Teachings on Sūtra | Raktrul Rinpoche (Dotulku) on The Secrets of the Tathāgata

In this episode of 84000’s Teachings on Sūtra series, Raktrul Rinpoche (Dotulku) offers a beautiful teaching on “The Secrets of the Tathagata,” which closely references the profound sūtra, The Secrets of the Realized Ones (Toh 47). The event coincided with Lhabab Düchen, the auspicious day that celebrates the Buddha’s return from the god realms after being there during the three-month “rains retreat” to teach his mother, who had been reborn in that realm. Dotulku Rinpoche explains that the significance of the auspicious day lies in the Buddha’s descent back to the human realm to continue teaching us. Dotulku Rinpoche selected The Secrets of the Realized Ones as the primary text for his talk for many reasons, but mainly because it focuses on the qualities of the Buddha as someone whose only motivation is compassion, who only seeks to benefit us, and who manifests so many other qualities, but who is also someone who will always be “mysterious to us.” Dotulku Rinpoche provides insights and references from this and other sūtras that relate to the mysteries and secrets of the Buddha’s body, speech and mind, and explains how a fully awakened being is able to teach without even uttering one word. Among the Buddha’s qualities, Dotulku Rinpoche says that to him the most important to him is the Buddha’s speech. “To be able to liberate someone just by speaking to them, that is true strength, true blessing, true power,” he says. The conversation ends with a wide-ranging question and answer session covering topics such as impermanence, the metaphor of the Buddha’s mind as a wind instrument, and the meaning of nonduality. Highlights: [17:50] Description of the Buddha – “Such a being will always be mysterious to us…” [25:10] Importance of Lhabab Düchen and the Buddha’s descent back to the human realm. [32:08] Start of explanation of the text, The Secrets of the Realized Ones. [45:44] Discussion of the Buddha’s speech and how one’s mind can be utterly purified just by listening to an awakened being. [56:38] Question and answer session. References: The Secrets of the Realized Ones (Toh 47) Vajrapāṇi first appears in the text: https://84000.co/translation/toh47#UT... Secrets of the Mind - 1.45 https://84000.co/translation/toh47#UT... Secrets of the Speech - 2.28: https://84000.co/translation/toh47#UT... Secrets of the Body: https://84000.co/translation/toh47#UT... The story of trying to see the top of the uṣṇīṣa: https://84000.co/translation/toh47#UT... Dispelling doubts through speech: https://84000.co/translation/toh47#UT... Secrets of the Mind: ch. 9: https://84000.co/translation/toh47#UT... Entrustment of the sūtra to Ānanda: https://84000.co/translation/toh47/UT... The giving of kusha grass: https://84000.co/translation/toh47/UT... How the Tathāgata’s mind is free of mental and conceptual activity: 9.1: https://84000.co/translation/toh47#UT... Q&A 1.13: https://84000.co/translation/toh47#UT... 1.29: https://84000.co/translation/toh47#UT... Their supply of motivation serves the purpose of keeping their word to all people. བསམ་པའི་ཚོགས་ནི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་མི་སླུ་བར་འགྱུར་རོ། ། Their supply of mastery of the dedication of merit serves the purpose of purifying a buddha domain. བསྔོ་བ་ལ་མཁས་པའི་ཚོགས་ནི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཞིང་ཡོངས་སུ་དག་པར་འགྱུར་རོ། ། Although they perform physical actions with their bodies, they do not lose sight of the separateness of the body. ལུས་ཀྱིས་ལུས་ཀྱི་ལས་བྱེད་མོད་ཀྱི་ལུས་ཀྱི་དབེན་པ་ཡང་མི་འདོར་རོ། ། From The Sūtra of Recollecting the Buddha (Toh 279): “He doesn’t abide in nirvāṇa, he abides in perfect wisdom, in a state of seeing all sentient beings.” མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ལ་མི་གནས་པ། ཡང་དག་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་མཐའ་ལ་གནས་པ། སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་གཟིགས་པའི་ས་ལ་བཞུགས་པ་སྟེ། To hear more about new publications as 84000 continues to translate the entire Tibetan Buddhist canon, and to stay abreast of upcoming events, sign up for our newsletter: https://www.84000.co/subscribe.