Being one with your yidam
(By Tsem Rinpoche)
There are awakened forces out there who we call Buddhas that are fully free of ignorance and all that comes as part and parcel of ignorance. Who are in touch with themselves and see directly all phenomena as they really are. Hence nothing in existence is unseen to them. Who have eliminated all kleshas/delusions/illusions. Who are free from the fetters of all karma and its results. These Buddhas show us our potential and our Buddha nature and give us paths to lead to this awakening. We need to let go of fear, wrong view, and wrong projections due to lack of knowledge. With study, knowledge and application, our fears do dissipate. Once we do this, engage and accept the lineal blessings of an initiation and go head on fully with a practice of a Yidam-Buddha and we can become fully awakened.
The Buddha has shown us how in the tantric set of teachings He taught that this can be accomplished. To surrender everything is to gain something higher and more. So in the end our loss is perceived only. For in reality to lose everything is just the fear and avoidance of eventually losing it in the end anyways. All is lost in the end. Having to lose everything in the end, means we actually had nothing. Having something has to denote some sort of permanence. When it is not permanent, how can we actually ‘have’ something? We don’t. So holding on makes no sense.
Take on a practice, make no excuses and practice all the way. Become one with yourself, your inner Buddha relying on the outer Yidam-Buddha at first and then become awakened. With that light of awakening, rest not in the bliss and freedom of Nirvana but go out and benefit others. All Yogis and Yoginis of the past have done this and all of us can follow the same direction without fear or doubt. Just go all the way here and now and be consistent!
Tsem Rinpoche
For more readings to help you understand:
- https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/category/vajra-yogini
- https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/vajradhara-and-84-mahasiddhas.html
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‘Be diligent and consistent’ in our Dharma practice. This verse kept ringing in my head. May Rinpoche return swiftly.
Very short but very profound teachings . Buddhism brings our attention to the many different types of suffering we encounter in our life. Suffering is a constituent of life. Once we know the truth of suffering, we will seek the way to overcome suffering. Once we accept suffering exists we are on the path to liberate ourselves. By learning the Buddha’s teachings, listening the Dharma teachings and immersing ourselves in the Dharma, we are reminded ourselves of the wrong doings and become more aware of ourselves. And applying what we learn by helping people in suffering. Make no excuses and practice all the way ,avoid suffering, letting go our attachment, hatred and delusion which are a by-product of ignorance. I am indeed fortunate to have met Rinpoche in this life , learning , practicing Dharma.
Thank you Rinpoche with folded hands for this profound teachings.
This reminds me of the oft quoted story of the Buddha when asked about what he had gained by his meditations and he replied that he gained nothing but lost Anger, Anxiety, Depression, Insecurity, Fear of Old, Age and Death instead.
“To surrender everything is to gain something higher and more. So in the end our loss is perceived only.” – holds so true to the Buddha’s quote.
So, we do need to study and gain knowledge to apply, engage and accept the lineal blessings of an initiation and go head on fully with a practice of a Yidam-Buddha and we can become fully awakened.
So, we do have to be one with ourselves so that we can let go and get in touch with our inner selves and be consistent with whatsoever practice that have been given to us by our Guru.
Thank you, Rinpoche for this teaching.
感谢仁波切的淺短卻甚深层的教言，我将时时刻刻緊记，一切都是無常，無自性，唯一的邏輯思考要做的就是放下一切妄念，一路走下去。
Thank you very much Rinpoche for your constant reminder to us with regards to our precious human life and our true purpose in life if we truly seek the Dharma.
Our ignorance and attachment had occupied most of our time . Our clouded mind tend to set aside what we need to do in order to gain mind transformation .
All the tools had been so generously laid in front of us.Be still we choose to procrastinate as if tomorrow never comes.
We must stay vigilant to tame our mind in order for us to practice mindfulness and not regret it the future when the end draws near.
What is express here, serve as a reminder to myself ,as I need to awake the latent buddha trap within myself in order to gain mind transformation .Hopefully with the wisdom gain from the process to help others in the future…..
Thank you Rinpoche ‘ s sharing . It was the truth we own nothing , what we have now is temporary.we need to understand when death come,nothing we can bring along except own karma . We need to follow our spiritual guide undoubtedly to guide us to find our inner Buddha .Very profound losing actually is gaining high attainments .
