What Is the Path of Dignity? Four Core Practices

Phakchok Rinpoche recently offered a teaching to the Vietnamese sangha on the Path of Dignity. Samye Institute is delighted to share this video where Rinpoche offers advice on how we all can become successful human beings. In this talk, Rinpoche repeatedly emphasized four key points. If we understand, gain confidence in, and practice these four, we are on the Path of Dignity.

Practice 1

The first step is to gain certainty that our nature is clean and pure. Regardless of whether we are a Buddhist or a spiritual person, the most important thing is to be a good or successful person. This is possible due to our pure nature.

Being a successful person is not always about becoming rich or important. Successful means being happy, having good relationships with our family and friends. Then we can add monetary success and meaningful contributions. But before we aim to become enlightened or to help others, we first need to remind ourselves that our nature is never bad. We need the core step of having trust that our nature is pure. This makes us secure and confident. Confidence is key. We must remind ourselves of this for one to two minutes every morning. Phakchok Rinpoche describes how to do this sincerely.

It’s important to understand the difference between pride and dignity. Many of us have a lot of pride because of our education or our position. But pride is very fragile because it is easily influenced by others. Almost all of us have responsibility in society. We are leaders in some sense in our small spheres. This is why it’s important for us to develop ourselves into good people. We should remind ourselves that our nature is pure. That is dignity and not pride.

Practice 2

We should always try to put ourselves in another ‘s place before we speak or respond. Usually, we look at situations from only our own perspectives. But, if in our interactions we can check how the other people might feel, then our actions might be much more skillful. We become wiser and can manage our relationships much better.

Practice 3

We need to develop the skill to notice faults without judging. This is a difficult quality to develop but it helps us in all our interactions. We can be discerning but not emotional. Noticing is valuable but judging brings reactivity and emotions. When we become emotional, we waste our energy and time and weaken our health.

Phakchok Rinpoche then describes the need to maintain balance in our lives. He stresses that many of us ignore aspects of our lives such as maintaining good relationships or health. We work very hard to make money for more material comfort but we sacrifice many other aspects of our lives. Awakening our dignity helps us to maintain a healthy balance.

Practice 4

Rinpoche advises listeners to chant mantras. In the beginning, it does not matter so much if we believe. Mantras have power, but we shouldn’t be attached to any results. We can set our intention, ask for what we want, but drop any expectations.

Phakchok Rinpoche suggests three mantras:

1. Guru Rinpoche mantra: OM AH HUNG BENZA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG
2. Tara mantra: OM TARÉ TUTTARÉ TURÉ SOHA
3. Avalokiteshvara mantra: OM MANI PEMÉ HUM HRIH

Guru Rinpoche‘s mantra is multipurpose, balancing everything. The Tara mantra is helpful for removing obstacles. It is good to chant the Tara mantra for depression, anxiety, and overcoming problems. Avalokiteshvara’s mantra helps expand our compassion and magnetize good people. You can choose one or two mantras. It is not necessary to chant too many different mantras.

Phakchok Rinpoche explains that our mind is very sticky. We need to observe how easily our mind can be influenced and manipulated by external conditions. As we learn to observe our minds, we can become more steady. When we are steady, we have dignity and develop into successful people.