The-Tibetan-Book-of-Living-and-Dying

168 THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYINGgreat equilibrium, where all good and bad, peace and distress, aredevoid of true identity.Realizing the View subtly but completely transforms yourvision of everything. More and more, I have come to realizehow thoughts and concepts are all that block us from alwaysbeing, quite simply, in the absolute. Now I see clearly why themasters so often say: "Try hard not to create too much hopeand fear," for they only engender more mental gossip. Whenthe View is there, thoughts are seen for what they truly are:fleeting and transparent, and only relative. You see througheverything directly, as if you had X-ray eyes. You do not clingto thoughts and emotions or reject them, but welcome themall within the vast embrace of Rigpa. What you took so seriouslybefore—ambitions, plans, expectations, doubts, and passions—nolonger have any deep and anxious hold on you, forthe View has helped you to see the futility and pointlessnessof them all, and born in you a spirit of true renunciation.Remaining in the clarity and confidence of Rigpa allows allyour thoughts and emotions to liberate naturally and effortlesslywithin its vast expanse, like writing in water or paintingin the sky. If you truly perfect this practice, karma has nochance at all to be accumulated; and in this state of aimless,carefree abandon, what Dudjom Rinpoche calls "uninhibited,naked ease," the karmic law of cause and effect can no longerbind you in any way.Don't assume, whatever you do, that this is, or could possiblybe, easy. It is extremely hard to rest undistracted in thenature of mind, even for a moment, let alone to self-liberate asingle thought or emotion as it rises. We often assume thatsimply because we understand something intellectually, orthink we do, we have actually realized it. This is a great delusion.It requires the maturity that only years of listening, contemplation,reflection, meditation, and sustained practice canripen. And it cannot be said too often that the practice ofDzogchen always requires the guidance and instruction of aqualified master.Otherwise there is a great danger, called in the tradition"losing the Action in the View." A teaching as high and powerfulas Dzogchen entails an extreme risk. Deluding yourselfthat you are liberating thoughts and emotions, when in factyou are nowhere near being able to do so, and thinking thatyou are acting with the spontaneity of a true Dzogchen yogin,all you are doing is simply accumulating vast amounts of neg-