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you very much for this profound teaching. To gain awakening, as you have put it, is for us to drop all our attachments and practice our Yidam-Buddha relationship.
For me it is easier said than done, but at least I believe that since I’ve come to Kechara Dharma center, I have began my journey on this path and appreciate that with my faith, I pray and may the Buddhas bless all of us to go further.
Thank you.
Lum Kok Luen
This is a short teaching, but very profound.Our sufferings come from the fear of losing something, or they come from the desire to having something. What we do not understand is that everything we claim to having will be gone anyway, either they are worn off, die, stolen or because we die.
When we understand it, we will gradually reduce the sufferings we create for ourselves. In order to understand it, we need to appy what we learn in Dharma in our daily life. So far, found the best place to learn an the ground for us to apply Dharma is to go to a Dharma centre.
Thank you Rinpoche for the profound teaching. To surrender everything is to gain something higher and more. We know about this but still fear to let go everyone. We must study dharma to improve our dharma knowledge, apply the practices and the fear will dissipate.
With that light of awakening, rest not in the bliss and freedom of Nirvana but go out and benefit other.
All Yogis and Yoginis of the past have done this and all of us can follow the same direction without fear or doubt.
We just need to go all the ways and be consistent.
“To surrender everything is to gain something higher and more. So in the end our loss is perceived only. For in reality to lose everything is just the fear and avoidance of eventually losing it in the end anyways. All is lost in the end. Having to lose everything in the end, means we actually had nothing. Having something has to denote some sort of permanence. When it is not permanent, how can we actually ‘have’ something? We don’t. So holding on makes no sense.”
This paragraph says it all. It is most profound and probably easier to understand than to actually realising it and putting it in to our deluded reality. But when we do actually realise this, the feeling would be most uplifting. That I know from personally experiences of losing someone or something I love. If I never met the Dharma it would probably be extra hard to actually move on when some tragic situation happens. This then fills on up with much depression and anger inside which eats you up inside.
After meeting the Dharma, this type of knowledge actually becomes an experience that you realise which makes you, for me personally, move on easier and accept the situation much better. Hence we can observe the world we live in today, we see the rise in depression as they tend to accumulate all the things that are impermanent and chase after a happiness they perceive would be lasting yet when they face with a loss, all things tend to crush down.
To connect with ones own true Buddha/awakened nature to me would be to totally be free of such wrong perceptions and to realise that because all things are impermanent, hence you tend to appreciate all things as they are with the realisation that it is not permanent so we tend to let go easier, faster and love without attachments (probably the hardest thing to do). But when we can surrender fully to this teaching, we find instead of losing we actually gain freedom from samsara’s cycle and everything just becomes lighter.
Thank you Rinpoche for this very profound teaching which is actually directed at us to pave the way for higher teachings and practice.
Everything in this world is so uncertain, so temporary, when we though that our belonging bring us happiness, the next minute, we went into deep depression due to losing it. Then we tend to ask ourselves, where is happiness, what I want to achieve in life.
We often couldn’t figure out what we want, why are we here, what is the purpose of life, and there is a lot of why? what? how? etc, etc. All these question mark is due to the lack of knowledge, when the answer is right in front of us, we deny it, we close up for new things, and we went back to the same situation again and again.
We must be opened to receive new changes, we must realize things are impermanent, we must know the causes of our suffering, by having this realization, we will be able to find our inner peace, because we don’t cling onto things that bring us temporary happiness and long term depression.
Buddha’s teaching is not to learn just for fun or FYI kinda thingy, but it is for us to apply into our daily life and eventually it will lead us to find our inner Buddha.
This is a constant reminder as David mentioned. We own nothing, everything are borrowed – our body …it’s like a hotel, check in today and have to check out anytime.
And I have one question on “become one with yourself” which I am not able to figure out:
When Rinpoche says “become one with yourself”, does it means we never become one with ourself, we live a separate life as another person/self, and this self is not the real self inside?
BE CONSISTENT IS THE KEY, especially in a practice. A practice that that helps us to let go of fear, wrong view, and wrong projections.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this amazing post! Short and profound!
