9. The Path to Cessation

December 3, 1999

HOW CAN WE BE FREE FROM DELUSIONS?

The essence of Buddha’s advice is this:

Do not commit any nonvirtuous actions,
Perform only perfect virtuous actions,
Subdue your mind thoroughly—
This is the teaching of the Buddha.

This verse contains the four noble truths: the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of the suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering and the truth of the path [that leads to the cessation of suffering].

I have about twenty-five gurus, and one guru I have received many hundreds of sets of initiations and many teachings from is Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche. He is both a great scholar and a great yogi combined, having extensive understanding of the Buddhist philosophy, the Buddhist teachings, both sutra and tantra, both the words and their meanings. Besides having an extensive intellectual understanding, he has great experience of the path, the lamrim, the three principal aspects of the path, starting from guru devotion up to the highest tantra path. He has skies of experience; his holy mind is enriched not just with an extensive intellectual understanding of Buddhism but also with the experience of the path. His qualities are like the limitless sky. He is learned, pure in moral conduct and good-hearted. He is enriched with these three important qualities.

When Rinpoche mentioned this stanza, he often used to say that this contains the fundamental teachings of the Buddha, the four noble truths.

How do we make it happen? How do we make it possible to not commit any unwholesome actions and engage in perfect wholesome actions? It happens if we are able to do as the Buddha advised, to subdue our mind. It’s just a question of subduing our mind even though it may appear impossible to us, due to the present nature of our mind. How can we possibly be free from delusions? Without delusions, how can we have life? Without attachment, how can we survive? How can we breathe in and out? Breathe not from the nose but from the mouth? I’m joking!

If we examine our present state of mind, to many of us beginners it is kind of hard to believe that we can subdue the mind. For we ordinary beings, it’s hard to see life without ignorance and attachment. Without anger might be easier. Maybe for many but not everybody, for much of the time anger does not arise that often. But desire and ignorance? Such a thought might arise that to live without them is not possible.

I think I heard a few times in the past in the West, when you talk about total liberation from delusions, when you talk about the cessation of the suffering, the cause of the suffering, about life’s problems, some people cannot believe it is possible to live life without desire. They are talking from their own experience, knowing how they have lived their entire life with desire.

So, when we hear that liberation is liberation from attachment and all these delusions, that our mind separates from all this, is free from all this, it is difficult to understand. I guess that’s because the attitude so far has been attachment. The person who thinks like this is speaking according to their understanding, by looking at their life, at their state of mind so far, from the time of birth, what they can remember and recognize.

However, as I used to mention in the past, it is possible for our mental continuum to be liberated from these delusions, to be completely free forever from these delusions, to be able to cease all these delusions where all the sufferings of samsara arise from.

Even without meditation, the object used as the object of our attachment is not necessarily the object of our attachment forever. It’s the object of attachment for some time, then one day it disappears; one day it says goodbye! Even if it’s the object of attachment—a person or something—it’s not the object of our attachment forever. In life there are many examples that show it doesn’t continue all the time, even in this life, besides in the life after this.

And the object used as the object of our anger is not necessarily the object we will always have anger for. After some time, it changes even without the meditation. Then, one day it’s not the object of anger. This emotional thought arising toward the object is temporary. It changes due to causes and conditions, even without meditation.

Once we have met Buddhadharma, especially the lamrim teachings that show us how to meditate, that reveal the subject of meditation, if from our side we don’t put in the effort to meditate, that’s different. But the minute we remember the lamrim teachings, the minute we do the meditation, we can reflect on the shortcomings of samsara, how samsara is in the nature of suffering, on how the delusions are harmful to ourselves and to other sentient beings, how they obscure the mind from seeing reality and from having realizations to develop the mind in the path to enlightenment. We see how delusions keep us continuously tied to samsara, to the suffering aggregates that continuously circle from one life to another life. These delusions always bind us to samsara, to the suffering realms, like rope, like the chain that ties our body to a log that is oneness with fire, red-hot, so our body also burns like that. Delusions are like the chain that ties us to samsara, which is only in the nature of suffering.

We should especially think about impermanence and death, by thinking about the uncertainty of when death will occur, that death can happen at any moment. We should reflect on that.

