Words of My Perfect Teacher - Week 2 (The Freedoms and Advantages)

We continued Patrul Rinpoche's commentary on the Longchen Nyingtik ngöndro,The Words of My Perfect Teacher, following Rinpoche's teachings from San Francisco in 1999-2002. A recording of our conversation is available here.

We completed Chapter One, "The Difficulty of Finding the Freedoms and Advantages" (to p.37 in the Padmakara translation of The Words of My Perfect Teacher).

The topics we covered included:

• How emotional habits can get in the way of Dharma practice
• The pitfalls of developing emotional attachments and expectations towards the teacher
• The application of the Six Paramitas in all aspects of practice and life (cf. §2.2.2 on p.18)
• The benefits of contemplation on precious human birth and "the difficult of finding the freedoms and advantages" to develop the inspiration for practice