DJKR Teachings Dudjom Tersar Lung Bartsham

DJKR Teachings Dudjom Tersar Lung Bartsham

Transcription of Review by Lama Sonam Phuntsok (lightly edited)

Teaching #1 Wednesday 1st October 2008 Guru Yoga

I received this Dudjom Tersar, the series of empowerments from Dudjom Lingpa, twice from HH Dudjom Rinpoche, in Kathmandu and in Bhutan. However, I didnt receive the Ka Gy (8 herukas) or the trekch instructions (which are included within the Sera Khadro). I consulted with his father and decided not to give these, and I recommend that you receive these from other masters, e.g. Gyatral Rinpoche.

Guru Yoga is the last part of the ngndro, but since we have been accumulating the 7 Line Prayer, Ill teach it first. We have outer/inner/secret guru:

Outer = the guru who you see, who you can relate to

Inner = clarity aspect of your mind

Secret = emptiness aspect of your mind

So the inner and secret are buddha nature. In Madhyamika, guru is named emptiness free from elaborations. In Uttaratantra and Prajaparamita, guru is named transcendental wisdom, tathagatagarbha or buddha nature. In Vajrayana, guru is named Guru Rinpoche, Vajrasattva, and Samantabhadra etc. All these are referring to the same thing, the nature of mind.

When you practice the 7 Line Prayer, at times you should dissolve the guru into you and remain in that state for a while, and look at that state. When we say look, some people expect to see miracles and light. Other people say they see clarity, but this isnt from experience theyre just reciting what they read in a book. This is of no value. Gomchen means great meditator you have to meditate. There is no need to speak elegantly of your experience. For example, one of HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoches students, a gomchen, was asked to visualise Guru Rinpoche on a lotus. But he had never seen a lotus, and there were small yellow flowers outside the cave where he was meditating, so he visualised that. But Guru Rinpoches weight was too great, so he fell backwards and exposed his private parts. When he told HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche about his experience, he was very happy, as this was a real experience, not something memorised from a book.

Longchenpa said when you meditate, beginners should do it short and many times, else you will get bored and discouraged if you try to do it for too long at the beginning. If you do it short and often, then youll get used to it, and you can gradually extend the length until you are meditating for a long time. If you were to drink 15 bottles of alcohol all at once, youd get sick and never want to look at alcohol again. But if you drink little by little, then eventually you and the alcohol will become inseparable youll become an alcoholic!

Why do we visualise Guru Rinpoche and not the Buddha? One of the most important aspects of the view is interdependence, and because of this we have the notion of karmic link. Guru Rinpoche is linked to Bhutan and Tibet, the main domains of his activity. Shakyamuni didnt visit Bhutan, but Guru Rinpoche did. And one of Guru Rinpoches 5 main consorts was from Bumthang, so even on an outer level theres a link. Guru Rinpoche acts as a mirror for us to look into the nature of our minds.

Why is Guru Yoga the most important practice? When you die, you can only take 3 things with you: guru, view and yidam. What does it mean to bring the view? At the end of the dissolution of the elements, you reach the Chnyi bardo (the bardo of dharmata), and if you have practiced (the view), youll recognise Dharmakaya and become liberated. But this is very hard, as were confused and frightened then. Its easier to remember and visualise the yidam if you have practiced, but this is still hard. Easiest of all is to remember the guru, as you have been with your teacher a lot and you have got used to him. If someone recites the gurus name into your ear as you die, youll easily remember him.

Supreme & ordinary siddhis: When you recite the 7 Line Prayer, you receive siddhis/blessings. The main kind of blessing that you should ask for (the supreme siddhi) is enlightenment. Your main and only aim as a practitioner is to be liberated from karma and emotions and to attain enlightenment, and to attain enlightenment you need to remove the 2 obscurations. And to remove the 2 obscurations, you need to recognise the nature of mind. So when you ask for blessings when reciting the 7 Line Prayer, you should ask for Guru Rinpoches blessings to recognise the nature of mind.

There are also ordinary siddhis/blessings, of 4 kinds: pacifying, increasing, magnetising and subjugating/wrathful. When ask to receive these ordinary siddhis, what should we ask for?

Pacifying: we should ask to pacify karma and emotions, not sickness etc (because once you pacify karma and emotions, then sickness etc are automatically pacified)

Increasing: we should ask to increase merit and wisdom, nothing else. You need merit so your practice is good and there are no obstacles to your practice, and you need wisdom to realise the nature of mind. Who cares if your wealth increases or your lifespan increases?

Magnetising: magnetise means being under control (in this case). We need to bring under control our inner wind and our mind (Lung Sem this will be explained later when we discuss developing and completion meditation). Theres no need to bring under control worldly sponsors, beautiful girls or anything like that!

Wrathful: we should ask to subjugate our dualistic perceptions, as that is the root of emotions (and emotions are the root of samsara). Its not so that your enemies have an accident!

The above instructions are for sangha those who study and meditate. For laypeople, its good to visualise Guru Rinpoche in the sky in front, and with yearning devotion and confidence to recite the 7 Line Prayer or the Vajra Guru mantra.

Teaching #2 Saturday 4th October 2008 Dharma vs. Tradition / View, Meditation and Action

Today Im going to give an introduction to the Buddhist view. Its very important to know the view in order to know why we are doing all these practices. If we know the view, we will strive to realise that view. For example, when we know that gold, silver, jewels, diamonds are precious, we try our best and work really hard to obtain these things. If we have these precious things, then we can use them for many purposes. Likewise, we should know the preciousness of the Buddhist teachings. To know the preciousness of the buddhist teachings, we should know the benefit of practicing renunciation, doing the cutting through (chd) practice, making offerings, doing prostrations, and so on. If we dont know the benefit of these things, then we wont know the preciousness of the teachings. So we need to understand the Buddhist view.

The difference between dharma and tradition or culture

In order to introduce the Buddhist view, we should first know what is dharma. There is a difference between dharma and the different traditions of the Buddhist teachings. When we take refuge in dharma, we dont take refuge in the Buddhist tradition. So we need to know how to differentiate between dharma and the Buddhist traditions. Buddhism has flourished not only in Bhutan but also many other countries, like Korean, Japan, China, Thailand, Sri Lanka and so on. But there is a big fault in the way those countries follow the buddhadharma, as they mistake the Buddhist tradition with dharma. And over the course of time, they begin to place more importance on the traditions rather than the authentic buddhadharma. This confusion between the teachings and the tradition isnt only seen with buddhists, but also other teachings such as Christianity. For example, Christians celebrate 25th December as Christmas Day, and it has become a day of buying gifts and presents, making a tree and decorating it with beautiful things. They give so much importance to these things and not really to the teachings of Jesus Christ. And something similar is happening in Bhutan. Im not just warning you that this might happen in the future it has already happened. We give so much importance to festivals, do masked dances, and make everything beautiful just to show to the tourists. But people forget the authentic dharma, and instead they give so much importance and emphasis to the traditions. Actually, traditions are not that bad. But unlike the dharma, traditions and culture change with time and place. For example, many aspects of Bhutanese tradition, such as how the Bhutanese dress and how they behave, have changed from the early days.

But the teachings, what the Buddha taught, will never change. Buddha said that whether the Buddha appears in this world or not, the true nature of things will not change. The teachings of the 4 noble truths, 4 seals and so on will never change with time and place. For example, Buddha taught that all compounded things are impermanent. All compounded things were impermanent before the Buddha, and even after 2500 years after Buddha came to this earth, nothing has become permanent everything is still impermanent. So the teachings of the Buddha, the dharma, dont change with time and place. Only the traditions change.

We dont become extraordinary as Buddhists just by following Buddha Shakyamuni. What is extraordinary is that by following the teachings of the Buddha, we can realise the true nature of mind and phenomena. By realising the true nature of phenomena, we become extraordinary. We become unique. And we dont become extraordinary just by thinking about doing whatever Buddha taught. You wont be different from the followers of other faiths by just following the Buddhas teachings. You have to practice and realise the view. Buddha Shakyamuni is the one who taught the true nature of phenomena. However he is not the creator of the true nature he did not create emptiness. Buddha Shakyamuni is the one who taught reality, or the true nature, and how by realising the true nature you become extraordinary. How he taught is that, for example, if you are dreaming that youre about to fall down from a high building, you become scared. If somebody comes out of nowhere and says no need to worry, dont be scared, its a dream, its not real then you wont feel scared, you know its a dream, you realise its a dream. That person who teaches you, who shows you its a dream, is just like Buddha Shakyamuni, who has taught that what you experience now, all this confusion is like a dream. Its not real.

So Buddha teaches you reality, the true nature. And if you realise the true nature then you wont be afraid of samsara. The person who has taught reality or the true nature is Buddha Shakyamuni. The point here is that hes not a creator. He didnt create reality he has taught us about the nature of reality.

