Sparkling Puddles

The last of the four thoughts that turn the mind to practice, is 'contemplation on the unsatisfactoriness of samsara'. This is often given as 'contemplation on the suffering of samsara', which is an unfortunate phrase, as it may cause us to miss the profound subtlety of the teaching. We may find it obvious that we should feel compassion for those who suffer through hunger, loss, illness, or catastrophe, but believe that the rich and famous, the well-fed and comfortable, do not need a second thought. Dharma however, aspires to free all sentient beings from their suffering – including the rich, famous, well-fed, and comfortable. We need to understand the elusive nature of the suffering of those whose lives are apparently happy and successful. This suffering is the subtle sense of dissatisfaction that is ever-present, even at times of joy and happiness. Through yearning for such happiness and satisfaction to abide as a permanent and continuous experience, we actually create unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Through grasping at happiness, and attempting to prevent its dissolving into emptiness, we undermine the present moment. Through fear of loss of happiness we fail to enjoy and appreciate happiness in the present moment, and project this duality into the next moment, preventing the continuing empty dance of happiness.'Du' means worthless, and 'kha' means hollow. So 'dukkha' encompasses more than pain – it includes 'life simply being different to how I would prefer it to be' – and indicates the illusory nature of dukkha. The Tibetan word which equates with dukkha is dug-ngal (sDug bsNgal) which means 'unsatisfactoriness'. It combines the word 'sDug' – which means 'frustration' – with the word 'bsNgal' which means 'weariness'.Ngak'chang Rinpoche says of dug-ngal:

"Dukha or dug-ngal does not really mean 'suffering' per se. Dug-ngal is a term which contains suffering as part of a broad specrtum of exquisite dualistic inconveniences which range from mild displeasure to utter agony. 'Unsatisfactoriness' is therefore a preferable term in respect of translating dug-ngal.”

'Worthlessness' and 'hollowness' hint that we ourselves create dissatisfaction. It is not self-existent. Samsara is dualism – it is the process of grasping at form and retracting from emptiness in which we engage moment by moment, day by day, throughout our lives. Samsara is the process of attempting to succeed at duality because we believe success is possible. Samsara is the process of acquiring wealth, relationships, occupations because we believe their apparent form will make us safe and secure.The experience of samsara is the base of Sutrayana. The teachings of Sutrayana arise in response to our experience of samsara as unsatisfactory. The idea of samsara experienced as dissatisfaction implies the existence of nirvana as a fulfilling experience. Nirvana may mistakenly be thought of as an 'other-worldly state', a pure land, heaven, or paradise. This is a misconception. Samsara is nirvana. Nirvana is samsara. They are the same environment. They are exactly the same circumstances. It is our relationship with environment and circumstance which changes our experience. When we gain realisation, we will not suddenly find ourselves reborn into a totally new physical existence. Rather, we will discover ourselves reborn in the reality of our present existence with awakened view.Our bodies and our world are perfect as they are. There is nothing that we need to get rid of or purify in order to discover nirvana. We simply need to clarify our view. The belief that liberation requires us to discover another concrete realm where everything is perfect will not help us discover the perfection of where we are. The experience of pure happiness and pleasure is available to us in this life. We can experience the sparkle of enlightenment in a moment of loving or laughter. Then we may start to wonder why we lose these moments.It is not actually possible to grasp the subtlety of our experience of the unsatisfactoriness of samsara if we are suffering too greatly. If my whole life has been deprivation, aggression, loneliness, anxiety, and painful confusion, then it would be easy merely to view bad

