Dialogue with the Soul: Part II

This Life's Urticaria Comes from Lifetimes of Impetuous Temper Driven by the Blazing Five Aggregates Rinpoche, through Sea-Tide Avalokiteśvara, speaks directly with the lay student's soul:

Rinpoche sees: in what looks like a cell, stakes ringed around it like a prison, hiding inside and still fuming — shaking the stakes and shouting "let me out, let me out."

Rinpoche asks: What's the matter?Any grievance?He says: it's that your heart isn't open — you locked yourself in, you locked it up yourself.It's a high-class cell, golden — like a golden birdcage.

It says it was already allowed out, then was shut back in.Because your temper is bad, you often blow up.He says your blazing five aggregates haven't been tamed.You often, out of nowhere, let your temper out, and get locked back in.He says it was going to be let out for a walk — now it's remanded in custody.He says the blazing five aggregates are dangerous.The blazing five aggregates will drive your mind into a cage.He says if you — only if you — handle the emotions of the blazing five aggregates well and let the mind settle, then it will come out of the cage.Then it can practice at ease.This is the biggest barrier.Mm — he says: hurry, hurry, he's bored stiff shut in there.So correspondingly you must be bored too — every time your blazing five aggregates come out, you're even more oppressed.(Question: are the blazing five aggregates the planet Mars?) Mars, or Tianji — Tianji meeting Mars.Blazing five aggregates are worse.(Question: so my yearly chart just happens to be Tianji meets Mars.) Blazing five aggregates means temper and anger born of the five skandhas — inexplicable, emotions you can't master.

So because the emotion can't be mastered — fearing it will throw off your practice — the soul is temporarily imprisoned, less likely to blow up.If a soul-body that has practiced before or is still practicing goes charging around wildly, it falls into deviant practice, goes off, and once off, extreme ideas come in.So this is necessary.This is kindly meant.A kind cell — not a convict's cell.It's there to keep you from running wild, running off.So he's innocent, really.(Question: so did I shut him in, or did he shut himself in first?) He was auto-detained.The moment your blazing five aggregates come out he locks himself in.That's your primordial Buddha — your soul.Right now we're listening to the soul's grievance: he's locked up.Why?"I'm afraid your blazing five aggregates will come out of nowhere, and if I don't lock myself in I'm afraid I'll turn demon." It's a kindly cell.(Ah-xian, you're still there) (Shut up in there.) Your temperament is bad.(But actually I don't feel I'm losing my temper — except that stretch around New Year.) Yes you have — the inner kind.

Anything else to ask him?Anything to relay?(Question: how do I practice?) He says to first put out the blazing-five-aggregate fire.(Question: this year Tianji with Mars again — how do I practice?) Drink more nectar-water.(Drink nectar-water.) Practice nectar-water and drink.(Okay.) Cool.The Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of Clear-Cool Ground.

(Question: so going forward which direction?) He says once your mind has settled, you can see the first light?(So-called seeing light means it will show itself to me.) Yes — you'll see a point of brightness; you'll find him.His cage will open.(I just have one — where to go?) That's it.He tells you to pull your mind back, and the cage will open.Mm.(Then nectar-water works) — it can lower the heart-fire.(Is it Great Compassion Mantra water?) "Namo Suruba'ya Tathāgataya Tadyathā Oṃ Suru Suru Prasuru Prasuru Svāhā." (Oh — that nectar-water.)

(Question: about opening wisdom — wisdom isn't in the brain, is it?) The brain — wisdom of course is not in the brain.Wisdom is in the heart.Cleverness is in the brain.He says: you're locked in a cage — where would wisdom come from?Locked up, where's the wisdom.He says once released, your wisdom will come gushing out.(Question: does he have a name?) What name?What name are you talking about?(Does my soul have a name?) Does the soul have a name?(Of course it does.How do I communicate with him?) I'll ask him — see if he can give you a name.(Yes.Good.) He's awaiting trial in suffering.

He says: here's a name — Pād, Pād.Originally I was going to say Pāduo, with the "wu" — but the "wu" (realize) shouldn't be needed.It should be PAD.In the Six-Syllable Great Bright Mantra — Oṃ Maṇi Padme Hūṃ — the "Padme" — "Pad-" means burst open, open up.(Padme is two sounds — Pad-me.) Pad — burst open, open up.When your heart opens, that's when you find him.Pād.(Can I call to him?) Yes.PAD.PAD.Open up.Open.You open the cage, you open your soul, he appears.This is the password.That'll do — you'll find him.(So I don't need to worry.I'll find him.) Yes, you'll definitely find him.

First, handle the blazing five aggregates.Second, use the Heart Sūtra to let the mind settle.Third, drink that nectar-water.Fourth, call his name.(Alright, alright.) Oṃ Maṇi Padme Hūṃ — the "Pad" is PAD, meaning to open.Oh, interesting — your name is Open — Bloom, open up.(He's so wise.) It really is the password of "open sesame." (Yes, he's very wise.I asked well too.)

(I also want to know — has he been injured?) Yes.(Do I need to repair him, or has he been repaired already?) Repair not yet complete.(What's still missing?) He says there was a life — one life — of practicing dharma until you went deviant.You ended up on fire in the end, because you were too impatient — when the kuṇḍalinī rose, you couldn't control it.Water and fire couldn't balance, so when the fire rose and didn't fully self-combust, the outside was burned.Burned up.(It was the physical body?) The skin was burned.(So this is related to the current urticaria.) The result of overdoing kuṇḍalinī.(So the whole surface of your body now —) In that life you didn't practice properly, because you were too impatient.So it didn't go right.Water is the benign element — the ren channel has to come out — when the fire of the governor channel comes, the ren channel has to bring it down.In that life you only cultivated the governor channel, you didn't cultivate the ren.So when the fire rose you couldn't master it.

