I Have Intrinsic Worth

First, we have to correct the way we think of ourselves. This is done through meditation — by means of which we gradually become aware of our intrinsic worth, because meditation is about connecting with·a simple awareness of the three inseparable qualities of the nature of mind.

As this awareness increases, everything that happens, the ups and downs and so on, are simply like clouds in the sky. There is nothing that is intrinsically a problem.

Meditation is not about wanting a cloudless sky. As long as we know the sky is there, the clouds are not really a problem. The clouds can come and go as they please.

Meditation is about recognizing that sky-like quality of our being. This gives us a feeling of genuine confidence in ourselves, because it rests on the knowledge that we have intrinsic worth and potential.

I remember Trungpa Rinpoche saying that we sometimes feel as if we need a heart transplant, as if our own heart were not good enough, as if it lacked the qualities of a true and good heart. But there is no need for a transplant: everything we need is already in us, in that sky-like quality of our being, so we should develop tremendous confidence in that.

My Faults Are Not Intrinsic

Secondly, we have to recognize that our negativity is not intrinsic to our being. We may think, ‘I don’t have enough compassion,’ or ‘I’m not really a good person,’ or ‘Can I really follow this path?’ or ‘Aren’t I too weak a person to do something about this?’, but it is meaningless to say we are too weak to follow such a path. That sky-like nature is intrinsic to our being so of course we can connect to it. Our negativity is just adventitious, not intrinsic to our nature at all.

Others Have Intrinsic Worth

Thirdly, we have to apply this to others as well as ourselves. Recognizing that they also have this intrinsic sky-like quality prevents us from feeling either superior or inferior to others. We all share in exactly the same sky-like quality.

The Faults of Others Are Not Intrinsic

This leads us to the fourth notion which is that the negativity of others is not intrinsic to them any more than our negativity is to us. Even though we see others behave in a way we judge to be bad, or we recognize that they have faults, this is no reason to regard them as inferior or to feel contempt for them. However badly they behave, they can never escape from their essential nature and the pain of not being able to recognise that.

A constant preoccupation with criticizing and finding faults in others is often the reverse side of our own guilt feelings. There is a kind of relief, if not to say pleasure, in blaming others when they behave badly, as if somehow blaming others absolves us from blame ourselves. This is all quite unnecessary and inappropriate. Why not reflect on the fact that the ‘badness’ of others is not intrinsic to their nature, just as our own ‘badness’ is not intrinsic to ours?

Since we all have the innate nature of mind, we can all eventually realize enlightenment. We are all quite wonderful — all we need to do is to train ourselves to see it.

I Can Love Others as Myself

The fifth and last notion is that because of the identity between ourselves and others, we can have equal love for self and others. People who hate or feel bad about themselves have a problem with this.

Once we develop trust and confidence in our own nature we can start to feel empathy and fellow-feeling towards others. Then we can respond spontaneously and naturally to their needs and desires.

We may feel that we want to be like that but something is blocking us, so we think that we cannot. This sense that it is not possible comes from a deep-rooted identification with our own negativity.

Meditation is the means of removing our fixation on that wrong idea by reminding us about the nature of mind. Gradually this carries over into our everyday life.

The Illusory Nature of Our Perceptions

If you are wondering how perceptions, thoughts and emotions obscure the nature of nature of our mind, an analogy might help. For example, when our sight is jaundiced, we see white paper as yellow. Something in our vision needs correcting although there is nothing essentially wrong with either our eyes or the paper. However, if we think the paper really is yellow and try to make it white, we are doomed to failure. Like any analogy though, this comparison only works up to a certain point.

A simile that is often used is that thoughts and emotions are like optical illusions. For example, take a drawing which can either be seen as a chalice or as two faces. Without changing anything, a simple shift in the way we look at the lines of the drawing creates a wholly different picture.

A common example in the Buddhist scriptures is a single beam of white light shining on a crystal. Without changing the nature of the light at all, the crystal’s power of refraction can make a whole spectrum of different colours appear.

The Source of All Genuine Inspiration and Aspiration

The three basic qualities of [1] openness, [2] clarity, and [3] sensitivity are the essence of our being and the source of all that is good, genuine and true about us; they are the source of life itself and give rise to the sense that there is something to attain, something to realize, something beyond ourselves, and even beyond the world, to which we can aspire. It is as if that clarity and awareness that is in us already knows what it seeks to discover and will give us no rest until we have found it.

Source: Based on the following reference. Rigdzin Shikpo. Openness Clarity Sensitivity. Compiled from talks by Rigdzin Shikpo. Edited by Shenpen Hookham. Oxford: The Longchen Foundation, 1992, 2000. 

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