I am going to talk about the generation and completion stages according to the text “The Essence of Creation and Completion,” which was composed by Jamgon Kongtrul the Great. In particular, from among the two topics of the creation or generation stage and the completion stage we are concerned primarily with the generation stage. Although, in a sense our main practice is the completion stage, the practice of the completion stage depends entirely upon the stability and blessing of the generation stage, just as for example the practice of vipashyana depends upon the attainment of stable shamatha.

This is a very appropriate topic to be studying. It is very easy to talk about shamatha and vipashyana and very easy to listen to explanations of Mahamudra and explanations that are entirely concerned only with the completion stage. Although these things sound very good and are very easily explained in theory, it is not important to choose the topic that is the easiest to listen to, but instead to choose the one that is going to be of the most practical benefit, that is, the one that will actually enable students to progress in their practice of meditation. Therefore, it is appropriate to address subjects that are more difficult to understand, because it is these, especially, that definitely need the most complete explanation. The function of teaching of course, is to provide what students need for their ultimate benefit. Therefore it is important when Dharma is taught to discuss not only the completion stage but also the generation stage.

When you examine your mind, the types of impure motivation you might discover are motivation for study and practice that is afflicted by competitiveness, by arrogance, or by selfishness. In a sense this is not that big a deal but at the same time, it is an impure motivation and it is necessary to let go of it and replace it with a pure motivation. A pure motivation is the motivation of wishing to study and practice in order to be able to benefit both yourself and others. Especially given that we are normally mostly concerned with benefiting only ourselves, it is important to emphasize the wish to benefit others. Normally even when we wish to benefit others, we restrict that wish to a few others such as our family and friends and so on. The wish to benefit a few others is not an impure motivation, it is a pure motivation, but among pure motivations it is a fairly petty one. Here we are trying to develop the motivation of practicing and studying in order to benefit all beings who fill space, since all beings without exception, equally wish to be happy and wish to be free from suffering and yet lack the knowledge necessary to enable them to achieve these goals. So if you have the motivation for both study and practice in that you are doing it in order to establish all beings without exception in a state of happiness, this motivation is not only pure but also vast in scope.

© Copyright Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche & Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal Publications 2002.