Overview of the Nine Vehicles of Mind

According to Nyingma
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Alexander Berzin
Sofia, Bulgaria, April 2012
Unedited Transcript
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First of all I'm really quite delighted to be back here in Bulgaria after many years. I've been
asked to speak this morning a little bit about tantra, which is of course a huge topic, and
something about the different classes of tantra.
The Sutra Teachings
If we look at tantra in general, it's not something that can be understood separately from the
basic sutra teachings. It's all built on the foundation of sutra, and therefore it needs to be
practiced in the context of the basic sutra teachings. When you weave some cloth or a rug,
there are the strings that you weave on, and the word tantra comes from the word for these
strings that you weave on. So these are the practices in which we weave together all the things
that we have learned in sutra. So when we visualize ourselves in the form of some deity, some
Buddha-figure, all the arms and faces and legs represent all these different points from sutra.
Refuge in the Three Jewels
We all have a precious human rebirth. This is something very important to appreciate. It's
something which is very, very precious and very valuable because this is the only basis on
which we can achieve liberation and enlightenment. And it's not something that we should
take for granted. As one of my teachers said, it is like we are on a temporary holiday from the
lower realms, and we have to be very careful otherwise we're going back to the lower realms.
Death will certainly come for sure. We never know when. And the only thing that'll be of any
help are the preventive measures that we have taken to avoid going back to the lower realms,
and we certainly don't want that. You can think of all the terrible sufferings - of how horrible
it would be to be some sort of insect that's being eaten alive by some other insect or a different
type of ghost or these hell creatures. You all know about that - so being afraid of that. And
afraid is not this paralyzing type of fear with which we feel just helpless and hopeless, but it is
a situation where we know there is a way to avoid this downfall, which is to put a safe and
positive direction in our lives, which is normally called "refuge." And this is something which
is very important not to trivialize.
So what is the actual source of this refuge, the source of how we can protect ourselves from
worse rebirths? That's the Dharma Jewel. So what does that mean? There are many different
levels in which we can understand the Dharma Jewel. If we look at the deepest level, it's
referring to the third and fourth noble truths:
Overview of the Nine Vehicles of Mind According to Nyingma 1
The third one is the true stopping of suffering and its causes. So what is that referring
to? If we think in terms of dzogchen, we're talking about rigpa, pure awareness. This is
something that we all have. It's individual; it's not something collective that you plug
into up in the sky. It's referring to the subtlest, purest level of our mental continuum.
And it is something which is totally free by nature of all obscurations - so true
stopping of suffering and its causes - and it is rich, or full, with all positive qualities.
However, as it says in so many of the Nyingma texts, this rigpa, this pure awareness,
needs to "recognize its own face," which means that although there is this pure
awareness, we don't realize it, and because we don't realize it, we can't really utilize it.

So we have the fourth noble truth, which is this gaining deep awareness so that we
have full realization of rigpa. And so if we can gain access to this pure state and don't
have it clouded over by suffering and its causes (which are the first and second noble
truths), then not only do we avoid worse rebirths, we avoid all uncontrollably recurring
rebirths. Whether worse states or better states, either of them are still samsara. Samsara
means uncontrollably recurring rebirth, over and over again. Uncontrollable in the
sense that it's under the influence of karma and disturbing emotions.

So this is the Dharma Jewel. This is the direction we want to go in. "I want to realize fully this
rigpa which is within all of us and stay with it." So Buddhas - the Buddha Jewel - are those
who have achieved this in full and have shown us how to attain it, have shown and taught us
how to do it ourselves. And the Sangha Jewel is referring to the Arya Sangha. The Arya
Sangha are those who have achieved this in part, not fully like the Buddhas have done. So this
is very important to understand.
When we speak about Buddha we're not really talking about a historical figure like you have
in our Biblical religions. In Biblical religions we have a figure like Moses or Jesus or
Muhammad, and they receive some revelation, some instructions from God. They're the only
ones who received it, and so we need to believe in them and follow them in order to gain some
sort of salvation. We can't do what they did. We can't become another Moses or Jesus or
Muhammad. So this is a very important difference. We can become Buddhas ourselves.
Shakyamuni, Guru Rinpoche - these are only some of the many, many, many beings who have
achieved enlightenment, so it's very important not to make them into a Moses, Jesus, or a
Muhammad. We can all achieve enlightenment ourselves. And they can show the way, they
can inspire us, we can ask for their inspiration, but it's not like we open up and through their
grace we become enlightened. That's not Buddhism. We all have this rigpa. We all have this
pure awareness. We all have the basis for attaining enlightenment. We all have what's known
as "Buddha-nature."
Karma
So we think of all the different types of suffering:
The suffering of unhappiness and pain. Right? It' s mainly talking about the
unhappiness that we could experience. Even when physically we're feeling some
pleasure, you could still be mentally unhappy. So nobody likes that. Nobody wants
that. Nobody wants to be unhappy.

