Path of Action

Relentless study: Having stressed the importance of relentless study, Pabongka Rinpoche identifies that we must study at the ‘correct level’. As long a the teachings that we study cover the whole range of meditation topics, the ‘correct level’ depends entirely on our own intellectual level.

“If the text is complete, it can lead you along the path, regardless of the amount of detail it has to offer – in the same way that the huge room of a minister of state and a monk’s cell both serve their own purposes” pg. 79

3 faults of a vessel: Pabongka Rinpoche describes the 3 faults of a vessel:

1. The fault of being like an upturned vessel: so we need to focus entirely during the teaching
2. The fault of being like a stained vessel: so we need to listen with the right motivation – bodhicitta
3. The fault of being like a leaky vessel: so we need to ask ourselves what the best way of retaining the information is, and do that

6 helpful attitudes: Of the 6 helpful attitudes (pg.82) the one that really stood out for me was 4. the attitude that diligent practice will cure the illness. I find it difficult to fit meditation into my regular daily routine. The idea being that after you have studied or received the teachings from a qualified teacher and considered it as personal instruction, you must then go on to put the personal instruction into practice.

“Yet the patient does not take this most wholesome

And precious medicine, the potential cure,

Do not blame the doctor; the medicine’s not at fault.

Rather, the patient himself is to blame” pg.85

While I am trying to put the teachings into practice in my daily life, I am failing to incorporate my study into my formal meditation practice. So there is a gap here. Pabanongka Rinpoche goes on to explain that this gap is in fact dangerous:

“Too much study and too little meditation is cause to become unyielding toward the Dharma”