“Everything the Buddha taught is designed to remove the suffering of living beings and to usher us into full awakening. We suffer because we create, we are fascinated, and we misled by our mental and emotional fabrications. The Buddha’s teaching shows us how to recognize and disengage from this process. Beyond these fabrications is the natural state, which is boundless love, compassion, and wisdom. His teaching shows us how to reveal and abide in the natural state, which is not outside, but within ourselves.
The Buddha also taught that everything is interdependent. This means that everything arises from causes and conditions—nothing arises by itself. We all want happiness and to be free from suffering. Yet time after time we avoid the causes that bring happiness, and pursue the causes that bring suffering. For this reason, the Buddha taught us how to discipline our minds. This means to avoid the negative mental states, and to cultivate the positive. When the mind is fully disciplined, it is free of all negativity. When the mind is free of all negativity, it radiates happiness within and without. Disciplining the mind is therefore the single medicine that cures a myriad of diseases.”
Venerable Khenpo Rinpoches
The Beauty of Awakened Mind:
Dzogchen Lineage of the Great Master Shigpo Dudtsi (pgs 1-2)
Downloadable PDF Version – 6:20:15 Why Should I Practice? – Khenpo Tsewang