And then we have our ordinary happiness. That's also something that is unsatisfactory,
because it doesn't last, it's never satisfying, and we always want more. We're always
afraid that we're going to lose it, so we grasp onto it. And if we have too much of it for
too long, it turns into unhappiness and we're unsatisfied. Like eating too much ice
cream eventually makes you sick.

Overview of the Nine Vehicles of Mind According to Nyingma
Refuge in the Three Jewels 2
But the actual deepest suffering that we're talking about overcoming in Buddhism is
deeper than that. It's the basis for experiencing the ups and downs of unhappiness and
ordinary happiness. And that's samsara itself, which is uncontrollably recurring rebirth
with our ordinary types of bodies and minds which can experience this unhappiness
and ordinary happiness.

And all of that comes about because of our basic compulsiveness of karma. When we talk
about karma, it's very important to understand what it's referring to. We're not talking about
fate or something like that. We're talking about compulsiveness. There's a compulsive aspect
to our behavior. Because of the habits of acting under the influence of confusion, then we like
certain things, we like to do certain things, and we don't like other things. This is what comes
up in our minds - "I would like to yell at you," "I would like to embrace you" - and then (this
is where karma comes in) there's a certain compulsion that drives us to yell or to hug
somebody when it might be inappropriate. And it feels as though we have no control over it.
It's just that compulsively and mindlessly we act or speak or think in a certain way.
Karma is not referring to the action itself, even though the Tibetan word for it is the colloquial
Tibetan word for action (las). If the problem was action itself, then all you would have to do is
stop doing anything and you'd be enlightened. This is obviously not the meaning. What we
want is for our behavior not to be compulsive but to be motivated by compassion. And it is
compulsive because it's under the influence of disturbing emotions - greed and attachment and
desire, repulsion, anger, naivety, jealousy, pride, all these troublemakers. All of that comes
because of our unawareness of reality. We are unaware of our pure natures. Because of our
confusion, our mind makes things appear to exist in impossible ways, makes us appear to be
some sort of solid thing separate from everything else. Like some little figure sitting inside our
head getting information from the eyes and ears on some sort of screen and loudspeaker in our
heads and pushing the buttons to make the body work, the author of the voice speaking in our
head worried about: "What do people think of me? What should I do now?"
Because of our confusion - we don't know our true natures - our confused mind makes this
sort of appearance about who we are, and we believe it to be true; we believe that it
corresponds to reality. And out of our confusion, it makes everything else seem to exist in
impossible ways, as if everything were encapsulated in plastic, just existing by itself - there it
is - independent of causes, conditions, concepts, relative perspective, independent of anything.
Like a problem ("Oh, there's this horrible problem") encapsulated in plastic like a monster,
and then we get all freaked out about it, all disturbed about it - "Oh, I can't deal with it" - as if
this thing, this problem, didn't come from causes and couldn't be solved by applying different
measures.
So all of this comes from really not understanding, not being aware of, rigpa, of pure
awareness. Rigpa is the source of all appearances. That's part of what's known as the "play of
the pure awareness," like sparkles on water or images in a mirror. When we have what's called
"obscuration," "cloudiness," this rigpa then becomes the source of all these appearances of
what's impossible. What's impossible is that things exist encapsulated in plastic. Things don't
exist that way. There's no little me sitting in my head.
Rigpa is the source all appearances. And the analogy that's used is that it's like the play of
light on water. It's part of the nature of this pure awareness:
It has these appearances; they spontaneously establish themselves (this is the technical
jargon).

Overview of the Nine Vehicles of Mind According to Nyingma
Karma 3
And energy communicates out. This is known as the compassion aspect. It's basically
communication.

And it's pure by nature. It was never stained by this confusion. It's never stained, in its
deepest level, by confusion.