The minute we meditate on the lamrim, the delusions stop. Attachment, anger, ignorance and so forth, the delusions that arise for an object, stop. While we are meditating on the lamrim, delusions do not arise. While we are meditating, the mind meditating becomes the remedy for the delusions. Even though at the beginning it is hard, by continuing it gets easier and easier to control the delusions. As time goes by, it is not only easier and easier to control them, it becomes more and more difficult for delusions to arise.

Before, the delusions were so powerful; we were overwhelmed by them. There seemed no remedy. After some time, continuing the meditation for month and years, it becomes easier and easier to control them and we find less and less delusions arising. Then, the mind is more and more in a virtuous state, with more realizations. As I mentioned, there are the five paths to liberation. After some time, we remove not only the intellectual ones, the wrong concepts, the delusions that are due to doctrines, but even the simultaneously born delusions. Even they are ceased and even the seed of delusion that causes them to arise is totally removed by the wisdom directly realizing emptiness practiced cooperatively with method.

After having ceased the seed of delusion, it is impossible for delusions to ever arise again, to produce karma, the cause of samsara. Since delusion and karma can no longer arise, it is impossible to ever experience suffering again. There is no cause to create suffering, so it becomes impossible to experience it again.

As an example, at the beginning because we don’t practice tolerance, because we don’t know the meditations, whenever an unpleasant situation occurs, we are immediately overwhelmed by anger, we are overtaken by anger, invaded by anger. Then, after having learned the meditation techniques to practice patience, for most of us, even if we know the technique where we can immediately transform the mind into patience, it is still not possible to stop anger from ever arising. However, by knowing the meditation technique, we must plan, we must have a project to continue until we accomplish our aim. We must continue with these meditation techniques that we have heard or learned, like a long-term project, using them in the situation when we can.

Then, after some years, it becomes very rare to get angry. If we get angry in a very heavy situation, it doesn’t last, but it is very rare that anger arises. In a very heavy situation, we might get angry for a second or so, but it goes away. It lasts a very short time, then it goes away. That’s how we progress as we practice month after month and year after year. After some years, we will see big differences from a few years back. These are the signs of development.

Similarly, with attachment, over time we will be able to control attachment and other delusions. Gradually we will achieve the total cessation of all the delusions, we will achieve full enlightenment, the cessation of even the subtle negative imprint of the delusions. But in the beginning it’s very difficult because the mind is so uncontrolled, so untamed. We find it very difficult to practice Dharma but as we put effort into it for months and years, practicing Dharma becomes easier and easier and easier. Then, during twenty-four hours of each day, most of what we do becomes Dharma. Maybe a quarter becomes nonvirtue, but most of it becomes Dharma, and this happens more and more.

Practicing Dharma becomes the easiest then. At the beginning, it is the most difficult thing but after some time, it becomes the easiest and not practicing Dharma becomes the most difficult thing. To not practice Dharma becomes very difficult. Whatever we do, our life is oneness with Dharma. Whatever we do is all Dharma.

When we have realizations of bodhicitta especially, then everything we do is a cause of enlightenment, even breathing in and out. Every single enjoyment, every single movement, becomes the cause to achieve enlightenment for ourselves and becomes the cause of happiness for all sentient beings. With bodhicitta, even if we are having entertainment, even if we are enjoying sense pleasures, it’s only for others; we never seek happiness for ourselves. That doesn’t arise even for one second after having the realization of bodhicitta.

GESHE JAMPA WANGDU

One of the gurus who passed away the same year as Lama Yeshe did in America was Gen Jampa Wangdu. I didn’t receive many teachings from him but he was one of the most successful meditators in India. Gen Jampa Wangdu was the best friend of Lama Yeshe and myself and we always had the best time when he came to meet us.

When he came, we heard a lot of information about the world. When I say “about the world” I don’t mean every human being in the world but just among Tibetans, the different meditators in different places who achieved realizations, what realizations they achieved and so forth. He had much information like this, mainly from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Because he was a very successful meditator, he could go to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama without any appointment, without going through secretary or anybody. He could go straight through whenever he wanted without going through other attendants. But I think also he might have known from his side the right time to go before he went there! He had clairvoyance developed through good qualities, not ordinary clairvoyance you’re born with or due to karma but developed through meditations such as shamatha and especially very high tantra realizations through the Six Yogas of Naropa.

