Magic Pill

2024, December, Issue 129

Seeking, seeking, always looking for that,

For that ultimate answer to everything,

trying to find that magic pill that will solve

Everything;

And, so, they send you on your path, telling you to

Meditate, and answers will come;

Apply yourself!

Sit in equipoise for years and years,

Observe mind, always pay attention to mind;

You hope great masters will tell you their secrets!

And when you find what they told you was extremely secret,

When you steal the deepest truths,

When you find the meaning of life,

it will make you angry, because they didn’t tell you this

when you began, when you began this great journey,

So, you show your outrage, saying it is too simple!

So, you misunderstand, not knowing that you were

never really ready,

never ready for what is so

incredibly profound,

as you weren’t really paying attention!

as you weren’t really applying yourself!

as you weren’t really committed

to leaving cyclic existence, to awakening,

to beginning with the aspiration to awaken,

as you simply wished to steal some magic pill,

to make things so much easier in this

great ocean of suffering,

as you didn’t really understand

the importance of awakening;

As you did not understand,

You threw it all away,

going back to where you were,

back to suffering for all eternity,

back to living a pointless life,

all because you wanted

a magic pill.

A poem by Robert Aho © 2024

When I talk about my experiences in the death bardo, I’m giving you a glimpse of reality. It may seem rather fantastical; however, it is perfectly ordinary. When we go into the light, we go home. It’s who we naturally are; and, because we think that we are subject or object, that self is real, that this life is real, that this world is real, we can’t remain in the light. We are forced to transmigrate, due to our own ignorance of the situation.

We’ve been doing this for an eternity. It’s exhausting.

Many of the people who hear what I have to say about the death bardo are seeking this knowledge for the wrong reasons, looking for an answer to the meaning of life, or something similar. They’re looking for some kernel of truth that they can take as their own, some magic pill that will make things instantly better. And, many people do report that they feel much better after listening to me; however, that is never my intent. I’m not here to make people feel better or to give you an easy answer to all of your problems.

I’m here to tell you that you must awaken.

The reality about all of the secret and extremely secret teachings in Buddhism, as well as Dzogchen, is that these profound teachings are considered secret or extremely secret so that you don’t fall into some sort of trap. People don’t understand the wisdom behind such secrets, thinking that they could just receive the answer and just skip all the years of study and meditation. Many people who receive Dzogchen teachings too early, not having prepared themselves properly to receive that knowledge, having the wrong motivation to begin with, fall into a trap of complacency and arrogance, thinking that they really didn’t need to meditate in order to receive such teachings. It might make them angry, when they finally receive profound teaching, when they discover that the secrets were utterly simple and obvious.

It's true, discovering the Nature of Mind takes absolutely no effort, you simply open your heart and mind, recognizing yet again what you have always known, but keep forgetting. If, however, you have not learned to stabilize your mind, knowing just how to remain at ease under every circumstance, then you will quickly lose what you thought you had discovered. If this happens, you must simply go back to meditative practice and intensive study of all appearances, along with profound teachings of great masters throughout the ages.

The trouble with taking the plunge into great secrets too early is that you will still think that the material world is real. Your ignorance will still be too prominent. Your ego will take over your Spiritual Practice. In this unexpected turbulence that you might not even notice, you will find some construct of a belief or concept that approximates the secret teachings. Not knowing that you still remain in relative reality, you will erroneously think that you can stop practicing your meditation or looking any further, even though the challenge is now much greater. When you encounter your real nature, you are not encountering the answer to anything, you are encountering what is beyond concept, or even reason. If our motivation is to find an answer, then our first step is an error. It only gets worse from there.

In the West, especially, people are seeking the ultimate answer to everything, the meaning of life, why we are here. It’s very uncommon for people to start with the correct motivation, or to do the hard work of cutting through ego and all that nonsense related to it. People want a magic pill, they want an easy peasy solution to all their problems. Please start with the motivation of awakening. This will save you from eons of rather terrible traps.

Blessings in Light,

Robert Aho