You know, basic dzogchen teachings. However, because of our beginningless habits of
confusion, this rigpa gets clouded, like the sky is clouded - the clouds don't disturb or harm
the nature of the sky, but the clouds are there. And because of the clouds, this filter, then rigpa
functions as a source of all confusing appearances. Right? But these appearances don't
correspond to reality. So when we talk about voidness, or emptiness, we're talking about how
there's no corresponding reality. That's completely empty, void, absent, to what these
appearances seem to be. My confused mind may make somebody appear to be a monster, for
example, if we use an easy example. But there is no real monster that corresponds to what
appears. So that's what is absent when we talk about voidness. There's something absent.
We can also speak about other-voidness (gzhan-stong), another type of voidness, which is
talking about this pure awareness, rigpa, in its pure nature being void, or absent, of all these
grosser, confusing levels.
Renunciation
So what we need to develop then is what's called "renunciation." That's this determination to
be free. To be free of what? The first and second noble truths - suffering and its causes. What
is that referring to? That's referring to these confusing appearances and my belief that they
correspond to reality and all the disturbing emotions that come from that belief, like: "Oh, I'm
afraid" or "Oh, this appears so wonderful. I have to have it," etc. So determination to be free.
"I've got to be free of this. This is horrible."
Not only is it horrible - it's completely boring. If this renunciation is on the basis of anger -
"Oh, it's so stupid. I'm so stupid for believing this" - it doesn't work. All right? Because that's
still a disturbing emotion. What you have to develop is just complete boredom: "This is so
boring. It just goes on and on beginninglessly. Enough already." This is actually the emotional
state that helps us to develop this renunciation.
It's like if you're into drugs or alcohol, and you've been taking it for so long. If you want to get
out of it because you're angry with yourself - "Oh, I'm so stupid for doing this," etc. - then
even if you give it up, you're always afraid that you're going to get back into it, because there's
fear mixed with this anger. But to really be able to give it up, you have to find it so boring.
"It's always the same. Each time I get drunk, each time I get high, it's the same. Boring!" And
then you say, "Enough already." Then you have a much less disturbed state of mind. This is
very important.
The Three Higher Trainings
So okay, we want to get out. How do we get out? We have to get rid of karma, this
compulsiveness in our behavior. To do that we have to get rid of our disturbing emotions that
drive it. And to get rid of that, we have to get rid of our unawareness, or ignorance. And to
stay with that awareness, that understanding, we need concentration. And to be able to have
concentration, which means to avoid being dull and avoid our mind wandering all over the
place, we need discipline. And we gain that discipline from ethical behavior, restraining
ourselves from destructive actions of body, speech, and mind. So first using this discipline,
Overview of the Nine Vehicles of Mind According to Nyingma
Renunciation 4
concentration, and understanding. Then we have to get rid of the first level of this confusion,
and that's the confusion about how we ourselves exist, we and others. And if we can break
through that, then we gain liberation, liberation from uncontrollably recurring rebirth.
Bodhicitta
But what about everybody else? We are completely interconnected with everybody else, and
everybody else is suffering. So we develop love, compassion, recognizing the interconnection
between everybody. And we take responsibility: I definitely will try to help them to overcome
samsara. And the only way that I can do that is if I become enlightened. If I can remove all the
obscuration from rigpa, from my pure awareness, then I would uncover this ability of rigpa,
this quality of rigpa, to understand and know everything, specifically to understand cause and
effect completely so that I can understand what are all the causes, what' s the whole
background of everybody's present samsaric situation, and what would be the effect of
anything that I teach this person. If I teach you this, how will this affect not only you but
everybody else that you interact with? Because unless we can understand the consequences of
anything we teach, we don't really know what is the best thing to teach each person to help
them to reach liberation and enlightenment. So that's what we need to strive for, why we need
to reach enlightenment ourselves.
So we develop what's called bodhichitta. Bodhicitta is based on love and compassion. Love,
the wish for everybody to be happy and to have the causes for happiness, and compassion, the
wish for everybody to be free of suffering and its causes. But bodhichitta is not love and
compassion. This is often some confusion that people have. They think when they're
meditating on compassion they're actually meditating on bodhichitta. It's not the same.
Bodhicitta, what is it aimed at? What are we focusing on? We're focusing on our own
individual enlightenment, not Buddha Shakyamuni's enlightenment, not enlightenment in
general, but our own individual enlightenment, which has not yet happened but which can
happen on the basis of Buddha-nature, the pure nature of our minds. Okay. So now this is
what we're focused on with two intentions - to attain it so that it's presently happening, not
not-yet-happening, and to benefit all beings by means of that.
Tantra
