too bad lah kannnnnnnnn
Yin Ling
I got colleague who move from Saudi to uk , getting a huge pay cut coz he cannot tahan.
Come Sarah.
Join me.
I need some friends to cook me food.
Free education some more.
Come come
Yin Nin
Hahaha I like the equation of having earning power to "not shitty life"
Mr./Ms. VWC
Renounce and become monk ?
Yin Ling
What if you don’t like the monk life ? And you don’t have a skill? What happens?
Mr./Ms. VWC
Well have to do homework first b4 entering to that life .....
Yin Ling
Very hard one.
U won’t know how gila a woman is until you be intimate with her.
Lol
Ng Xin Zhao
Yin Ling Thus, good reason not to marry, and renounce. Renounce young can have easier time to adjust, learn, adapt, accept, practice.
Yin Ling
It
is truly a blessing if one have the right conditions to renounce and
practise fully the path .. that is good karma fruition from good deeds
prev lives
But remember the world runs on dependent origination and conditions
What is suitable for one person might not suit another one. And sometimes it is not their will, coz it is no self
If the person condition is for ordination, they really can’t run away from that appearance lol
If not practise in lay life
I wouldn’t prescribe a certain condition or prerequisite for someone to practise
They might have ordain more times than us past lives
Mr./Ms. VWC
Ng Xin Zhao
not exactly dohhhj monastic life isn't for eveveryone ... I've tried it
and realised It's not for me ..... that y I said do homework first b4
entering that life.
Yin Ling
U r practising well in lay life. Just keep going
Mr. J.P. H
I
don't know. I am a software engineer now. There is an idea that it
might be nice to bake bread for a living. Much better service.
Yin Ling
Mr. J.P. H I think as long as you have a skill for living that’s fine.
Tan Jui Horng
Mr. J.P. H You can always consider doing volunteer work to cover the service part.
Mr. RDT
Vimalakirti
is a wonderful and great role model for lay Mahayana Buddhists I think.
A realised high level bodhisattva with deep insight, vast merit and
fully integrated into society, leading virtuous and productive life
aimed at the wellfare of others.
I
highly reccomend his sutra to those that struggle with the dillema of
staying in society and being a practitioner at the same time too. Not
only that but it contains some great pointers and teachings on emptiness
and also challenges patriarchal, male-centric view of spirituality (in a
dialogue between a male arhat and female goddess).
Ofc if you really want to become a monk, then do so.
WWW2.KENYON.EDU
VIMALAKIRTI NIRDESA SUTRA
Sim Pern Chong
Thanks for the sharing.
Yin Ling
Sim Pern Chong u r very kind. This is just my very superficial opinion from not much years of experience.
I would love you hear yours if u have any
Sim Pern Chong
Agree much. Thanks.
I have not have a full time career since 2008
For
me, I used to work as a full time designer and then later become a full
time lecturer (at a particular Polytechnic). Both type of work, take up
large amount of time. I was at AM and then initial non-dual
understanding stage when having full time job. Then, partly due to
excessive work and becoming pawns to power plays, i decided to quit the
full time lecturing job and take on part time assignments. This gives
me a lot more time and within a few months of quitting, I have the first
definitive no-self insight. That was in 2008.
I
guess, it is important to put aside time for these kind of practices.
From 2008 onwards, i hold no full time job till now. It does take some
courage especially if got kid/s and family to take care. So far, i
managed. But my take is that one will need to have a specialised skill
that is required somewhere. You got to decide what you want. For me, i
cannot achieve the best of both world. Something got to go.
I
teach part-time in the design schools and uni and also support the
industry in terms of my speciality. Currently, the official amount of
hours that i work is approx 12hrs a week. This gives me good amt of
time. But, it is not without occasional financial stress. If you got a
spouse, the stress is most probably stemming from the insecurity from
him/her.
