"Our buddha nature remains unawake until we break the cycle of samsara; until then we remain like bees buzzing around in loops."
Mingyur Rinpoche is back! Four years ago he set out on a wandering reatreat, left Tergar, the thriving international non-profit that he had set up, left behind the proceeds of a bestselling book, grew his hair a beard and set out to spend at least three years as a wandering anonymous monk. From what he's told us, he spent the first year ill with unexpected health problems, so what was supposed to be three years turned into four.
We've been living off the videos he made before he left, but he's back.
As it turns out, the morning that we were notified of his return, I had started re-reading the chapter in his new book about guru practice. As he explains it our devotion to our guru accelerates our practice because it engenders the kind of inspiration and longing that eventually becomes automatic. One we realize that we share the same buddha nature, student and guru, pure perception become spontaneous.
It sounds so simple. But supplication and surrender to spritual teachings are not easy things in a society that has conditioned us to supplication and surrender to material success.
The way out of this cycle for me is the concrete experience of how well it works. This morning I did most of practice with the image of Rinpoche in my head. Civilized Rinpoche, shaved and shiney Rinpoche. It was good, I felt the warmth of enlightement shining on my head and then becoming the liquid that starts to snake it's way down. I began to taste the purification and everything from the neck upward seemed to melt away. I was simply the space in and around me.
For my next practice though I'm going to imagine wild Rinpoche, the way he is now with is hair and his beard, skinny from begging. And practices after that will use and recite the prayers that he wrote for us. Can I rest and submit to these?
It's hard.
But it's urgent. I've passed the halfway point of my life. Liberation for myself, for Ben, my family, and everyone I currently share the planet with is an urgent concern. Not a reason for panic, but certainly a reason to give this my all.
