Message from Patrul Rinpoche 

Written by Patrul Rinpoche, Friday, 14 December 2007, Brussels

Simplicity Itself

Tashi Delegs! I would like to take this opportunity to send a simple message to my students so that we can share some happiness together.

This year I have been travelling a lot. I have just come back from Switzerland where I visited a few cities and met many different people. We talked a lot about the Dharma and in particular about the Kunzang Lama’i Shalung. The people I met understood the Dharma much better than I do and this inspired me greatly.

Now I am back in Brussels, where the weather is nice though a bit on the cold side. Our activity in this city is going very well and we pray that all will go well for everyone else here. I hope that you are studying the Dharma very well. Actually, I am quite sure that you are! It is indeed very important to study the Dharma, but it is even more important that the Dharma enters our heart.

I am still studying the Kunzang Lama’i Shalung and I am paying a lot of attention to the teachings in the first part of the text. It makes me very happy to be reflecting on the four ways of changing mind because they make me understand more about my precious human body.

When I realise that I have a precious opportunity, my happiness is linked to my understanding. My understanding not only makes me happy, but it also simplifies many things and this gives me a lot of satisfaction. My life becomes easier and whatever I am doing becomes a reminder for me to be careful and to make my life even more meaningful.

However, I am not capable of making my life meaningful because of my ignorance. I hope that you are not like me. You understand the Dharma better than I do. I hope that you are making your life both happy and meaningful. Even if we cannot accomplish the Dharma excellently, we can make ourselves and others happy by supporting our family, our friends and the environment as much as we can.

We can also try to change in an appropriate manner by correcting our secret faults and by developing both mentally and physically. Personally, I would underline the importance of mental development because it makes for inner improvement, which even though not always externally visible, is experienced internally as spontaneous happiness, a feeling of ease and brilliance, peace and self-confidence.

I said that physical development is important but how can we develop our physical being? When I jog or practise yoga, I think it might make me look younger, but when I look at myself in the mirror I cannot say that I look either younger or particularly well-developed.

As the days, weeks, months and years go by, my body changes so much! Is the change good or bad? I don’t know, but I think it is bad. It seems to be the wrong kind of change because I am getting older all the time. It makes my mind fly about continually and especially in momentary nature trying to get to grips with what it actually means.

I wonder what the differences are between momentary nature, neutral nature, path nature and ground nature. It is important to investigate their meaning even though it is difficult to express. When I do try to meditate on them, my mind becomes even-minded, a sort of compassionate mind, because all my disturbing emotions become exhausted in momentary nature and my mind is clear and sharp, and pervaded by its own nature. What do you think about all this?

I think it is simplicity itself. I think it is self-liberation. I think it is not dependent on anything else. I think it is self-rebirth without any conditions. I think it is self-cause, self-condition and self-effect with no need for cause and no need for condition. I think it is self-effortless self-liberation, self-brought happiness everywhere.

Ha! Ha! Today I am very busy. I will complete my message another day.

Today, this crazy boy has become even crazier! Ha! Ha!