On occasions when I was in Dharamsala and needed to talk to him about Dharma, Gen Jampa Wangdu would immediately suddenly appear in the room. And it was the same when somebody was dying in Dharamsala, having a very hard time, with much fear and seeing all kinds of terrifying karmic appearances. The person hadn’t yet gone to the hell realm but there was a sign before death, with so many terrifying karmic visions happening causing them to scream and say they were seeing all these tortures happening. Nobody would inform Gen Jampa Wangdu but he would just come down from his hermitage, from his cave, and go to see the dying person, or he would help the geshes or the lay people who were helping. He helped some famous geshes to die.

Gen Jampa Wangdu sometimes talked about his own life story in Tibet and India. It was very, very inspiring. He didn’t talk so much about his realizations, about having achieved this and that realization. He was not the type of meditator who advertised his realizations to other people. He didn’t want to talk about his achievements to other people but just wanted to stay very quiet.

From His Holiness’s office in Dharamsala, some American scientists came to do research, to experiment on meditators who have achieved particular highest tantric completion stage realizations, especially those who had realizations of tummo meditation from the Six Yogas of Naropa where they could generate heat. I guess that means something more than a normal person’s heat. The scientists had heard about this and they wanted to mainly check these things out. I don’t think it had so much to do with the realizations of the mind, just some external things they could check with machines. Some of the meditators with those high realizations accepted but Gen Jampa Wangdu did not.

When those American scientists were doing their research, Gen Jampa Wangdu sent a message to His Holiness’ private office, telling them that if they did not leave him alone, he would leave Dharamsala! (That’s not a message to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, just to the people in the office.)

I think he was among the most successful of the Tibetan meditators who escaped from Tibet to India, who actualized the basis, guru devotion, and the three principal aspects of the path and single-pointed concentration. To achieve shamatha, calm abiding, you have to proceed through the nine levels of concentration. Gen Jampa Wangdu achieved actual shamatha, which is achieved after this and the extremely refined, rapturous ecstasy of the body comes and then the extremely refined rapturous ecstasy of the mind. After all that, he achieved the actual shamatha realization, the real one.

In India, close to Dharamsala there’s a place called Dalhousie where Tibetans live. There is a tantric college, and some monks from Sera, Ganden and Drepung also live there. They are selected meditators, geshes who have finished studying very well the five major sutra texts in these large monastic study universities and who went there to meditate.

There was a very high lama who, after he completed all his studies in the monastery and got a top quality lharampa degree, left the monastery and went very, very far into the very, very high mountains to meditate in a hermitage, in a cave. He meditated for many years. Then his disciples, those who really wanted to experiment in the path, also went there. When I went there, they were scattered in the mountains, not very close, meditating like that.

This lama escaped Tibet and lived in Dalhousie, guiding a selected few. I don’t know how many but a few. Some people went there to renounce life and meditate but the lama did not accept them. Gen Jampa Wangdu was one of the meditators guided by this lama at Dalhousie. And then he moved from Dalhousie to Dharamsala. There were a few places he lived in Dharamsala.

There’s Tushita Meditation Centre. Then, on the other side, if you go that way, there’s a large building where His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s guru, His Holiness Ling Rinpoche, lived for many years. He was one of the main gurus who offered education to His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Tibet. He passed the Kalachakra initiation to His Holiness, that His Holiness has given so many times in many different parts of the world. His Holiness Ling Rinpoche passed the lineage of Kalachakra teachings to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as well as many other teachings and initiations.

Below that large building, between that and the other mountain, there’s a huge rock. Under that rock, Gen Jampa Wangdu meditated for seven years or something.

I didn’t go there but I heard he was meditating there. Behind Ling Rinpoche’s house, there was a small house where my first guru, Geshe Rabten Rinpoche, taught me the very beginning philosophical subject of debating. He was also a great scholar, a highly attained yogi who actualized the path. He had done extensive study on Madhyamaka in Tibet, the particular extensive subject on emptiness and the two truths, conventional truth and ultimate truth. I’m not sure, but maybe he studied and debated extensively, day and night for three years. I heard he debated all night. The class had debate and discussions and he debated all night. This is very intensive study.