Thank you for your advice Rinpoche. It is most consistent with Lord Buddha’s teaching. We do not lose anything but gain liberation if we go all the way and do not look back. We have just to rely on you, you are our hope Rinpoche.
Short yet a profound teaching. Thank you, Rinpoche.
Dear Rinpoche, what struct me most in this post is “To surrender everything is to gain something higher and more.Having to lose everything in the end means we actually had nothing. When it is not permanent, how can we actually ‘have’ something? So holding on makes no sense.It’s true.Buddhas show us our potential and our Buddha nature and give us paths to lead to this awakening. So we must practice all the way. Thank you for this profound teaching.
[…] Being one with your yidam (tsemtulku.com) […]
Thank you Rinpoche for this teaching. The point that left a strong impression is that “having to lose everything in the end, means we actually had nothing”. It makes so much sense! With this thought, I will work to let go of both my tangible and intangible possessions that will lead to freedom.
“For in reality to lose everything is just the fear and avoidance of eventually losing it in the end anyways.”
I love this and it reminds me of a teaching Rinpoche once gave on how nothing actually belongs to us. We come into the world with nothing and we leave with nothing. Everything is sort of on loan to us, and we become attached to something that never really belonged to us in the first place. It’s like becoming attached to a house that you rent, knowing that the tenancy agreement will come to an end and you’ll have to return it anyway.
The most difficult part of this, I think, is understanding that this extends to our bodies too – even our bodies are “on loan” and will have to be returned to the earth. I find this easy to understand on an intellectual level, but hard to internalise for real. Rinpoche has explained that if we did realise this, we’d change everything we do. So many of our problems arise from us believing that we are permanent and lasting, and not wanting to “lose” this life and body.
Have just revisited this post and as always, the teachings bounce out at me in a slightly different way whenever I read it again after a while. This time, this stuck out for me: “To surrender everything is to gain something higher and more.” I fear loss quite a lot but I am starting to see how the more we cling to something, the harder the loss is when it eventually happens and the more painful it becomes. Sometimes, even if there is no reason to fear the loss of something, we live so much in the fear that we somehow, subconsciously end up creating the causes for that exact loss to happen.
I thought of this a while ago – that we can only really have and enjoy something if we are truly 100% okay about NOT having it. (thinking and realising though, I know are two very different things). What a funny paradox and one that’s quite difficult to get to for as long as we hold on to something with a certain idea of how it should be. This is, I suppose, the very reason why the people who often have the least are the happiest, and the ones who have so much live in such constant fear, anxiety, suspicion, hunger and sadness.
Every time I read or hear the wonderful teachings from Rinpoche, practising Dharma to benefit self and others seem so logical and simple, but yet I keep falling and slipping from the teachings and create great unhappiness for myself.
I trust so much that the negativities that I have accumulated for so long will arise and haunt me and make me fall and slip, but with perseverance I will continue to practise and depend on Rinpoche’s teachings until I make it.
Need so much to rid myself from my supreme ignorance.
We need to realize that whatever we have, we will leave them at the time of death. Even we have to leave our body behind. Realizing this we will be able to practice non attachment when we are still alive and let go of the fear of losing.
We are very fortunate to have Rinpoche here with us to constantly remind and imparts profound teachings to us. What we need to do is to apply Rinpoche’s teachings into our lives, be consistent in our practice and never give up or give excuses and go all the way.
I met people who said they do not want to be tied up with any Dharma centre, or any religion, they believe in themselves, as long as they doing good, everything will be fine, which is actually nothing wrong about it.
But from what I see is that they are still not happy and has many worries and doubts in themselves. After so many years of their way/version of practicing still bring not much happiness, why not try the method which people had gone through and proved with satisfied result? Besides, how many more years we can spend on searching the path ourselves, what happen if we found out that the way we have been doing is not leading us to the result we want? This is also provided that we are constantly 24, 7 non stop trying and searching too.
We are lucky to have practices and Dharma online for us, just right in front of us!
Thank you Rinpoche for this very profound teaching which is actually directed at us to pave the way for higher teachings and practice. Yes, we need to renounce our fears of losing things which are impermanent, and which we will lose in the end anyway. And this includes our body, and all the things we cling too in this life. When death comes, we have to abandon all.
