Prueba de caja Blanca

Explaining the instructions on the impermanence of life comes next. The teaching begins with Patrul Rinpoche paying homage to his root lama by praising his qualities.

He saw the three realms of existence as impermanent; Like spit in his mouth, he abandoned the activities of this life.

Through perseverance, he followed in the footsteps of the noble ones. At the feet of my peerless guru, I bow down.

Jigme Gyalwai Nyugu, Patrul Rinpoche’s root teacher, always saw the three realms – the desire realm, the form realm and the formless realm – as impermanent, lacking essence and like an illusion. The nature of the three realms is illusory, without essence and not permanent for even an instant. Since Jigme Gyalwai Nyugu understood the essenceless and impermanent nature of this life’s activities, he abandoned them like a speck of dust, just as we cough out our saliva and mucus with no attachment.

Following the example of past masters, Jigme Gyalwai Ngyugu struggled with body, speech and mind to practice Dharma. Physical and mental hardships occur when pursuing the Dharma. The biographies of past masters reveal their strenuous efforts. Later on, this text describes the unfathomable austerities undertaken by the great Pandita Naropa when following his teacher, Tilopa. Jetsun Milarepa also experienced severe hardships when practicing Dharma with Lhodrag Marpa, his root lama. Likewise, Omniscient Longchen Rabjam made inconceivable efforts of body, speech and mind under Rigdzin Kumaradza’s guidance. Many biographies of masters and scholars relate the extreme efforts they made. With great respect, Patrul Rinpoche prostrates at the feet of his unequalled root guru. In doing so, he prays for the blessing of liberation from attachment to the worldly phenomena of this and future lives and from attachment to samsaric phenomena as a whole by understanding them as impermanent and essenceless.

We should listen to the teachings on impermanence just as we listened to the teachings on precious human rebirth, giving the same importance to motivation and conduct. The main teaching concerns discarding attachment to this life based on the impermanent nature of samsara. Despite the impermanence of worldly life, we retain the mistaken notion that things are real and lasting. We believe in the permanence of samsara and worldly

activities, thereby generating attachment to them. Our erroneous beliefs cause us to remain attached to samsaric phenomena. After being introduced to the real nature of samsara, we will understand it to be illusory, unstable and impermanent, and will overcome our attachment to this life or the next. No longer will we aspire to rebirth as humans or gods. However, we learn that everything is impermanent and without essence not simply to abandon attachment to the world, but because it is the truth of phenomena. Failing to understand this reality causes attachment to arise within us, whereas realizing the true nature of phenomena helps us abandon clinging.

The teachings initially reveal impermanence by leading us to think about outer phenomena. We can easily realize that our bodies are impermanent, but transience is not limited to the body. All samsaric phenomena are fleeting. Both the universe (the vessel for everything) and the inner contents (the beings that inhabit the universe) are impermanent. We must reflect upon this deeply. The true nature of past masters who realized their essential Buddha nature – the primordially enlightened ultimate reality – and thus actualized the transcendental state of nirvana may be permanent, firm and unchanging, but they nevertheless appear as impermanent to beings. For example, our teacher Lord Buddha Shakyamuni possessed all the major and minor marks and had actualized the primordial essence of Dharmakaya. When he manifested to beings, however, he appeared to be impermanent and to pass away into nirvana. In the same way, noble beings of the past who realized the ultimate reality of the buddha nature and attained the ultimate fruition of enlightenment manifested as impermanent. We must contemplate this and reflect upon impermanence.

We should also consider the nature of the “lords of living beings,” which means the mundane gods like Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu and others who have infinite energy and power. They too are impermanent and subject to destruction. By contemplating carefully many examples of impermanence we can understand and realize the concept of transience. Not a single samsaric phenomenon is permanent and stable. All samsaric phenomena can be taken as examples of impermanence. While reflecting upon impermanence we also recall the uncertain causes of death. When we think of what we need to remain alive, medicine, food, health and hygiene always come to mind. Yet if we consider well, death is caused not only by weapons, poisons and enemies – the very causes and conditions of life such as food and medicine can also become factors of death. Except for the practice of pure Dharma, all other phenomena can cause death. This leads us to understand that practicing pure Dharma is the only method that can

keep us from death by bringing us to the immortal, peaceful and ultimate state of nirvana.

We can never know when we will die. When seriously ill, we tend to think we might die soon because of the illness. On the other hand, when not sick or plagued by demons, we assume we will live on because of our good health. In fact, however, both people with diseases and without diseases die. Both young and old people die. There is never any certainty about who will die and who won’t. Were it guaranteed that only sick people died and not the healthy, we could have some assurance. Likewise, if only old people died and not the young, we would have a better idea. This is not the case, however. Death is always uncertain. Young and old, sick and healthy, rich and poor, all die. The causes of death are unfathomable and uncertain.

Reflecting on impermanence as taught will naturally generate within us a strong sensitivity to death during all our daily activities – whether sleeping, walking or sitting down. When we travel to another place, we will realize that we might not return. When we fall asleep at night, we will understand that we may not awaken the next morning. When we eat, we should think that it could be our last meal. We must repeatedly contemplate the impermanence of life.

Having dwelt upon impermanence in this way, one day the thought of impermanence as well as an authentic fear of death will effortlessly arise. When this occurs, merely fearing death will not help; you must ponder what will benefit you at the time of death. You come to understand that only genuine Dharma practice can make death easier. Discarding your fear, resolve to practice Dharma. At this point your efforts to practice should succeed. The main reason for contemplating impermanence as a method of mind training is to generate diligence in Dharma practice throughout day and night.

The example used is how quickly a long-haired woman will act if her hair catches fire. She will naturally do all she can to douse the fire. This teaching is given to encourage similar diligence in practicing Dharma without rest. If someone isn’t interested in Dharma or doesn’t want to make any effort to practice, teaching impermanence serves no purpose even though it does

reflect the true nature of phenomena. If contemplating the impermanent nature of things generates fear of death and interest and diligence in Dharma practice, then training the mind in impermanence is truly valuable.

CONTEMPLATING THE IMPERMANENT NATURE