By the time Geshe Rabten Rinpoche reached that class, he already had many disciples because of his great understanding of Dharma. Still, after that, there were so many texts to study. He had to learn Vinaya, all the monk’s rules, all the 253 vows, and the Abhidharmakosha, the two major sutra texts still left to study after Madhyamaka.

Even at that time, there was a whole schedule, a program for the monastery. There was debating in a class, and the same class studied those different texts. The classes in the monasteries were like in a university, learning the different philosophical texts, debating, hours of prayers, meditating, chanting, and then again debating individually, one person to another person. Here in Kopan it’s the same. The whole monastery’s daily schedule is like that from morning to night. The monks take teachings from teachers, and those who are also teachers have to teach other disciples.

Geshe Rabten Rinpoche used his time in the monastery when the other monks were praying to recite prayers for people who had requested it, for the sick or dying. Even if there was no request, it was part of the program according to the constitution, to have certain hours to do prayers.

There are various prayers like the Heart Sutra, the Essence of Wisdom, the Praises to the Twenty-one Taras as well as many other prayers, done in the mornings and evenings. The high lamas who founded the monasteries set into the constitution that all these prayers were to be done for those who needed them, the sick or dying or dead. These prayers are also for the monks to complete their Dharma study, to not only have intellectual understanding but also to have success gaining realizations. So, every day there were these various prayers the monks would have to do, partly for themselves, partly for others.

Geshe Rabten Rinpoche, this great meditator’s teacher, was not only my teacher but also Lama Yeshe’s and Gen Jampa Wangdu’s teacher. When the monks were doing these prayers in the hall, he used those times to meditate on the lamrim, to experiment on the path. Even before he fled Tibet to India, when he was in the Madhyamaka class, he was able to do meditation and transform himself and everything completely into his personal deity, the one he practiced the path to become. Even at that time, he was able to very clearly see himself completely as the buddha, the deity.

Geshe Rabten Rinpoche mentioned just this small piece to the great meditator, Gen Jampa Wangdu, and he told us.

Geshe Rabten was another extremely compassionate and learned, highly attained teacher. When he lived in the small house behind the house of His Holiness Ling Rinpoche, he heard of Gen Jampa Wangdu’s situation, living in the cave. I think somebody went there. It might have been Geshe Rabten’s attendant, a geshe called Pemba, who never got angry no matter whatever situation happened. He was famous for his patience, his tolerance; he had an incomparable reputation for the practice of patience. Nobody ever saw him angry or upset, no matter what awful things people told him. I think it was Geshe Pemba who went down to see Gen Jampa Wangdu, but anyway Geshe Rabten heard of his situation.

I think when his attendant went down, it was raining heavily and the whole floor of the cave was filled with water, pouring from the roof in the rock. There was just a tiny space still dry, but the rest of the cave was filled with water, completely wet. The attendant saw that Gen Jampa Wangdu was still meditating there in the cave in the dry patch. Even though Geshe Rabten Rinpoche was this meditator’s teacher, he could not bear this situation, so he himself stood up and carried things down with his attendant to the cave to dig the ground, to make the water escape.

Anyway, now you can see why he was so successful in attaining realizations! You can understand from this example.

Anyway, the point is this. I’m getting farther and farther and farther and farther from the point. Gen Jampa Wangdu told Lama Yeshe and me that for the last seven years he had never gone to anybody’s house for his own purpose. It’s not saying that he didn’t go to anybody’s house but what he said was that, since seven years before, he had never gone to anybody’s house for his own purpose. I think both Lama Yeshe and I were there when he said this. Gen Jampa Wangdu was not saying that he didn’t go to other people’s houses, but he never went for his own benefit, for his own purpose. What he was implying is that he actualized bodhicitta, that he had completely left behind the thought of seeking happiness for himself and had generated the thought of only seeking the happiness of others. He told us he had achieved the realization of bodhicitta seven years before. This is what is contained in that statement.

Ribur Rinpoche is also one of my gurus. A few years ago I took some initiations from him that I needed. I wanted to take some initiations that I could not receive from other gurus, or, when they were given, I was not there, so I took some initiations from Ribur Rinpoche.

