Rinpoche asks that we listen to today’s teachings with two motivations in mind. First, for the benefit of all beings, our mothers, whose numbers fill the infinity of space, we will attain full and complete enlightenment so that we can bring all these beings to the same level. Secondly, having received these teachings, we will cultivate their experience by practicing the two phases of meditation, and in this way, achieve our own enlightenment.
Today’s teachings are based on the mind treasure of His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, one of the great masters of the Nyingma, the Ancient Ones. They are called The Dakini Heart Essence (Khandro Thuk Thik) and within this cycle, the particular text he is teaching is the foundational practices or ngondro. The text is entitled Restoring Benefit and Happiness: Liturgy of the Foundational Practices of the Profound Path of The Dakini Heart Essence. In Boise, Idaho, last year, Rinpoche taught this text up to the point of receiving the four empowerments in the guru yoga section. Now he will start from there and pick up the thread.
What is Empowerment?
How should we understand the concept of empowerment? Even though we are ordinary beings, our basis is the buddha nature which pervades our being like butter pervades milk or like oil pervades sesame seeds. However, swayed by the power of karma and afflictive states, and lost in dualistic experience and delusion, we have not yet recognized our buddha nature, even though it is the very essence of our mind. Buddhas are not lost in this way. They have fully recognized their buddha nature and, as a result, they have control over what happens to them and what they experience. Compared to this, ordinary beings, have no power. So it should be obvious that we need to get some kind of power if we’re going to reach enlightenment. To speak briefly about the powers that buddhas possess, one of the ten forms of mastery is control over the place of rebirth. Ordinary beings take birth according to the force of karmic accumulation. If they could control their place of birth, they would surely choose happy circumstances; for example, among gods or humans enjoying positive circumstances. Clearly, this is not the case, since they are often born in miserable existences that are much less favorable than even the worst circumstances in the human realm. On the other hand, buddhas have complete control over how and where they manifest in this or any other world. The importance of this form or power is that it enables buddhas to manifest however necessary in order to guide beings to enlightenment. While this is true, we must also keep in mind that on an absolute level, buddhas do not experience birth and death as we do.