If it had been rainbow light or feather-ascension, you'd need to fully burn — gone in an instant.But yours burned slowly — the fire caught on the surface but couldn't fully combust.You tortured yourself, howling.But actually no one did it to you; it was self-ignition.That life's trauma was severe.So it burned up.No wonder when I just saw him in the cage he was black — the skin all burned.

(What should I practice now?) What I just told you — use nectar-water, that's it.(That's why he needs nectar-water.) Yes.(Blazing five aggregates too, because he's burning uncomfortably?) Yes — blazing-five-aggregate fire.He curses — stands there cursing — so fire burns the merit-forest.Ruined right there.He says: your whole life of practice failed right there.(Impatience.) The problem of "impatience brings the opposite result," as they say.What's that idiom?(The one you just said.) Mm — "haste makes waste." That kind of haste is similar to going deviant.This is your biggest trauma — still burning now, your skin is still burning.(Yes — the urticaria on my body now.) That's what he said.(Hey, Ah-xian — take Eighteen-Bronzemen Qi-Smoothing Powder.)

(So — what direction do I take?) Cultivate out your spirituality.As he told you: use PAD to open your spirituality.You can see your self-nature buddha.We practice Dzogchen — what else do we practice?Only this.No other choice.(Yes, I know.The subconscious knows.) So practicing the maṇi-jewel is the only choice, no other.(So when I practice the maṇi-jewel, where do I place the PAD?) Pad — means open, so the maṇi-jewel can appear.(Call him out.) Yes — call to him.The maṇi-jewel needs to be called this way; he says call him, and open from inside the lotus.The lotus opens — like a pearl's shell revealing the pearl.Actually inside the lotus there is a bead, wrapped there.If the lotus doesn't open, he can't come out.

(So my bathing-water should use nectar-water.) Yes — like a Buddha-bathing.(So I shouldn't just use it directly—) Also, last time I gave you a maṇi-jewel Buddha-bathing one.(Yes — the maṇi-jewel Buddha-bathing bathing mantra.) Right, right, right — that one is OK.(So inside, add the nectar-water mantra.) Right right, plus the Buddha-bathing bathing mantra.Mm — any water-related mantra can be practiced in.Practice into the water — water-liberation.(Ha.) Also Wisdom-Meteor, Nectar-Water Mantra, and one more — Maṇi-Jewel Bathing-Water Mantra.Yes.Practice this into the cup and drink.

(But I don't know the Wisdom-Meteor Mantra.) Right — I haven't transmitted it.I only transmitted one.Wisdom-Meteor Mantra hasn't been transmitted yet.

(So I don't take the immortal-way route — I just keep going.) The immortal way is the base you knew; the principle is the same, which is why I just used the ren channel to explain the governor channel.Yes.In the end you'll practice the maṇi-jewel.Our school practices the maṇi-jewel as the main thing.

(I want to know — last time, the first time I came, you said I was a wealth-deity retinue.) That was from one past life.(So this time do I still have to be wealth-deity retinue?) No.(So I don't have a yidam this time.) Your main yidam this time is still Samantabhadra Tathāgata.That was just process.(So I don't need to care about it anymore.) No.And he's just said now: because you care about too many things, you leave the goal and drift off.

So he tells you to put down all things and focus on one gate only.(This maṇi-jewel one.) Yes — steady on maṇi-jewel, that's it, don't bother with others.Because in the past your practice drifted on yidam-dharma.(Yes — I was pretty stuck there.) Your thinking got framed by yidam-dharma.(Yes.) So with so many yidams, you got framed by one, and couldn't return to the primordial Buddha.(So last time you had me drop everything — I even dropped yidam-dharma.) Forget it all; enter maṇi-jewel.Because that's the root.Yes.

All the others are manifested from the maṇi-jewel; you went to trust what was manifested from it, forgetting who the root is.Right — the principle is just that.Everything returns to the maṇi-jewel.You instead practice retinues emanated from the maṇi-jewel — then you can't chase back to the origin.(Ah, mm — those are just visualization.) Understand?All the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, the peaceful and wrathful hundred deities, every single thing — all are hundreds of millions of transformation-bodies emanated from the maṇi-jewel.You go chasing after those hundred-million transformation-bodies and forget that your original nature is that one pearl.You haven't acknowledged the root.Return to the original nature — that's it.That is the path to Buddhahood.(May I ask one more?) Hurry, he wants to rest.

(One more — the longest-standing question — about my 30 years of practice there versus the 19-year gap.) So lifetime after lifetime you failed like this.(Each time I quit.) In the end you were impatient-aggressive, and ruined it.(So how do I pick up now?) Start again from zero.Restart from zero.The things gone astray are already damaged — yes.Start from the origin.He says this will do.He says: say too much and there's nothing.Your steadiness is not enough.Your vajra-heart is not fully formed, so you run around and can't find the origin.Alright — he's locked back in.He said: letting him out is what's real.Just now he was running out to speak.A visitation.Really.Hang up.How useful — and free too.

(So interesting, so funny.I need to hurry and write down the name — remember it.)

Excerpted from a doubt-clearing session by Master Urgyen Topden Rinpoche on 2021-05-07