I recently did a few days’ retreat in New York. Other people go to Nepal or India to do retreat, but I go from here to do retreat in New York. Anyway, I’m joking! I did Mitukpa, a very powerful buddha for purification, for a few days outside New York. Ribur Rinpoche had also been doing retreat a little bit outside of New York, at Richard Gere’s house, his secret house, and Rinpoche wanted me to do retreat there, so I did retreat at the same house.

In the night, I took the oral transmission of the lamrim again, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, from Rinpoche. Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand was the first lamrim teaching I received in my life, not in Tibet, in India, at Varanasi, from His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s younger tutor, His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche, who was both Lama Yeshe’s and my root guru.

Usually, traditionally, when the commentary is given, the oral transmission of the text is also given, but at that time I don’t think I did a good job. I maybe took the oral transmission in a dream. It was so many years ago. I was maybe distracted or sleeping during the teachings, sleeping and playing.

To make it better quality, so it can be better when I give the oral transmission to others, I took it from Rinpoche in the evenings. At other times Ribur Rinpoche took care of me with the very inspiring stories of many high lamas who lived in Tibet, who preserved the Dharma and were of incredible benefit to sentient beings. There were so many of their life stories, so I was taken care of with the very inspiring stories in my ear!

His Holiness the Dalai Lama requested Ribur Rinpoche to write autobiographies of different high lamas, how they practiced, how they achieved realizations, how they were of incredible benefit to other sentient beings and the teachings of the Buddha. His Holiness asked Ribur Rinpoche to collect all the information and make a book, and this is what Rinpoche did, making many books on different lamas by collecting the information from the students of that lama as well as other students. So, not only is Rinpoche’s holy mind great, not only does he have realizations, but he has many great stories of high lamas.

So anyway, I don’t know how it happened in the conversation, but although Rinpoche had done many retreats, one night he said he had never done a long-life retreat for himself. Even though, because Rinpoche was my guru and I should look at him as the Buddha, just by hearing this, that he never did a long-life meditation for himself, I was very inspired to hear that. It shows he had attained the realization of bodhicitta. In sutra and tantra, there are so many things to help ourselves. Besides eliminating the root of samsara, the cause of all suffering, there are so many things we can do to take care of ourselves, mainly meditation. Rinpoche saw I was very inspired.

Anyway, to conclude Geshe Jampa Wangdu’s life story! I think it might have been in that same cave that he realized emptiness when he was there.

When I was once taking commentary on the very special teaching on Mahamudra from Geshe Rabten Rinpoche, he mentioned three times that if I had any questions on emptiness, it was good to ask to Gen Jampa Wangdu. I don’t remember exactly what he said but it was something like this, because Gen Jampa Wangdu had fresh experience, realization. Geshe Rabten Rinpoche used to highly admire Gen Jampa Wangdu, saying how fortunate he was. Geshe Rabten used to admire this meditator who was his own disciple.

It seems he had realized emptiness, emptiness that cuts the root of samsara, all the sufferings. He had the realization down there in the cave.

He also had the realization of bodhicitta in Dharamsala, and the Six Yogas of Naropa, also I think in Dharamsala. Besides that, there’s another hermitage where he lived for some time, way up in the mountains.

When His Holiness the Dalai Lama was giving the commentary on the Six Yogas of Naropa, as we went back from His Holiness’s palace to Tushita, Gen Jampa Wangdu had tea with us and we discussed it before he went back to his own place. He was somebody who had already experienced these realizations.

When he passed away, there was a special sign that meant that he had achieved the realizations. He had great success of the Six Yogas of Naropa, and I think he had the realization of what is called the “clear light,” which is actualizing the extremely subtle mind. There’s the gross mind, the subtle mind, and the extremely subtle mind, and there’s the very high tantra realization. If you are able to achieve that realization in this life, that means you are able to become enlightened in this life. If you have the realization of the clear light, in the completion stage of highest tantra, you can become enlightened in a brief lifetime of degenerate times, within a few years.

