Renunciation
IV. Nirvana Is a State of Absolute Peace
Preface by Professor Sempa Dorje
The venerable Khenpo Ngedön has published a teaching today on the four seals of the Dharma or the four receptacles of all the Buddha’s teachings. It constitutes the foundation of the Dharma of the texts and explains the negative actions it is necessary to give up and the positive actions it is necessary to adopt.
I rejoice profoundly in the excellence and perfection of this work!
It specifically focuses on the impermanence of all things and the fact that all conditioned, samsaric phenomena are suffering. It also describes the meaning and benefits of renunciation and the realization of liberation—the perfect state—thanks to the noble path.
These explanations are remarkable and adapted to the present era.
Therefore, I profoundly rejoice in this admirable work and appreciate it to the greatest degree possible, for it is truly excellent!
We can read in one of the sutras:
Of all footprints, the elephant’s are outstanding;Just so, of all subjects of meditation for a follower of the Buddhas, the idea of impermanence is unsurpassed.
The Buddha also said:
For a practitioner, thinking of impermanence constitutes the root and the source of all Dharmic thoughts.
I hope that, in the future, Khenpo will continue to publish teachings on refuge, mind training, etc.
The sun of the refuge welcomes all those who trust in its luminous warmth.
For the intelligent and the wise, all phenomena are important.
Even harmful emotions are useful to practitioners who have experience of realization.
For those who aspire to liberation, no phenomenon is senseless. Each has its importance.
By turning our minds toward the Dharma, every thought becomes a Dharmic thought.
When we become aware of impermanence, if we experience remorse upon realizing that we are not putting our life to good use, this will take on its full meaning.
By recognizing our attachment to samsara, renunciation is born.
By observing our lack of diligence in practice, we renounce Mara.
For all of these reasons, this little book will show you the path to follow and turn your mind toward the Dharma—without a doubt, intelligent reader! I make wishes and prayers that this be the case!
May the most excellent virtue increase!
Sempa Dorje, January 31, 2015
A Warning to the Reader
This book is not intended for the individual who seeks happiness through sensory pleasures in this life alone. This teaching is for those people on a quest for nirvana and an authentic practice to reach it. Therefore, I have particularly focused on the reflection concerning impermanence and renunciation of samsara. These two notions constitute both the point of departure and the essential strength of the journey to nirvana for sincere practitioners who wish to enter this path.
The term renunciation indicates the necessity of renouncing the creation of causes that inevitably result in suffering. This is the path that the Buddha and the authentic masters of the past followed and applied.
During the teaching that I gave in Vic,1 due to a lack of time, I was unable to cite sutras and shastras or to explain them in detail. I preferred to give a rational presentation of the topic—in other words a logic-based one.
To dissipate the doubts of readers who may ask themselves if qualified masters taught renunciation and impermanence and if they are truly necessary to reach nirvana or enlightenment, I offer several complementary, trustworthy sources here.
In The Sutra on Establishing Mindfulness2 it is stated:
In samsara, you will never find
Even an ounce of happiness.
The Buddha also said3:
To meditate persistently on impermanence is to make offerings to all the Buddhas.
To meditate persistently on impermanence is to be rescued from suffering by all the Buddhas.
To meditate persistently on impermanence is to be guided by all the Buddhas.
To meditate persistently on impermanence is to be blessed by all the Buddhas.
Of all footprints, the elephants’s are outstanding;
Just so, of all subjects of meditation for a follower of the Buddhas, the idea of impermanence is unsurpassed.
Maitreya4:
Just as there are no good smells in a cesspit,
There is no happiness among the five classes of beings.5
Guru Rinpoche:
It is said that in this samsara there is not as much
As a pinpoint’s worth of happiness to be found.
But should one happen to find just a little,
It will contain the suffering of change.6
Jetsün Milarepa:
In short, without awareness of death
All Dharma practice is useless.
The master of Mahamudra, Gampopa, said:
The suffering that leads to disgust for the cycle of existences
must be seen as a spiritual master.
Nagarjuna:
Accumulating wealth, protecting it, and using it is exhausting.
So understand that it is the source of endless problems!
Gyelse Thogme Zangpo in The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas7:
The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to leave behind one’s homeland,
Where our attachment to family and friends overwhelms us like a torrent,
While our aversion towards enemies rages inside us like a blazing fire,
And delusion’s darkness obscures