Unity of View and Practice: Lessons of the Siddhas and Teachings of Padmasambhava

Commentary on Padmasambhava’s text “The Ten Foundations of the Secret Mantra,” chapter “The Ten Flaws.”

Master Padma said:

“If you are ignorant of the ten foundations of practice, you will have ten flaws that prevent you from succeeding in Dharma practice.”

Jomo asked:

“What are these flaws?”

The Master replied:

“If you do not resolve all doubts through the view, your flaw will be uncertainty; there is no telling where you may end up.”

To resolve all doubts through the view means to understand the principle of nonduality and learn to reduce any confusion of the mind to this principle. If we have not realized the principle of the view, then whatever experiences we may undergo and whatever theory we may study, they will remain part of the illusion. But once we have realized the view, even if we do not possess profound samadhi, we at least become established in absolute understanding and take root in it. This must be understood.

If we have a firm understanding of the view, we will never slip onto the path of illusion and duality. For example, there are dark-retreat practices. Such practices are not given to beginners, because by that time a yogi must already be firmly established in presence. If a yogi has not become firmly established in contemplative presence in everyday life, has not learned to avoid dividing life into sitting meditation and ordinary daily life, or has not even understood the principle of contemplative presence in nonduality, then he must not practice in dark retreat. If he nevertheless undertakes such a practice, he may encounter obstacles, because the practice reveals subtle states and produces many visions. In the worst case, obstacles will arise that cause him to abandon the practice altogether, and he will then have to spend a long time dealing with them. In the best case, visions will certainly arise—they arise for everyone—but this will be no better than watching a film. Why? Because you need to know what you will do with these visions. You must draw them back in, because they have emerged from you. To draw them back in, you must possess an impeccable view. Moreover, even if you possess an impeccable view, that view must become your presence. If there is no presence, you can at least rely on the view and, by recalling it, generate presence. But if there is no view, you have nothing at all to rely on.

One could say that the view is unrealized understanding. Presence is the realized view. A person who has the view and diligently tries to maintain it will most likely attain presence one day. Someone who lacks the nondual view will be unable to maintain proper meditation, even if he tries to practice contemplation or other sadhanas. He may have experiences, but he may become like the gods of the desire realm, the gods of the form realm, or the gods of the formless realm, whose intellectual thought has been displaced by various states of dhyana.

What does it mean to “resolve doubts through the view”? To understand even a single shloka from the “Avadhuta Gita” or any nondual text and embrace it wholeheartedly, to understand that there is no subject, no object, but only one nondual Reality—this is what it means to resolve all doubts concerning the view.

Relative teachings differ greatly. Even within a single school of tantra or yoga, there are many traditions. Even within a single sampradaya, there are teachers with different teaching styles, each weaving their own pattern. When studying teachings on the relative level, one can encounter many differences. When you begin comparing these differences, they may confuse you. You may compare the schools of Kashmir Yoga and Pratyabhijna; you may compare the Sahajiya, Vaishnava, yogic, Buddhist, and Baul teachings; you may explore varieties of Zen or Chinese Anuttara Tantra—they have much in common, but there are also differences. This is a boundless ocean, and if you lack the view, you will not be able to integrate them into a single understanding; you will simply drown in the labyrinths of diversity without ever understanding the essence that unites them. But if you have mastered the view, you will discover that ultimately all teachings culminate in nonduality. And the best of them are those that speak of nonduality directly. Then you see that there is no need to study the full diversity of teachings, since even a lifetime would not be enough for that; instead, you need to grasp their very essence by studying the principal teachings that are closest to you and devoting all the remaining time to studying the path of nondual practice.

Doubts and misunderstandings regarding the teachings are always resolved by the principle of the view. If you have no view, you do not yet even have a fundamental vision of the teachings as such. Sorcery, psychology, Advaita, and yoga are all equally interesting to you. Your mind and intellect do not yet distinguish what is a first course and what is dessert. You simply absorb knowledge, believing that anything will do. Your mind is like an inexperienced person who knows nothing about the principles of diet and eats indiscriminately, which sometimes gives him indigestion. You are interested in consuming everything because your mind has not yet transcended itself. This stage is acceptable at the initial phase—the “bee” stage. But once you have mastered the principle of the view, you clearly understand what constitutes the very heart of the teaching, what is supplementary, and what is not worth paying attention to at all. Then you understand the Dharma in its very essence.