Because the gross mind does not go to enlightenment, it has to be stopped in order to achieve enlightenment. The gross mind has to be ceased. What goes to enlightenment? What goes to enlightenment is only the very subtle mind. Only that goes to enlightenment. So, without actualizing that, we cannot achieve the two holy bodies, the rupakaya and dharmakaya.

Gen Jampa Wangdu used to express the happiness of his realization with his arms. I remember, keeping his hands like that, he said that until we achieve shamatha, calm abiding, what we call meditation is not meditation at all; it’s not real meditation. With arms like this, he kind of showed the happiness of his attainment of shamatha realization. He also talked about his feeling of the experience of the extremely refined rapturous ecstasy of shamatha.

Once in Dharamsala we were taking teachings in His Holiness’s palace on the very high tantra teaching composed by Lama Tsongkhapa called Illumination of the Hidden Meaning. It is a special text, a very extensive commentary on the Heruka path, which His Holiness the Dalai Lama was giving commentary on. During the teaching, it was raining. When Gen Jampa Wangdu was coming back from a pipi break, before entering the house he slipped on the step, which was very wet, knocking his head on the cement step of the floor. When he went inside, His Holiness blew on his head and suggested he go to hospital.

I didn’t see it but that night or after some time he told us about this. When he slipped over on the step and banged his head on the floor, whereas other people would have been in much pain, even though he was wounded, he felt so much bliss. Instead of pain, he experienced bliss, which is a sign of his realization. It shows his shamatha or his tantra realizations.

So maybe my advertisement is finished!

THE EIGHT BENEFITS OF PROSTRATIONS

I thought to maybe start with some introduction to the preliminary practices. The problem is that I may not be able to finish. [It’s best] to start whatever can be finished. There are some things in the preliminary practices that you haven’t gone through, so maybe I can start from there.

On the other hand, maybe I won’t start from there! I have been waiting to explain about prostrations for a long time, for many days! So, I think maybe I’ll discuss prostrations at this time. I think it’s probably much better than starting from the beginning of the preliminary practices, which starts with the six preparatory practices: cleaning and setting up the altar, making offerings and so forth.

With prostrations, as I normally mention, even if we just put our two palms together like this to a statue or painting of a buddha—of course, there’s no question of doing it to an actual living buddha—as soon as we do that, we immediately achieve eight important benefits.

The first one is a perfect body. We achieve a perfect body in our next lives, which means having all the organs, the senses and a beautiful body. That’s the first thing.

The second one is having perfect surrounding people. If we have perfect surrounding people, their minds are always harmonious with our mind. They always support us to practice the Dharma, to benefit and help others and so forth. They are always supportive, never against us.

The third benefit is very important. It is to be able to live in morality. Why is this so important? Without morality, there is no foundation for all the realizations of the path to achieve liberation and enlightenment.

When we meditate, how much we can concentrate depends on how much we live a pure, ethical life. Only by living purely in morality can we concentrate when we practice meditation, concentrating peacefully without obstacles.

This is especially true of shamatha. To achieve a realization of shamatha, calm abiding, depends on the foundation, on having gathered the cause, which is protecting morality well. The answer is there. If we are going to do a long retreat to achieve shamatha, which includes single-pointed concentration, whether we succeed or not depends on how much we are able to practice pure morality. This sort of becomes the answer to how much we can achieve. Whether we can achieve a realization of shamatha or not and how many years it will take, it all depends so much on this, on how much we are able to live in pure morality.

This is generally the foundation for any of the realizations of the path to enlightenment, and in particular shamatha. This also means tantra realizations, not just realizations on the sutra path.

The fourth benefit is having devotion. Doing prostrations causes us to have devotion. Devotion also becomes a very important foundation. Without devotion, there is no cause to receive the blessings of the Guru and Triple Gem. With devotion, there’s a cause to receive the blessings, so we receive the blessings. From the blessings, we receive the realizations of the path to enlightenment.

The fifth benefit is having a brave heart, courage. We have to have courage to do the hard work for the teachings of the Buddha, for sentient beings. We especially have to have courage to do things among the public. So, the fifth benefit is that we will receive supreme courage, the brave heart.

The sixth one is that we will be born in the god or human realm.