How do you focus on your own individual not-yet-happening enlightenment? You have to
represent it by something. Buddhas don't just have a mind. It's not just Dharmakaya. A
Buddha has physical appearances and communicates (speech). So we can represent our
not-yet-happening enlightenment with a figure that's visualized in front of us that can appear
in the form of Buddha Shakyamuni or Guru Rinpoche - there are many, many other forms it
can appear in that could represent this - but remember we're not trying to attain their
enlightenment; we're trying to attain our own enlightenment.
In order to become a Buddha, we have to achieve this mind, body, and speech ourselves. So
here's where tantra comes in. Rather than representing our not-yet-happening enlightenment
by a figure in front of us, that figure comes into us, dissolves, and we take on the form of this
Buddha-figure. Right? This could be one of thousands of different forms. Buddhas can appear
as anything. So we can appear as Guru Rinpoche, we can appear as Manjushri, as Chenrezig,
any yidam. All these arms and legs and so on are just to help us keep in mind what they
represent. You know, like the six paramitas, these far-reaching attitudes - generosity,
discipline, patience, etc. There are many, many things they can represent. As a Buddha, we
Overview of the Nine Vehicles of Mind According to Nyingma
The Three Higher Trainings 5
would need to have all of these simultaneously because these are all the qualities of rigpa.
Rigpa has all of these. Rigpa has all these good qualities.
So it is impossible to practice tantra properly without bodhichitta, because the figure that we
are imagining ourselves to appear as represents my not-yet-happening enlightenment, which I
am imagining that I have now in order to more quickly attain that. And we imagine that with
mantras our speech is like that of a Buddha. And we imagine lights going outwards and
benefiting all beings the way that a Buddha does (Buddha activity). And it's very important to
understand that this appearance is an appearance coming from rigpa, from pure awareness.
And even though in my present, confused state it might not appear like that - it might appear
as something solid - it's not. If we believe it's really solid, then we're no better than some crazy
person thinking they're Napoleon or Cleopatra.
So renunciation - we're renouncing the ordinary level of appearance that my mind creates out
of confusion. And we have bodhichitta; we are aiming for this not-yet-happening
enlightenment represented by this figure that I appear as. And voidness, that these confusing
appearances don't correspond to reality; an actual referent is absent, never was there. And this
pure awareness itself is devoid of all these confusing levels of mind. That's basically what
we're doing in tantra.
Now, in order to be able to cut through this confusion, we have to not only understand the
so-called common preliminaries that I've just explained - common in the sense that it's shared
between sutra and tantra - but we need to build up a tremendous amount of positive force and
at least provisionally clear away some of the negative force. And that is done with the
ngondro (sngon-'gro) - the preliminary practices of prostration, Vajrasattva, etc. - and then an
empowerment, or initiation, which is to activate and stimulate the Buddha-nature potentials,
and then keeping very, very strictly the vows - bodhisattva and tantric vows - and doing the
various practices of tantra.
The Nine Vehicles
We hear about different levels of tantra practice. And in general in Nyingma we speak of nine
vehicles. What does vehicle mean? It's a vehicle of mind; it is a level of working with the
mind to bring us somewhere, like a vehicle. Of these nine, the first three are dealing with basic
sutra level, and then there are six tantra levels.
The Sutra Vehicles
So in terms of sutra we have what's called the shravaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva
vehicles.
The Shravaka Vehicle
A shravaka is a "listener" to the teachings. These are people who either listened directly to
Buddha or to teachers who followed Buddha. And they are aiming for their own liberation
from uncontrollably recurring rebirth, samsara. And this is a small vehicle, or modest vehicle -
that's the word Hinayana - because the goal is modest; it's for their own liberation. Of course
they develop love and compassion - you can't achieve anything without love and compassion -
so we shouldn't think that they don't have that, and we shouldn't think that they're selfish
either. It's just that their goal is small, just their own liberation. So what they need to
Overview of the Nine Vehicles of Mind According to Nyingma
Tantra 6
overcome for that is the confusion about how they themselves exist.
The Pratyekabuddha Vehicle
Pratyekabuddhas are those who live in the times when there are no Buddhas and no Buddha
teachings available, so they have to rely on instincts from previous lives in order to practice
the Buddhist path. They don't have teachers.
There's confusion here because some people think that: "Oh, I can study without a teacher, I
can practice without a teacher, like a pratyekabuddha" now. But teachers are available now.
The teachings are available. And although we might have instincts from previous lives,
Dharma instincts, so intuitively we have some understanding, we still need teachers. That
intuitive understanding usually manifests as what some people call the "of course" test of
Dharma. The intuitive understanding manifests in the form of when we hear a teaching, we
say, "Of course. Of course that makes sense." That's an indication that we have heard this
