Dharma Teachings

Recognizing primordial awareness, aspiring bodhicitta

Recognizing primordial awareness, aspiring bodhicitta-MasterHsinTaoWhat is “rigpa”? It is the primordial awareness that is “perfect and luminous in ten directions”. When we do sitting meditation to a point of “With further elimination of the emptiness and its object both creation and annihilation vanished giving way to the state of Nirvana which then manifested,” arising and ceasing are no longer active. Serenity and luminosity become present – such state is the revelation of our primordial awareness, or nature.

Recognizing primordial awareness, aspiring bodhicitta-MasterHsinTaoOur nature possesses two qualities, one is compassion, and another is the motivation to help sentient beings be liberated from samsara. When we’ve practiced sitting meditation to see our nature, our compassion will no longer be interrupted but to flow continuously. The prime goal of our life is the bodhicitta, for which we bring beneficence to sentient beings in lifetimes. When we’ve come to realization by cutting through afflictions, living and dying – we are sharing the experience with compassion and awareness.
 
Dharma activity does not limit to this lifetime. Living and dying are just part of a life journey, a trip to benefit oneself and others with bodhicitta. Once we’ve experienced unarising and unceasing, we can share this among all the lives we’ve contacted. May a positive connection be made so that goodness extends incessantly and that no negativities would come to rise. That is in fact, a starting point of life. Bodhicitta is the core value of our lives and a source of Buddahood.
 
Recognizing primordial awareness, aspiring bodhicitta-MasterHsinTaoWhen our bodhicitta is nurtured and strengthened throughout lifetimes, we can attain enlightenment and offer a pure land for others. In Jataka Tales, a collection of fables depicting Buddha’s earlier incarnations as a deer king, an elephant king, a human, and countless forms of being – are all to benefit others. It is because of bodhicitta can this samsara be transformed into a pure land.
 
As we are walking on the path towards Buddhahood, it is the path of enlightenment. When we are awakened, confusions are dispelled. By raising our awareness, our mind becomes more clarified. As all impurities are removed, our nature becomes awakened in clarity.