The seventh benefit is a very important one. We will achieve the arya path, the transcendental path. This does not refer to the Hindu transcendental meditation. It’s not that one. I remember I mentioned the other day the five paths: the path of merit, the path of preparation, the right-seeing path, the path of meditation and the path of no more learning. There are five paths to achieve liberation and there are five paths to achieve enlightenment.

When we achieve the third and fourth of these paths, the right-seeing path and the path of meditation, starting from there is the arya path because with the right-seeing path we attain the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness. Having that realization, we transcend being a lower, ordinary being into an arya being. Before that, our wisdom saw emptiness but not directly, but on the third path we transcend being an ordinary being by directly perceiving emptiness, which actually ceases the delusions.

So, this seventh benefit of putting our palms to a statue or painting of a buddha, prostrating like that, is that it causes us to achieve the arya path. When we achieve this third Mahayana path, the right-seeing path, we are totally free from the suffering cycle of death and rebirth and old age and sicknesses. We are totally free from these sufferings of samsara.

By achieving the third path, we have overcome the death, we are free from death, therefore this seventh benefit is very important. By prostrating like this to a statue or a painting of a buddha, not even an actual buddha, we gain the seventh benefit, achieving the arya path where we can overcome death. No more death means no more rebirth or any of the other sufferings.

Then the last benefit, the eighth one, is enlightenment.

In the sutra explaining the different aspects of karma, the Buddha explained the details of karma to Brahmin Chu Nan Tsü, how things happened. As the Buddha’s omniscient mind sees the causes of things very clearly, it is written down in this sutra.⁵ In it ten benefits of prostrating are explained, just putting our palms together simply like that to [a stupa, statue] or painting of a buddha, to a holy object.

We achieve birth in the king’s family; we achieve extensive wealth, we achieve extensive listening to Dharma, we achieve extensive concentration, we achieve extensive form, as I mentioned before, a beautiful body with all the sense organs. We achieve extensive surrounding people, such as servants, helpers. We are also able to make and receive extensive offerings. The main emphasis here is receiving extensive offerings, then extensive devotion, extensive remembrance, mindfulness, extensive wisdom, extensive realizations, which includes liberation and full enlightenment. Like that, there are about ten benefits of simply putting our two palms together like this.

PROSTRATING TO HOLY OBJECTS

The reason there is so much benefit prostrating to even one statue or a painting of a buddha is because of the power of the Buddha. The Buddha has completed the two types of merit: the merit of wisdom and the merit of virtue. He has ceased all the defilements and completed all the realizations.

The Buddha has inconceivable qualities, so simply putting our palms together, prostrating to even a statue or painting of a buddha has so much effect in our life, now and in the future, in all the hundreds and thousands of lifetimes. It causes us to achieve all the realizations; it causes us to achieve liberation and enlightenment. We cannot achieve liberation and enlightenment without a cause. It doesn’t happen without realizations of the path, so this simple action causes us to achieve liberation and enlightenment through achieving all the realizations of the path to enlightenment. Because of the Buddha’s infinite qualities, if we simply put our palms together and prostrate, we immediately achieve all this.

Normally, I advise that when we go on pilgrimage and see temples, there are many, many statues, there are many, many paintings of buddhas. In one temple there are so many paintings of buddhas on the walls, especially in Tibetan temples but also in Chinese ones. In Chinese temples there are so many small buddhas, all filling the walls. Tibetan temples are especially full of paintings of buddhas. If there are a thousand on one wall, simply by prostrating, that means right in that second we create these eight or ten benefits a thousand times. In that second, we achieve these eight or ten benefits a thousand times with those thousand buddhas.

However many statues or paintings there are in the temple, we think that we are prostrating to them all, and in those few minutes, we create that many causes of enlightenment. If there are a thousand, we create a thousand causes of enlightenment just by putting our palms together. Immediately, in that second, we create a thousand causes of enlightenment, as well as liberation from samsara.

Not only that, we create a thousand causes to have a good rebirth in our next lives. Because karma is expandable, putting our palms together to a buddha’s statue or painting, we don’t just create the cause to attain one good rebirth but hundreds of thousands of lifetimes of good rebirths, to be reborn in the human or god realms hundreds of thousands of times. So, even in one prayer hall at a temple, where there are so many statues and paintings, within that few minutes, without talking about the benefits of actually prostrating on the floor, just putting our palms together like this creates immense, unbelievable, extensive merit.

