There is not a single sentient being who, over the course of our past lives, has not been our mother or father and so treated us with enormous kindness. Instead of discriminating, then, between enemies and loved ones, it should be quite natural for us to have the same feeling of love for all beings as we have for our parents in this life. Each and every one of them, without exception, wishes only to find happiness, and yet, blinded by ignorance, they fail to recognise that the true cause of that happiness is to accomplish the Dharma. Equally, there is not one of them who wants to suffer, and yet they do not recognise that the very cause of their suffering is negative actions. Simply reflecting on this will cause a great wave of compassion to surge up inside our minds.

However, a mere feeling of compassion on its own is not sufficient to help all beings actually reach the supreme level of enlightenment. Right now we have obtained this precious human body, we have met a qualified teacher, and by receiving his instructions we have crossed the threshold of the Dharma.

So we find ourselves at a turning point—we can either go up or go down. Our principal motivation now must be the wish to establish all beings in complete enlightenment. Yet, at the same time, we need to acknowledge that at present we simply do not possess the ability to free beings from samsara. Therefore it is essential for us first of all to perfect our inner potential, along with all its qualities. It is with this kind of supreme attitude—one aimed at the benefit of all sentient beings—that we should endeavour with all our strength to receive the teachings, reflect on them, and put them into practice.

What practice can we do, then, to liberate all beings, to bring them to the highest level of enlightenment? At the moment, we have this most precious human body, which is not just some ordinary physical body, but the perfect support. It is endowed with eight freedoms from unfavourable conditions, and ten advantages or favourable conditions, and so it is known as the “jewel-like human body.” It is this which gives us the freedom to practice the Dharma.

However, to have this body is, by itself, not enough. We need to use it straightaway to practice the Dharma, for death may strike at any moment.

One fact we must realise is how all phenomena—both the outer universe and all the beings within it—are utterly impermanent. They pass like a flash of lightning striking through the sky, or like a waterfall rushing down, without an instant’s pause. Just as the outer universe changes with the passing of the seasons, so from morning to evening, from moment to moment, the same holds true for human beings. It says in the sutras:

Whatever is born will die,

Whatever is gathered will be dispersed,

Whatever is joined together will come apart,

Whatever is high will be brought low.

This is why we should seize the opportunity of this human life now, so as to practice towards enlightenment, instead of squandering it, entangled in worldly affairs and preoccupations, always seeking to outdo our enemies and protect our kin, or look after our business affairs, land, and property. There we are, engrossed in all these activities, when suddenly death strikes us down. It will be too late then to practice the Dharma.

However beautiful you are, you will never beguile the Lord of Death. However rich you may be, you can never buy even one moment of life. However much power and influence you command, all your wealth and all your worldly achievements will in the end be utterly useless. Only the Dharma can help at the time of death.

Although it is a crucial point, simply to remember death is not enough; now that we have good health and freedom in both body and mind, we need to channel all our energy into practicing the Dharma. We should check, day after day, that we are not wasting our lives and that we are making every effort to blend the Dharma—the priceless instructions of the teacher—with our mindstream.

If we are able to do this and we are the best kind of practitioner, then at the time of death we shall be free from all fear and recognise the dharmakaya, the absolute nature.

If we are a middling practitioner, we shall have the confidence of knowing that we will not be deluded by any of the phenomena that appear in the bardo state, and that we will then be able to achieve enlightenment.

And if we are the most ordinary kind of practitioner, at the very least we will be free from regret, because we will be confident we have done our best to practice the Dharma, and therefore we will not take rebirth in the lower realms, but find the support we need in the next life to continue our Dharma practice.

What we must realise is that at the moment of death we are plucked from this life like a hair drawn from a piece of butter, leaving everything behind, including this body we have held so dear. Death is not like a fire that simply goes out, or like water that vanishes when it lands on dry ground. There will be rebirth, and this rebirth will be conditioned by our positive and negative actions.

If we have accumulated negative actions, we will be reborn in the lower realms. However much we long to be reborn in the celestial realms, unless we have prepared for this by accumulating positive actions, it will be quite impossible.

As it is said: “There is no result that we have experienced that was not created by past actions, and there is not a single present action that will not bear fruit.” So we should never feel contempt towards accumulating even the smallest amount of merit and virtue, because the results can be enormous. Nor should we ever think that if we indulge in only a tiny negative action it is of little or no significance.

Following an authentic teacher and having received his instructions, we have to discriminate with great care between what is to be avoided and what is to be adopted, realising that negative actions are the very cause of our ceaseless wandering in samsara.

This is why we need to ensure that all our actions are governed by the Three Noble Principles.

First is the preparation, which is the generation of bodhicitta—the wish to carry out whatever actions or accomplish whatever practice we can for the sake of all sentient beings. This links our practice with the supreme skilful means.

Second is the actual practice, which is one-pointed concentration, free from any clinging. This renders our practice invulnerable to obstacles.

Third is the conclusion, the dedication of all our merit for the good of all beings. This causes the merit of our practice to continue increasing until enlightenment. The very highest way of dedicating meritorious and positive actions is to do so for the enlightenment of all beings.

