Practising Without Abandoning Samsara

Below is an excerpt from a teaching taught by Drupon Rinpoche in Halifax, Canada to members of the Shambala community. Nov 2013. It was translated and transcribed by Kunga.

Many of you are practitioners of Vajrayana practices and are practicing as lay-people. A phrase that is often used in the Vajrayana is “To practice without abandoning samsara.” It is very important that we have the correct understanding of these words. If they are just saying that we should continue with our worldly way of life without changing anything and without giving up worldly activities then you would have to say that most people are practicing the Vajrayana, but we know that is not the case. If you want to check to see if you are abandoning samsara or not then ask yourself, if you have a painting of say….. Chakrasamvara would you prostrate to it? If you had a painting of yourself would you prostrate to it? If the answer is “yes” to the first question and “no” to the second then you are practicing whilst abandoning samsara, because you are probably practicing with the view of needing to give up what you have now, and consider to be impure in order to “become” pure. If that is the view you are practicing with then that is not the Vajrayana view of “practicing the result” but a Sutrayana style practice of “practicing the cause.”