Rainbow Painting

by Tulku Urgyen

Rainbow Painting is saturated with direct, pithy instruction, the very quintessence of the Buddhist Spiritual approach. Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche speaks from experience, expressing what he himself has undergone, instructing us in the way we should train in a complete and unmistaken manner. We come to understand that to become enlightened we must experience what was always present within us. The ultimate object of realization, the natural state of mind, unmistakenly and exactly as it is, need not be sought for elsewhere but is present within ourselves. Stability in this unexcelled state of unity is not attained independently of means, proper conduct and knowledge of the view. We should unite view and conduct; and this book contains the key points for doing just that.

“Some people have the habit of thinking that something is bound to happen after practicing meditation a while — like going through school — that after ten or fifteen years you end up with a degree. That’s the idea in the back of people’s minds: “I can make it happen! I can do enlight¬enment!” Not in this case, though. You cannot make enlightenment, because enlightenment is unconstructed. Realizing the awakened state is a matter of being diligent in allowing nondual awareness to regain its natural stability. It is difficult to reach enlightenment without such dili¬gence, without undertaking any hardship.”
---Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

“Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche is someone who has lived at length in mountain hermitages, spent many years in retreat, and done a considerable amount of meditation training. For this reason, he gives the very quintessence of the sacred Dharma spoken by our compassionate Buddha Shakyamuni. He speaks from experience, expressing what he himself has undergone, instructing us in the way we should practice in a complete and unmistaken manner. These teachings, saturated with direct, pithy instruction, are unique.”

---Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche


The ultimate object of realization, the natural state of mind, unmistakenly and exactly as it is, need not be sought elsewhere than in ourselves. We become enlightened through experiencing what is always innately present. Stability in this unexcelled unawareness is attained when view, the knowledge aspect and conduct, the means are integrated. In Rainbow Painting, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche presents the practices to accomplish this unity.

Genres: Buddhism, Spirituality

208 pages, Paperback

First published May 18, 2004

About the author

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche ((Tibetan: སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ཨོ་རྒྱན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་, Wylie: Sprul-sku O-rgyan Rin-po-che, where "Rinpoche" is an honorific meaning "Precious One," not a surname) was a Tibetan Buddhist Lama of the Kagyü and Nyingma schools, and a teacher of Dzogchen. He is most widely known in the West through the works of Erik Pema Kunsang and Marcia Binder Schmidt.

Reviews

[André Pais · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profound, versatile and very pithy. Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche is invariably worth every second of our time. An excellent "unrestricted" (I think) book.

Unexpectedly one of those "desert islands" kind of books.

[Bobparr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I primi due capitoli sono un fantasy nepalese, a cui si puo' sorridere o a cui ci si puo' inchinare. A me è venuta la prima, e più ci ripenso più sono lontano da queste credenze, da sempre.
Poi densi capitoli di insegnamenti pieni di locuzioni in lingua, con le sovrabbondanti classificazioni di questa particolare forma di buddismo, che spesso e volentieri sconfina in un Magical Mistery Tour. Interessante la notazione che tra le contemplazioni piu' alte che si possono trovare nel Vajrayana, di cui lo dzogchen fa parte (e quindi ai livelli più alti del buddismo tutto, secondo i seguaci dello dzogchen) troviamo samadhi e vipassana, che sono le stesse modalità che troviamo nell'Hinayana :-)
Ad ogni modo, il testo è molto ricco, anche di istruzioni sparse qui e la', ma non è secondo me un testo organico per la pratica - e neppure per una esposizione teorica esaustiva: d'altronde, sono trascrizioni di discorsi. Per chi non conoscesse lo dzogchen, da questo testo si fa fatica a capirne l'organicità e rimanderei alle di molto interessanti lezioni di Martino Nicoletti su youtube.

[Michael Gingold · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent comprehensive view of the Buddhist path based on the personal experience and teachings of one of the greatest masters of the 20th century. Pithy and concise with an informal style. Worth multiple re-reads. 🙏

[Joe Hay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this, due to it being cited in Sam Harris's "Waking Up." I think the general attitude and basic teachings in this little book are valuable and interesting, but I found the book hard to read.

Tulku Urgyen had a brilliantly concrete and clear way of describing the process of cultivating nondual awareness, which is wonderful. You can find this throughout the book, but in most concentrated form in the chapters called "Mindfulness" and "Tiredness."

He also was interested in maintaining the stories and traditions of his particular culture, including long discussions of mythology, history, rules, categories of practice, hierarchies, even instructions on how to act around zombies. This was most of the book, and I will say I found these discussions less helpful. I find no fault with the fact that this wasn't useful for me, though - it was essentially his duty to lecture on these topics.

[Benjamin Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche goes into detail about the 9 yanas (hinayana, mahayana and vajrayana). The book also includes pith instructions related to the nature of mind.

Another great Dharma book by the great Dzogchen master, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

[Anne Kadet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only 60 percent inpenetrable.

[Gavin McGregor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pure Gold!