26/02/2026
"...You might have a doubt: 'I am doing this, yet my mind is not getting any better. I sit in the practice and, yes, I see thoughts and feelings coming and going — I can see their illusory nature — but they are still not the kind of thoughts that I want. I should have better thoughts than this, and so I should do something to improve my thoughts.' In that way, we install, again, the ego-self as the master who is entitled to a particular quality of life. And in the very moment of improving ourselves, we condemn ourselves to building more of a wall between 'where we are' and 'where we want to get to."
— James Low
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James Low elaborates: [i]"In the mahayana traditon, wisdom is unpacked through the teachings on emptiness and the first elaboraton of the Heart Sutra and so on. Prajnaparamita literature, including The Diamond Sutra and The Diamond Cutting Sutra, says that the bodhisattva, who wants to help beings, is not a bodhisattva. This may sound a very strange thing to say. A bodhisattva is somebody who works for the liberaton of all beings, but if they want to help beings, they are not a bodhisattva. How come? Because there are no beings to be saved. That is to say – although the buddhist teachings begin with suffering, if you take other people’s suffering too seriously, you will get into big problems. Three kinds of compassion How then does this link into migpa mepa, the absence of object? Through compassion. The mahayana tradition describes three kinds of compassion. There is the compassion of aspiration, as in the lines of the prayer,“May I bring all beings to enlightenment.” This is said to be like planning to go on a journey and is compassion which takes sentent beings as its object, semchen la migpai nyinje [སེམས་ཅན་ལ་དམིགས་པའི་8ིང་:ེ་]. The second kind of compassion is actually doing the practice, and is said to be like going on the actual journey. When you do your prayers or your meditation you might visualise all sentient beings around you, or you might radiate out light to them, or you might dedicate the merit. This is compassion which takes dharma practice as its object, cho la migpai nyinje [ཆོས་ལ་དམིགས་པའི་8ིན་:ེ་] The third form of compassion is the compassion which has no object. And here is the link to the Vajracchedika, The Diamond Cutter Sutra. If you consider that there are beings to be saved, then you are engaged in reification and have turned these into real people with real problems, which have to be removed, so this is very solid. This third kind of compassion is called compassion which does not take an object, migpa mepai nyinje [དམིགས་པ་མེད་པའི་8ིན་:ེ་]. From the very beginning, everything has been impermanent and without inherent self-nature. There are no beings to be saved – and yet, of course, there are. What is to be saved is the ending of the intoxication with the illusion that there is a problem which has to be solved. There is no problem. Earlier we were thinking about the absence of inherent self-‐nature in ourselves; it’s not that we are struggling to establish the absence of inherent self-nature in ourselves because that has always been there. That is a fact. It is hidden from us by our own self-concept, by the elaborated fantasy of identity which we have constructed with a lot of time and energy and often with money as well. We have created our own obscuration. It is the maintenance of the obscuration which hides the actuality. It’s not that you have to develop something which is not there – you simply have to stop doing the obscuring activity which hides what is there. That’s the fundamental point. If you understand that, then you see that all the dharma practices are about deconstruction. They are about stopping being intoxicated with activities which have to be done.
So who then is going to save all sentient beings? "I am." How am I going to do it? "I don’t know, but I want to do it." Okay. So, first of all we have to work out who is going to save beings. Then, who are the beings to be saved and third, how are they to be saved. So, who is going to save beings is a buddha established in the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya.Dharmakaya means understanding that your mind is emptiness and space inseparable. Sambhogakaya is the natural clarity arising from this understanding of emptiness and space, and nirmanakaya is the moment by moment participative engagement in the illusory field of becoming. That is to say: there is nobody going to do the saving. Who then are the beings to be saved? They are two arms, two legs, a nose; or they have littke wings,or they are going, “Wau! wau! wau!” down in the hell realms, we haven’t counted all the people here... These beings – what are they made of? When you look at someone you see their face; they have got holes in various places and some holes go up and some holes go down. We are people with spaces inside us! Then you might think, ‘Oh well, at least there are bones, but then you crack open the bones and see that they have got some space inside. But bones are also full of all this gooey stuff, so then you get a microscope and you look and you see the cells and inside the cells there is some space. There is space, there is space, there is space... In the beginning there is space, and something moves in space. What? Energy. Energy moves in and creates everything. Buddhists understood this a long time ago. Energy moving in space. So the beings whom we are going to free are energy moving in space, not recognising that they are energy moving in space because they believe that they are a substantial problem that need to be helped. How then do we help them? If you try to help them by helping solve their substantial problem, you confirm the paradigm of ignorance that they are living in. So the work of the buddha is deconstructive. It is to help liberate people from the illusion that they are trapped in. And how do they do that? There are many different methods. Some of the methods are like a parent to a child; some are like a magician, using illusion to dissolve illusion. There are many different dharma methods, but they have to be precise in relation to the person – the very same person who doesn’t exist. That’s at the heart of it. The buddha doesn’t exist, the person to be saved doesn’t exist, and the methods employed don’t exist. When we say, ‘doesn’t exist’, it doesn’t mean that nothing happens. You could say it’s neither existing nor non-‐existing. Something occurs, which is a movement through time and space and this is anicca, this is impermanence. The impermanence of the subject, of the object, and of the connection between them."
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Drala Jong༄Kyabjé ‘Khordong gTérchen Tulku Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche. Anyone who had the privilege of spending time in the presence of Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche would have astonishing stories to recount. Ngak’chang Rinpoche said:
“In the Netherlands in 1982 Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche was sitting in the garden and two massive ravens flew down and perched in either shoulder.
I sat and stared for some minutes.
It was as if I was looking at Óðinn.
Then I quietly and discreetly went into the house to get my camera — but by the time I returned, the ravens had departed.”
‘Khordong gTérchen Tulku Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche was known as gTértön Zilngön Lingpa — the incarnation of Khyéchung Lotsa, one of the 25 Disciples of Guru Rinpoche and Yeshé Tsogyel.
Khyéchung Lotsa had the siddhi of being able to speak with birds — and revealed many teachings to them.
This was vibrantly apparent in the life of Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche.
Ngak’chang Rinpoche said:
“Where ever he went there was some connection with the birds. I went with him once to Roath Park Lake in Cardiff.
We took some bread with us to feed the birds. I have done that before – but on this occasion more birds arrived then I had ever seen before – and not simply more but a staggering number. We had to buy more bread and stood there feeding them for over half an hour. People started gathering and staring in sheer amazement at what was happening because no one had ever seen anything like it before.”
“I had not known Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche long before he span his unique ‘vajra choreography’ on me.
It was during the thirteen year period which Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche had designated as the period when we would not be able to meet.
Künzang Dorje Rinpoche had suggested a few Lamas to whom I could turn in the interim — and one was ’Khordong gTéchen Tulku Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche.
As Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche was coming to Britain, I decided to see if it was possible to study with him — so I invited him to stop off for lunch on his journey from Cornwall to Bristol.
Apart from a Chinese meal that I got in from a take-away I’d purchased an assortment of cheeses. I knew Rinpoche enjoyed cheese, so I provided an ample sufficiency.
I bought a whole round of Brie because I wanted to make sure that I got some.
I like Brie.
Rinpoche sampled small snippets of all the cheeses before settling on the Brie.
“This cheese too wonderful tasting.”
Rinpoche remarked. He then picked up the entire round - and ate it; mouthful-by-mouthful until it was gone.
I got no Brie.
It was clear from this moment that Rinpoche was going to mess with me — and it was equally clear that this was the Lama who would help me most.
This has remained one of my many cherished memories of ’Khordong gTéchen Tulku Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche.”
