The Necessity and Importance of Authentic Practice 

in Pure Land and Dzogchen

All virtuous practitioners who now cultivate the authentic Dharma, please listen attentively!

Our Great Compassionate Fundamental Master, Shakyamuni Buddha, long before countless eons, aroused the supreme bodhicitta to compassionately embrace and liberate all sentient beings without limit. From that moment forth, he had carried the noble conduct of setting himself aside and honoring others as paramount, dedicating every action to the welfare of all sentient beings. He offered his head, his limbs, any part of his body, or even his entire body and life, and enacted immeasurable compassionate deeds of generosity.

Endowed with great wisdom, Shakyamuni Buddha vowed with unwavering resolve to train, bringing to flawless completion the skillful means by which a sentient being may perfectly attain complete Buddhahood. For the sake of obtaining a single verse of Dharma, he carved a thousand lamps from the flesh of his own body and even cast himself into a pit of fire, and so forth.

Throughout three immeasurable eons, he gathered vast, oceanic accumulations of merit and wisdom. Thereafter he attained the wisdom of omniscience, and manifested perfect and complete enlightenment. The heart of his compassionate manifestations was the skillful adaptation to sentient beings’ realms, faculties, and degrees of faith and understanding, whereby he proclaimed the eighty‑four thousand gateways of liberation.

It has been 2,892 years since the Buddha’s parinirvaṇa, yet his precious and sacred teachings, both in doctrine and realization, continue to abide in this world, unspoiled and undiminished, This is truly due to the profound kindness and vast virtue of many noble beings, including bodhisattvas, arhats, esteemed elders, incarnate Dharma kings, translators, and accomplished masters. Moreover, that we are still able to encounter the authentic Dharma in this degenerate age is wholly due to the great compassion of the noble saints and the merit we have gathered across past lifetimes. We must recognize that this is not merely like receiving a few gold coins, but rather an exceptionally auspicious fortune drawn forth by past karmic actions.

Authentic Dharma is that which purifies the obstructions of karma and afflictions within the mental continuum of sentient beings, much like eliminating the very root cause of a disease. The Dharma rescues and liberates them from all the suffering of samsara, grievous as a severe illness and provides the supreme skillful means for attaining the state of everlasting peace and happiness and the fruit of complete, perfect enlightenment.

Even if our Great Compassionate Fundamental Master, Shakyamuni Buddha, were personally seated before us at this very moment, there would still be no other means to liberation except to guide us through the gateway of proclaiming the authentic Dharma.

As it is said: "The Buddhas do not wash away sentient beings’ sins with water, nor do they remove the suffering of sentient beings with their hands, nor do they transfer their own realization to others, they teach the true, tranquil nature of the Dharma, thereby leading sentient beings to liberation." Whether we are able to attain liberation from samsara depends entirely on how diligently we practice the authentic Dharma.

As the Buddha said: "I merely proclaim to you the path to liberation, liberation itself depends on your own diligent striving." Even so, because the scriptural teachings are vast, the spoken instructions are many, and the Tantras are profoundly deep, in this degenerate age with its brief human lifespan, not to mention fully practicing each one, even merely reciting the words and studying their meaning proves exceedingly difficult.

Reflecting in this way, all the authentic Dharma to be practiced is encompassed within the two vehicles of the Exoteric and Esoteric Buddhism. If we unite the essential points of these two modes of practice, then among the extraordinary and profound teachings that are easy to cultivate in this present age and yield swift progress are the practice of the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss and the cultivation of Dzogchen. These two should be taken as the fundamental basis of one’s practice.

Also, Tulku Karma Chokme said: "I have extreme fear of birth and death, I cultivate the aspiration to be reborn in Tusita or the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss."

The Omniscient Longchenpa said: "The Knowledge is as countless as the stars in the sky, the Dharma that needs to be studied is boundless, Yet this essential meaning of the Dharmakaya, that holds unwaveringly to the primordial ground of unchanging stability, is truly virtuous."

The distinctive features of these two methods of practice (the Pure Land and Dzogchen) are as follows, in sequence:

(Pure Land) One does not require cultivating the basic worldly methods for counteracting the root delusion of satkaya‑drsti, which is remedied through the practice of non‑self, can be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, where the five poisons, the three poisons, all afflictions, and every impure existent phenomenon do not exist even in name, and thereafter shares the same circumstances as the bodhisattvas on the bhumis.

(Dzogchen) Without abandoning the ordinary eightfold consciousness aggregation, one can recognize, realize, and fully mature in the naked essence of ultimate reality, thus attaining the primordial ground in this very lifetime.

The method of its practice is given in the [Mahayana Solemn Sutra on the Holy Buddha of Immeasurable Light], which says: "Ananda, if a noble man or woman gives rise to the aspiration, 'How wonderful would be if I could see Amitabha Buddha in this very lifetime!'

Such a person should give rise to the supreme, pure, and perfect bodhicitta. With the superior aspiration to be reborn in that Buddha’s pure land, One should maintain a pure mind, accumulate virtuous roots, and universally dedicate the merit."

As it is said in [The Guidance Text: The Wisdom Guru] by Vidyadhara Fearless Continent:

“All practice should begin with generating the motivation before the session, proceed with the main practice free of conceptual elaboration, and conclude with dedication and aspiration as the seal. This is what is called the three correspondent Excellences of proper cultivation, and it is absolutely indispensable." As established in the teachings, the three stages: preliminary, main, and concluding practice must be cultivated in sequence to full completion.

Furthermore, taking these two teachings as the fundamental practice, the community should regard all virtuous deeds performed through their three gates (The Activities of Body, Speech and Mind) as means of entering the path of these two teachings. Any supportive practices essential to these two teachings must be undertaken with firm determination. 

Therefore, one should think in this way and uphold it: "I must not grasp at things like children picking flowers but should sincerely cultivate a genuine teaching for the time of death."

If one can seize the essential core of this practice in this way, the Dharma will integrate with one’s mind, the Dharma will become the path, the path will reach its fulfillment, and all branches of practice will advance diligently.