In the relative sense, Buddha Shakyamuni was born in Lumbini, and then he renounced the world and he practised penance for six years, and at the end he meditated under the bodhi tree, and then he attained enlightenment. All these things he did for the sake of happiness. The sole thing, the only thing that all human beings crave is happiness and the single thing that humans dont want, every being doesnt want, is suffering. Buddha Shakyamuni also renounced the palace and became a renunciant because he wanted happiness.

What is dharma? Dharma is something that establishes the truth, the reality. We need to practice dharma in order to have peace and happiness. We do all sorts of things for the sake of happiness. For example, it is not just Buddhists that have so many means to find peace and happiness, but also in Egypt and Greece there were many philosophers who wrote books on how to find happiness. Even scientists do all sorts of experiments and then reach all kinds of conclusions, for example that the earth is round, and they can also go to the moon, just for peace and happiness. And when Buddhists examine these things, they conclude that none of these things is a perfect means to gain happiness. Science, technology, politics, business, everything all these things are not the ultimate means to find happiness. Buddhists also find that none of these things are better than what Buddha said. We need not just wonder about these things. We should examine and investigate for ourselves. If we closely examine what Buddha said, he said all compounded things are impermanent, all emotions are pain, and so on and if we fully examine this, well find its true. Well find that nothing has become permanent, and that no emotions have become happiness or bliss. Buddha said that if we dont destroy attachment to self, our self-clinging, then theres no way that we can attain happiness. And Buddha said that all compounded things are impermanent: all that is impermanent has the potential to fall down (sak chey), or fall apart. And that which has the potential to fall apart or exhaust, is suffering. [Meaning: all impermanent things are manipulated by emotions, and anything manipulated by emotions is intrinsically suffering]. So by clinging to impermanent things, its the cause of all suffering this is what Buddha explained. But nowhere in the teachings did Buddha say that we have to just accept his teachings just because he said so. We need to examine his teachings.

Peace and happiness: Happiness cannot be attained through outer material wealth. The more material wealth you have, the more suffering it will bring. Today the world has developed so dramatically in terms of material wealth, but suffering hasnt decreased. Instead all this development has increased, enhanced and speeded up suffering. For example, we now have mobile phones, so if something happens here in Bartsham, in no time youll hear about it in Trashigang, and people there will suffer.

Now Ill talk about Buddhist view, meditation and action.

1. View

Knowing the view is the most important thing. Only by knowing the view can we differentiate ourselves from followers of other faiths. None of the teachings encourages telling lies or harming others in all teachings they say dont harm, dont tell lies, and dont steal. Even meditation does not make you unique as a Buddhist practitioner; in Jainism and Hinduism, they also talk about doing meditation. And practicing the teachings also cannot make you different from the followers of other faiths. For example, when Hindus go to their holy places, they carry water from river Ganges in a pot and they walk barefoot. But we Buddhists, if we want to go on pilgrimages to Bodh Gaya, we dont walk we drive or we fly. So they are more serious practitioners than us Buddhists!

So the view is what distinguishes us from followers of other faiths. And what is view? View is the way of thinking, how we think. For example, in Bhutan in the old days, people used to consider those who were fat and shiny to be very beautiful. Now because of the influence of modern television, people consider slim to be beautiful. That kind of thinking is view.

The primary Buddhist view is the view of interdependence or dependent origination. Everything exists depending on each other thing. For example, big depends on small for its existence, etc. Nothing exists independently as something omnipotent. Its very difficult to understand this. People study all the philosophy texts for many years at shedras, debating and examining the teachings. All this is done for the sake of knowing the view of interdependent origination. The text that establishes the view of interdependence is called Madhyamika.

In order to realise the view, the right view, we need to dispel the wrong views. To do that, we need to refute wrong views logically, and for that we have Pramana logic. There are so many obstacles to realising the view, so in order to recognise or realise the obstacles, like emotions and different kinds of obscurations we have Abhidharma teachings. And in order to practice the teachings, in order to realise the view, we need to have some kind of discipline if we have no discipline, we cant practice. And to foster discipline, we have the Vinaya. For instance, when you make tea you need to have a certain discipline you cant dump salt, sugar, everything together if you dont have discipline, if you add everything into the tea, you cant have any tea. Likewise, to practice the teachings you need discipline. Thats why there is Vinaya.

People study these texts in order to understand the view of interdependence. Interdependence means that things depend on each other for their existence. Nothing exists independently. And when we know that, we know the view.

2. Meditation

After receiving an introduction to the view, we need to practice in order to realise the view. If we dont practice or meditate on the view, then we cant realise it. You cant reach Trashigang by just knowing that it is there you need to actually go there! Only then will you arrive at Trashigang. Just by knowing the view theoretically, you cant realise it. You need to practice.

So what kind of meditation should we do? The main meditation is meditating on compassion, loving kindness, and the aspiration of bodhicitta. And the teachings on compassion, loving kindness and bodhicitta are dharma. They are not just Buddhist tradition.

Buddha Shakyamuni was born in India and he was an Indian, but he never said that we should embrace or practice the Indian customs and traditions. For example, monks robes are part of the buddhist tradition, and the colour of these robes changes with time and place. Buddha said that monks could wear yellow, red and even blue robes. But in Tibet, King Trisong Detsen and Tri Ralpachen felt that if monks wore blue colours, then it wouldnt be possible to differentiate lay people and monks, so they said monks should only wear yellow and red robes. So in Bhutan and Tibet, monks usually wear red and yellow robes. But in Japan and other places, its different they wear maroon robes and also blue colours. So the tradition, the culture, changes with time and place. In fact Buddha taught that monks should wear abandoned clothes, clothes you find in the filth, in garbage. So thats why Buddha said even the Vinaya should go according to the time and place. So Bhutanese monks should not think that monks in other countries that wear different colours are contradicting the teachings of the Buddha.

As I said before, meditation here is meditating on loving kindness, compassion and bodhicitta.

What is loving-kindness? Its the wish for all beings to have happiness. And that is also not unique to just Buddhism. Other faiths like Christianity and Hinduism also talk about loving-kindness and giving happiness to other beings. But theres no way we can give happiness to each and every being, because the happiness of one being might be the suffering of another being. For example, we might throw a big party, and eat all kinds of meat and fish and we might enjoy the party and have happiness, but the cows and fish will suffer! There is no way we can give happiness to all beings. But what is unique to Buddhism is giving the root of happiness, the cause of happiness. The cause of happiness is teaching them to practice virtue. We have to give that the cause of happiness.

What is compassion? It is to wish that each and every being does not have suffering. Again, theres no way to alleviate the suffering of all beings. So compassion is to give the root of freeing beings from suffering, the cause of cutting suffering.

What is bodhicitta? Bodhicitta is unique to Buddhism, to Buddhas teachings. Other faiths talk about having happiness, and giving happiness to others. But they dont talk about giving enlightenment to others. Bodhicitta is wishing enlightenment for other beings.

Theres one thing I need to mention we Bhutanese and Tibetans think meditation is something to be done by westerners. We think they should carry a mala, recite, do circumambulations, make offerings and I have heard from one influential person who heard a westerner was teaching meditation. She listened to the teachings and said it was really nice, and said she wished we could also have those kinds of teachings. This shows that we dont even know that these things originally came from what we have. We dont even know that meditation instructions exist in Tibetan Buddhism. If we dont practice and get accustomed to the view and meditation, well become like dogs and monkeys. After a few generations, dogs and monkeys dont even recognise who is the father, son, or daughter. If you dont practice and get used to that, youll become like that. So we have to meditate.

And moreover, if we dont practice we wont have any realisation. These days we have root and lineage gurus like Guru Rinpoche, Longchen Rabjam, Jigme Lingpa, Dudjom Rinpoche and all that but after 40-50 years, well have root and lineage gurus like Alex and Wyatt. I have one very good example. I was in Japan, and they go to the temple on special occasions, and seven boys with shaved heads were standing, elegant, respectful, and traditional I was so impressed, but later I found that on that day they used to ordain monks, but they dont do this any more, so they hired those boys instead. If we dont practice, well lose everything just like that.

3. Action

Third is action. The action unique to Buddhism is engaging in the 6 or 10 paramitas. But they can be abbreviated into not harming others. By not harming others, we mean not harming others with body, speech or mind. So even if we cant benefit or help others, we should not harm others. For example, we claim that we dont kill or harm others, for example we dont engage in warfare, but we are so attached to meat. For the purpose of getting meat, people take the lives of animals. And so we indirectly harm them. Even if we dont harm others directly, we harm them indirectly. We should abandon harming others, both directly and indirectly.

