What we call obstacles, the Buddha called the path.

“Say you find yourself in a deep state of stillness; often it does not last very long and a thought or a movement always arises, like a wave in the ocean. Don’t reject the movement or particularly embrace the stillness, but continue the flow of your pure presence. The pervasive, peaceful state of your meditation is the Rigpa itself, and all risings are none other than this Rigpa. As you embody the steadfast stability of the View, you are no longer deceived and distracted by whatever arises, and so cannot fall prey to delusion.

Of course there are rough as well as gentle waves in the ocean; strong emotions come, like anger, desire, jealousy. The real practitioner recognizes them not as a disturbance or obstacle, but as a great opportunity. The fact that you react to arisings such as these with habitual tendencies of attachment and aversion is a sign not only that you are distracted, but also that you do not have the recognition and have lost the ground of Rigpa. To react to emotions in this way empowers them and binds us even tighter in the chains of delusion. The great secret of Dzogchen is to see right through them as soon as they arise, to what they really are: the vivid and electric manifestation of the energy of Rigpa itself.  As you gradually learn to do this, even the most turbulent emotions fail to seize hold of you and dissolve, as wild waves rise and rear and sink back into the calm of the ocean.

The practitioner discovers—and this is a revolutionary insight, whose subtlety and power cannot be overestimated—that not only do violent emotions not necessarily sweep you away and drag you back into the whirlpools of your own neuroses, they can actually be used to deepen, embolden, invigorate, and strengthen the Rigpa. The tempestuous energy becomes raw food for the awakened energy of Rigpa. The stronger and more flaming the emotion, the more Rigpa is strengthened.” ~taken from The Tibetan Book Of Living And Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche

The observation of neurotic energy is the path and it starts right now. It doesn’t matter if right now is filled with a pristine awareness of life’s grandeur or neurotically preoccupied with trying to manipulate someone into fulfilling some selfish need. Right now is all you have. You will never have anything more. So, whatever arises–regardless of how neurotic it might be–it is the path. It is all you have to work with. There is nothing else. So, listen to it. Find the intelligence which underlies your habitual commentary, because that intelligence is not only the path, it is the goal! ~from What we call Suffering, The Buddha called The Path! by Ben Riggs

Here is Sogyal Rinpoche talking about the ultimate goal of meditation…Discovering who you really are!

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