19. All Dharma has a single purpose
- This is the First Slogan/Instruction of Point Five, which consists of four instructions.
- Point Five is “Evaluating Mind Training”
According to Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche:
The first instruction is that all dharma, all the teachings of the Hinayana and Mahayana, have one common purpose: to reduce or eliminate the clinging to a self. Whatever dharma we practice, whatever mind training we meditate on, the purpose is to diminish that clinging. If our clinging doesn’t diminish, then our practice isn’t working properly. If we notice that the continual thought of ourselves as important is decreasing, it is one sign that mind training is working.
If we want to know whether our dharma practice is working or not, we have to examine it by asking, “Do I still consider myself to be important? Am I still clinging to my self as something precious?” For instance, if we had a piece of gold and wanted to know how much we had, we could not know this just by looking at it. We would have to put it on a scale and weigh it. Similarly, measuring our clinging to self is a way of telling if our dharma practice is working. Is our clinging to the self diminishing or increasing?It is said there are 84,000 kinds of dharma, which are too numerous to understand and practice fully. For instance, if practitioners in the main vehicles of the Hinayana, the Mahayana, and the Vajrayana do not have a thorough understanding, they may have the impression that the Hinayana or Shravakayana is very different from Mahayana and even more different >from the Vajrayana. This is not a correct view because all of the Buddha’s teachings agree.
Vajravarahi: Dancing Dakini, 1000s-1100s. Nepal, 11th-12th century. Miniature stone stele; overall: 9.6 x 5.3 cm (3 3/4 x 2 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art