With these Three Noble Principles as our guide, we should constantly endeavour to cultivate goodness. We may amass all kinds of worldly virtue and merit, which may bring us temporary results like long life or wealth, but one day the fruit of all this merit will be exhausted, and we will plunge yet again into the lower realms.

Even though the followers of the Fundamental Vehicle, the Sravakas and Pratyekabuddhas, can free themselves from samsara, it takes an extremely long time, many aeons in fact, for them to reach buddhahood.

Through the supreme path of the Mahayana, the bodhisattvas’ Great Vehicle, we can attain buddhahood swiftly, for the sake and benefit of all others.

If we truly wish to find freedom from this ocean of suffering, nothing could be more vital than to seek a correct, universal, and ultimate source of refuge.

But first, we need to recognise the nature of samsara because until and unless we realise that samsara is totally pervaded by suffering, a strong sense of renunciation will never arise in our minds. We will only go on thinking that samsara is enjoyable, and the thought of wanting to escape from it will never even occur to us. This is why it is so important to reflect deeply on samsara and to realise that we are caught up in it like people trapped in the confines of a prison. There is no way that a prisoner can possibly escape by means of his or her own strength, but only by appealing for help from someone in a position of greater power. In exactly the same way, we need the aid of someone who has gone beyond samsara.

We might wonder, “When did samsara begin?” No one except an omniscient buddha could point and say, “This is the beginning of samsara.” The delusion perpetuated in samsara’s ocean of suffering has gone on throughout an infinite series of lives, and will continue for aeons if we do not do something to remedy it. As the Buddha said in the Sutra of Close Mindfulness:

If we were to pile up the limbs of all the insects

Which had been our bodies in past lives,

They would make a mountain higher than Mount Meru.

What ordinary beings fail to recognise is that samsara is nothing but suffering. They are like people afflicted with an eye condition that causes them to see a white conch shell as yellow. However hard they look, they will never see it as white.

Three main types of suffering prevail in samsara: suffering upon suffering, suffering of change, and all-pervasive suffering.

“Suffering upon suffering” is when one experience of suffering comes right on top of another. A good example would be the continuously renewed suffering endured in the hells and other lower realms.

“The suffering of change” is the constant change and fluctuation that takes place between fleeting states of happiness and suffering. Enjoyment, wealth, or fame may come our way, but they never last. Say, for instance, one lovely summer’s day we go on a picnic with our friends. One moment we are sitting there on the grass, relaxed, carefree and contented, and then suddenly we are bitten by a snake. This is the suffering of change.

“All-pervasive suffering” indicates that suffering pervades samsara in its entirety and is always latent within it. Even those who dwell absorbed in states of deep samadhi on the higher planes of existence, like the formless celestial beings, do not escape suffering. When their karma and the fruits of their concentration are exhausted, they will fall once again into the lower realms, because their inner poisons have not been eradicated.

What refuge can we seek for protection and freedom from this ocean of suffering? Ordinary objects of refuge such as mountains, stars, natural forces, or powerful individuals, which are not free from samsara themselves, cannot offer us enduring and universal protection. They can only disappoint us. The one and only supreme and infallible source of refuge—the one which is utterly free from any partiality, free from all attachment or rejection, and which possesses a universal compassion towards all beings—is the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.

The Buddha manifests as the three kayas and five wisdoms, which comprise all the qualities of having discarded whatever is to be discarded, and having realised whatever is to be realised. The Dharma is the teaching given by the Buddha, which shows the path and leads to the cessation of suffering. The Sangha is the virtuous community, endowed with all the noble qualities of understanding and liberation.

On the innermost level, the Three Jewels are all gathered within the lama, or guru: his body is the Sangha, his speech is the Dharma, and his mind is the Buddha. He is like a wish-fulfilling jewel, the unerring union of all sources of refuge, his absolute nature beyond the intellectual mind. To remember the guru is the same as thinking of all the buddhas. This is why, if we rely on him totally, just this in itself will embrace the entire meaning and purpose of refuge.

Then, the principal path towards enlightenment is the generation of bodhicitta. Up until now we have segregated enemies and friends, those whom we wish to reject and those whom we wish to attract. But now we should think of all beings, without any discrimination, as being like our very own parents who have shown us the very greatest kindness. And if we stop to think about how kind our parents have been to us—how they clothed us, fed us, and devoted all of their time to our benefit and well-being—then our natural response and desire will be only to show our gratitude.

All beings wish to achieve happiness and avoid suffering, but because they do not know how to do so, all they succeed in doing is causing themselves more suffering. Everything they do runs counter to the fulfilment of their wishes. In order to free them all from suffering and lead them to enlightenment, we must not only arouse a strong feeling of compassion for them in our minds, but also we must act upon it and strive to put it into practice through the six perfections. The six perfections are: giving with generosity, maintaining discipline, meditating on patience, endeavouring with diligence, resting in equanimity, and realising egolessness through the wisdom of discernment.

Source: Excerpted from Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse. Guru Yoga: According to the Preliminary Practice of Longchen Nyingtik. An Oral Teaching by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Translated by Matthieu Ricard. Boulder, CO: Snow Lion, 1999.

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