BTW,
the last sentence not true for me. I got a rich and quite well known
Father, but i am not benefiting financially from that fact.
It may sound superstitious, but to me, the amount one will earn is more
or less established (karmically). .. can check from the BAZI
John Tan
Sim Pern Chong lol. Maybe should look at ur BAZI. Joking.
Yin Ling
Thanks for sharing!
“Something has to go” part is true.
Cannot want everything.
I am also trying to rearrange my life.
I have options to either
Continue
my previous training to be a uk hospital consultant in 3 years, coz I
already finish all the exams required so need to do the required time ..
Or start from beginning and train as a GP which means I work with ppl ten years my junior
And 50% pay cut
Not something normal ppl will do haha. Totally understand u.
I no need to look at my bazi also know my max earnings alr
Yin Ling
Ya ur right.
The GP in uk is under nhs hehe
in
the uk, hosp consultant and GP earn almost the same about 5k pounds a
month plus plus and their tax system limits what one could earn. So they
don’t want to work more than they need to, the tax goes too high.
GP doesn’t work out of hours and weekends and only do 3.5 days a week.. if they work out of hours they get paid very well lol
Also
bec uk is a consultant based system- as in all patients in hospital
will be assigned to a consultant , the hosp consultant bear all the
risk, medico legal and health wise. The workload in hosp is huge. And
now that the nhs is getting worse and worse with their lack of funding,
covid etc , a lot of consultants need to step down, come during weekends
and nights to help. They work harder than me most of the time and all
of them are so stressed out lol, not a good scene.
It’s the other way around in msia Singapore, the higher you go the more relax coz the juniors do all the work, uk is inverse
Most
GP in uk can send patients to hosptial too if they think they need
secondary care, and they do that very easily unlike here and Singapore,
the stress is not as high as ppl in hosptial though we get paid the same
Gp
has differnt challenge I am not too familiar yet but their work life
balance is better. With the less hours, one could locum and the rate of
locum in uk is great, almost 100 pounds an hour.
So one can choose to do part time and locum to make ends meet. Part time just work 1-2 days.
Flexibility is high. Hosptial no flexibility coz you run clinics and wards cannot simple cancel cancel
Hence my decision ..
Soh Wei Yu
You are going uk to work as gp?
Yin Ling
Soh Wei Yu yeah I got offer a training place to become one for the glorious nhs
Tan Jui Horng
Just some thoughts, since I have had a few career changes for the past few years:
1.
If already possessing responsibilities, don’t make the life of people
who are dependent on you potentially worse off (hopefully not terrible)
without their consent.
2.
Live below your means. Wants *should* decrease anyway. Growing material
ambition while pursuing spiritual progress indicates something wrong
with your practice.
3.
Being able to say no to some of your job scope is great, especially if
you are sometimes required to do things that are ethically/morally grey
(“we’re not lying, we’re just not giving full information upfront”). A
bit tricky since this ability to say no without too much consequence
generally happens only after you become senior staff though. High
dependent on the industry as well, I think.
4.
Use the spare money from your job to get some form of passive income so
that quitting/getting fired is always an available option, should
things at the workplace go south.
William Lim
On
a similar note, what do you guys think of people charging for satsangs
or classes (notwithstanding at which level they teach from)?
On
one hand, there are people who thinks that teaching such topics should
be considered a service to mankind. On the other hand, people got to eat
yah?
(I suppose similiar dilemma can be said of the medical profession)
Yin Ling
William Lim
I am open minded to it, coz ppl got to eat. I pay my teacher like I pay
a psychologist .. I don’t have much moral dilemma for it only moral
dilemma for not having enough money
Mr. RDT
William Lim
I think its got a lot to do with economy of the place. In India people
felt it is natural to support monks and renounciates by offerings etc.
In modern societies (at least here in the West) mindfulness teachers
charge money as a fair exchange for service.
