The Three Defects of the Pot

    In the first chapter of Words of My Perfect Teacher, Patrul Rinpoche begins the chapter entitled "The Difficulty in Finding the Freedoms and Advantages" with an aside:  Before launching into the topic the first section is how one properly listens to the teachings.  
   
     It's striking when I reflect that in the years of my schooling, from elementary school through College, I can't remember anywhere being taught something like this.  One usually begins with the subject at hand.  When is the subject at hand the act of learning?
   
     And yet that is how Rinpoche begins.  Of course there is nothing particularly novel to his presentation:  In his words he is merely recollecting his own master's teachings, his perfect words.  And they are perfect because they are absolutely unerring.  And they are unerring because they begin at the beginning.  
   
    How does one listen to the teachings?  The presentation  discusses the attitude and the conduct, that which to avoid and that which to adopt.Regarding the attitude the single focus of all the Buddhas teachings is to bring all beings to a state of unsurpassed enlightenment, beyond suffering or obscuration.  This is the attitude of all traditions included in the Mahayana.  For a Vajrayana practitioner, this is combined with the vast skillful means where one intends to perfect the methods by which numberless sentient beings may be brought onto the path of liberation.  


    With these kept in mind, one listens in a manner that  avoids the three defects of the pot.  It is so common in these teachings (indeed in all teachings of antiquity) to use metaphors to communicate the essence of the dharma.  And here the image of the pot is used.  


The three wrong ways of listening to the dharma are akin to the three wrong ways to drink water from a pot (or a cup).  The first way is with a pot that is turned over.  One may try to pour water into it but in doing so water splashes all over the place because the pot is turned over and cannot receive any water.  Likewise is the individual whose mind is absolutely closed off to a new perspective.  One may debate until the end of the day and that person will remain unmoved.  The mind is dead set against receiving anything new and will absolutely not here the sound of reason. Perhaps this brings to mind any one of countless political debates in which the debate opponents do not actually respond to each others reasonings, but responds with an entirely different line of reasoning or ad hominem attack. 


    The second defect of the pot is the pot pot that is right side up yet when one attempts to fill it, realizes the water spills out because there are holes in the pot.  This is akin to the kind of listener who receives teachings "in one ear and out the other".  The teachings are heard but make absolutely no dent in one's view or conduct and are quickly forgotten.  Perhaps this is like a parent telling a child that they've got to do there homework with the child's response being " I know!  You told me five times already.  I'll do it- just leave me a lone."  And then forgets to do it.  


    The third defect of the pot is the rightly turned pot that has no holes in it.  One pours water into it and lo and behold!  There are no holes and the pot retains the water.  But when one gets close to drink, one is repelled by the stench of refuse, excrement and bodily fluids as this is a chamber pot.  One cannot drink the water because the water is impure.  This is akin to the listener who listens to the teachings and tries to make the teachings fit into the context of their egoic disposition.  An example may be a wealthy investor who hears the teachings of compassion and says to himself, "yes; in order to be compassionate I must generate as much wealth as possible as only then will I be able to give of my wealth. "  He subsequently does generate more wealth but doesn't realize that he has taken the teachings to aggrandize his own earnings and has not actually contributed to the welfare of others.  Another example is the Westerner who encounters some of the Tantric teachings and says"  since the truth is beyond good and evil, this means that everything is permissible."  


    The teachings are meant to transform the mind and shed light on areas of darkness and resistance   If   we try to make the teachings conform to our immediate disposition, we have perhaps a convenient palliative to make us feel good, but not a teaching that can transform our mind and eradicate suffering.  


    This is why this teaching comes first at the beginning:  No amount of reflection, meditation, prostration,mantra recitation, mandala offering or dedication of merit will have an impact on the mind that refuses to listen to the teachings, or the mind that quickly forgets what it has just learned, or mixes the teachings with the poisons of Ignorance, Desire, Hatred, Jealousy and Pride.  May I take these truths and apply them to my mind, may they not remain as dry exposition but retain the warmth of a teaching that is lived!  May all beings find rest in the expanse in which phenomena rest. 