Buddhist meditation and action should be accompanied by the view or based on the view. The Buddhist view is interdependence or dependent origination. Interdependence means having all the causes and conditions. For example to grow a crop we need to have a seed, and all the necessary good conditions, like fertilizer, light, water and so son. And there should not be any interruptions or obstacles else you wont have fruit. So if you have all the requisite causes and conditions, you cant avoid having fruit. That is interdependence. So when we say we should not harm and kill others, we should know that if we harm others, we create certain causes and conditions, and if these are not interrupted, then well have the fruit of our actions. Well reap the fruit of harming others. If it is not based on the view, all the practices of Buddhist meditation and action will just become tradition or culture. So we need to understand the view. And our meditation and action should be based on understanding that view.

Teaching #3 Sunday 5th October 2008 Renunciation

I intend to talk to you gradually about ngndro, the preliminary practice, and also the development (kyerim) and completion stages (dzogrim) of meditation. Not only that, I also intend to teach you how to do shamatha meditation and then meditate upon the nature of mind. Older practitioners (who have received teachings from HH Dudjom Rinpoche or HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche or other teachers) dont need to hear these teachings. They will know everything already. My teaching is meant for the younger monks, nuns and lay practitioners.

Receiving empowerment and lung (reading transmission) is very special. But if we dont receive instructions and listen to the instructions, then we wont know how to accept what is good and abandon what is bad. We wont know the essential points of what to abandon and what to adopt, accept and practice. If you read the elaborate instruction texts, everything is explained in there: How to do visualisation, how to do completion meditation, how to meditate on the nature of mind, etc everything is written in those instruction texts. There are not only the instruction texts written by HH Dudjom Rinpoche, but also those of the Longchen Nyingtik and the writings of omniscient Longchenpa, such as the Seven Treasuries. If you read those texts, all the instructions are given in detail. However, we dont have much time, and it is also very difficult to understand the meaning of the words in those great instruction texts. So it will be easier for you to understand the instructions if I talk about these things instead.

RENUNCIATION

In our practice, we start with renunciation, or revulsion to samsara. Renunciation is one of the most essential and important practices. There are different ways of understanding the meaning of the word renunciation, depending on the different elements, different sense faculties and different intelligence of students. In Bhutan and Tibet we find monks and nuns who have given up the householders life. They wear red and saffron robes, and shave their heads. Tibetans and Bhutanese identify those people as renunciants. Among Buddhas disciples, the 4 kinds of disciples, the majority were monks. Monks give up worldly possessions, wear saffron robes, and also wear abandoned and discarded clothes.

For those who have greater faculties, the meaning of renunciation may be different. For example, there was a Buddhist nun in India called Salwa Tsultrim, pure discipline. There was a gender disparity in India at that time. Females were not considered equal to men, so she thought that being a woman, she couldnt benefit the dharma very much. So she gave up her vows, and then stayed with a nobleman, and afterwards she gave birth to Arya Asanga, who brought the five dharmas of Buddha Maitreya. Because of him, we have the text on the study of Buddha nature. The nun wasnt satisfied with that, however. She wanted to do more for the teachings, so she then stayed with a Brahmin. And from their union, Vasubandhu was born. He wrote the Abhidharmakosha and many extensive texts on abhidharma, and revived the teachings of abhidharma. Im sure that nun must have been criticised bitterly by other people during her time, because she gave up her nuns vows, broke the precepts and so on. But if you think about it deeply, you can see that what she did is also renunciation.

If you read the biographies of the Buddha and the early masters, youll find that they renounced everything, and they went into monasteries and became monks and nuns that is generally considered renunciation. But people like King Ashoka and King Trisong Detsen didnt give up their possessions, yet they greatly benefited, helped and supported the teachings. If it hadnt been for King Ashoka, we wouldnt know about Bodh Gaya or Varanasi. He built the Bodh Gaya stupa and the Varanasi stupa, and we now have these sacred places. King Trisong Detsen brought the teachings to Tibet, and that is also renunciation. So the word renunciation can be understood in different ways.

Many laypeople think that practising dharma is the job of monks, nuns and the sangha the mantrikas or tantrikas. That is a wrong concept, because throughout history we have had many lay masters and bodhisattvas. For example Majushri and Avalokiteshvara were not monks. They were lay practitioners, lay bodhisattvas wearing dhoti Indian dress. And they requested so many teachings the sutras and many of the sutras are answers to their questions. And King Trisong Detsen and other great practitioners were also lay practitioners. Here in Bhutan, lay people practise dharma. Im very pleased with that.

But all the monks and nuns who are supposed to be renunciants are all engaged and attached to building monasteries, dormitories, and residences including me! And in this way, we are wealthier than the laypeople! Monks are always carrying a calculator and calculating how much has been spent. In actuality we havent renounced the world at all.

So what is renunciation? In a nutshell, for example after taking a shit, we dont care about that we leave it, we dont look back we are not attached to that! So we should not be attached to worldly affairs, just as we are not attached to the faecal matter. If you dont care at all, that is renunciation. Great Kings like Ashoka, Trisong Detsen, Tri Ralpachen were very wealthy, and had many queens, sons and daughters, but they were ready to give them up at any time. Monks, nuns and lay tantric practitioners should also practice this not only them, but even ordinary working people should practice this. We should all care less about worldly affairs. If we are not attached to worldly things, that is called renunciation.

For example, when Atisha was in Tibet, one of his disciples was doing mandala practice, and Atisha came in and said son, practice dharma. And the disciple thought practising dharma meant doing prostrations, circumambulations, recitations and again Atisha came and said, its good youre doing these things, but practice dharma! The student then thought perhaps practising dharma meant doing meditation, so he meditated. Again Atisha said, meditation is good, but practice dharma. The student thought he had done everything, and there was nothing left for him to do, so he asked Atisha Ive done everything, and still you ask me to practice dharma. What kind of dharma should I practice? And Atisha said son, renounce this life.

Renunciation means not being attached to this life. Therefore, monks, nuns, tantric practitioners and ordinary working laypeople all have to give up attachment to this life. When I say this, some people might think they should destroy their house or push their house off a cliff, and go into a small hut. But they might still have all sorts of desire and attachments to worldly things while staying inside their hut. That is not renunciation. However, you can own a car and a house, but without having any attachment and this is renunciation.

In order to develop renunciation mind, we must know the value of the teachings, the dharma. And we should also know that there is no essence in worldly things and samsaric activities. We should know that all things are dependent on each other. When we look at things, we dont see things as interdependent. We see things as permanent, self-existing, independently existing phenomena. For example, when we look at our hand, we see it as a truly existing, permanently existing and independently existing phenomenon. In fact it is not permanent, it does not truly exist and it does not independently exist. This hand ages, and thats why its impermanent. Todays hand is not tomorrows hand it has become older. And it is also not independent it depends on other causes and conditions. We think that our body is independent, but it is not at any time, a big boulder could crush our body.

Nothing is independent. If we dont know that nothing is independent, then we wont understand interdependence. If we dont understand interdependence, then we will have distorted thoughts (Tib: tsul zhin mayinp yid j), i.e. we will see impermanent as permanent, impure as pure, suffering as happiness, and we will think that we have a truly existing self. These kinds of thoughts come when you dont have the view of interdependence. The root cause of not having renunciation mind is when we dont know the value of the dharma. For example, you know that a Land Cruiser (the most expensive car in Bhutan) is valuable, and that you could drive one here and there and show off. And in order to get one, you might do all sorts of things like stealing, telling lies, and so on. Likewise if you know the value of the teachings, then youll have this renunciation mind.

We have to give up attachment to worldly dharmas. We wish to be praised, and in order to get praise we perform all sorts of rituals to avoid criticism and being put down. One good example is how when practitioners, monks, nuns and nagpas like us see a sponsor coming from a distance we straighten our back and raise your eyebrows, pretending to be visualising and meditating. We are not really practicing dharma were just pretending in order to look good and have praise. So thats why its very difficult to have renunciation mind.

There are so many methods to generate renunciation mind. One of the best ones is praying to the guru. Recite the Seven Line Prayer, pray to Guru Rinpoche and ask him to bless you so you can have renunciation mind. Methods like this are for those who are not educated. For those who are educated, they can study texts like mind training, for example the Bodhicharyavatara. Study and hearing the teachings is also very important. Lord Maitreya said that hearing the teachings liberates ones mind from confusion. And hearing the teachings is the gateway to enlightenment. So its very important to study and listen to the teachings. There are so many methods to generate renunciation mind, like the Four Contemplations (the Four Thoughts) to turn ones mind from samsara to the dharma. There are so many enumerations like the Four Thoughts, but the main thing is to understand the meaning. Gampopa said in his prayer:

May my mind enter the dharma

May the dharma be the path

May the path dawn as wisdom

So the main thing is that our mind should enter the dharma. Similarly, the first Sakyapa Master, Kunga Nyingpo said, If you are attached to this life, you are not a dharma practitioner. So we have to renounce attachment to this life.