There
are some arguments for that. Ive seen many people who abuse "free
donation" Dharma events by offering very little, not even the suggested
amount (but at the same time some of these people would spend money for
parties, ciggarettes etc.).
There
is research that if people pay or at least have to put some effort to
receive knowdlege (like listening to a lecture) then they remember more
and consider the knowledge theyve gained to be more valubale.
Teachers themsevles have to study and invest a lot. The events generate costs due to logistics etc.
Also
genrally its not like this idea of giving money in return for teachings
is unheard of. There were things like initiation fees in Vajrayana
circles and practitioners are advised to give dana to the guru.
Also
as with all energy exchanges... well there has to be some exchange.
Some could argue that a price, if reasonable, is a transparent, honest
and simple way of regulating the transactional side of the exchange.
The
topic is relevant for me personally as me and my wife lead workshops
and meditation courses in Poland (some actually include topics like
anatta). At first we didnt charge but people were free to give whatever
they like (similar to principle of generosity in International Dzogchen
Community but there people had to find a sponsor for the event...). But
this was not good as there were many spiritual tourists who would come
out of curiosity, not really motivated, some would register taking space
on the list but not show up without any info. Also we worked in
corporation back then and at some point we had to choose and decided
that we cannot afford to put in effort and time for free. So we started
charging. From my experience it works much better now. Still we try to
offer some helpful free content and money is never a barrier. If
somebody has financial problems then they can contact us and we can talk
about other solutions.
Apart
from that my wife is a psychologist and does psychotherapy. Its a
different thing but similar in the sense that she performa responsible
service to people by working with their minds, helping to alleviate
various sufferings connected to obssesive thoughts, mistaken
perceptions, emotions, traumas. And its a profession that people get
paid for. Myself I translate (simultaneous) teachings from English to
Polish for a Nyingma lineage. Its not a lot, but its helpful, I try to
invest it in studying and dana to teachers. Also I know of many good
translators that dont find the time to translate the Dharma beacuse they
have to make money. So thats that.
Also
we need people to clean, cook, repair, build, do IT for us. Are they
worse than us? Or are we worse than them? We all try to do our best with
our unique talents (provided we find our true ikigai). Shouldnt
everybody be treated in equanimous way and get a fair deal for hard
work?
Ng Xin Zhao
I
would recommend them to go for meditation retreats first. Try out the
lifestyle. It's easier to kick start with other people around and
maintain. Can reserve leaves for retreat instead of vacation.
If
they happen to manage say 5 meditation retreats of 1 week each, then
one can decide if one would be able to sustain such lifestyle long term,
and choose to renounce or not.
Yin Ling
Ng Xin Zhao the sad thing about medicine is,
My colleagues all have their leave frozen for the past 2-2.5 year .
The person who wrote to me won’t even have leave to take, bec he is very junior.
They work 90 plus hours a week. Singapore is brutal like Malaysia
The situation is beyond comprehension and v testing for any human
My
advice to him is to hang on for the next few years only until full
registration coz I have employed someone with a few months shy of full
Reg even though v brilliant her life is very stuck. I hope he don’t
repeat her mistake
If I tell him retreat he will be v stressed ..
Pee and shit and eat also no time .. that’s the life of houseman lol
William Lim
Yin Ling I thought doctor life very glamorous like Grey's Anatomy
Yin Ling
That’s the worse show ever. Lol. So stress already still got time to kiss and have sex in hospital
There’s a better one now - this is going to hurt on bbc.
And that one is true portrayal of the nhs.
Malaysia worse by 50 times Lolol
William Lim
Yin Ling what better way to destress?
Yin Ling
Ppl dying left right Center ok. How to got mood lol
Mr. RDT
This might be of interest to some as a sidenote to this discussion
Soh Wei Yu
I copied some career advise by tsoknyi rinpoche
AWAKENINGTOREALITY.COM
Career Advise
Yin Ling
Soh Wei Yu my advice from experience always quite different fr standard
Once a friend ask me how to start noting meditation as he was very stress and depressed , he was in speciality training..
