The illusion of representation and the true nature of Padmasambhava

Excerpt from the video "Effortful selectivity and effortless non selectivity", James Low's teachings on Zoom, on March 1st, 2025.

English: youtu.be/zakRXkX84AA

English (withou silence cuts): youtu.be/jx8_jV6eoqk

German: youtu.be/ZpX2GE85g-U

Russian: youtu.be/sFO_SuRSxg0

Spanish: youtu.be/6SjnZ0Qwi4E

Portuguese: youtu.be/xVJ8ou6L_6g

Romanian: youtu.be/kI1qkcK4B6Q

Turkish: youtu.be/M4RHyVz-ARY

If you like, in the English version on YouTube, turn on the translated subtitles in your preferred language.

"That is to say, from the Dharma point of view, representation is an illusion. We see pictures of Padmasambhava: "Oh, this is Padmasambhava." No, this is a picture. And somebody says, "This is a picture of Padmasambhava—he never changes. He doesn’t even change his socks," which might make us a little bit concerned about domestic relations in Zangdok Palri. "He is always the same." This is a skillful method to give us the sense of object constancy—so we know what Padmasambhava looks like.

But actually, Padmasambhava shows many different forms. All forms are Padmasambhava. I’m just looking for this—Padmasambhava said, regarding the Padmasambhava initiation, "The vows from this empowerment are as follows: all that you see, both the world and its inhabitants, is to be seen as the body of Padmasambhava." So, the cars, the trees, the messy gardens that people have in wintertime—all of this is Padmasambhava.

So, if everything looks like Padmasambhava, you can’t know what he looks like. It looks like Padmasambhava because Padmasambhava has no shape. There is no true Padmasambhava. Padmasambhava is the nirmanakaya illusion which manifests in order to bring us back to our own unchanging ground. So, from this tantric point of view, when we say that all that we see is the form of Padmasambhava, all that we hear is the mantra of Padmasambhava. It means Padmasambhava is beyond thought."

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Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86DsPc9k70