FREEDOM AND WEALTH (PRECIOUS HUMAN BIRTH)

We also talk about freedom and wealth (Tib: dal gyor). By freedom, we mean having a chance or opportunity. And in order to have this freedom, we need to have all the necessary causes and conditions present. For example, we can look at the six realms, such as the hungry ghosts. Even when there is a pile of food in front of them, hungry ghosts dont know that the food is there, so they go hungry all the time they dont have the chance, the opportunity, and the conditions they need to eat the food. When we do water and torma offerings (Tib: chu tor), in the scriptures it is mentioned youre not supposed to snap your fingers twice. The hungry ghosts understand the first snap as take this, have it. But they understand the second snap as youre not allowed to eat this, so you should snap only once.

If you dont have the necessary conditions, then even if the guru gives you teachings, you wont have the chance or opportunity to understand anything. At worst, you wont even hear the teachings. Or if you hear them, youll hear them wrongly. There are countless beings that dont have the opportunity to hear and listen to the teachings. Most people in this world have not even heard of the Four Seals or the Four Noble Truths. Once when HH the Dalai Lama was teaching, there were Muslims in the teachings, and he was teaching about the 12 deeds of the Buddha. When he talked about how Buddha renounced the palace, their interpretation was that the Buddha was good for nothing, as he couldnt succeed and so he left and became an unworthy person. So if you dont have the right conditions, you wont have any chance to hear the teachings. But we have the right conditions to hear the teachings. At the very least, we have a little bit of devotion, trust and confidence in the teachings and the teacher. And right now, being able to withstand the sufferings and pains for the sake of the teachings is freedom and wealth. We should consider this opportunity as very special. Even if we are only able to think about the rarity and preciousness of our freedom and wealth once a year, we should be very satisfied with the opportunity we have.

However, we have a habit of procrastinating and postponing, thinking today I might only remember the rarity of freedom and wealth once in a year, but in the future Ill practice all the time so we postpone our practice, and we keep postponing, until we eventually forget everything and end up doing nothing. We must begin, even if its only with the least or the worst practice, and accumulate that. If we do that, gradually well improve and begin to remember the rarity of our freedom and wealth. Patrul Rinpoche said that when we practice dharma, we must practice dharma as a hungry yak eats grass. The hungry yak doesnt look for something better if it finds one clump of grass, it eats that. And then it eats the next clump it sees. When we practice dharma, even if were not able to remember the preciousness and rarity of the freedom and wealth more than once in a year, we have to practice that and acknowledge it. If we dont start with small things, theres no way we can do big things. We should take the opportunity to engage in every single virtuous practice or virtuous action. We shouldnt look down on that.

We have the power to practice more. And if we are not diligent, the practice of dharma wont come easily. So we have to meditate on impermanence. We know that we are going to die one day. But it doesnt work just knowing that well die one day doesnt seem to affect us. We know well die, but we dont know when. Death can come at any moment, to anybody. Death is impartial. Impermanence is unbiased. It comes to kings, queens, lamas, monks, nuns, ordinary beings and animals all. It comes without warning. If you meditate on impermanence, then you wont make long-term plans. I may be even worse than most of you, because I already have plans for the next 3 or 4 years!

As Milarepa said, we need to meditate, thinking that we dont know which will come first tomorrow or the next life. We need to think about this. When you see a friend, you need to think today might be the last day I see my friend I may not see him tomorrow. You have to practice and meditate by imagining and reflecting on these things. You shouldnt just do what the lama says. If you reflect and meditate, then you will be more compassionate, and youll behave more gently to your friends and to other people. You wont harm them. And other people will see you differently. And that will also cause some kind of inspiration.

If we dont have long term plans, we can achieve the Bhutanese concept of Gross National Happiness. To achieve happiness, we need to have less attachment and find satisfaction and contentment with whatever we have. We do not even need to practice all the teachings, such as the Four Seals, but only one of them: All compounded phenomena are impermanent. That alone can bring you peace, wealth, Gross National Happiness everything! Because if you know that everything is impermanent, then you will have satisfaction and less attachment. For those who want to become wealthy, I have one secret and that is to find contentment. If you have contentment, you are rich. I have a friend who is very rich, and her house has 250 rooms. Every time I go to her house, I have to ask her for a map. But her husband was killed, and she was mentally unwell. I feel that she doesnt have contentment. But if you have contentment, youll be satisfied with whatever you have. You can become rich.

The Four Thoughts also include the disadvantages of samsara and karma. (Note: Rinpoche taught these in more detail tomorrow.) The disadvantage of samsara is that everyone who is born in samsara suffers, irrespective of how high, low, big or small they are. Some people might think that kings and ministers are happy and dont suffer. But they have more suffering than common people, as they have to worry about their subjects and their country. And they have jealousy of each other, not getting promotions and so on.

Karma is bad and good action, which can bring bad and good results. If you know that, you will know the concept of karma. If you meditate and contemplate on that, renunciation mind can take birth in your mind. You wont have any long-term plans.

Teaching #4 Monday 6th October 2008 Refuge

Yesterday I talked about renunciation. Whatever teachings you practice the Theravada or Mahayana teachings its very important to train our mind. Mind training is very important. Why should we train our mind? Because our mind is stubborn, and we need to make it workable and user-friendly. And the principal mind training is training in renunciation. The instruction texts say motivated with renunciation mind, do your practice. So whatever teachings you practice, the first thing we need to practice is renunciation mind. All Buddhist practices should be preceded by renunciation mind. To practice dharma, we must have the intention or motivation to get enlightened. We must know the value or preciousness of the dharma, the teachings, and also the essencelessness of samsaric activities.

For example, in order to go to Thimpu, first you must have the motivation, the interest, and the intention to go to Thimpu. Otherwise you will end up going somewhere else, not Thimpu. Likewise, in order to practice the dharma, we must have the intention to get enlightened and know the value of the teachings. If we wish to follow a spiritual teacher or spiritual friend, that also has to be motivated by renunciation mind. If we follow a spiritual friend, a teacher, with another motivation and not renunciation mind, then well have all sorts of wrong views towards the teacher. For example if you follow the teacher for the sake of food and wealth and so on, youre not following the teacher with renunciation mind. We need to follow the teacher with the intention to get enlightened or liberated. If we dont have renunciation mind and revulsion towards samsara, then well have wrong view, wrong perception towards the teacher. Its like if you want to go to Thimpu, first you need to have the intention to go Thimpu. Likewise, to practice the dharma, you first need the motivation, which is renunciation mind. Thats the end of the teachings on the rarity of finding freedom and wealth, and the impermanence of life.

THE 4 THOUGHTS: KARMA & SAMSARA

Next I will talk about the disadvantage of samsara, and karma (cause and effect). Its very difficult to understand the concept of karma, cause and effect. For example, it is not impossibly difficult to understand Madhyamika, pramana, and other philosophy texts. If you study, memorise and debate, you can understand them to a certain extent. But the concept of karma is difficult. In the beginning, it seems like you understand it, but as you go on hearing and examining the teachings on cause and effect, they become increasingly profound, fine and more detailed. It is difficult to understand karma completely. Only the Buddha understands the minutest details of karma, cause and effect. The concept of karma is one of the main components of the Buddhist view. It is not that non-virtuous actions and virtuous actions happen to be so just because Buddha said or taught that. For example, if somebody harms you or beats you, then youll experience pain and suffering. Likewise, if you beat or harm other beings, then they will experience suffering in the same way. You know that. And harming others brings harm to both yourself and the other person. And its the same with virtuous actions if we help others, then they experience happiness just as you experience happiness when others help you. This is how we can prove the concept of karma by reason.

Because of the concept of karma or cause and effect, then we have the Vinaya disciplines for monks. The bodhisattvas also have discipline, and tantric practitioners and nagpas, also have discipline. Some nagpas think they dont have discipline like monks, but they actually have even more precepts than monks. If you practice the Vinaya, bodhisattva or tantric discipline (Vajrayana precepts), then you can accumulate virtue. Discipline means not killing others, not taking their lives; not stealing; not indulging in sexual misconduct, and so on. For us practitioners, even if outwardly it seems we are not committing non-virtuous actions, in fact we are directly or indirectly committing non-virtuous actions like continuous rain. And everyone is governed by karma, irrespective of whether they are high or low, superior or inferior even the Buddha. For example, when Buddha was alive, a thorn pierced his foot. And when Ananda asked him why this happened, he said that in the past he killed the black man Minak Dungdung who was about to kill 500 merchants who were bodhisattvas (when Buddha was Depen Nyingj Chenpo, the great compassionate sea-captain). So if even the Buddha is not completely free from karma, nothing needs to be said about us! So we have to be very careful.