Coz I encounter so much suffering in that practise I told him don’t do it now, better relax and watch movie and do exercise etc at most do breathing meditation lol.
I
really don’t know how others advise as the ancient masters are not
modern lay ppl doing housemanship and stressful jobs with kids etc
Soh Wei Yu
Yeah
breathing meditation more inclined to samatha and emphasis on
tranquility seems more appropriate.. along with just general relaxation
activities as you mentioned
Soh Wei Yu
“STUDENT: How do we know the difference between a rigpa likeness and the true rigpa?
RINPOCHE:
Through experiencing the authentic rigpa. Imagine that you are someone
who has never seen an apple in your whole life, although you’ve been
told about it. People have made drawings of apples and explained to you
what they look like, their round shape, how thin the skin is, and what
it tastes like — it’s sweet and juicy and so forth. But you haven’t seen
one or tasted one yet. Then one day you see a display of fruit that
includes some apples, and you look at it and think, “Hmm, this looks
like the apple that they’ve talked about.” You take it and you put it in
your mouth, you bite and you taste and swallow. You think, “Yes, this
is exactly what they told me about. Now I know.”
It’s
like that. If someone then says, “This is an apple” and points to an
orange, you won’t believe them, because you’ve tasted the real thing. In
the same way, first we hear about rigpa, then we think about it, and
then we meditate. At some point we experience with certainty how it
really is. There is no other way to do this. One way of understanding it
is conceptual; the other is free of concepts. If you haven’t tasted the
absence of concepts, you can hear about or understand what it’s like,
but you still haven’t experienced the real thing. First we need to
recognize and resolve on one point. With the resolution, one feels
really sure.
Right now
you’re hearing a lot of talk about the qualities and characteristics of
rigpa. But when it becomes part of your own experience, you know. For
that to happen, you need to train day and night, like Milarepa, to the
point where your buttocks become callused from sitting so much. Train
further and further until realization dawns within your stream of being.
Nowadays
you don’t have to sit on bare rock like Milarepa — it’s really all
right to sit on a comfortable seat. Likewise, you no longer have to make
your own food — you can hire a servant to cook for you. But you need to
save up some money first, when you are young. If you want to do good
practice, you need a yogi credit card! In the past you could beg and
people would support religious practitioners,
but
nowadays it’s not so easy. In the past people were happy with simple
food; nowadays they need rich food. And when you go to a big shopping
center, there are so many things. There is a lot of stuff we don’t even
know about, and we have to decide what to pick. We don’t buy just one or
two things; we need to be completely stocked up with a lot of items.
That all takes money.
First
you need to accumulate some wealth when you are young. When you have
the money, you can practice Dharma. I’m not joking! Honestly, without
money we can’t really practice, because there is no time, we have to go
to work everyday. Of course, if you get a good sponsor, it is better. We
need to be a little intelligent about how we use our life. It’s not a
good idea to totally occupy ourselves with Dharma, and find that after a
while we haven’t gotten anywhere with spiritual practice, and we don’t
have any career either. We need to be skillful and think ahead.
Otherwise, when we are fifty or so, we start to panic. “I have no money,
what should I do now? I’m getting old, and I must practice, I must
meditate. But I’ve no money.” Think well about this while you are young.
It’s good to practice, of course, but we need to think from both sides.
Dharma doesn’t only mean religion, it means something that you can
depend on, something that can help you throughout your entire life. So,
work to improve your life — not merely this life but throughout the
future as well. When we say ‘life,’ it doesn’t just mean being alive in
this body, but rather the continuation of mind which moves from
incarnation to incarnation. That is what life really is.
In
Tibet, although there were four schools of Buddhism, they didn’t use
the word ‘religion.’ That was applied only after Tibetans came down to
Nepal and India. Instead, they used a word for the ‘way of Dharma,’
chölug, which carries the sense of what is real, what is true, what is
genuine, what is ultimately beneficial, both now and in the long run.