luck, parental abuse, or societal injustice as the cause of my unhappiness. In order to actually perceive the hollowness of dukkha, we have to have some measure of success and pleasure in our lives. I have to be able to maintain healthy relationships with friends and family, and make my own way in the world. It is when I find the feeling of dissatisfaction remains, even though my life is successful in samsaric terms, that I start to be suspicious that there might be a problem with my view. It is only then that I can begin to understand that duality is the source of dissatisfaction. My fear of the emptiness of pleasure – because it ends; my fear of the form of pain – because it happens; causes me to separate emptiness and form. When I realise that there is also the form of happiness and the emptiness of pain, I can begin to let go of my need to seek form and avoid emptiness.We are all trying to be happy. We all want to be free of the experience of loss, pain, sorrow, and fear, and wish to only experience pleasure and happiness. This is universal. Our inability to achieve happiness in any lasting and meaningful way expresses the universal experience of dissatisfaction within dualistic experience. This is the unsatisfactory quality of the continually cycling patterns of perception and response in which no permanent happiness can ever be found. When I intelligently perceive this underlying sense of dissatisfaction, there is the danger that it may undermine every achievement. Without an understanding of duality, I may becgin to doubt and lose appreciation of the moments of happiness I do experience. Dharma offers a way to harness the recognition of dissatsifaction to the task of changing it into satisfaction.Through feeling the suspicion that arises when I have proved myself to be a capable, competent, functional person within the bounds of what is possible within samsara – I become aware of the underlying sensation of unsatisfactoriness.Through the arising of the niggling feeling that the whole thing is vaguely hollow and that nothing is quite

what it seems – I become aware of the underlying sensation of unsatisfactoriness.Through having worked for the good things I own and by living in a reasonable degree of comfort – I become aware of the underlying sensation of unsatisfactoriness.I find that I can achieve almost whatever I set out to achieve in terms of what the world offers; yet I come to realise that these achievements are at best a pastime*. This suspicion is an opening of view. It is an opportunity. It can be the start of my life as a Dharma practitioner. It can be the beginning of awakening.*pastime – an activity which makes time pass pleasantlyThe declaration that samsara is ultimately unsatisfactory is not a statement that denigrates the body and the world. It is not the body or the world that are in themselves unsatisfactory. It is simply that our experience is characterised as unsatisfactory. In the Vimalakirti Sutra, in answer to a question about the imperfection of human life and conditions, Shakyamuni Buddha says: “I see no unsatisfactory life or unsatisfactory conditions. They are illusory. The world is perfect as it is.”Hence we can understand that it is the distortion of our perception as human beings dwelling in duality that causes us to experience dissatisfaction. It is not our bodies and our world in themselves that are unsatisfactory. Ngak'chang Rinpoche once explained to me that the idea that samsara is the body and the world of form, owes its origin to the Tirthika philosophies. It is not that Buddhism is a body negative or life negative religion. Buddhism arose within the context of Indian monism and therefore certain ideas prevalent within modern-day Hinduism have become confused with Buddhism. This confusion especially arises because Sutric Buddhism does teach renunciation – detachment from form. That Sutric Buddhism teaches detachment from form however, is not a statement that defines form as duality. It is merely our referential relationship that is dualistic.

Shakyamuni Buddha discovered the hollowness of success experientially. As the prince, the son of the king, he had to excel in every field. He had to be the greatest archer, wrestler, poet, artist, and musician. He had to surpass others in everything, because to be second-best or to fail would undermine his position as the future king. The Dzogchen view of this familiar story as presented in the Ulukhamukha Sutra, states that it was thus – through his success – that he came to view 'accomplishment' with suspicion. All he had left was to find what lay both beyond and within the issue of hollowness. His path is based on the unsatisfactoriness of 'success as a reference point'. The traditional Sutric view presents the sights of sickness, old age and death as being the cause of Siddhartha turning away from his privileged and luxurious life to follow a spiritual path. From the perspective of Dzogchen, it is not that sickness, old age, and death fail as issues to turn one’s attention to spiritual enquiry; it is rather that there is a more subtle level of unsatisfactoriness which needs to be perceived.Perceiving the referentiality of success means that even if we were immortal, the cyclic nature of serial successes would still leave us with a sense of unsatisfactoriness. According to this interpretation of the teachings, sickness, old age, and death cannot actually be described as unsatisfactory. They are simply the play of form – the arising, abiding and dissolving of aspects of our lives. If we are born as a human being, then it is inevitable that we will experience sickness at times, that we will grow old, and that we will die one day. Shakyamuni Buddha said that where there is dualism change is perceived as dukkha. We do not want to lose the good things in our life, but everything changes – always. The apparent existence of all phenomena slips away from us, especially if we try to grasp at permanence.I experienced it as something of a relief to discover that a feeling of dissatisfaction is universal. I felt that I could let go of depression and know that the niggling feeling of 'surely there has to be more to it than this?' or 'what is the point of getting washed and dressed again, going