Stealing literally means, taking what has not been given. We have to be very careful about that. But stealing is not just taking away other peoples belongings, and especially monks and nuns should be very careful. For example, if you travel, and you dont pay the car or bus fare, you break your vow and then become a layperson after that. That is also stealing. These days, people steal electricity without the knowledge of the council authorities. For example, people draw electricity from the poles and lines thats also stealing. We think stealing means entering a persons house at midnight and removing their things without their knowledge but its not just that. It could be not paying a bus fare or stealing electricity all these are taking what has not been given. Monks and nuns, if you steal a thing worth 10 rupees, you break your vow. You commit a downfall. And if the government pays for your travel and everything, then if you spend unnecessarily, thats also stealing. And the Bhutanese and Tibetans consider that monks and nuns break vows if they stay together with members of the opposite sex thats the general belief.

There are other causes for breaking vows, such as extraordinary lies lies beyond what is common in the human society (e.g. I had a vision of Guru Rinpoche last night, with the intention of getting money or offerings from others). For example, people go to Taiwan and other countries and they do divinations, and they come up with all sorts of things. They say they have visions, see ghosts harming your family etc, and claim they have special, unusual dreams and then they collect money! These are extraordinary lies and telling lies like this can also break your vows, for example if you are deceiving others in order to get wealth.

If there is a thief with you, then you are not going to be peaceful youre always worried that the thief will take away your things. If theres a thief with you, you always have to hold your bag close. You cant sleep at night because of worries. And since there is every chance that you will perform non-virtuous actions, like continuous raining falling, every day and remembering that, you need to exert and generate renunciation mind.

For practitioners, monks, nuns and nagpas, you also have to be careful not to misuse offerings (khor). If people make offerings for you to do prayers, you have to do them properly and completely. If you dont do it properly, you might create a karmic residue, lhen chak, and that might follow you later. These days we talk about many different kinds of obstacles, like sickness, not being able to fulfil your own wishes and so on these are all because of lhen chak, the karmic residue of things like the misuse of offerings. Until you have purified that karmic residue, you have to repay that. Why? Because karma is undeceiving until you have repaid it all, you will be affected by it. When the lhen chak follows you, you have sickness, illness and other such things all sorts of obstacles. What is khor? For example, if a child of a person is sick, and if he goes to the hospital to buy medicine, then if he doesnt get that medicine, he knows and he sees that he couldnt get that medicine and if he offers one rupee to you, the practitioners, to do prayers for that sick boy, if you dont do the prayers properly and completely he wont see that, as theres no sign. But the lhen chak, the karmic residue is there, even if he doesnt see it.

HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, HH Dudjom Rinpoche, Gyatral Rinpoche and Lama Sonam Zangpo used to repeatedly instruct us to do prayers for others (e.g. for long life of sponsors, removing obstacles etc) completely and properly, so that we would not be affected by khor. Even lamas and tulkus, if they misuse offerings, then because of khor they have short life, obstacles to their activities and so on. The best prayers and practices for us who dont have the confidence of realisation are Tara puja, burnt offering (sur), smoke offerings (sang), and chutor (water and torma offerings). If we can do that, they have so much potential to benefit. To do these things, you dont have to be highly realised. You just have to dedicate your merit for the sake of others. If youre a good practitioner, if you can do Thrma tsok offerings, then you should visualise yourself as Thrma and make offerings. That is the best if you can do that. But for those who dont know how to do that, the best things are Tara puja, sur, sang and chutor.

So the main point here is we should know the value of the teachings, their preciousness, and contemplate on that again and again. We need to practice with haste, not postpone.

REFUGE

Next is taking refuge, the inner ngndro. In the texts, it has been taught extensively. For example Milarepa taught about refuge extensively. And in the Thrma instructions, theres an elaborate explanation and refuge. There are also elaborate explanations in the Kunzang Lamai Shelung (Words of My Perfect Teacher) and Gampopas Dagpo Thargyan (Ornament of Realisation), so you can read those texts. Now what does it mean to take refuge?

For example, when it rains, you go under an umbrella. That is taking refuge. In order to not be affected by the rain, you take refuge in the umbrella. Likewise, out of fear of samsara, you take refuge in someone powerful who can free you from the fears of samsara. We take refuge for two main reasons: one is fear of samsara, and the second is having compassion towards other suffering beings. And there are various objects of refuge:

The general outer object of refuge is the Three Jewels.

The extraordinary inner objects of refuge are the three roots (guru, deva and dakini).

The secret object of refuge is nadi, prana, and bindu (channel, wind and essence).

The innermost secret unsurpassable object of refuge is ngowo rangzhin tukj sum (essence, nature and compassion): Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya (luminosity), and Nirmanakaya (the inseparability of emptiness and luminosity).

Outwardly we take refuge in the three jewels out of fear of samsara. For example, farmers go to temples, make butterlamp offerings, and do prostrations and supplication prayers so they will have timely rainfall, no storms, and so have good harvests. And some kinds of businesspeople here Rinpoche mentioned the substance of the musk deer make offerings so the police wont catch them. These are not the kinds of refuge were supposed to do. These are very narrow-minded forms of refuge. In Buddhist refuge, you first take refuge in the Buddha, dharma and sangha the objects of refuge out of fear of samsara. That is the general refuge for all Buddhists. And the bodhisattvas dont take refuge just for themselves, out of fear of samsara, but also out of fear of nirvana they dont want to fall into extremes. Out of fear of falling into the extremes of samsara and nirvana, they take refuge in the Three Jewels. They take refuge for the sake of enlightening all other sentient beings. They dont care whether they get enlightened themselves or not. These are the relative ways of taking refuge.

The innermost secret unsurpassable refuge is the ultimate refuge. That is recognising that the emptiness aspect of the mind is Dharmakaya, the luminous aspect of the mind is Sambhogakaya and the unceasing inseparability of emptiness and luminosity is Nirmanakaya. That is the unsurpassable secret refuge. It is the ultimate refuge. In order to recognise the innermost secret refuge, then we take refuge in the three roots, three jewels, prana, nadi and bindu. When you take refuge in the outer objects of refuge, we take refuge in Buddha as the teacher, the guide who shows you the path. We take refuge in the dharma as the actual path, and the sangha as the friends and companions on the path. Not only Buddhists take refuge, even followers of other religions also take refuge in superior beings. The difference is that when non-buddhists take refuge, they dont take refuge in order for themselves to attain enlightenment. They just wish to be reborn in the realm where the superior beings are. But in Buddhism, you take refuge in order to become enlightened yourself. That is the main difference. Also when you take refuge in the guru, yidam (deity) and dakini you take refuge in guru as teacher, deity as path and dakini as the companion/friend.

The ultimate object of refuge is the ultimate nature of our mind. Since we dont recognise that, in order to recognise the ultimate nature of our mind, which is the ultimate object of refuge, we take refuge in (for example) Guru Rinpoche, Thrma, and Vajravarahi. When we take refuge, even if we cant see the object of refuge like Guru Rinpoche or Vajravarahi we must have confidence that they are there in the sky in front. And then we must think, I and my parents including all beings that have been, are going to be and who are my parents take refuge. And particularly for Thrma practitioners, if you do Thrma ngndro, youre supposed to visualise all obstacle makes and all negative spirits, demons and all, surrounding you and taking refuge in Vajravarahi, Thrma. In the Thrma texts, its said that just benefiting one of the obstacle makers surpasses benefiting hundreds of thousands of human beings. The Thrma practice is meant to benefit obstacle makers, like demons its designed for that.

And visualising that, we need to recite the refuge verses. For Tibetans and Bhutanese, theres a tradition of doing ngndro practice 100,000 prostrations, 100,000 taking refuge, etc. This was designed by Buddha and early masters to inspire beings to practice. If theres no system, then we tend to not practice properly. So having that required number encourages practice. But we shouldnt get stuck in the tradition and culture. For example, when you take refuge, I always emphasise remembering the object of refuge, not just reciting but also remembering. When you remember Buddha once, you count that. When you remember Buddha taking birth in Lumbini, you count one. And when you remember Buddha leaving the palace to become a renunciant, you count one. And when you remember him sitting under the bodhi tree, getting enlightened count one. Teaching in Varanasi, count one. Entering parinirvana in Kushinagar, count one. Remembering the object of refuge is more important than accumulating the recitation of the verses. You should remember the object of refuge all the time. Remembering the object of refuge need not be in the proper sequence, from top to bottom. For example, you can remember any aspect of Buddhas life in any moment, not necessarily Buddha being born in Lumbini first.

We have to try our best to remember the guru, deity, dakini, Buddha, dharma, sangha and the view the essence, nature and compassion. If you can do that, youll get enlightened. Theres no need to practice other things like bodhicitta or guru yoga you can attain enlightenment just by practicing refuge. And theres one important thing when youre accumulating refuge when youre about to finish the session, you need to dissolve the objects of refuge into yourself. You dissolve all other beings around you into yourself, and yourself into object of refuge, and then remain in that as long as you can. That is the ultimate refuge.