When we practice the path of the natural state, we can study any teachings or texts. Nevertheless, we can integrate everything into our understanding because we know the principle of the view. This means that we are able to assign each teaching its proper place; we know exactly which shelf to put it on, and we have no illusions about what we are absorbing.

“If you do not gain confidence through conduct, your flaw will be the inability to unite view and conduct.”

The ability to unite view and conduct means that we understand the difference between the relative and the absolute. On the relative level, we adhere to conduct that purifies consciousness and leads us to higher worlds. On the absolute level, we self-liberate everything. This is the principle of the unity of conduct and view. A person of limited abilities will be unable to unite them and may fall into extremes. Either, when doing something, they become conditioned by the act and lose the view, taking the act “at face value” and failing to understand its nondual meaning; or, when they discover the view, they may disregard conduct.

The first type of people are those who possess great pride. When they first hear the teaching of Advaita, they think something like this: “Since I am Brahman, there are no longer any illusions, authorities, or teachings for me. I have no need to practice or study.” They try to create their own pattern without possessing genuine creative potential. Focusing solely on the view does not help; it is a mistaken path. Even if you diligently focus on the view, the karmas in the channels and the dualistic states of mind cannot be exhausted in a single lifetime, so skillful methods are also required. The principle is to apply, while possessing an understanding of the view, skillful methods that liberate the dualistic karmas in the mind and the channels. A true practitioner understands that this is what it is all about, and this is the lifelong work of a true practitioner.

“If you cannot practice by applying samadhi, you will not perceive the nature of Dharmata.”

Proper seated meditation should lead to dhyana and then to samadhi. When you feel like becoming distracted during Mahashanti, think: “I am a yogi of negligible ability. I do not possess even dhyana, let alone samadhi. How diligently, then, must I practice?!” Do not let your mind carry you away like a wild horse when it wants to chat, change posture, become distracted, and so on. Do not allow yourself to waste meditation time talking to yourself or remaining in a stupor. The question is how diligently we apply our intention. Intention applied correctly becomes firmly established, and then we begin to achieve victories in meditation.

“If you do not reach the goal through oral instructions, you will not know how to practice.”

At first, we do not even realize how important oral instructions are in the teaching. It is like a particular piece of crucial advice that can be fully appreciated only by a Master who knows the secrets of mastery within their teaching. Whether or not we attain realization depends on how deeply we have understood the oral instructions. There are such subtle points in the Dharma that they are difficult to arrive at through one’s own mind or to find in books. These subtle points advance realization, shortening the path of spiritual evolution by years, lifetimes, or dozens of lifetimes. This is the meaning of the practice of direct instruction.

“If you do not preserve the foundation through samaya, you will sow the seeds of the hell realms.”

It is said that broken samayas are a road to hell. This is true. Of course, everything depends on the depth and severity of the samaya violations. When we accept something as absolute and as Dharma, we allow it to enter very deeply into us and commit ourselves to accepting it as absolute, as pure. Under no circumstances may this commitment be broken. For if it is broken, this can seriously affect not only our practice but even our future lives. Why does such a principle exist? One teacher put it this way: “The principle of tantra is like swallowing a porcupine. You can begin to swallow it, but you cannot spit it back out. It is a one-way journey.” This means that when we receive instructions, practice the teachings, and perform sadhanas, we allow very subtle states to enter us. We must perceive them as absolute; otherwise, everything we allow into ourselves will be poisoned by our impure perception, and then it will poison us. As a result of breaking samayas, one may be reborn in the hell realms. Everything depends on the depth and severity of the violations, but obstacles in sadhana can arise very easily. Therefore, one should always guard one’s samaya as the apple of one’s eye.

“If you do not bring all the teachings together into one, you will not comprehend the root of the Dharma.”

To bring the entire diversity of teachings together into one means understanding that everything lies in maintaining an understanding of nonduality. A moment comes when you realize that all intellectual knowledge is already contained within you. The point is to discover it within yourself through the practice of contemplation. Then you no longer need to delight the mind by reading one sutra or another. A yogin at this level needs only upadeshas. If he shows interest in anything, it is only in specific methods and instructions for deepening the natural state.