If we are kind and warm, we will tend to expect others to be kind and warm. We will approach others with an optimistic attitude. If met with aggression we are less likely to respond with aggression, because this is not the stance from which we began. Greeting people in a kindly way offers them the opportunity to respond in a kindly way. If they do not, this does not need to unseat our kindness. We can simply remain kind. If aggression does upset our kindness so that we respond defensively, then we were ‘wearing’ kindness as an artificial definition, rather than as the nature of our being in the present moment. If the wearing of kindness is a good-hearted attempt to become a compassionate person developing awareness, then we can simply acknowledge that we lost it that time, let it go, and re-dress ourselves in kindness. If we do this often enough over a long period of time, eventually our ‘cloak’ of kindness becomes the quintessence of our being.
Ultimately however, every man and every woman are no different from Padmasambhava and Yeshé Tsogyel. Hence viewing one’s teachers and oneself as Padmasambhava and Yeshé Tsogyel can be embraced as an inspiring practice. If you wish to practise this view you need to be realistic about your capacity. If you are viewing us as Padmasambhava and Yeshé Tsogyel, but feel that we have made a mistake in a teaching—for example—or seem to have had a lapse in concentration, this may create tension and confusion for you. You may find it difficult to reconcile the ultimate view when faced with the relative reality of our ordinariness. However if you find what we have to say useful and illuminating, this could be inspiring because we are ordinary people.
Tantra plays with ambiguities and apparent contradictions to help the practitioner escape the rigidity of their neurotic patterning. Allow this confusion to dance in your field of perception, so that you do not fix your view.
page 54-55, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor’dzin & Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin, Aro Books Worldwide, 2016, ISBN: 978-1-898185-37-6