The meaning is more referring to something that is in tune with how
things really are, something that is helpful, that can improve us. So
chölug means ‘spiritual way of life’ — not a confused or deluded life,
but a way of being genuine and true. That is what we train ourselves in.
We should be without any confusion about how we approach this, how we
involve ourselves in spirituality, for this entire life.
In
any case, be happy. Don’t entertain a lot of pointless worries,
repeating the same words over and over again in your mind. Alot of our
thoughts are repetitions, 30 or 35 times the same thought. And we play
and replay the same ten themes: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine, ten. Then we start all over again, thinking about the same
ten things again. It doesn’t actually help that much, does it? If you
could have something different to worry about — say, the eleventh,
twelfth and thirteenth things — it would be a little more interesting!
But if it’s the same ten things over and over again, it’s just habit. We
are caught up in the same habits, the same re-making of karma, the same
way of deluding ourselves. All this makes our
minds
the opposite of open. Don’t be like that. Be clever about yourself.
Smile, and continue practicing. You don’t have to show your teeth while
smiling; smile from within, with a nice radiance.
Right
now we have very a good opportunity. Even though it may seem a little
crowded and stuffy in this room, there is a reason for why we sit down
together and practice. Yes, it can be boring, but sitting down and being
bored can also be quite a good foundation for progress.”
-
AMAZON.COM
Carefree Dignity: Discourses on Training in the Nature of Mind
Soh Wei Yu
Also i like this passage from the same book:
No matter how long ego-clinging and obscurations, Negative karma and disturbing emotions,
Have covered our nature,
They are totally gone in that one instant
Of genuinely recognizing the naked state of dharmakaya, Rigpa in actuality.
Once you have some training in this,
And if at the moment of death you recognize naked awareness, This body is discarded like a snake shedding its skin,
And you are liberated.
Do you understand about ground, path and fruition? Do you understand what is
meant by path? What is path? It’s okay to repeat what I said before. STUDENT: Path is confusion.
RINPOCHE: What’s the way to clear up this confusion? How many ways are there to clear up confusion?
STUDENT: Training. Meditation training. Conduct.
RINPOCHE: And? I mentioned these steps. Repeat them. It’s okay. STUDENT: Confidence.
RINPOCHE: Where does confidence come from?
STUDENT: From within.
RINPOCHE: How? From within what? From within the house?
STUDENT: From freedom.
RINPOCHE: Where does the freedom come from? Does it come from being confused? Does it come from being without confusion?
STUDENT: From seeing one’s own nature. RINPOCHE: Right. How is this nature? STUDENT: It is rigpa.
RINPOCHE: What is rigpa?
STUDENT: Self-existing awareness.
RINPOCHE: What is self-existing awareness? It has three qualities. What are those three?
STUDENT:
Empty, cognizant, and endowed with capacity. RINPOCHE: Is there any
sequence in those three? STUDENT: No there is no sequence.
RINPOCHE:
When I talk about them I seem to talk about them one after another. Why
is that? What is meant by empty essence? What does the emptiness feel
like when experiencing? I mentioned before no center, no edge. What was
the second?
STUDENT: Cognizant nature.
RINPOCHE: What is that like? Just use baby talk, normal words.
STUDENT: All five sense doors wide are open, and everything is clearly known.
RINPOCHE:
Knowing what? Knowing that the five senses are wide open, or knowing
what? Knowing that the consciousness is clear, awake? Knowing what?
STUDENT: Knowing that there is no subject.
RINPOCHE: It sounds good. The words sound good. The third quality, what’s the
third?
STUDENT: Unimpeded.
RINPOCHE: What does that mean?
STUDENT: All appearances, perceptions, and experiences are unimpeded.
RINPOCHE: What’s the connection between this unimpededness and the first two qualities? Is there a connection?