Teaching #5 Tuesday 7th October 2008 Refuge (contd.) & Bodhicitta & Vajrasattva

REFUGE (contd.)

To continue with what I taught yesterday. In the instruction texts, its mentioned that the foundation of all dharma practices is refuge. Even in the sayings of the ordinary people, its said that the factor that distinguishes Buddhists from non-buddhists is refuge. When we say, I take refuge in the Three Jewels, its not just making supplication, or asking for protection. Its making a commitment, a promise. All of you who are gathered here have received the refuge vow. Because without taking refuge and generating bodhicitta, there is no way that you can receive Vajrayana empowerments. To receive empowerments you have to first take refuge and build a foundation, then generate bodhicitta, accumulate merit, and receive the Vajrayana vow, and then you receive the empowerments. For those people who are new to the Buddhist path and havent received a Vajrayana empowerment, theres a tradition of giving refuge vows. When you take refuge in the dharma, we must take refuge by making a commitment. How do we take refuge in the dharma by making a commitment? For example, if you want to go to Dewathang, you have to make a clear-cut decision, with confidence, to go to Dewathang through Trashigang, and not to Mongar which is the other way that leads to Bumthang. Likewise, in order to attain complete enlightenment, omniscience, we enter the path by recognising the teachings (like all compounded things are impermanent, and so on) are authentic and correct teachings.

Then you make a commitment to enter the path, to practice the path the dharma. When you have confidence in the teachings, i.e. that they are undeceiving, then you practice the 6 paramitas, the 4 Noble Truths, and then the teachings on selflessness. And then you will have the confidence that if you practice the 6 paramitas, the 4 noble truths and selflessness, then it will take you the state of Buddhahood. With that confidence, you commit to practicing the path. That is taking refuge in the dharma.

When you take refuge, you must take refuge in an object that is undeceiving, something that will not deceive you. If you take refuge in someone who has not perfected himself, it will ruin both yourself and the object of refuge. What does undeceiving mean? For example, Buddha taught that all compounded things are impermanent, and all that is born is bound to die that is the reality. It is the nature. It is not otherwise. Buddha taught that all compounded things are impermanent, and if something becomes permanent, then Buddha would be deceiving so you could ignore him right from that moment. But nothing has become permanent, so what the Buddha said is undeceiving. Thats how we should take refuge in the dharma.

Buddha: To take refuge in the Buddha, the reason why Buddha is special, extraordinary, is not because he has all these miraculous powers like being able to fly into the sky or go into the earth. Theres nothing special in that, as birds can also fly, and insects can go into the earth. Thats not the reason why Buddha is special. Buddha is special because he has realised or seen the truth of phenomena. That is the sole reason why Buddha is special. And he is the only one who has seen the truth. Realising the truth is the extraordinary quality of the Buddha. Knowing that, we need to take refuge in Buddha.

Sangha: to go to Dewathang, you need a companion who is also going to Dewathang. A person going to Mongar cannot be your companion if you want to go to Dewathang. Likewise, you need companions to practice the dharma and attain enlightenment, so you should take support and companionship of people who are on the path to enlightenment.

The main purpose of taking refuge is to avoid entering the wrong path, and instead entering the right and undeceiving path. The benefit of taking refuge is explained elaborately in sutras like the Sutra of the Light Rays of The Essence of Sun and so on. By taking refuge, even if you have committed the worst possible non-virtuous actions like killing your parents, harming the buddha, destroying statues, or killing arhats, those non-virtuous actions can be purified and although I cant say that youll get enlightened in this very lifetime, but gradually youll become enlightened over the course of time. There are so many benefits from taking refuge, and this is one of them.

BODHICITTA

There are so many different kinds of path: greater paths, lesser paths, wider paths, and narrower paths. If we follow a greater or wider path, we will benefit more. There wont be much pain or suffering, or many difficulties. So in order to tread the path without much difficulty, and receive more benefit, we need to practice bodhicitta. Bodhicitta is the innermost essence of buddhadharma. Its like the essence of butter, the most refined part of butter. Just like refuge, bodhicitta is also making a commitment. And bodhicitta is also a precept or vow. A precept or vow is making a commitment or pledge. Why do we need a precept or vow? If we have a precept, whatever virtue we accumulate, it will increase. For example, lets take an ordinary person who is not a practitioner, who doesnt have any vows or precepts. Even if he doesnt kill or steal, although he will not commit any non-virtuous actions, he will not accumulate any merit. An ordinary person in his dream doesnt commit any non-virtuous actions, but he doesnt accumulate merit. But if you have taken precepts or vows, at any time, irrespective of whether youre asleep or distracted, you will be accumulating merit. Even while gambling or playing cards, you will accumulate merit. The difference between a person who has taken precepts and one who has not is explained by Sakya Pandita in an example: there are two people who both have a piece of land. One grows crops, and the other doesnt grow crops. The one who grows crops reaps the fruit, and the other one who doesnt grow any crops doesnt reap the fruit.

Someone who has taken the precept or vow accumulates merit if he doesnt indulge in non-virtuous actions. But someone who hasnt taken the precepts will not accumulate any merit even if he doesnt commit non-virtuous actions. So if you have taken the precepts, your merit will increase. Generally, wishing or intending to do prostrations, do practice, recite mantra, and practice the creation and completion stages of meditation with the wish to enlighten other sentient beings is bodhicitta.

Ultimate bodhicitta: There are two kinds of bodhicitta: ultimate bodhicitta and relative bodhicitta. Its very difficult to generate or have ultimate bodhicitta. Ultimate bodhicitta is meditating on emptiness and realising that. Receiving the introduction to the nature of our mind and meditating on that is also ultimate bodhicitta. And when you practice Thrma, Vajravarahi, at the end of the practice you go through the process of dissolution of the deity you dissolve the gross body of the deity to bindu, nadi, then it finally disappears thats also ultimate bodhicitta.

Relative bodhicitta: In order for the ultimate bodhicitta to take birth in our mind, we practice relative bodhicitta. There are also two kinds of relative bodhicitta: aspiration bodhicitta, and application bodhicitta. What is the difference between them? For example, the wish or the intention to go to Trashigang is like aspiration bodhicitta. And if you have the intention to go to Trashigang, when you actually go to Trashigang thats like application bodhicitta. Aspiration bodhicitta is the wish to get enlightened in order to enlighten other sentient beings. And practicing the 6 paramitas and so on with the wish to get enlightened for the sake of other sentient beings is application bodhicitta. Of the 2 kinds of relative bodhicitta, application bodhicitta is very difficult to practice or take birth in our mind. We might be able to give food, clothes and other belongings for a day to poor people, but its really difficult to give your head, your limbs, and inner things. We are not supposed to give our head and limbs without pure mind. In some of the scriptures, it is said that before attaining the first bhumi bodhisattva level, were not supposed to give our head and limbs. Because we dont have enough courage to give that,

Omniscient Longchenpa said that for young bodhisattvas, beginner bodhisattvas, the best thing is to practice aspiration bodhicitta: to make aspirations. If you make aspirations from your depths, with pure intention, then youll gradually be able to practice application bodhicitta. Buddhas and bodhisattvas benefit other beings after they get enlightened because of the aspirations that they make when theyre on the path. For example, Avalokiteshvara made aspirations when I get enlightened, may my name benefit and remove the suffering of all beings. Because of that, people pray to Avalokiteshvara in India and China, and even more in Tibet they consider Avalokiteshvara the karmic deity. In Tibetan its called ha kar (?), their share of deity. And when Buddha Amitabha was on the path, he aspired may all beings have the wish to be reborn in the pure realm (Amitabhas pure realm), which is why so many beings wish to go to Amitabhas pure realm. This is called purifying the realm (shin jang), the outer world. Thats why aspiration is very powerful.

Its not difficult to practice aspiration. It doesnt involve any physical effort and its not expensive. If you can, you should go to Bodh Gaya and just sit under the bodhi tree and make aspirations. As a Mahayana practitioner, youre not supposed to make small aspirations, like may I get food, may I become famous or things like that. We must aspire that all sentient beings attain enlightenment, and in order to attain enlightenment, may they meet the right path, the Mahayana path. And on top of that, you can practice things like the Four Immeasurables, tonglen practice (giving and taking), exchanging virtue and non-virtue.