to work again, eating another meal?’ didn't mean I was going crazy. I could get washed and dressed knowing that there was no ultimate purpose in these actions. I could go to work knowing that in the grand scale of things it was pointless. I could enjoy eating the meal knowing that it was a transient satisfaction. I could let go of wondering whether I was socially acceptable in the way I dressed and behaved, because social norms are ultimately hollow. I could let go of wondering whether it was alright to really like a particular type of music, because I understood that all opinions are ultimately empty. No-one else's dress-sense, behaviour, likes and dislikes, and opinions had any more value than mine. I was free to be exactly who I was.Knowing that there is nothing in the relative world that we can do that will make any real difference in an ultimate sense, gives us permission to dedicate time to practice. This can be an energy boost for engaging in a spiritual path. Practice will make a difference because it will enable us to move beyond the relative existence of samsara. We can be successful at knowing we can never be successful at samsara. We can celebrate that our bodies and our world are actually perfect. Death, impermanence, things going wrong, laughter, colour, autumn leaves, light sparkling in puddles, cars breaking down, relationships ending, falling in love – all are the play of existence, the movement and change that is reality. It is only experienced as unsatisfactory when we try to stop movement and change, or see movement and change as painful. Once we have a real understanding of the cause of our experience of samsara as unsatisfactory, we can engage with it in a light-hearted manner. We can play with our life experience, rather than feeling like a victim of our circumstances.However, it could be argued that such an understanding of the nature of dissatisfaction could lead us to become uncaring: if the world is perfect and it is only view that is distorted, then there is no purpose in trying to help people. Their unhappiness is their problem. The Dharma practice, though, is to regard samsara as illusory from our own perspective. As spiritual practitioners we have

developed a clear understanding of the root of our experience of dissatisfaction. However, as our practice is also rooted in compassion, we relate to others’ experience of dissatisfaction as real from their perspective1. We engage with other people's perception as if samsara can be made to work. We do not undermine others' sense of meaning and purpose in life.1 The only exception to this would be other practitioners within our sangha. Sangha are the community of practitioners (gendün, dGe ’dun). This could be the red sangha of monks and nuns, or the white sangha of non-celibate ordained practitioners – the ngakpas and ngakmas (sNgags pa and sNgags ma). The white sangha is also called the gö kar chang lo’i dé (gos dKar lCang lo’i sDe) which means white skirt/long hair. Another name is the Ngak’phang Gendün (sNgags ’phang dGe ’dun) literally meaning ‘mantra wielding’ and refers to the Tantric community of practitioners. With fellow practitioners we refrain from indulging their addiction to duality and encourage them to awaken to the reality of the nature of the experience of dissatisfaction.Most people do believe that samsara will work eventually – if I just shuffle the pieces of the puzzle carefully enough and conscientiously enough, one day it will all work out perfectly. We would like to complete the jigsaw so that we can experience that moment of satisfaction, but at the same time without letting go of the fun of moving the pieces around. We live in hope that things will continue to run smoothly or that one day it will all click into place and we will be happy forever. Once we realise that the pieces of our jigsaw will never miraculously click into place, we are freed from the effort of attempting to make it happen. We can relax into the realisation of the reality of what is, and enjoy the energy that is liberated. We can then help those who still hold this view to be comfortable and successful in their terms. We understand that it is extremely difficult to perceive the subtle unsatisfactory quality of samsara from a perspective of suffering, so our compassionate activity is to help others achieve relative success within samsara, and free them from

