Three Important Exercises: Part Three

In this teaching excerpt, Phakchok Rinpoche offers some advice on how to awaken dignity. He distinguishes here between dignity, pride, and confidence. Dignity means knowing that our nature is clean and uncorrupted by anything external. When we suffer from low self-esteem, the only thing that helps is knowing that our nature is pure. We tend to internalize criticism from others. When that happens, we lose our confidence and then we get depressed or frustrated.

Rinpoche asks us to remind ourselves for 3 minutes daily (repeating it out loud to ourselves like a mantra) that our nature is pure. In life, our confidence or pride is hurt so easily. And rebuilding these is very difficult and often expensive! We need to remind ourselves daily that our nature is not created externally and that it is pure from the very beginning.

When we start this practice, we don’t really believe it. But, if we remind ourselves for three minutes each day, we will gradually build up this dignity. What does pure mean? It means no ego, no pride, no pain, no blaming, no suffering—our nature is always pure!

At the end of this excerpt, Rinpoche reviews and demonstrates again the full ten minutes of daily practice he advises. We will see things more clearly, be more positive, and build up our dignity. We will attract more positive people and will create a good environment around ourselves. And if we have a difficult situation or a bad day, it won’t affect us so much. These exercises serve as an umbrella to shield us from the rain. These practices of calm, compassion, and acknowledging purity bring the experience of Buddha inside our hearts.

This is the final part of a collection of teachings from Phakchok Rinpoche on these three important exercises. You can find the first part of this teaching here.