VT 2.0 Module 1 Lesson 2: 5 Certainties 6 Stains

With Pema Khandro

An Introduction to Vajrayana study and the study of the text, Ngeton Zangpo’s Guide to the Dakini’s Heart.   

The Text to be Studied

An Instruction Manual for The Great Perfection, Heart Essence of the Dakinis

• Tibetan Title: རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་སྙིང་ཐིག་གི་ཁྲིད་ཡིག་ཐར་ལམ་བགྲོད་བྱེད་ཤིང་རྟ་བཟང་པོ།
  rDzogs pa chen po mkha’ ’gro snying thig gi khrid yig thar lam bgrod byed shing rta bzang po
• Translation: The Excellent Chariot for the traveler on the path to liberation, the guide to the Dakinis Heart, the Great Perfection
• Sanskrit Title: Mokṣa panthaṁ gatiṣu ratho nāma mahāsaṁdhi dākinī cittatilakasya kṣiptalekha viharatisma
• Author: The Third Dzogchen Rinpoche, Ngeton Tenzin Zangpo
• Also known for short in the English version: Dzogchen Ngeton Tenzin Zangpo’s Great Perfection Outer and Inner Preliminaries
• Pema Khandro will call it for short: Guide to the Dakini’s Heart

Today’s Passage:

ཆོས་ཉན་པའི་ཚུལ་བསྟན་པ།

How to Listen to the Teachings Part 2

See, the English Translation in the Text listed above, “Dzogchen Ngeton Tenzin Zangpo’s Great Perfection Outer and Inner Preliminaries” page 5

The Six Stains

“The six stains are taught in the Principles of Elucidation: Pride, lack of faith, Disinterest, outer distraction, Inward withdrawal, and lack of motivation— These are the six stains of the listener. When you listen, you should eliminate any feelings of pride you may have about things such as status and any positive qualities you may have. You should reject any lack of faith you may have towards the Dharma or guru. You should also not feel disinterested or dispassionate about the Dharma, nor should you be outwardly distracted or inwardly withdrawn, such as when your eyes, ears, or mind are distracted by objects or when your mind feels drowsy and dull. Finally, eliminate any lack of motivation or feeling of discouragement that you may feel about listening to the Buddha’s teachings.”

དྲི་མ་དྲུག་ནི།རྣམ་བཤད་རིག་པ་ལས།

The six stains are taught in the text known as the “Principles of Elucidation.”

ང་རྒྱལ་དང་ནི་མ་དད་དང།དོན་དུ་གཉེར་བ་མེད་ཉིད་དང།ཕྱི་རོལ་རྣམ་གཡེང་ནང་དུ་བསྡུད།སྐྱོ་བས་ཉན་པའི་དྲི་མ་ཡིན།ཞེས་པས།

The six stains of the listener are pride, mistrust, disinterest, outer distraction, inward withdrawal, and lack of motivation.

རིགས་དང་ཡོན་ཏན་སོགས་ཆེ་ཁྱད་ཀྱི་ང་རྒྱལ་དང་།

When you listen, you should eliminate any feelings of pride you may have about things such as status and any positive qualities you may have. yangın algılama sistemleri

ཆོས་དང་བླ་མ་ལ་མི་དད་པ་དང་།

You should reject any mistrust may have towards the dharma or the teacher.

ཆོས་ལ་དོན་གཉེར་གྱི་འདོད་འདུན་མེད་པ་དང་

You should also not feel disinterested or dispassionate about the Dharma.

མིག་དང་རྣ་བ་ཡིད་ལ་སོགས་པའི་དབང་པོ་ཡུལ་ལ་རྣམ་པར་གཡེང་བ་དང་།གཉིད་རྨུགས་ཀྱིས་སེམས་ནང་དུ་

Nor should you be outwardly distracted or inwardly withdrawn, such as when your eyes, ears, or mind are distracted by objects or when your mind feels drowsy and dull.

སྡུད་པ་དང་ཉན་མི་མོས་པར་སུན་པ་དང་སྐྱོ་བ་རྣམས་སྤངས་ནས་ཉན་དགོས་པའོ།།

Finally, eliminate any lack of motivation or feeling of discouragement or worry that you may feel about listening to the teachings.

Key Concepts

Five Certainties: (Tibetan, nges pa lnga)
The teacher (ston-pa), teaching (bstan-pa), retinue (’khor), place (gnas) and time (dus). This refers to the factors which deterimine what can be taught, how it can be taught and with what degree of success it can be learned. They are also described as the factors that serve as the context for the original delivery texts, and of the factors that surround Buddhas and deities.

Sources

Dudjom. The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History (Kindle Locations 28941-28943). Wisdom Publications. Kindle Edition.

DeAngelis, Tori. Why We Overestimate our competence, American Psychological Association Website: http://www.apa.org/monitor/feb03/overestimate.aspx Accessed April 15, 2018.

Watson, Lotus Sutra. Columbia University Press. New York. 1993

bzang po, ngas don bstan ‘dzin. rdzogs pa chen po mkha’ ‘gro snying thig gi khri yig thar lam bgrod byed shing rt bzang po zhes bya ba bzhugs so. Mi khron mi rigs dpe skun khang: 1997.

Rinpoche, Patrul. Words of My Perfect Teacher. Shambhala: Boston, 1998.

Zangpo, Ngeton. The Third Dzogchen Rinpoche Great Perfection Outer and Inner Preliminaries. Dahl, Cortland, Translator. Snow Lion: New York, 2007.

Discussion Points for VT Live

What are the five certainties?
What are the six stains?
Which of the six stains are you most prone toward?
What are the remedies for the six stains?

pashagaming