before - "Of course" - and we're just being reminded. But we shouldn't think that we can only
rely on intuitive understanding. This is a mistake. The teachers are living examples of what it
is that we are trying to attain, and so their living example is very, very inspiring, and it's that
inspiration which drives us, which gives us the energy to work to achieve this ourselves.
The Tibetans have a very good saying: "The best teacher is the teacher who lives three valleys
away." The teacher who lives three valleys away you don't see very often. You have to go
over big high mountain passes to get to this teacher, or for them to come to you, so you don't
see them all the time, which means that you don't see shortcomings in them. You see them in
an optimal situation, and this helps you to always focus on their good qualities and get
inspiration from that. So if you only have teachers coming here a few times a year, don't
complain about that. That actually is helpful. If they were here all the time, you would find a
lot of faults in them.
So, anyway, pratyekabuddhas are these very brave beings who live in these dark ages when
nothing is available. And they also work just for their own liberation; even if they wanted to
teach, nobody would be receptive.
The Bodhisattva Vehicle
And then the bodhisattva vehicle, those who work for enlightenment to benefit all beings, but
without this additional practice of imagining themselves already in the form of a Buddha.
The Tantra Vehicles
Kriya Tantra, Charya Tantra, and Yoga Tantra
Now in terms of tantra, we have first of all kriya tantra, then charya tantra, then yoga tantra.
When we hear in the New Schools - Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug - about four classes of tantra,
these three classes (kriya, charya, and yoga) are the first three classes of the four class
division. These are systems of tantra practice in which you're not actually aiming to activate
and gain access to rigpa - you're still working with grosser levels of mind - but as tantra you're
working with imagining yourself in the form of a Buddha.
Kriya tantra emphasizes external, ritual behavior. So this is our usual Tara and Chenrezig and
Manjushri type of practice. There's a special diet that you have. There's special practices of
Overview of the Nine Vehicles of Mind According to Nyingma
The Shravaka Vehicle 7
keeping clean. These type of ritual practices.
Charya tantra, the second class, has a combination of these rituals and more internal practice.
And yoga tantra has much more emphasis on the internal practices, but with a lot of mudras,
these hand gestures, a tremendous amount of them, and quite complex mandalas. A mandala is
a system of all these different deities.
And like the bodhisattva path, the bodhisattva vehicle, the result of [this pinnacle of] these
three vehicles is enlightenment. So not only getting rid of the obscurations - what's called the
emotional obscurations - concerning the self, which you need to gain liberation (the shravaka
or pratyekabuddha), but also what's called the cognitive obscurations regarding how
everything exists. Okay, so all of this brings you to enlightenment.
Mahayoga Tanta, Anuyoga Tantra, and Atiyoga Tantra
Now, in the New School classification, the fourth highest class of tantra is called anuttarayoga
tantra, "highest yoga tantra." And in Nyingma what corresponds to anuttarayoga tantra is
divided into three vehicles - mahayoga, anuyoga, and atiyoga. Another name for atiyoga is
dzogchen.
In anuttarayoga tantra, we speak of the generation stage and complete stage. Generation stage
is when we're working with our imagination to do all these visualizations of ourselves as these
Buddha-figures, and we imagine that we are doing all these activities to benefit others, and we
imagine that we have nonconceptual cognition of voidness and a blissful mind. So in other
words, that we have a blissful mind that understands voidness, with a body appearing as a
Buddha-figure, as a yidam, and all these lights going outwards and benefiting everybody. And
we aim to have this with perfect concentration, combining with it generosity and patience and
perseverance and discipline and all these qualities - love, compassion - everything all at the
same time. It's actually extremely difficult.
When we get perfect concentration with this - which means perfect concentration for four
hours straight, no wandering, no dullness - that's the gross level of the generation stage. And
then the subtle level is when we can imagine - visualize - the complete mandala, with all the
figures and so on, in a tiny little drop at the tip of your nose for four hours perfectly. So don't
think the generation stage is easy; it's not.
And then the complete stage. Some people translate it as "completeness" or "completion." It's
not completion. It's "complete" in the rigpa sense, that now everything is complete for being
able to actually make it happen, not just in our imagination. Now everything is complete. We
have all the materials, all the realizations, that will enable us to make everything that we've
been imagining actually happen.
Now, to make it actually happen, we need to be able to access rigpa, which means that we
need to be able to stop these grosser levels of mind that make these confusing appearances. So
how do we do this? In New Tantra, the New Schools, we have two ways of doing this:
One way is working with the subtle winds and energy, what you call tsalung
(rtsa-rlung) in Tibetan. So you try to centralize and dissolve all these winds that are
going crazy around your body in the channels, try to get them to dissolve into the heart
chakra so that we activate this rigpa level that is always there.

