Vajrasattva Shrine Teaching: On Buddhanature
The following are excerpts from spontaneous teachings Rinpoche gave while sitting in the Vajrasattva shrine at his residence in Half Moon Bay one afternoon during the 2021 Vajrasattva Retreat.
✿ To practice really means to have interest in your buddhanature, the essence of all buddhas,vwhich everybody possesses. If you have pure faith and interest in that, your practice can function!
✿ Thinking your practice is 'good' or 'bad' is just your mind. Instead of focusing on that, just have faith, trust, and interest in the practice.
✿ We always think, “I support the temple.” Yes, that's true. But it also supports you. A temple is a place that supports you in connecting to your buddhanature. Not just you—it supports everyone equally. It doesn't support only some people but not others.
✿ What are you practicing? Everybody wants to say, “I am practicing dzogchen!” Actually, dzogchen means understanding what is already your own—your buddhanature. It means understanding that nature is the nature of everything, and therefore nothing is higher or lower.
✿ Real high lamas such as His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse, and others, are called 'high,' but not because their nature is higher than ours. All the greatest lamas still have the same buddhanature as you. They are called 'high' because they have really practiced and been liberated by recognizing that nature. We didn't! What did we practice? We say we are practicing Vajrasattva, but we don't really know anything. We just think it's fun! Actually, Vajrasattva is all the buddhas' nature—their heart, their essence. Actually, that is just yourself.
✿ We need to learn and practice. What are you learning? Are you learning about somebody else? No, no. You are learning about yourself! You are learning about what you possess—your buddhanature. What kind is it? Is it a yellow one? A red one? A blue one? A square one? A sharp one? No. It has nothing to do with those kinds of things. Your buddhanature is the same as everyone else's. It is not material. Buddha is buddha. Take an interest in learning about that.
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