gross suffering. Only then will they too have the chance of realising the hollowness of success.The understanding of the unsatisfactoriness of samsara is the first of a four-fold teaching given by Shakyamuni Buddha called the Dharmachakra-parvatana Sutra, the first turning of the Wheel of Dharma. This teaching is usually called the Four Noble Truths. The First Noble Truth is the suffering of samsara. The second is that this suffering has a cause that can be identified and understood. The third is the possibility of the cessation of the experience of suffering, and the last Noble Truth is that there is a path which can be followed to realise the cessation of suffering. This path is called the Noble Eightfold Path. When approached from the perspective of the play of emptiness and form, this fundamental teaching can be viewed in some depth and with some subtlety. When 'suffering' is understood in the more subtle sense of the experience of dissatisfaction, as an illusion created by duality, the three truths that follow can be understood at a deeper level as well. Shakyamuni Buddha pointed out that if we have true understanding, each truth suggests the subsequent truth to us. If we are able to gain a sense of the hollowness of success and the illusory nature of satisfaction in the dualistic, relative terms of cyclic existence, we can discover the Second Noble Truth as a natural outcome. It will naturally occur to us that there must be a cause for this feeling of dissatisfaction. Each truth will naturally progress on from the other in this way.There is a tremendously powerful message within the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, which the Ulukhamukha Upadesha Dakini Sutra presents as a pointing-out instruction. Reflecting on this takes us far beyond the victimised sense of suffering and the way which passes beyond suffering. The Four Noble Truths can be commonly misunderstood as indicating that release from dukkha lies beyond the body and the physical world; but the Ulukhamukha Sutra completely reverses this misconception, and lays open the vast possibility that is inherent in every aspect of every moment of existence.

The truth of the cause of the experience of unsatisfactoriness is suggested to us through understanding the form and emptiness of satisfaction. We see that satisfaction is short-lived and dependent on view and circumstances, and therefore empty as well as having form. We realise that there is something about the way in which we view and experience phenomena that causes our experience of unsatisfactoriness.In the Sutric texts, the causes of the experience of unsatisfactoriness are said to be karma and klésha (Tib: nyon-mong – nyon mongs). Karma was discussed in detail in the previous chapter. We remember here that it is described as cause and effect, which means that through distorted perception our response creates the cyclic patterns of our neurotic conditioning. Klésha are the perceptual distortions of attraction, aversion, and indifference which maintain the cyclic patterns of our neuroses. Klésha is the grasping of form and rejection of emptiness. We experience dukkha because we divide form and emptiness. Once we realise that we create our own unsatisfactoriness through dualistic preconception, the possibility suggests itself of allowing our view to change. We realise that we can let go of creating dissatisfaction.The cessation of the experience of unsatisfactoriness is the Third Noble Truth. It is the truth that if there is a cause of dukkha, then there must be a way to stop creating the cause of dukkha. We can cut the cause at the root. We actively create samsara by continually defining our existence according to our need for form. We refuse to let the ebb and flow of our existence be 'as it is'. Once we understand the cause of dissatisfaction, we realise we can simply stop 'doing' samsara. We discover we can allow a view and experience to emerge in which form and emptiness define each other. This completely alters our perception of pleasure. Within the non-dual perspective of Dzogchen, the temporary nature of pleasure ceases to be regarded as problematic. Its temporary nature is simply its empty quality. We do not have to renounce appreciation of pleasure simply because it manifests as

form and emptiness. Similarly, we recognise that our experience of pain is referential and also empty. Pain does not need to be feared because of its form quality.Understanding the possibility of this view and experience inspires confidence that there is a state which can be attained where we are able to exist without the distorted perceptions of dualism. We can exist as happy and satisfied beings. We may be fortunate enough to meet Lamas who appear to experience their lives as satisfactory whatever occurs; and who direct us toward the fact that our own enlightenment sparkles through the fabric of our self-created conditioning. We are all beginninglessly enlightened, and because of this, our own non-dual state points to itself through the experience of dukkha. Through understanding that unsatisfactoriness is something we create, we can undermine our own creation. We can discover the function and value of spiritual practice. In fact not to practice becomes madness. If you realised you were drowning – would you refuse to accept a lifeline? If you realised you were sick – would you reject life-saving medicine?The Fourth Noble Truth is the path that leads to the cessation of the experience of unsatisfactoriness. Having recognised our experience of dissatisfaction, having understood that we create the cause through duality, and having realised we can cease to create this cause, we can approach the method of practice. The method of practice described in the Four Noble Truths is the Noble Eightfold Path.The Noble Eightfold Path is a deep and detailed teaching that can be viewed in many ways. It is a discourse on method. The eight steps are: right view or understanding; right intention or motivation; right speech or communication; right action or conduct; right vocation or livelihood; right effort; right attention or mindfulness; right presence or concentration. To fully discuss this path would be a book in itself, but I will describe it in a little detail in the next chapter. It will be viewed from the perspective of engaging in practice because of the understanding of the need for spiritual

