[From a teaching by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche on the Clear Guide for the Generation Stage. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. Transcribed by Linda Lee. Edited by Basia Coulter. All right reserved. Please do not reprint without permission.]

The beginningless samsara is, fundamentally, caused by our strong fixation on a personal self. We think “I” and “me” all the time, and we regard as “other” and as threatening anything that does not seem to be “I” or “mine,” that seems to be against the centralized stability of this self.

We are attached to what we call “I” or “me,” and we are strongly adverse to what we perceive as other. And those things and persons that do not seem to threaten the “I,” that are not really part of it either, we regard as insignificant. And in that way, we react to everything we experience with one of the three poisons of attachment, aversion, and ignorance.

We cannot magically reverse our self-fixation. Attempting to abruptly reverse it would be like attempting to reverse the current of a river. The river is going to flow downward and likewise, left to itself, self-fixation is going to continue. However, if we use resources and techniques, we can weaken and finally eradicate self-fixation.

Just as nowadays, using all of the technology we have developed, we can actually reverse the current of a river if we want to, in the same way, using the techniques of the mahayana and especially those of the vajrayana, we can gradually reverse self-fixation. This is where the generation stage is so important; the generation stage is central to this process of reversal.

Countless siddhas in India and Tibet used this means to achieve the state of buddhahood in one lifetime. They were able to gain fearless confidence that they could transmit to others in their presentation of the path. They achieved ultimate or final wisdom, and they manifested nirvana that does not abide in either existence or tranquility.

This achievement is not just past history. It is not something we know that happened but that does not happen anymore; it still happens. If we practice, the results of practice will be exactly the same as they have always been.