Awakening to Reality: Career Advise (Part 2)

Just last sentence I don't agree. Even if ur family is ultra rich, it is still important. Lol.

Lol that one different level I cannot comment

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Yin Ling part of my job is to deal with the very rich so probably a bad habit to always nag abt their behaviour.

But don't want to talk about business, taking a breather now.

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John Tan ESPECIALLY if your family wealthy, important to challenge oneself independent of fortuitous conditions

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Angelo Grr well said!

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Lol …

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Start a GoFundMe page

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William Lim who will give lah

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But I think the op is a good one. This question probably has surfaced in the mind of many practitioners, me included.

Yea someone asked me whether they should quit Singapore housemanship or not today, I feel worried for their future so advise against.

Doing housemanship will make one rather want to become monk

🫣

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Yin Ling imo that is appropriate and measured advice. A balance of worldly wisdom and transcendental wisdom is needed.

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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

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Yin Ling yes. It is hard and u have to shadow under a doctor for few years in sg even u r fully registered doctor in other countries. I must say that the medical organisation here has a lot of control over the number supply of doctors.

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I heard of this when I was thinking of going there to earn sing dollar. Hehe.

Then i thought i cannot work with Singaporeans

it will make me look lazy.

I went to Britain instead. They make me look hardworking

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Yin Ling actually not that hard if u r working for private unless u setup ur own clinic as an entrepreneur then that is a different story.

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Yea. Singapore only recognise 2 uni in Malaysia or sthg and even if I already have post grad certification they don’t care lol 🥹

so I need to retake exams and retrain in the service for years before being recognised. Then come out to private. Take too long.

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Yin Ling yes I understand.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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John Tan I agree

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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.

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Thanks! Very enlightening. Ur experience of insights in business is actually very very rare

These things nobody can teach us

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Yin Ling no lah

. Business is actually extremely dynamic esp during crisis, u need essencelessness

....

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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"

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

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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

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Xpe chok. Will not be as bad as Malaysia. And I thought setahun aje suffer rotation lepas tu kat gp aje mostly?

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Hahaha I like the equation of having earning power to "not shitty life"

Well. Isn’t it? Lol

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Yin Ling definitely haha

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We need to be honest

Money can solve some problems though not all lol

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Renounce and become monk ?

What if you don’t like the monk life ? And you don’t have a skill? What happens?

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Well have to do homework first b4 entering to that life .....

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Very hard one.

U won’t know how gila a woman is until you be intimate with her.

Lol

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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.

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Ng Xin Zhao

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

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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.

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U r practising well in lay life. Just keep going

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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.

https://www2.kenyon.edu/.../Adler/Reln260/Vimalakirti.htm

Mr. J.P. H I think as long as you have a skill for living that’s fine.

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Tan Jui Horng

Mr. J.P. H You can always consider doing volunteer work to cover the service part.

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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

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Mr. RDT thank you!

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Sim Pern Chong

Thanks for the sharing.

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

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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

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Sim Pern Chong lol. Maybe should look at ur BAZI. Joking.

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Sim Pern Chong

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

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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 ..

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Yin Ling ic thks. Sg locum is abt sgd 100/hr also.

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John Tan wow nice . For GP? That is a lot

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Yin Ling yes some experienced GP even higher.

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You are going uk to work as gp?

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should have become a gp and work in Singapore.

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Soh Wei Yu yeah I got offer a training place to become one for the glorious nhs

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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.

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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)

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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

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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?

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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.

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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

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Yin Ling I thought doctor life very glamorous like Grey's Anatomy

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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

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Yin Ling what better way to destress?

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Ppl dying left right Center ok. How to got mood lol

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Mr. RDT

This might be of interest to some as a sidenote to this discussion

May be an image of text that says 'What you LOVE PASSION MISSION What you are GOOD AT Ikigai What thwod the NEEDS PROFESSION VOCATION What you can be PAID FOR'

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http://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2021/12/career-advise.html

I copied some career advise by tsoknyi rinpoche

AWAKENINGTOREALITY.COM

Career Advise

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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

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Yeah breathing meditation more inclined to samatha and emphasis on tranquility seems more appropriate.. along with just general relaxation activities as you mentioned

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from https://www.amazon.com/Carefree-Dignity.../dp/9627341320

“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

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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