Texts

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Someone at a Buddhist university asked me this question about recycling a long time ago. They did exams on Buddhist philosophy and then they had a lot of paper to burn, so they asked me what to do. I think other people may have said burning the paper was kind of wasteful or not good.

The student asked if they could recycle the paper instead, but I said it’s Dharma, so you have to respect it. You can’t throw it in the garbage or use it to make other materials, such as toilet paper or something that is used on the floor and so forth. It’s a holy object, so if it is used to make other material it is not respected. It is disrespectful, but not many Westerners know this.

When you become a Buddhist, this is one of the beginning subjects in refuge. Knowing that the Dharma words are holy objects and that you have to respect them accordingly is also in the refuge vows. It seems people don’t know this. By not respecting the texts it causes pollution in your mind and it degenerates your mind. It has a great effect and it creates a lot of heavy negative karma. Therefore you can’t use holy objects to make plates or for toilet paper and so forth. That is disrespectful.

If you don’t know how a recycled object will eventually be used, then burning seems best. There’s no other choice.

Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche, the head Nyingma lama, said burning Dharma is avoiding Dharma. It’s like destroying all the temples, statues and holy objects in the world. The Lamrim Chenmo says burning Dharma is also avoiding holy Dharma, so it is like destroying all the holy objects in the world. I’ve forgotten the exact words, but I think maybe it is even heavier than what Dudjom Rinpoche said.

However, this is if you do it with the mind that is related to avoiding holy Dharma. If you have a Dharma text, but you are getting rid of it—you are giving it up, you are not having respect and you are throwing it in the fire—then that is avoiding holy Dharma, because these are the Buddha’s teachings.

In Solu Khumbu any Dharma texts with missing or torn pages are kept in caves or in small square stupas that have been built there. We put all the texts with torn or missing pages, and also old prayer flags, inside a cave or stupa, so nobody has to walk over them. Also, no rain comes there, so the texts aren’t destroyed and they are highly respected. Of course, in Solu Khumbu there are not as many Dharma texts  and not as many people. Anyway, we don’t burn them there; we do this instead.

In the West if there is no other way to keep the holy objects, then what you can do when you burn them is think that all the letters are absorbed into AH, and AH is absorbed into your heart. Then there are no letters, so it is empty paper. Then you burn the paper while reciting the Heart Sutra and thinking of emptiness.

Plastic things produce a bad smell and it’s kind of unhealthy [to burn them,] therefore if they go into recycling it’s better, as long as the items don’t have holy objects on them. This is just talking in general about plastic. As I mentioned to Yangsi Rinpoche, you still have to respect everything that has Dharma on it. Whether it’s paper or plastic, you have to respect it. That’s what I told him. He did mention recycling, as I think others might have mentioned that to him. But it was a long time ago and I don’t know what he did.

Sometimes if there are many trees around, then you can put the items high in trees in respectful ways, or in tsa tsa houses or caves and so forth.

When making offerings to Sangha in pujas, generally people offer first to the monks and then to the nuns. Actually this is probably more a Tibetan custom, as in Tibet even the lay people do this. The women also do this; they always offer to the men first.

From my side, how I think is that you could offer to each monk and nun at the same time. So you could have two people making offerings to monks and nuns at the same time, down the two rows.

Probably you have not heard, but I am not sure. Anyway, when you are making offerings, whether to lay people or Sangha, if they have received teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and if they have the same guru as you—such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama or the center geshe—think that every one of the students is the pores of your guru. If you think that as you make offerings, then you collect unbelievable merit.

You collect more merit than having made offerings to numberless buddhas, Dharma and Sangha and numberless statues, stupas and scriptures in the ten directions. You collect much more merit by thinking that they are the guru’s pores and then making the offering, even to lay people. Even giving a glass of water, a piece of fruit, a biscuit or one nut to a lay person who is a disciple of His Holiness or the center geshe, who is also your guru. By thinking that this person is the guru’s pore and then offering one biscuit or one piece of candy, you collect much more merit than having made offerings to numberless buddhas, Dharma, Sangha and numberless statues, stupas and scriptures in the ten directions.

This is not just in a puja. This refers to any time.

That’s why I say at the centers, don’t think that to collect merit you always have to offer to the monasteries. You can collect so much merit at the center, right there, by offering to the students who have the same guru as you. However many students there are, you can make offerings to them, and you will collect the same merit as having offered to numberless buddhas, Dharma, Sangha, statues, stupas and scriptures. There are so many students.

I hope you find something useful from my talk. Thank you very much for your service. Please live your life with bodhicitta in every action that you do. That is the best life.

With much love and prayers ...

This is so easy to do, to create merit. I wrote out the whole sutra before, but this took some time, while actually one can photocopy it and make many more copies very quickly. There’s so much more merit, and it is so much easier. Not to do this, but to write it instead, came from ignorance, the concept that creates the whole entire suffering of all of samsara. From that one concept, ignorance, all that suffering arises.

By writing the Prajnaparamita we create more merit than making offerings to the three great thousand world systems (trichiliocosm) completely filled with Mount Merus of stupas made of the seven types of jewels. We receive patience in the profound Dharma, emptiness, and we have no fear of meditating on emptiness, as quickly as the snap of a finger. All previous merits are small compared to this.