How do you practice tonglen giving and taking? When you breathe out, think that you give all your merit, happiness, bliss, and all good things to other beings. When you breathe in, think that you take all their sufferings and unhappiness upon yourself. And you also need to practice the equality of oneself and others, followed by the exchange of oneself and others. Thinking about the equality of oneself and others is very simple. You just need to think, In the same way that I wish for happiness and dont wish for suffering, other beings also wish for happiness and dont wish for suffering. In this way, we are the same. And exchanging oneself and others is practicing giving happiness to others, and taking the suffering of others onto oneself. We practice the equality and exchange of oneself and others in order to remove to destroy attachment to self, which is the main obstacle to bodhicitta.

The practice of Thrma is also mainly to destroy attachment to self. The practice is the instruction passed on to Machig Labdrn by Sarahapa. These days, we practitioners, monks, nuns and nagpas practice village rituals rituals for others. We do exorcisms. We make horrifying tormas and cut them with the driguk to liberate enemies. But if we dont have the confidence of realisation, it not only doesnt benefit the sponsor and patron, but also harms the one who performs the practice. It ruins both the practitioner and the patron. When you perform exorcism, you recite the wrathful mantras, and even if you dont have power yourself, these mantras are the speech of the buddhas and theyre powerful because of that, and they frighten non-human spirits. So without the confidence of realisation, if you perform exorcism you not only dont benefit the sponsor or patron, you harm other beings. But if you perform any kind of practice with the genuine wish to enlighten other beings, then no matter what kind of torma you make, it will definitely benefit other beings and it will benefit the sponsor, other beings and yourself.

When you generate bodhicitta or take the bodhisattva vow, you visualise the refuge tree or field of merit as your witness for taking the bodhicitta. Having the object of refuge, the refuge tree, as witness, you then make the commitment to get enlightened in order to enlighten others. Not only that, you make a commitment to practice the 6 paramitas. That is relative bodhicitta. And on top of that, you should know that theres no such thing as the object to be benefited, the one who benefits, and the action of benefiting theyre like the reflection of the moon in water, a dream and a rainbow in the sky. Then remain in that state. Its not the actual ultimate bodhicitta, but its j tn (Tib.), something close to it, something in accordance with it.

PURIFICATION: VAJRASATTVA

Next comes the purification of negative actions and obscurations based on the practice of Vajrasattva. Ngndro, or the preliminary practice, is making preparations or arrangements youre preparing something. And in the writings of early masters, it is said that we must give more importance to the ngndro or preliminary practice than to the main or actual practice. The ngndro practice is like making preparations for a party or celebration. You make preparations for days or months ahead, and then have the party or celebration for a day or two. So you have to practice ngndro for a long time, and if you can purify the obscurations, then within a short time you can attain realisation or omniscience.

When you make preparations for a party or celebration you do two things: (1) clean the place, and (2) then make the place magnificent or splendid. In dharma practice, you purify the obscurations and negative actions through the practice of Vajrasattva and accumulate merit through the practice of mandala offerings. Vajrasattva practice, the purification practice based on Vajrasattva, is to clean your self. It is to clean your mind. And the accumulation of merit through the mandala practice is to make your mind splendid or magnificent. Refuge and bodhicitta are the practices common to all the Mahayana. And starting from the Vajrasattva practice onwards, its Vajrayana practice.

The Vajrayana teachings are considered very rare and precious. They are considered more precious and rare than the appearance of the Buddha. In the Fortunate Aeon, it is said that 1000 Buddhas will appear in the world, but the Vajrayana teachings will appear only four times. Thats why the Vajrayana teachings are more rare than the Buddha. Why is Vajrayana so precious and special? Because Vajrayana teachings have many different kinds of methods, and the Vajrayana path is less painful. For example, in the general Mahayana and the Shravakayana, the practitioner has to practice and accumulate merit for three countless aeons in order to get fully enlightened. In the Mahayana and Shravakayana, the path and the practices are more difficult, for example it involves giving away your head and limbs. But the Vajrayana path is not like that. We dont need to find other examples. Vajrasattva practice itself is a good example. You just have to visualise and then do the purification, without much pain. And then if you practice in the right manner, you can either get enlightened in one lifetime, three lifetimes, or seven lifetimes, and even the least intelligent being will get enlightened in sixteen lifetimes.

Visualisation and practice instructions: When you visualise Vajrasattva, you visualise your root guru, your teacher, appearing as Vajrasattva. And the appearance of Vajrasattva is different in different texts. The colours vary; some of the Vajrasattvas are peaceful, and others are wrathful. And in some of the sadhanas, the Vajrasattva has both father and consort, whereas in other sadhanas, there is only the father, without consort. In the Chetsn Nyingtik of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, Vajrasattva is red, and you dont visualise Vajrasattva above the crown of your head as in the Longchen Nyingtik, but in your navel. And when you do the purification of negative actions and obscurations, in the Longchen Nyingtik, the stream of amrita flows down from his body and purifies you, but in Chetsn Nyingtik, the Vajrasattva emanates light, a fire that burns all the obscurations and negative actions. So you can do the visualisation according to the instructions in individual texts.

What about the origin of Vajrasattva who is his father, mother, from which family lineage is he? Vajrasattva is the embodiment of all the Buddha families. Thats why he belongs to the sixth family. In fact, Vajrasattva is the embodiment of the mind of all the buddhas. Vajra means the thing that cannot be separated or destroyed, so it refers to the tathagatagarbha, the emptiness. This tathagatagarbha, this emptiness cannot be destroyed by conceptual thinking. As a symbol of that indestructible, inseparable nature of mind, the tathagatagarbha, we have Vajrasattva in white, red, or other different colours.

And when you practice Vajrasattva (according to Longchen Nyingtik), when you do the purification practice, you visualise the letter HUM at the centre of Vajrasattvas heart, surrounded by the 100-syllable mantra. And as you recite, the mantra rotates around the HUM, and because of that amrita is created. It fills the body of the Vajrasattva, overflows, and then fills the body of the consort. And the amrita overflows from the bodies of both Vajrasattva and consort, and through their point of union it flows out and enters your central channel through the crown of your head, and flows through your central channel, purifying and washing everything. All kinds of sickness come out as pus and blood. All negative spirits, the obstacle makers, come out as small creatures like scorpions. And the obscuration of negative actions comes out as black liquid, like liquid charcoal. As you visualise that, then recite the Vajrasattva mantra. At the end of the session, dissolve Vajrasattva into yourself, and think that you and Vajrasattva are inseparable, and remain in that state. Remaining in that inseparability is the ultimate confession.

Practice advice: And I have one piece of advice for practice. Because of the balance and imbalance of elements in our bodies, our practice wont always be the same. Sometimes it will be very good, and other times it will be terrible. However, no matter whether the practice is good or bad, we need to practice with diligence and do the visualisations. In the writings of the early masters, it is said that if the visualisation is clear, then dont prolong it for too long just cut the stream of that clear visualisation. Likewise, when the visualisation is not clear, try to practice to the extent youre supposed to practice, and then cut it. The main thing here is to be consistent. So dont practice for a long time when your practice is good, and dont leave your practice when it is not good. If youre supposed to practice for 2 hours, you should practice for 2 hours.

The purpose of Vajrasattva practice is to purify and clean yourself, your mind. Why should we purify the obscuration of negative actions and emotions? In general, the main purpose of practicing dharma is to attain higher birth and liberation. Higher birth is having a long life and happiness, and being wealthy. But we dont practice dharma just to have these higher rebirths. We practice dharma to obtain liberation and enlightenment. If we accumulate the obscurations of negative actions, they will obstruct us from seeing the nature of things the nature of our mind and phenomena. We will not be able to see their nature because our mind is obscured. For those who wish for nirvana and enlightenment, or Buddhahood, the obscuration of negative actions will obstruct them from seeing the true nature. Thats why we practice Vajrasattva: to purify that obscuration.

Teaching #6 Wednesday 8th October 2008 Vajrasattva (contd.) & Mandala Offering

As part of the Vajrasattva practice, there are 4 strengths to confess negative actions and purify obscurations.

1) The first strength is remorse or regret. This is sadness and regret over the negative actions one has committed.

2) The second strength is the support. The support here is the object to which you confess. The object of confession has to be someone sublime, someone who has no obscurations themselves. If you confess your negative actions to an individual ordinary being, you wont be able to purify your negative actions completely, because if your object of confession isnt sublime, you wont be completely open. Youll hide something, thinking that the object has no clairvoyance. Thats why we need to confess in front of the 3 jewels or your teacher. For example, we do all sorts of things thinking that our teacher wont know about them. Likewise, if you confess your negative actions to an ordinary person, you wont confess completely. But if you confess to Vajrasattva, he knows everything and you cant hide anything. When you know that, you wont hide anything, so will confess everything completely and never hide anything. So we need to have the confidence that Vajrasattva is right there, and he is omniscient and knows everything.

