Kalu Rinpoche | Stages in the Path of Illusion | Lesson 1 (Part 5)

སྒྱུ་མ་གདོད་ནས་མ་གྲུབ་པ། །
ཐོག་མ་མེད་པའི་དབྱིངས་ཉིད་ནི། །
ཆོས་རྣམས་ཀུན་གྱི་ས་བོན་ཏེ། །
བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་དགེ་བའང་དེ། །
སྙིང་པོ་ཀུན་གཞིར་གྲགས་པའོ། །

So basically the nature of the mind is beginningless and the foundation of everything and then the primary of our practice.

ཆོས་རྣམས་སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུ་ལ། །
དད་བརྩོན་གུས་པའི་མཆོག་ལྡན་པས། །
སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུར་སྒོམས་བྱས་ན། །
སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུར་མངོན་སངས་རྒྱས་། །

So this is a very famous teachings of the Niguma herself. Of course, there’re many different teachings of Niguma, for nature of the mind, Mahamudra, and meditation teaching, but the very special word of Niguma is ཆོས་རྣམས་སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུ་ལ། ། , it meaning when we speak about the Dharma, it has two meanings. Because when we speak about Dharma, many people think about the Dharma as in text, yes, that is dharma. And but all the phenomena, all the exterior phenomena, interior phenomena, everything is Dharma. So, you have to understand in that way.

ཆོས་རྣམས་སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུ་ལ། །

All the exterior phenomena is like illusion.

དད་བརྩོན་གུས་པའི་མཆོག་ལྡན་པས། །

Those who have a sense of determination, diligence and sense of genuine to the Dharma, combined together without fixated mind , and then you will be reaching to the Enlightenment very easily, or without any forced or without any grudge or without any hardship. Let’s put it like this.

སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུར་སྒོམས་བྱས་ན། །
སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུར་མངོན་སངས་རྒྱས་། །

It is a little bit like how we look into our past life. When we look back in our life, maybe we are 30 years old or 40 years old or 50 years old, 60 years old, or more than that, or less than that. And then when we look back, it seemed like yesterday. It was not that long when you look back. Of course, all the journey was very long, like an example when you have to exam in your school, it looks very long, you’re having a very bad day, feels very long. But, when you look back in life, the life seem just like a yesterday.

But that is in the ordinary perception. But what Niguma is trying to say is that, if you have this kind of a mindset, without fixated perception, if you have a mindset without any fixated perception, but rather with a sense of diligence, genuine, determination, combined together without the fixation to the external reality, then the Enlightenment is a swift journey. That’s what she means.

Kalu Rinpoche
Teaching on Stages in the Path of Illusion, Lesson 1, Part 5
7th Aug. 2021