STUDENT: The emptiness and the cognizance are united. RINPOCHE: And how does that feel like?
STUDENT: Anything can arise.
RINPOCHE:
What does that feel like in experience? Actually, there is no separate
third quality. It’s simply the unity of the first two, because the first
two are indivisible. That indivisibility is described as a third
quality, but it’s not something separate at all. Honestly, the third is
not a third. In fact, there are no two either. All three are simply one
quality. What is that called?
STUDENT: Panoramic awareness, like wide-screen awareness.
RINPOCHE: Could you come up with a Tibetan word for it?
STUDENT: I don’t know Tibetan.
TRANSLATOR: I believe we have used one particular Tibetan word quite a lot. STUDENT: Rigpa.
RINPOCHE:
Rigpa is good enough. You’re not to blame if you don’t know Tibetan and
you’re new to this. How many qualities does rigpa have? It’s all right
to say the three qualities just mentioned. [Laughter.] What about these
three qualities? In the moment of recognizing, do we recognize them one
by one, or what?
STUDENT: No.
RINPOCHE: But in terms of time? STUDENT: Simultaneously.
RINPOCHE:
That’s true. That’s what we should know. When the three qualities are
present simultaneously, at once, that can be called rigpa. Do you
understand this? They are present at the same time, which is not really a
time, but we can call it timelessness. Really, it’s timeless time. It
can be called by another word also.
STUDENT: View.
RINPOCHE:
View of what? Or by what? What knows this view? Rigpa knows. What is
rigpa? Rigpa is something that has three qualities. Knowing these three
qualities at once simultaneously is called rigpa. That we can also call
the view. The view is used in all the different vehicles. But what is
the Dzogchen view? The view in Dzogchen is rigpa, which is the
simultaneous knowing that your essence is empty, your nature is
cognizant, and your capacity is unconfined. Do you understand this? Is
this clear? So, what is the training or meditation?
STUDENT:
Sustaining the continuity. RINPOCHE: What needs to be sustained?
STUDENT: Unfabricated naturalness. RINPOCHE: What is that?
STUDENT: Thought-free.
RINPOCHE: What’s that? What about rigpa? Wouldn’t it be okay to sustain rigpa? Don’t you like the word sustain?
STUDENT:
It seems like there is some effort in sustaining. RINPOCHE: What about
effortless sustaining? Would that be okay? STUDENT: Yes, that’s okay.
RINPOCHE: The continuity of that needs to be sustained. This is the continuity.
(Rinpoche rings the bell.)
First,
by some effort, there’s a hitting together. There’s sound. That means
you’ve arrived in rigpa. The three qualities are continually present,
and that is called sustaining. After all, you have to use some word to
describe it. That sustaining is what we call meditation. (Rinpoche rings
the bell again.)
After
hitting you, leave it. Right? You’re not continuing to keep, you’re not
holding on, right? This is the sustaining of the undistracted
nonmeditation. Now,
what
is meant by conduct, or putting to use? Earlier I mentioned view,
meditation and conduct, quite a few times. What do you understand by
conduct? When is it needed? What is it?
STUDENT: Post-meditation.
RINPOCHE:
Can somebody else answer? You don’t have to say more than two words,
really, but if you need to, say as much as you want to say.
STUDENT: As soon as one is distracted, to arrive back in awareness effortlessly.
RINPOCHE:
That sounds really good. If you can arrive back in rigpa without
effort, that’s first-class. I didn’t expect that much. If you said
something like, “To deliberately remind yourself to arrive back in
rigpa,” that would be good enough. Even that would be first-class. But
someone training in the way that you expressed means that you’re almost
at the point of stability in rigpa. All objects of distraction have
dissolved into the innate nature
Yin Ling
Soh Wei Yu thanks!
I like how we are talking about $$$ then you remind us about rigpa
Ok back to rigpa d