Wheel of tsok.

This meat-
all that appears and exists, the nature of the five Buddha families,
my own body, inseparable from all beings,
we are all impermanent, changing from one body to the next,
changing bodies like clothes,
the mouse becomes the hawk, the cow the crops, lifetime after lifetime.
I am often stricken with the desire to be beyond all this,
but ours is the inherited responsibility to live a life of great purpose,
to be compassionate, generous and kind,
to discover our natural freedom in this very body of flesh,
for the benefit of all beings.  
We should enjoy, question and respect,
but never assume, demean or disregard.
Emaho!

This wine-
this sublime nectar of the dakinis,
with its fragrant bouquet pervading the extent of space,
its bountiful mouthfeel of suchness,
I enjoy the one taste of all samsara and nirvana,
the union of bliss and emptiness.
Everything is encompassed by this single drop,
all perceptions, qualities and experiences dissolving
into the originally pure dharmadhatu, the basic space of phenomena.
Seeing through the intoxicating nature of all appearances,
the Great Mother, Prajnaparamita, is revealed
beyond all thought, description or imagination.
Ah la la.

These are my samaya substances.  This is my commitment.
My vow not to turn from this world.
My commitment to remain, working for the benefit of beings.
Freely enjoying this wheel of tsok,
with nothing to be renounced or forsaken,
I consume all conditions as fuel for my practice.
May the blessings of the Trikaya Guru and assembly of dakinis
soften our hearts and transform our minds!
May the blessings of this completely virtuous Younge practice tradition ripen and flourish!
May we all gain accomplishment as one mandala!
Emaho Ah la la ho!

The basis of the Ngakpa vow.

There are countless vows that the Ngakpa promises to uphold, but the root of all of them is the samaya they have with their root teacher.

The teacher is the source of all blessings.  We receive those blessings when our minds are transformed.  That transformation can take many forms, such as feeling more compassionate, more open minded.  It can take the form of finding one's purpose or finding meaning in one's life.  Ultimately that transformation is our ordinary samsaric mind transforming into the awakened mind of complete enlightenment, our inherent buddhanature.

Transformation can take many forms, but it is always personal.  It impacts your mind and your life.

The confirmation that we have received the blessings of the teacher is that our mind and life are transformed by their kindness.  We have been impacted, changed. 

That transformation engenders a deep gratitude and respect.  It is something to honor and to uphold.  That heartfelt connection that has been forged is called samaya.  It is the basis for all the other commitments that one makes. 

Blessings, transformation and samaya.  They are all linked between the student and the teacher.  The come together as a seed and they ripen as the path, bearing fruit as complete awakening. 

Elusive.

Connection.
Commitment.
Trust.
Samaya.

They are all so hard to find, we mustn't let them slip through our fingers.  They are worth the struggle.

Heartfelt Connection

None of us will deny the importance that our families, friends and communities have in our lives.  We know that on a very visceral level.

Connections are important.  The impact those connections have on us is important.  Some people can shift our perspective, who we are and how we act in ways that we ourselves could not imagine.

ཐུགས་དམ།
Thukdam.
Heart connection.

Thuk means heart, or even awakened mind.
Dam means connection or commitment.  Samaya.

Together these two evoke something very personal.  Something sacred.

They draw out the very root of your personal practice.
Compassion.
Loving kindness.
Empathy.
Generosity. 
Patience.
Diligence.
Devotion.
Commitment.
Wisdom.
Vulnerability.
Fearlessness.

If you do not possess thukdam, I believe you can do great things in this world.  You can make incredible progress and benefit a lot of people.

If you possess thukdam, I can say that you will truly make an impact and change a human life.  

What is the root of your practice?

Long Life Prayer

ཨོཾ་སྭ་སྟི།         ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ཀ་དག་ཀློང་ལས་མི་གཡོ་བར།

OM SWASTI   CHOYING KADAG LONG LAY MIYOWAR

OM SWASTI     Without wavering from the expanse of the originally pure dharmadhatu,

སྣང་སྲིད་ཆོས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་རྩོལ་མེད་ཟད།

NANGSI CHONAM THAMCHE TSOLMEY ZAY  
You effortlessly resolve all that appears and exists,

ཡེ་གྲོལ་ཐིག་ལེ་ཉག་ཅིག་ལ་གནས་ནས། 
YEDROL THIGLE NYACHIK LA NAY NAY 

Abiding in the timeless freedom of the single sphere of awareness,
འཆི་མེད་ཆོས་སྐུའི་དབང་པོར་རྟག་བརྟན་ཤོག།།    །།

CHIME CHOKU WANGPO TAK TEN SHOG 
Lord of the deathless Dharmakaya, please abide eternally! 

ཁྱེད་སྐུ་རི་བོ་བཞིན་དུ་གཡོ་བ་མེད།

KHYE KU RIWO ZHINDU YOWAMEY 
Your body, immovable like a mountain,
ཁྱེད་གསུང་འགག་པ་མེད་པའི་ཉམས་རྟོགས་དབྱངས།

KHYE SUNG GAGPA MEPAY NAM TOK YANG 
Your speech, an unceasing melody borne of experience and realization,
ཁྱེད་ཐུགས་སྤྲོས་མེད་ཟང་ཐལ་རིག་པར་གནས།

KHYE THUK TROMEY ZANGTHAL RIGPA NAY 
Your mind, resting in rigpa zangthal free of elaboration,
ཟླ་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ་རྟག་བརྟན་ཤོག།།    །།

DAMEY CHOKYI WANGPO TAK TEN SHOG 
Peerless Lord of Dharma, please abide eternally! 

ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་མཁའ་དབྱིངས་ལས།

KHYE KYI JANGCHUB SEMKYI KHA YING LAY 
From the spacious sky of your awakened mind,
རང་བྱུང་ཡེ་ཤེས་འཁོར་འདས་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ།

RANGJUNG YESHE KHORDE KUN LA CHAB 
Naturally occurring wisdom pervades all of samsara and nirvana

ཉམ་ཐག་འགྲོ་ལ་གདམས་ཟབ་སྟོང་མཁས་པ།

NYAM TAK DRO LA DAM ZAB TON KHEPA 
Guiding all weary travelers by your profound instruction,
ཡོངས་དགེ་འགྲོ་འདུལ་གླིང་པ་ཞབས་བརྟེན་ཤོག།།   །།

YOUNGE DRODUL LINGPA ZHAB TEN SHOG 
Younge Drodul Lingpa, please live long! 

This prayer was composed by Rigpai Wangchuk (Greg Patenaude) following the annual summer Dzogchen retreat in conjunction with devotion and pure samaya on the 25th day of the fourth month in the Tibetan Wood Horse year 2141 (June 22, 2014). It was translated into the Tibetan by Tenzin Bhuchung in a surge of Guru devotion. May it be auspicious!