Everytime I pick up the Liberation In The Palm Of Your Hand, I am in complete awe of how Pabongka Rinpoche was able to elucidate the entire of the Buddha's teachings in such a simple way. This is no ordinary feat and indeed Pabongka was famous for his ability to teach the Lamrim.
Pabongka Rinpoche was the reincarnation of the great Lama Atisha, returning to receive the teachings on Bodhicitta just like Atisha had received from Suvarnadvipa. It is not surprising that Pabongka was widely regarded to be the "living Lamrim".
The genius of Pabongka lies in the way the Lamrim was written and is still being delivered to students today, i.e. in a manner and language which is simple enough to cater to our chronically shallow minds and yet contains "instructions taken from the confidential oral lineages" as Trijang Rinpoche wrote in his introduction to the Lamrim.
No doubt Pabongka's wish was for not only monks, but also laypeople of all levels of intelligence and experience to study and practice the stages to enlightenment. Pabongka was also the first Gelug Master to teach students who are not already members of the Sangha.
As Trijang Rinpoche further wrote of Pabongka's great work: "It was beneficial for the mind because it was so inspiring. Sometimes we were moved to laughter, becoming wide awake and alive. Sometimes we were reduced to tears and cried helplessly. At other times we became afraid or were moved to feel, ‘I would gladly give up this life and devote myself solely to my practice.’ This feeling of renunciation was overwhelming. These are some of the ways in which all of his discourses were so extraordinary"
Pabongka's message to Dharma students have always consistently focused on the need to quickly come to the realization that we have been endowed with a precious human life that should used to learn and practice the Dharma before death comes.
"Because you think, “I’m not going to die for some time, I’m not going to die for some time,”?While you’re distracted by the never-ending activities of this life,?Suddenly the fearful Lord of Death arrives,?Announcing, “Now it’s time to die.”?— This is going to happen to you!
Though you make arrangements, saying “tomorrow” and “tomorrow,”?Just then, suddenly, you have to go.?— This is going to happen to you!?And without choice, leaving behind in disarray?Your left-off work, left food and drink, you have to depart.?— This is going to happen to you!
There’s no time other than today to spread [your bedding] and go off to sleep;?Upon your last bed you fall like an old tree,?And others, unable to turn you with their [lily]-soft hands,?Tug at your clothes and blanket.?— This is going to happen to you" [extracted from Heart Spoon]
In the same work, we get a very clear picture of what will happen to us should we fail to use our life for the practice of Dharma:
"When you’re tortured in so many detestable ways?By ox- and scorpion-headed karmic agents—what to do?
When you’re before the Yama king, the Lord of Death,?As he weighs up the whites and blacks—your virtuous and non-virtuous actions—what to do?
When Yama exposes your lie of having spent?Your human life in attachment, hatred, and deceit— what to do?
When at Yama’s court the punishment that is the ripening effect?Of your negative actions [is meted out]—what to do?
When your naked body is stretched out on the glowing red-hot iron ?ground in the fires of hell—what to do?
Though your body is cut to pieces by a rain of weapons,?Still you must experience it without dying—what to do?
Though you’re cooked in molten iron until your flesh falls away and your bones disintegrate,?Still you must experience it without dying—what to do?
Though your body and fire burn inseparably,?Still you must experience it without dying—what to do?
When your body is pierced by a freezing cold wind?And cracks into a hundred thousand pieces—what to do?
Having fallen into the miserable state of a hungry ghost with its hunger and thirst,?You have to starve for many years—what to do?
When you’ve become one of those stupid, dumb, unfortunate animals?That eat each other alive—what to do"?