activity gained through an understanding of the Four Thoughts.Samsara is cyclic existence – the continual manipulation of form in an attempt to achieve lasting success and satisfaction. We experience samsara as unsatisfying, because success and satisfaction can only exist in the moment. There can be no lasting and continuous satisfaction that abides independent of its cause and perceiver. The very meaning of 'success' is open to interpretation. One person’s success may be another’s failure. One person's pride of accomplishment may be regarded as a waste of time by another. Our achievements are relative and transient. When I was five I thought the most enjoyable way to occupy my time was dressing my doll in her beautiful bride’s outfit. I would not regard this occupation as satisfying today! Some people love to lie in the sun for hours on end and regard acquiring a tan as a success, while others regard this as a waste of of time or even as foolishly dangerous. Every occupation has its own purpose and potential for satisfaction in the moment dependent upon the perceiver. Dissatisfaction arises when we require the verification of others as to the value of our experience, and when we seek to define ourselves through satisfaction.In this chapter we have looked at the cause of our experience of dissatisfaction, and discovered that it is self-created. Realising that dissatisfaction is self created; it occurs to us that we could cease this creation. Once we truly comprehend at a gut level that this is the essence of samsara – that continuing to shuffle the pieces of our lives is hollow, and that the transient achievements of samsara are ultimately worthless – we can decide to stop. We can decide that we wish to discover purpose and meaning. We can wish to engage with our lives in a way that will bring complete and lasting satisfaction. This is practice – engagement with a spiritual path that brings purpose and satisfaction to our lives. The methods offered by Buddhism provide opportunities to discover, through sparkling presence, that each moment naturally has its own purpose of itself, that arises and dissolves in the

moment. The methods of Buddhism can teach us to dwell in presence, understanding the empty quality of form and the form quality of emptiness in the present moment. Then all moments can be realised as moments of utter blissful satisfaction.In these last four chapters we have looked at the Four Thoughts that turn the mind to practice. We have examined the precious nature of our being – that our existence is in itself an opportunity. We have looked at the impermanent nature of our existence, and understood that death and birth are a continuing moment-by-moment dance of being. We have explored karma and seen that it is fuelled by the patterning of perception and response. We have seen that our inability to let go of addiction to form, and our fear of emptiness, create continual dissatisfaction. Perhaps we are attracted to the idea of awakening, but feel the process is too challenging or beyond our ability. In fact what would be ideal would be to watch ourselves awaken – to attain enlightenment, but retain our relationship with form as well. Letting go of form addiction feels like cutting the cords of our parachute when we are 3,000 feet above the ground – if we could just see a video of us doing it first, to be sure it was safe. If we could taste the nectar without actually having to place it on our tongue. If we could only arrive at our desired destination without the rigours and delights of the journey.As Khandro Déchen said:

"There are many 'Armchair Buddhists' – particularly those interested in Vajrayana. They love to read about advanced practices. They love to read about wrathful Lamas and the Crazy Wisdom Master – but they would not want to find themselves in a real relationship with such a master or to be authentically engaged in such practices. To be an 'armchair' anything is relatively harmless – but to be an 'armchair Buddhist' usually leads to unpleasantness, to antisocial behaviour, and to gossip mongering*. Those who pretend to be practitioners give a bad name to Vajrayana. They are people who would often be better served by emulating the kindness of decent

ordinary people who have no aspiration to spirituality."

