ཟབ་ཞི་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་འོད་གསལ་འདུས་མ་བྱས།
བདུད་རྩི་ལྟ་བུའི་ཆོས་ཤིག་བདག་གིས་བརྙེས།
སུ་ལ་བསྟན་ཀྱང་གོ་བར་མི་འགྱུར་བས།
མི་སྨྲ་ནགས་འདབ་ཉིད་དུ་གནས་པར་བྱ།
Profound and peaceful, free from complexity, uncompounded clear light
I have found a nectar-like Dharma.
Yet if I were to teach it, no-one would understand,
So I shall remain silent here in the forest.
-Śākyamuni Buddha, Lalitavistara Sūtra, XXV, 1
Today is the celebration of Chökhor Düchen, the “Great Festival of the Turning of the Wheel of Dharma,” which commemorates the first teaching given by Shakyamuni Buddha in the deer park in Sarnath on the Four Noble Truths. According to the Indo-Tibetan tradition of Buddhism, this was the first of three turnings of the wheel of teaching that the Buddha gave.
This initial teaching on the Four Noble Truths forms the root and backbone of the Dharma, an elegant tracking and untracing of effect and cause. First we recognize the result of our condition—the dissatisfactory and cyclic nature of experience. Then we are pointed to the cause—the mistaken fixation on a self. Recognizing the mistake, a different result is possible—freedom. And the cause of liberation is the path. Effect and cause, bondage and liberation, for someone who has been searching so long in the desert of the confusion that characterizes the human condition, such a simple and piercing map is indeed like nectar.
But as practitioners on the path, we might find that our progress is not so straightforward. At a certain point, we might find that our very effort to affect our liberation is itself a cause of cyclic confusion. When the path and the path-traveler begin to mirror and confound one another, another level of teaching is helpful.
In the Second Turning of the Wheel of Dharma, given on Vulture Peak, the Buddha taught on the empty essence of reality, the illusory nature of dualistic complexity, and the freedom that results from resting without fixation in the union of “emptiness that is the heart-essence of compassion.”
Learning to rest in this way, we are able to deeply let go of our reality habits, allowing us to nurture and nourish ourselves and others. And when this spacious kindness becomes our very being, our path becomes as broad as our life, skillful and wise enough to avoid the projections and reflections of “being on a spiritual path” and the play of mirrors that it entails.
And when we can so thoroughly trust our path that it erases itself in its very unfolding, and all conceptions of self, path, and destination are immaculate and transparent, we gain insight into the teachings of the Third Turning of the Wheel of Dharma. These are the teachings on Buddha Nature, the good news that points to our innermost and inalienable nature as always enlightened, and to reality as unborn clear light.
Profound and peaceful, free from complexity, uncompounded clear light
I have found a nectar-like Dharma.
Yet if I were to teach it, no one would understand,
So I shall remain silent here in the forest.”
Resting in peace, our path simply becomes our life. Resting in emptiness, the kindness that comes from completely letting go is recognized as luminosity. Out of his great kindness, (and with some prodding from Indra and Brahma), the Buddha came out of the forest and taught. But there is something more to the story.
On this day of Chökhor Düchen, we should celebrate the revolutionary message that the Buddha introduced that day in Sarnath, that we can truly see confusion for what it is and become completely free.
But we should also remember that the Buddha was hesitant to teach, and that from his perspective, no one would understand what he might to say. So, I invite you today to also celebrate his hesitance and silence. When we remember his reticence, we open to the Dharma as something beyond a linear cause and effect cure for what ails us. The Dharma can be sensed beyond causality, beyond any concept we might have about it. It can continually unfold and evolve, beyond any expectation we might hold to it.
The moment the Dharma was taught, infinite wheels of teachings also implicitly turned, appropriate to each and every being, filling the extent of space itself. At the same time, the Buddha was only telling part of the story.
May we always hear, contemplate, and practice the Dharma, drinking the nectar of the teachings without ever being satiated. And may we tirelessly travel the path, while never deceiving ourselves that we have reached our destination, or that our nature is anything other than Buddha.
-lk