Why wait to realize all this when it will be too late? If we can just let go and surrender NOW all our fears,our delusions and our projections , and proceed, with this mind of total renunciation, to embrace the lineage blessings of an initiation and a yidam practice, then by relying on this outer Buddha/Yidam,we become one with our Yidam and realize our inner Buddha nature and become full awakened and enlightened , to benefit all beings.
thank you so much for this transmission Rinpoche
Reading this, the word “consistent” keep appear in my mind. I realized that I read and I understand and I forget again. I realized this is to do with what we think of Commitment, we always think commitment is we lose our “freedom”, or being “trapped”. In actual fact we are ignorant. We are actually under the illusion of we are free. That is why in my mind I feel that enlightenment is very far from me and is not easy to be there. Thank you Rinpoche for this article which help me to realize that there can be no ‘maintenance’ of enlightenment without consistent practice.
Shelly tai on 3rd otc at 629pm
Dear Rinpoche thanks for the advice i will not let go my pratice no matter how difficult the situation because everything we have now is not permanent why hold on to it and all these thing we have now is not the ultimate peace and happiness we want.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for your constant reminder of who we are and what we can be. We are indeed fortunate that Rinpoche distils the ancient wisdom of Tantra into understandable bite size chunks. This is all very practical and all we have to do is reconsider our priorities in life. Its funny as I am writing this, its more like I am telling myself and not Rinpoche. Such reflections are important more for ourselves than for the audience.
As said by Rinpoche, being one with the Yidam, we need to let go of fear, wrong view and wrong projections due to lack of knowledge. With study, knowledge and application, our fears do dissipate. Once we do this, engage and accept the Lineage Blessings of an initiation and go head on fully with the practice of a Yidam-Buddha and we can become fully awakened, as proven by the Buddha. All yoginis and yogis of the past have done this and all of us can follow the same direction without fear or doubt. Thank you Rinpoche, as always, for showing us the best of ways!
Dear Rinpoche,
I take your advise to heart with renewed confidence and vigor. Everything is impermanent. The only logically think to do is let go and go all the way.
Dear Rinpoche,
This article come just in time to dismiss my negative illusion and wrong views.
Fears, attachments, wrong views, illusions , fault hopes is making my mind becoming more unclear, sinking and even drowning. Thus its’ leads to giving up, pausing; all because of my ego excuses.
This article’s key words
1) To surrender everything is to gain something higher and more.
2) When it is not permanent, how can we actually ‘have’ something? We don’t.
3) Take on a practice, make no excuses and practice all the way.
4) your inner Buddha relying on the outer Yidam-Buddha at first and then become awakened.
I am sharing this precious articles to my friends. Thank you Rinpoche .
With love and folded hand
thank you for your comment Freon very useful!
Rinpoche… you are indeed kukkaripa incarnated! I too hope one day to be a yogin like them too
We don’t own even our bodies actually, if we don’t even own our bodies what can we bring to our future lives that can actually benefit us, just our mind. So we do need to spend some time to train our minds and not just think of indulging in our worldly pleasures or senses.
Dear Rinpoche,
Many thanks for the reminder and also for the links, especially the one on the stories of the 84 Mahasiddhas, very interesting and inspiring read.
Understanding the need to let go and accepting the importance of letting go are so much easier than the actual act of letting go.
Must we all experience a life-crisis in order to realise what we must do?
Sean
Many people I met said they would like very much to find their own inner peace or inner self and let their voices within their heart to lead to a better life. They prefer not to “attach” with any centre, and religion, and practice but just follow their heart…
But many of them are still not happy and some have quite bad temper, it is quite clear that they are not satisfied with their life but due to maybe their laziness and face, they refuse to follow any religion or teacher or Guru. If we can just sit their get all the questions answered, then why we still go to school and study and select the subject we wanted to study in University and follow what the professor said. I think deep down inside many people know they have many things to work on and they do not want to get involve in any centre and Guru so that they will not get confronted or asked to improve themselves. Changing oneself need to be brave too.
If we do not have the answer to a happier life, why not follow the path of the people who found it?
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