* to monger – to deal in a specific commodity; to promote something undesirable or discreditable. What we need to comprehend is that the rigours and delights of the journey are the path and the destination. We have the ability to discern and appreciate; we have the intelligence to understand the importance of the present moment; we can recognise the distortion we inflict on perception and response; we can see that even through the successes of our life there is still dissatisfaction. Through this skilful opening of view, we know that our current view and approach to our lives will not bring true happiness for ourselves or others. At this point we have the choice – to actively retract into ignorance, or to engage with Dharma. We can settle for eternal dissatisfaction, or practice – and learn to dwell in the sparklingly infinite, vividly present continuity of now-moments. We can decide to go back to sleep and ignore our understanding of the Four Thoughts, or we can take this understanding further and continue to wake up.Questioner: How does finding the emptiness of pain happen in our experience?Ngakma Nor'dzin: We are potently aware of the form quality of pain – it hurts. Pain is pain because we are human beings. It has a necessary physiological function. If we did not feel pain we would be in great danger of damaging ourselves continually. But even if we are unlucky enough to be in physical pain, we do not have to let it define us in any way. We can have a happy mind and a painful body. Towards the end of his life Kyabjé Chhi-mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche's body was quite obviously failing, but he just carried on teaching. He looked completely at ease in his frail body, and as powerful and imposing as ever. His frailty did not mean that he was not a happy human being.Q: But what about psychological pain?NN: Psychological pain is experienced because we relate to the world through pattern and projection

rather than as it is. We exist in dualism. If we did not attempt to split emptiness and form, we would not experience this as pain.Q2: Some people cope with bad experiences better than others. They don't seem to let it colour how they relate to others.NN: True. Some people are better at being concave in their relationship with their circumstances. By that I mean that they allow themselves to flex with circumstances rather than forcing their definition of themselves onto circumstances. We don't need to latch on to what happens to us – ‘I am ill therefore I must be unhappy’.Q: Do we need experience of more subtle forms of dissatisfaction to understand this teaching?NN: Yes and no . . . These teachings concern the subtle nature of dissatisfaction, and this cannot be comprehended if we are always experiencing gross pain and failure. We need to be relatively successful and we need to be relatively happy before we can become suspicious of its hollowness. So from this point of view the answer is 'yes'. We must gain experience of emptiness through experiencing the hollowness of the success of our lives, to arrive at the base of the path of Tantra – which is emptiness. However, if we have devotion to the Lama, we can bypass the need to experience emptiness in this way. We can enter the path of Tantra through the empty experience of our devotion. If we can enter the sphere of the Lama wholeheartedly and openly, then that is our base of emptiness. This is not to say that it will not still be expedient to engage in practices to develop our experience of emptiness or that it is no longer important to make our lives functional and useful in an ordinary sense. But we can begin from the base of devotion.Q: There have been plenty of times when I have wanted this or that, but I have never felt that any of these things was going to be ‘The Answer’.

NN: For you it might be the other way round – rather than believing that having things will make you happy, you believe that not having things will make you happy. You think you would be unhappy if you wore a shirt and tie and lived in a house and had a mortgage. We all define the things in our life that will make us happy and are all continually adjusting those definitions.Q: I guess I’m too cynical. I can see the emotional thing, but not the conceptual thing of thinking that something will be the answer to everything.NN: Well you have been practising for quite a long time now. This teaching is intended for the entry-level practitioner, or to open the view of a non-practitioner. This understanding may have become so much the ground of your practice that you do not even see it anymore.Q: When we have achieved the goals that we have set ourselves and found this unsatisfactory, is there a danger of inactivity?NN: Yes, you can enter into a sort of void when there does not seem to be any point to anything.Q: So is there a way of acting that does not include a wish for success – the actions are still done but without the aim of personal satisfaction?NN: This sounds as though you might be getting confused. There is nothing wrong with finding the things we achieve satisfying. There is no problem with having goals and ambitions and reaching them. What is being said here is that you cannot shuffle the pieces of samsara in any way that is going to bring ultimate, lasting, 'this is it!' satisfaction. There is satisfaction in the moment, but we tend to concretise this into a definition. To give an example: I must not fabricate a reality around successfully losing a lot of weight – I am a thin person now and therefore more valuable; now that I am thin my life will be perfect’- that sort of attitude. Dharma is not about turning our lives into porridge – a sort of gruel of acceptance and humourless compromise. If you want the Lamborghini, go for it! Get it. Love it. Enjoy it. But don’t delude yourself into