After writing the Prajnaparamita, if we reveal it, we collect far greater merit than if we engaged in the five paramitas for ten eons, or listened to teachings on emptiness for ten eons. If we show the teachings of the Prajnaparamita to one sentient being, we collect even greater merit. If, after writing the Prajnaparamita, we meditate on emptiness for the duration of one snap of a finger, we create far greater merit than if we revealed the teachings to others for ten eons.

The Condensed Jewel Qualities
This is in regards to making a stupa with seven types of jewels and making offerings to it. The stupa of one who has completely gone to bliss; one who has passed away into the sorrowless state, is made with seven precious jewels, so we make offerings to that.

Imagine making so many of these stupas that they are equal to the number of sand grains in the river Ganges and multiplying this by ten million, filling up all the realms, so the entire ten thousand million worlds are covered with that many stupas. Then imagine the amount of merit created if all sentient beings in all those worlds make offerings to the stupas; that they don’t do anything else in their lives but make offerings of flowers, incense and ornaments, for eons and more than eons.

If someone writes the Prajnaparamita scripture of those gone to bliss—those who have the ten powers and who lead sentient beings—and then keeps the text, offering flowers and ornaments to it, and offering service, the merit from this is beyond inconceivable. There is more merit than from having built that many stupas and from all the sentient beings in all those worlds and realms making offerings to the stupas.

The river Ganges has two meanings. In relation to bodhicitta, the river Ganges means the ocean, not the river Ganges in India. In relation to the Prajnaparamita, it may mean the river Ganges in India or the ocean. Either way, it's amazing.

Buddha said that any man or woman who makes charity of his or her body to sentient beings three times a day—in the morning, at noon and in the afternoon—as many times equaling the number of grains of sand in the river Ganges, and does this for 10 million eons, a billion times, or even 100,000 times a billion times, does not create as much merit as hearing the Diamond Cutter Sutra and not giving up faith. The merit of this is far greater than the previous action (of making charity of the body that many times.) Hearing the Diamond Cutter Sutra collects an inconceivable amount of merit.

If somebody writes down or receives, memorizes, keeps, reads or tries to understand the meaning of the Diamond Cutter Sutra or reveals it to others, there is no question about the amount of merit it creates. This means that, without doubt, we receive that much merit and we might even receive more merit than that. Before, we had faith, but now, after we've copied the sutra, memorized it, kept it, read it or revealed it to others, the merit is far greater than before.

Please Note: Go to this LYWA page for more information about Tibetan numbers.

In your mind make a strong request to Guru, Buddha and Sangha to be absorbed into the text or images. Think that they have all been absorbed into the text or image.

Recite the following: I bless this text/image in order to be protected from any obstacles, to have protection from fire, water, wind, and earth, as well as from any other distractions of the mind, protection from harm from spirits, from any sickness of the body and mind, and protection from delusions, as well as inner and outer obstacles. Also, please cause me to actualize the whole path to enlightenment, and to realize bodhicitta and the clear light immediately.

Make the following prayers: May any sentient being in the area, by purifying their negative karma, never be reborn in the lower realms, and at the time of death may they be reborn in a pure land where they achieve enlightenment or receive a perfect human rebirth, meet a perfectly qualified Mahayana Guru, and by actualizing the path achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.

All buddhas and bodhisattvas are then absorbed into the text.

Recite the mantra of dependent arising 21 times. Add these words at the beginning of the mantra: NAMO RATNATAYA, then recite the mantra 21 times. By adding the words NAMO RATNATAYA it means all the buddhas and bodhisattvas abide there.

Student’s letter

I am involved in another sutra project. Having been looking for the Mahaparanirvana Sutra when we studied Uttaratantra, I hadn't found it anywhere as a real book, just 12 scattered paperback volumes, and some of them already out of print. So, I got in contact with the copy editor of the English translation (which had originally been done by a Japanese scholar, from a Chinese Dharmaksema translation, and he told me that there was indeed no book available other than those left-over paperback volumes since, alas, he had no money to publish it any more. So, I could not keep myself from suggesting that we make a beautiful new edition of the Buddha's final discourse in improved English, hardbound, and preferably illustrated.

The sutra is considered by those who have that view a shentong text. According to me (I have read only a quarter of it so far), it seems one can effortlessly read it either way. I read it without any contradictions with the Prasangika. However, there is a rumor that in the Gelugpa school it has been somewhat banned.

I think it is a great and amazing text, Lama Tsongkhapa quotes from it in several places in the Lamrim Chenmo, and after all, it is the word of the Buddha. It has about 800 pages, and since it is already translated I think it would be a shame if it disappeared from the face of the earth due to money concerns. It will be revised throughout this year and then, hopefully, ready for print next year.

Much love again,
Jane

Rinpoche's Response

Dear Jane,
That is great news about the Paranirvana Sutra. This sutra (Sutra of the Sorrowless State) was the first sutra that I came across (in Tibetan). It is incredibly inspiring, such a great great sutra, but also has unbelievably fearful, terrifying descriptions of the hell realms.

I think it is extremely beneficial to make it available, but it depends on the quality of the translation.

I received the oral transmission of this sutra from Kyongla Rato Rinpoche. It was so wonderful.

I think you must have some interesting karma with sutras.

With much love and prayer, for all you are doing, also your help and support and great devotion to the Dharma at the Dharma center. Please continue.

Lama Zopa