    The Ngondro teachings are practiced in stages, as are all teachings of the dharma.  Each stage builds upon the understanding gained from studying, contemplating, meditating and applying the teachings that were taught previously.  Without having taken the time to integrate these teachings, the dharma becomes something of a conversation piece rather than something that has visceral power to change one's life.  Ngondro, which can be translated as foundation or as preliminaries,  although some commentators caution that understanding Ngondro as preliminary practices is misleading as it might suggest that  they have lesser value than later practices.  This is universally considered a mistake: His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche says:  

Therefore, for the ultimate truth of the Great Perfection to appear in your mind depends upon the preliminary practices.  This is what Drikungpa meant when he said:  "Other spiritual teachings regard the main practice as being profound.  We regard the preliminary practices as being profound."

It is just as he said.

    However I do think it is useful to think of the Ngondro as those practices that come before in the same way that the foundation must be built before erecting the building.  And as the translators of Words of My Perfect Teacher have elected to use "Preliminaries", that suites me as well.

    Accordingly, Patrul Rinpoche presents the Ngondro in two stages:  the Outer Preliminaries and the Inner Preliminaries.  The Outer preliminaries include:

1. The preciousness of a human birth.
2. Impermanence
3. The Principle of Causality.
4. The suffering of cyclic existence.

    Without understanding well these four principles, one will not really be able to set out on the path free from suffering.  It is said that the thing that makes one a Buddhist, regardless of which tradition one practices or where one has been born, is the taking of Refuge in the Buddha, the dharma and the sangha.  Refuge is shared by Burmese Theravada, Chinese Chan, Japanese Nichiren and Tibetan Vajrayana.   And yet one will not take refuge authentically without fully understanding the four thoughts that turn the mind to the dharma, the four thoughts one begins the Ngondro with in the outer preliminaries.  

Homage to all Lineage Masters

Venerable teachers whose compassion is infinite and unconditional, I prostrate myself before you all.

Conquerors of the mind lineage; Vidyadharas of the symbol lineage;

Most fortunate of ordinary beings who,

Guided by the enlightened ones, have attained the two-fold goal- 

Teachers of the three lineages, I prostrate myself before you.  

In the expanse where all phenomena come to exhaustion, you encountered the wisdom of dharmakaya; 

In the clear light of empty space you saw sambhogakaya Buddhafields appear; 

To work for beings' benefit you appeared to them in nirmanakaya form.

Omniscient Sovereign of Dharma, I prostrate myself before you.

In your wisdom you saw the true nature of whatever can be known;

The light f your love beamed benefit upon all beings; 

You elucidated the teachings of the profound path, summit of all vehicles.

Ridgzin Jigme Lingpa, I prostrate myself before you.

You were Lord Avalokitesvara himself in the form of a spiritual friend;

whoever heard you speak was established on the path to freedom;

To fulfill all beings' needs your activity was infinite;

Gracious root teacher, I prostrate myself before you.

The writings of Omniscient Longchenpa and his lineage contain the Buddha's entire teachings;

The quintessential pith instructions that bring Buddhahood in a single lifetime,

The ordinary, outer, and the inner preliminaries of the path

And the additional advice on the swift path of transference.

May the Buddhas and the teachers bless me

That I may explain definitively as I have remembered them,

Wonderfully profound, yet clear and easy to understand-

The unerring words of my perfect teacher.

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     With these words the Great Patrul Rinpoche makes homage to the lineage which he inherited from his Master Jigme Gyalwai Nyugu at the opening of his practice manual, "The Words of my Perfect Teacher".  This lineage, the Longchen Nyingthik (The Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse) was revealed to the Terton Jigme Lingpa in a vision by the 14th century master, Longchen Rabjam.  Jigme Lingpa passed this lineage down to his disciple, Jigme Gyalwai Nyugu who in turn passed it to Patrul Rinpoche.  

     Patrul Rinpoche composed this work to benefit the numberless beings who would have the great fortune of receiving them from a qualified Lama into the distant future.  I am one such being of exceedingly good fortune as I have had the opportunity to receive the Buddhadharma from many masters.  And of the great treasures I have been fortunate enough to receive, perhaps the greatest gift has been the oral transmission for the Longchen Nyingthik Ngondro.  Lama Drimed Lodo, has been kind enough to give this transmission to me so that I can begin practicing under his guidance.  For this I am deeply grateful and to his long life and continued efforts to turn the wheel of dharma do I dedicate this blog.