In the Words of My Perfect Teacher, theres the story of Gonpo Ben. He went to Lhasa and saw the statue of Shakyamuni, and then he even ate the butter from the butterlamp that was offered. And then he asked the statue to take care of his shoes. And he even invited him to come to Gonpo. Why did he do that? Because he had the confidence that the statue was actually Shakyamuni Buddha himself, not just made of stone. You need to have the same kind of confidence that Vajrasattva is there. Thinking that, without hiding anything, then you need to confess your each and every negative action. If you can do the purification practice with all these visualisations, it can purify all the transgressions of the vows.

And the 100-syllable mantra is the mantra of the 100 peaceful and wrathful deities. If you do the Vajrasattva purification practice sincerely, even reciting the Vajrasattva mantra 21 times can purify the transgressions of the Vajrayana vows.

MANDALA OFFERING

The second preparation is making the place splendid or magnificent, which is the mandala offering. We make mandala offerings in order to accumulate merit, because we need merit for everything. Whatever we do, we need merit. And merit has many different names. Luck, power, and fame all these things are in essence merit. These days, people study so many things like science, and they dont accept the concept of merit. Thats being very ignorant. For example, if one person wears some clothes, they look very beautiful and elegant, but if someone else wears them, they wont look as beautiful or elegant. Theyll look ugly. Thats because of having or not having merit. If a person has merit, whatever he does will look elegant and beautiful, and whatever he eats will taste nice. For someone with no merit, itll be completely the opposite.

Theres another example from the scriptures. When Buddha Shakyamuni was alive, Buddha Shakyamuni and the monks used to go begging for alms. One day, they couldnt find a rich sponsor to feed them there was nobody to feed them and offer them lunch. So finally the Buddha found some food given to a horse. The Buddha distributed that food, shared it with all the monks. But the monks had difficulty eating that, as it was tasteless and dirty. But the monks saw Buddha eating and enjoying the food as if it was so delicious. Ananda went to Buddha and tasted the food that he was eating, and found the food extremely tasty and delicious. That was because of the immense merit the Buddha had accumulated for aeons.

Theres another example. These days we send our children to school and we spend so much money educating them. They study, do Masters, PhD, but then finally they dont get jobs, and nothing works for them. That is because of not having merit. And there are some contractors these days that cant even write the alphabet. Yet they have become so rich. Whatever they do, they accomplish. So we can actually experience merit. And so those people like scientists who say theres no such thing as merit are laughable.

Since all phenomena are dependent on each other, thats why there is merit. The word merit can be interpreted in many different ways. For example, Jigme Lingpa had a wealthy sponsor. He said to this wealthy sponsor, since you did not have merit, you have been born wealthy in this life. For dharma practitioners, the merit of wealth is an obstacle, because if you have wealth, you get lost in that wealth and cant practice dharma at all. But it is not completely certain that wealth is an obstacle. For example, King Ashoka and King Trisong Detsen spent their wealth and built many stupas and supported the teachings of the Buddha. Because of his wealth, King Trisong Detsen invited Guru Padmasambhava, Shantarakshita, and Vimalamitra, who translated the texts and established the teachings in Tibet. King Trisong Detsen built Samy temple, and likewise the dharma King Denpa Tsering of Derge made the print blocks for the kangyur. He paid the craftsmen who carved the print blocks with powdered gold. Whoever did the best work he paid more, and because of that, the print blocks were excellent, extremely well done. If wealth is spent in this way, thats considered having merit.

What kind of merit does a dharma practitioner need? A dharma practitioner needs the merit of the freedom and wealth to practice dharma. Its more difficult to hear teachings than to find the means and the harmonious support to practice the dharma. So we need merit to hear the dharma, to receive the teachings. After hearing the teachings, we need merit to understand the teachings. When we talking about understanding the dharma, it doesnt mean that you need to enter a shedra, study philosophy and debate, and understand the teachings. There are so many scholars who havent understood the dharma. They become intellectual and learned, but their devotion to the teacher and the teachings becomes less and less. I have studied in s shedra. When I talked about how I memorised the root verses and commentaries of philosophical texts to HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and HH Dudjom Rinpoche and my father, instead of praising me, they would just nod and say, Yes, yes. And my father would even scold me. But after I did retreat, and made aspirations under the bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, when I read the Bodhicharyavatara, its meaning became deeper and deeper. So, if you dont have merit you wont understand the dharma easily. If you have merit, youll understand the dharma through your experience, not just through memorisation.

For practitioners of dzogchen or mahasandhi, they dont become learned scholars by studying and debating. They realise the true nature of the mind by accumulating merit, and then their realisation bursts out. And because the teachings simply burst out, they can write. For example, Jigme Lingpa never studied apart from the second chapter of a text of poetry. He did not study other philosophy texts. If you read his writings, you would feel that there couldnt be anyone better than Jigme Lingpa and Longchenpa. You can understand philosophy if you study, but you cant understand the great perfection or dzogchen by studying or debating. You have to understand and know it through merit. In one of the dohas of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, he says that dzogchen cannot be understood by studying but only by praying to the guru. When you study, you are making or creating. Dzogchen is not about creating or fabricating. Thats why you cant understand dzogchen, the great perfection, by debating and studying, because that is fabrication and creating. You need merit to understand dzogchen, the great perfection. And for those who have merit, even if they hear teachings on turning the mind from samsara, they will hear them as dzogchen teachings.

There are so many different methods of accumulating method. In the ngndro, the method of accumulating merit is mandala offering. And when you make mandala offerings, you offer everything: Mount Sumeru, the 4 continents, offering gods and goddesses and the riches of the gods and humans. We dont know what the Eastern continent is like, as we havent been there. But we can offer the precious things which we can see, things that are special and precious to humans, like gold, silver, diamonds and so on. This is the outer mandala offering. The inner mandala offering is offering ones children, ones partner or spouse. The secret mandala offering is offering ones realisation.

Through mandala offerings, you can accumulate great merit. Je Tsong Khapa, the Illuminator of the Gelug Tradition, made lots of mandala offerings. He made offerings to the extent that there was a hole in his stone mandala plate. Because of that merit, the Gelug School is the most widespread school of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions.

When you offer, you basically need to offer everything wholeheartedly. When you are about to end the session, you dissolve the refuge tree the object of offering into yourself and remain in that state. That is the ultimate accumulation of merit. And if you are practicing Longchen Nyingtik, on top of that there is the kusuli. Kusuli is the method by which someone who is poor, who doesnt have anything, can accumulate merit by offering his or her body. When you say PHAT, you visualise that your consciousness is ejected from your body and instantly transforms into Vajrayogini. Then you cut the kapala, the skull, and you place it on a tripod. The kapala is not the usual small one here it fills the three worlds. Then cut the flesh of the body into pieces and put it into the kapala, and it transforms into the wisdom amrita, then offer it to the 3 jewels, the buddha and bodhisattvas, and the teacher, to accumulate merit. And to purify karmic debt, then offer to hungry ghosts, animals, and sentient beings in the infernal realms.

Teaching #7 Thursday 9th October 2008 (Guru Rinpoche Day) Meditation

MEDITATION

I need to explain the virtue of sadhana practice to you, because if you dont understand the sadhana, theres almost no point in practicing the sadhana. So I intend to teach you about the creation stage of meditation based on sadhana practice. The guru yoga Ive already taught you, and Im going to talk more about that. Now lets talk about meditation. Im not introducing you to the nature of your mind. It would be more beneficial for you if you receive the introduction to the nature of your mind according to ones own interest, elements, sense faculties and so on. Buddha gave many teachings, like the 84,000 teachings, and meditation is just one of them. In fact, it is not necessary for everybody to do meditation. There are 84,000 different kinds of teachings that are all different techniques to attain enlightenment. But meditation is considered the best technique to realise the nature of mind and get enlightened. So its very important and necessary to do meditation.

Acharya Vasubandhu said in the Abhidharma Kosha that after hearing and contemplating on the teachings, we should apply them through practice, and meditate on that. And when we say meditation, meditation has to be done by mind, not by body and speech. Among body, speech and mind, mind is the main thing. If theres no mind, body and speech are useless. So in order to make our mind workable, compatible, we need to do meditation. At the moment, were not able to make our mind into our servant. Were not able to make our mind work for us. Our mind has become wayward (Tib: lang shor) (like an undisciplined child). It has become out of control. Our mind has been spoiled. And not just for one or two days or years, but for countless lifetimes.

What is the fault or disadvantage of this spoilt mind? Because the mind has been spoiled, then the emotions, the delusions, like desire, anger, and ignorance arise. Because of these emotions, these delusions, we commit all kinds of negative actions like harming others, telling lies, stealing and all sorts of things. And the very root of these non-virtuous actions is letting the mind get spoiled. Because of the emotions, we create karma / action. And because of action, the cause, then we take rebirth endlessly, which is called samsara. And how can we make our mind workable or compatible? There are so many different methods, and one of the best, as Shantideva said