In The Three Cycles of Resting at Ease, Longchenpa provides a complete Dzogchen practitioner path. The first and longest cycle, Resting at Ease in Mind Itself, teaches foundation practices necessary to support a genuine dharma path. Resting at Ease in Meditative Concentration (the second cycle) presents more details on meditation techniques. Bringing practice into our phenomenal world is taught in the third cycle, Resting at Ease. During this weekend teaching, Rinpoche teaches on the third section of Resting at Ease in Mind Itself. This section (Virtue at the End) presents gradual instructions on the practice of Dzogchen in three stages, Being Decisive in the View, Sustaining the Nature, and Abandoning Hope and Fear. Here, Longchenpa provides profound Dzogchen meditation practice instructions. For example, the meditation practices in the first stage develop certainty in the emptiness of appearances, thoughts, and awareness. Later stages present Dzogchen instructions on Shamatha, Vipashyana, and the Union of Shamatha and Vipashyana as well as the meditations of emptiness, clarity, and arising.

Rinpoche’s teaching on this text can be characterized as continuous practice instruction. Rinpoche provides detailed, clear, and animated instructions and commentary on the numerous practices contained in the three stages (Decisive, Sustaining, and Abandoning). He encourages us to take these instructions into our practice. Rinpoche’s teachings are supported and complemented by Acharya Lhakpa’s talks on the four reminders, relying on a spiritual friend, going for refuge, the four immeasurables, and giving rise to the motivation and intention of supreme Bodhicitta.