Overview of the Nine Vehicles of Mind According to Nyingma
Kriya Tantra, Charya Tantra, and Yoga Tantra 8
The other method is working with increasing levels of blissful awareness within the
central channel. So that's this practice of tummo (gtum-mo), inner heat. We shouldn't
think of this as talking about ordinary sex. It's completely something different. It has to
do with the central channel.

So in new tantra when we talk about the difference between mother and father tantra, father
tantra has more emphasis, more detail, about the wind practices, the tsalung practices; and
mother tantra, more emphasis on the bliss aspects.
This complete stage has several stages itself. And eventually in New Tantra you get to what's
called the "clear-light" level, which is nonconceptual and equivalent, in a sense, to rigpa
(slight difference, but no need to go into the detail). And then you have to work further in
order to be able to stay with this clear-light understanding of voidness with the actual
appearance of a Buddha. So that's the New Tantra system.
We have the equivalent in the Nyingma division of maha-, anu-, and atiyoga. As Dudjom
Rinpoche explained very clearly, all three of these vehicles are complete in each other; the
only difference is the emphasis:
Mahayoga tantra has the emphasis on the generation stage, which means more practice
in terms of these visualizations. But it has the other practices as well with the channels
and winds and with dzogchen, rigpa.

"Atiyoga" [sic! anuyoga] has much more detail about the tsalung practices, the
practices with the channels and winds. But of course it also has generation stage
practices with visualization, and it also has rigpa practices.

And atiyoga (what is formally called dzogchen) practice puts the main emphasis on
this level within what is called the complete stage in New Tantra at which you actually
get the nonconceptual cognition of voidness with the clear-light mind. So the
nonconceptual level, the actual rigpa level. But of course it has a generation stage type
of practice (visualization type of practice) and work with the channels.

