Voice of Clear Light

October 2012

Opening the Door of Speech

An Excerpt from Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech, and Mind by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

In both dzogchen and the higher tantras, it is agreed that there is no way to experience space, the essence, the ultimate wisdom, through intellectual means alone. The more you think and analyze, the less likely it is that you will have the experience that is beyond all concepts and dualistic thinking. When you connect with sound, you are preparing all the causes and conditions, then releasing all intellectual effort and just being. There is more presence of space in that experience. 

Letting go of familiar patterns, even negative ones, can be challenging, and just a glimpse of the vast space within you can make you fearful. When you actually connect with the changelessness of the essence, you naturally become fearless and confident. But since this process is so unfamiliar, it helps to rely on the power of prayer. You can open your heart and pray to all the masters with whom you have a direct or indirect connection and to all the beings from the past, present, and future who are your inspiration. You can ask them: “Please empower me, bless me to overcome these fears and doubts and to recognize and connect more with this unchanging, vast, fearless space.” You can also pray that the specific innate quality you most need will be revealed. Then you can trust that the sound has the power to give you direct access to deep qualities such as wisdom, spontaneity, flexibility, love, or joy.

When your prayer is accompanied by a strong desire for the result, it can immediately unblock the obscuring condition. It can also eventually allow you to recognize the space. Praying for a physical result, such as overcoming disease or buying a new house, will not necessarily awaken you to something internally. But here in the sound practice you are praying to connect with the nature of mind. You are praying from a deep place and touching not only the problem—your fear of space—but also the enlightened beings who embody and support the result. As you pray, your immediate fear is removed on a gross level because you are truly engaged with the support. But the prayer also awakens something on a subtle level of the mind, which remains with you throughout your practice even as you are no longer conceptually engaging with the support.

Excerpt from Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech, and Mind. Edited by Polly Turner. Snow Lion Publications, 2011. The book is available from Ligmincha Institute’s Tibet Shop.