thinking that you’re better than someone who can only afford a cheap vehicle, or that it will never break down.Q: If you are continually successful at something then failure is a shock.NN: Indeed. But in non-duality we cannot talk about success or failure. These imply opposition and contradiction. Ngak'chang Rinpoche talks about the 'play of phenomena'. If there is no sense of success or failure it is just playful. One person’s success is to live a simple life, in a yurt, with few possessions. To others that might seem like failure. This is why it’s so important not to judge and fix people. We must also not fix our perception of ourselves and our lifestyle. The minute we fix things there is no possibility of experiencing non-duality. Non-duality is open and fluid.Q2: Does that hold true if someone's view is damaging?NN: If that means they treat people badly, it's not a good idea, and perhaps you could try to influence them. However, unless they have great respect for you and value your view and opinion in some way, challenging them may just cause them to entrench and solidify their view. Generally it is best to look to our own intention and motivation and allow who we are to be the manner of influence rather than trying to take direct action.Q1: From my experience there’s another danger – that all opinions are equally meaningful or meaningless, and I become unfeeling of other’s opinions.NN: Where there are human beings there are problems! Dzogchen view can also be misinterpreted as 'it doesn’t matter what I do'. It is important to remember that Dzogchen does not deny the other vehicles and the importance of kindness. Although it is ultimately true that their opinion is irrelevant, we would not act from that view. Dzogchen is not a cold and dispassionate path. We respond to the needs of others and do not constantly unsettle people by challenging the rigidity of their view and opinion. We might do this occasionally with people we know well, or with other practitioners, but generally we have no right to be anything other than kind. Even though Dzogchen view is direct and

piercing, there is the underlying motivation of kindness and acting appropriately.Q3: So morality is the response to people’s condition?NN: We have to be careful of the word morality as it generally implies a code of behaviour. A code of conduct may not allow room for direct perception and understanding. Dzogchen talks of pure appropriateness. It’s a question of responding appropriately in the moment. Our response is based in the non-duality of wisdom and kindness. There is no judgement from a moral base of 'good or bad', or fitting into a moral code of what is 'good' or 'bad'. There is the response that moves in the direction of realisation, and the response that moves away from it.Q2: It’s difficult to have a compassionate view if the situation is hurting us.NN: Yes, we have to apply common sense and be aware of our limitations and capacity.Q2: This view of lack of satisfaction seems to suggest there is no point in trying to help people who are starving or homeless.NN: There is always a point in helping people who are in need. We are not undermining the good intentions of people who help on the soup run or work in a charity shop. However if your whole sense of who you are and the point of your existence is bound up in achieving world peace or an end to hunger – you are likely to be in for a devastating disappointment at some point. It may be that your peace work will achieve small successes in certain areas, and this is to be valued, but to expect total worldwide, everlasting success is unrealistic. Success has to be appreciated in the moment, but not grasped at as a concrete, achievable, eternal aim.Q2: Is there a possibility of thinking that practice will bring you ultimate satisfaction?NN: If you practise it will bring you happiness – the happiness of enjoying each present moment as rich, sparkling, passionate, unconstrained and beyond

definition. It will bring you a lasting sense of contentment even when your life is turned upside down and there is sadness and worry, and more than that: a sense of expansiveness, of the present moment being all time and no time.Q2: So does it not matter if I enter into practice with that view – of wishing to be happy?NN: Our motivation is always mixed. We always have dualistic motivation.Q2: So it still might work?NN: Guaranteed! [laughter]