You need to work with imagination and work with these channels so that when you actually
manifest rigpa in the dzogchen practice, in the atiyoga practice, the appearances that it gives
rise to will be appearances of these Buddha-figures. That's why we do the visualization
practices before; otherwise it gives rise to all appearances, but we want an appearance as a
Buddha. And we imagine these figures in union and we imagine having blissful awareness so
that the rigpa itself when it manifests will be with its full form of bliss.
And when we focus on the rigpa itself in the dzogchen practices, at that time you're not
working on dissolving the winds. We recognize rigpa underlying each moment of our
awareness - which is unbelievably difficult to do - and at that point all the winds and the
grosser levels of mind will dissolve. The atiyoga [sic! anuyoga] practice, the practice with the
channels and winds, is done before that in order to, in a sense, grease the channels, grease the
inner mechanism, so that when we focus on rigpa, everything automatically dissolves.
This is how Dudjom Rinpoche explained the interconnectedness of maha-, anu-, and atiyoga
tantra. We shouldn't think of these as being totally separate. And they're all on the basis of the
bodhisattva vehicle.
So this is the general presentation of the sutra and tantra path as explained in Nyingma.
Sometimes you might hear that dzogchen is above tantra, but this is just words, a
Overview of the Nine Vehicles of Mind According to Nyingma
Mahayoga Tanta, Anuyoga Tantra, and Atiyoga Tantra 9
classification, because dzogchen is practiced totally on the basis of sutra and all the usual
tantra practices. It's not something separate. And it is completely harmonious with what's
practiced in all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism, not something separate. It has its individual
characteristics, but even within one school, like Nyingma, there are many different variants.
That's what makes life interesting, isn't it?
So I think that's about all for my presentation. Perhaps you have some questions.
Questions and Answers
Alayavijnana, Rigpa, and Clear-Light Mind
Participant: Are rigpa and dharmadhatu the same?
Alex: Are rigpa and dharmadhatu the same? In many ways, yes. Dharmadhatu means the
"sphere of reality." Dharma is all phenomena, so "reality"; and dhatu is the "sphere." So the
rigpa, this pure awareness, encompasses all things in the sense that it is omniscient; it has all
positive good qualities complete. So in that sense it is the sphere of reality.
We speak in terms of the five types of so-called deep awareness - mirror-like, equalizing,
individualizing, accomplishing, and dharmadhatu. So in one sense you can see it as part of this
system of five when we talk about dharmadhatu. Or you can see it encompassing all. Or you
can think of dharmadhatu in terms of being voidness, the voidness of all phenomena or the
voidness of rigpa. So there's slight differences. And then if we speak of Dharmakaya, you add
the omniscient awareness aspect to it.
I think what you have to keep in mind is that these terms are used in many, many different
contexts. In some contexts they have one meaning. In another, a slightly different one. In
many contexts they overlap. In some contexts they're talking about some slightly different
emphasis.
Participant: What is alayavijnana?
Alex: Alayavijnana, or foundation consciousness, is the level of consciousness which carries
the habits and tendencies of karma and disturbing emotions and unawareness or ignorance. In
the Chittamatra (Mind-Only) system, it has truly established existence. But in the dzogchen
system - it's not at all the same as Chittamatra, so don't think that it is - it is referring to when
rigpa doesn't "recognize its own face," so then it functions as an alaya, perpetuating confusing
appearances, samsara, etc., with the tendencies and habits of karma and disturbing emotions.
It functions as an alayavijnana, but it doesn't have truly established existence, so it's different
from Chittamatra.
Someone else?
Participant: Dzogchen talks about achieving rigpa, and Gelug talks about achieving voidness.
What is the difference? Is there a difference?
Alex: Okay. Rigpa is the subtlest level of mind, which has never been stained by obscurations
or unawareness or confusion, and it's complete with all good qualities. It has three aspects
(three different types of nature, to be precise):
Overview of the Nine Vehicles of Mind According to Nyingma
Questions and Answers 10
One is that it spontaneously establishes appearances.
Its compassion aspect: it communicates outwards.
And then this term kadag (ka-dag), pure from the beginning, primally pure (ka is the
first letter of the Tibetan alphabet). So that corresponds to voidness.

Voidness is that it's devoid of impossible ways of existing. Things appear to exist in
impossible ways as if they're isolated by themselves, and that doesn't correspond to reality.
That in some systems is called self-voidness (rang-stong), voidness of a self-established
nature. Mipam, the greatest author of Nyingma commentaries, in some of his writings he only
asserts this voidness, which is the voidness discussed in terms of, let's say, Gelugpa. In other
commentaries, he writes also about how this rigpa level is devoid of grosser levels. That's
called other-voidness, zhentong (gzhan-stong) in Tibetan. So that's corresponding to the
clear-light mind in New Tantra. In New Tantra we talk about accessing the clear-light mind,
which is the subtlest level.
Now here's the difference between the clear-light mind and rigpa. Clear-light mind is speaking
about rigpa both in its pure state and when it doesn't recognize its own face and has the habits
of ignorance (and when rigpa doesn't recognize its own face, it functions as an alaya). So clear
light is referring to both. And rigpa itself is referring to just the untainted state. So they're
talking about the same thing, just a different way of classifying it.
So when we speak about just voidness of impossible ways of existing, that is this one way of
explaining the kadag, the purity aspect of rigpa. That kadag, that purity awareness, is both the
voidness of impossible ways of existing and, according to some commentaries, voidness of
grosser levels of mind. Kadag is this primal purity. So it's pure in two senses:
It's pure of impossible ways of existing. That's our usual voidness.
And it's also pure in the other sense, being pure of the grosser levels of mind. And that
corresponds to clear-light mind in New Tantra.

