The Magical Power of Enhancing Positive Qualities

The lotus flower is a classic symbol of buddhanature or enlightenment. It rises up from the mud of the earth, always clean and pure. Water and mud just roll off of the petals.

We humans are at our deepest level just like the lotus. Our inner nature, our natural state, is never impure. It always shines. But for most of us and most of the time, we are not aware of that nature. Because of our lack of recognition we seem to be quite a bit different from the lotus flower! Not only do things not roll off of us so easily, but we often cling to what hurts or stains us. Our lives - the things we do, say, think and feel - get messy. We find ourselves pulled in different directions, lacking needed knowledge to make a decision, in conflict between what we think we want and what we really want (okay, I know this last one sounds strange, but think about it!), and in conflict when what we need or want conflicts with what another person or our community needs or wants. We feel regret for what has been, anxiety about the future, and are riddled with things like self-doubt and pride. As a very dear friend likes to say: “It’s hard being a human being!”

When we clear our inner obstacles, the gek (see the last blog), we become more and more like a lotus. We shed the layers of stuff that have accumulated in our mindstream and in our body by recognizing the difference between what we experience and who we are. Then the inner light of awareness shines forth as the qualities of love, compassion, joy, and peacefulness. And from these four qualities all kinds of things can spring: creativity, deeper connections to others and to the planet, courage, generosity and so much more. This inward turn of our attention toward that light, just as a plant turns toward the sun, reorients us. We still need food, a roof over our head, community, and the things of the world, but our satisfaction or happiness now manifests through and as these relationships, not because of them. Our stressors have less hold on us. Our personal histories have less hold. We start to see that in spite of whatever negative thoughts we may have about ourselves, the clear light of the heart is always there. Recognize it and seeing it, everything changes. We may lose sight of it from time, (and at first more often than not), but we know it is there.

Tsa Lung Trul Khor clears out these different kind of obstacles. And at the same time, it is strengthening us. Just as polishing a mirror allows it to reflect light more clearly and present a truer image of the world around it, these practices polish us. They open the channels through which our energy and awareness move and allow us to see with more clarity, more light, and from a place that isn’t built around our ego and with all our gek. This improved flow is just like opening a clogged artery that’s restricting blood flow, or clearing out phlegm in our lungs and breathing more freely. We will still face challenges. We will get sick, lose loved ones, face obstacles in our careers, family and elsewhere. Stuff happens. But the light doesn’t go out. We lose sight of it less frequently. We can return to it, or simply trust in it when we are in too dark a place to actually see it. We see the beauty of the world and its pain. The joy and the sorrow.

In a way the clearing and strengthening are just two sides of the same coin. Uniting our breath with our awareness and our energy, The clearing is what strengthens, and in strengthening, we become more clear.

Geshe Dangsong Namgyal describes the place that our practice takes us to beautifully. He writes

The Tibetan for the word Buddha is sang gye. The first syllable, sang, means purified. It means that it has been forever pure of defilements. The second syllable, gye, means expanded. It means that all positive qualities, all transcendent wisdom, have always been fully developed and are spontaneously present. When we understand our primordial condition, that we have been forever enlightened, then samsara ceases. It cannot harm us or cause us grief. . . Samsara and its defilements of ignorance, delusions and karma are like some smelly clothes that we put on, which can be taken off; whereas Natural Mind is forever the same, past present and future, pure and uncontaminated. - Holy Women of the Great Perfection, p. 46

If you have an interest in learning Tibetan Yoga and experiencing these things for yourself, my next course starts on October 25th.

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