Participant: So voidness is larger than rigpa?
Alex: I wouldn't say that it's larger. It is one aspect of rigpa. Then you also have the
appearance-making and the compassion (energy going outwards). So rigpa has all these
qualities. With rigpa we' re talking about the whole package of what will become
enlightenment, and one part of that package is voidness.
The Dalai Lama
Participant: Have you had the good fortune to meet a person who abides in love and in
calmness and in self-control to such a degree that he doesn't fear anything - nothing can
change his state of love, even if he's threatened; he accepts it like it was just the wind
blowing?
Alex: Yes, I have. His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his teachers - I mean, they've all passed
away, but his teachers. The only time when you see them really upset, let's say, is based on
compassion. For His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he said this happened twice. Once was with the
original uprising in Tibet when he left and he knew how many people were being killed. And
a few years ago when there was again an uprising in Lhasa, he was giving some teaching that I
was attending, and he said that this was really very upsetting for him when many people were
being killed. But otherwise, no - no problem, no change in his mood. And obviously he was
Overview of the Nine Vehicles of Mind According to Nyingma
Alayavijnana, Rigpa, and Clear-Light Mind 11
moved by love and compassion.
Participant: What did he do when he was upset? Did he just say it, or did you notice
something?
Alex: He said, and he said that his sleep was disturbed, and his teachings then took a different
turn from the original topic.
Participant: In the course of the same day?
Alex: Well, it was over several days.
Anyone else?
Participant: So there is hope for us?
Alex: Oh, definitely.
Adapting Buddhism to the West
Participant: I would like to ask what you recommend for us as Western practitioners. I mean,
how can we recognize what in Buddhist practice is specific to Tibetan Buddhism and what is
substantial and should not be changed? How can we adapt Buddhism to the West without
losing its essence?
And the second part of the question: Can give us some advice for where we can find resources
for translating these terms, this terminology?
Alex: Into Bulgarian?
Participant: Not into Bulgarian especially.
Participant: So how do we recognize which is the substantial part of the teaching and which is
less substantial?
Alex: Right. He's asking what are the main characteristics of Dharma that we can practice here
in the West and what are specifically Tibetan cultural features that are not the essence.
The essence of the teachings of course is love, compassion, refuge, renunciation, bodhichitta,
the teachings on voidness, the teachings on rigpa (pure awareness). These are the essential
aspects, and they need to transform our personality; it's not just something you do as a hobby
and has nothing to do with your life. The whole point is to use the teachings to help us to
overcome anger, attachment, jealousy, and naivety, etc., to help us overcome selfishness, to
develop more concern for others. This is the essence.
What is more cultural would be all the aspects of the ritual. Ritual is helpful for giving some
structure to our practice - we don't throw it out completely - but the form that the Tibetans do
it is different from the form that the Indians did it. And that can be again modified to fit more
with Western mentality in terms of music, offerings, the tormas (gtor-ma, ritual cake). The
Indians didn't have tormas. These prayer flags - that's completely Tibetan. So these are the
cultural aspects.
Overview of the Nine Vehicles of Mind According to Nyingma
The Dalai Lama 12
Also it's very important to do the practices in your own language. Tibetans don't do it in
Sanskrit. What's important is to do the practices with understanding, not just a blind ritual
where you don't understand what you're doing.
So those are the main points.
And for gaining terminology, glossaries, etc., you have plenty of that on my website,
berzinarchives.com. And although we don't have Bulgarian language on the site, we have
Russian, which I know that many of you can also read, besides English.
So one last question, anybody?
Participant: My question is about the emphasis of the practice. With all respect to Tibetan
knowledge, can we make more pragmatic ways to present this here in the West?
Alex: Can we make more pragmatic ways to present things here? Definitely. The examples
that we use for explaining the Dharma - there's no need for it to be in terms of yaks and
caravans.
Participant: Before studying anything, taking any position, can we pay more attention to the
observer within ourselves: Who am I?
Alex: Well, it's very important to analyze how we exist. Of course it's very important.
Participant: This huge literature is inaccessible to so many people.
Alex: The literature is very vast, that's true. However, it's very important to study, and to get
guidance in terms of what to study, in order to then be able to analyze correctly: How do I
exist? We have all these great teachers who have written these things. They did it out of
kindness to help us. So although we don't need to study absolutely everything, whatever we
study we need to apply in our meditation and contemplation.
So let's end here with a dedication.
Links
{1} http: / / www.berzinarchives.com / media / audio / en / hi / Overview_9_vehicles_64bit /
Overview_9_Vehicles_64Bit.mp3
Overview of the Nine Vehicles of Mind According to Nyingma
Adapting Buddhism to the West 13