And it’s similar when we are outside in those holy places where there are so many stupas. Rather than keeping our hands at our sides like a tourist, we can make our precious human body useful.

I often think of the parents, how they suffered so much for us. Our mother suffered so much to give birth to us and even after birth, for so many years, she bore so many hardships for us, suffering day and night, never having a peaceful sleep, crying, making herself dirty constantly. Our parents, our father and mother, suffered so much, besides giving us this body, sacrificing their lives to take care of us, protecting our life from the hundreds of dangers of everyday life, giving us an education. For so many years they bore so many hardships for our well-being, for our happiness.

After all that, if we don’t make our life beneficial, if we don’t make our body, speech and mind beneficial, useful, then we are born only to torture our parents, only to harm other sentient beings. We are there to be a burden for our parents and for other sentient beings.

In everyday life we should make our body, speech and mind as useful as possible, using every opportunity to make it useful, to create good karma, to create merit. Of course, creating the cause of enlightenment is the best because that’s the most benefit for other sentient beings, as well as liberation and all those good rebirths. Then we can meditate on the path in the future lives to benefit other sentient beings.

Therefore, while we are going to see monasteries and temples, seeing holy objects, statues and painting of buddhas, while we are at holy places where there are many stupas, if we don’t put our hands like this, we lose the chance to make so much merit. If we were to lose a hundred dollars, we would panic; we wouldn’t be able to stand it. But that’s nothing. Even a million dollars is nothing, even a billion dollars is nothing.

As I explained the other day, losing a billion dollars is nothing, even a trillion dollars. That much wealth might bring a small benefit, but when we offer a mandala, we visualize the whole entire universe, everything, so when we offer to the merit field, these trillion dollars is just a small benefit compared to offering a mandala. To become a millionaire or billionaire in the West needs a small amount of merit. That is part of the benefit of offering a mandala, just a small part of that benefit. It doesn’t need the whole merit we collect from offering a mandala.

It’s the same thing with prostrating. The kind of wealth of a billionaire or millionaire is a small part of that. It’s not the whole merit, it’s a small part of that unimaginable merit that we collect by doing one prostration on the floor.

Therefore, however many stupas and statues there are, even if there is only one holy object where we can put our palms together, we immediately create the cause to achieve these eight or ten benefits, which include enlightenment.

As I explained before, if we have the opportunity but we don’t take it, it’s a much greater loss than losing a million, billion or trillion dollars. Similarly, if there’s the opportunity to create the cause of enlightenment but we don’t take it, or even the opportunity to create the cause of liberation, which is of great benefit but less than enlightenment, or if we have the opportunity to have a good rebirth in so many lifetimes by putting our palms together, but we didn’t do it, we lose all that. We miss out on all these benefits, which is a much greater loss than losing a million, billion or trillion dollars.

THE BENEFITS OF HAVING HOLY OBJECTS AT HOME

Because of that, it’s very good to have many, many holy objects in our home. So, here comes the advertisement! Anyway, I’m not joking.

[We should have many holy objects] unless there are other people living in our home and there would be a problem, because they don’t understand what we are doing and they get upset, or because they have a different religion or something. Then, maybe that’s different. However, if there is no such problem, especially if we have a big house, then it’s a waste of money if we don’t use it for many holy objects. We waste having spent all that much money to buy the house when we don’t use it to collect virtue or to benefit other sentient beings.

Because of the unbelievable merit of just putting our palms together like this, it’s very good to have many, many holy objects even outside the house but especially inside the house, although maybe having them in the toilet and bathroom is not appropriate. Maybe it’s not so comfortable!

If we have many pictures or statues, either of buddhas or gurus, like His Holiness the Dalai Lama and those great masters, if possible every day, as much as possible, each time we enter a room where there are holy objects, we should do like this. [Rinpoche shows students by putting his palms together] If it is not possible to do it each time, we should at least do it a few times a day. With all the holy objects we have placed in our own home, we should put our palms together and prostrate as we enter a room.

Because of the kindness of the buddhas, because of their compassion to us sentient beings, they have manifested for us in these holy objects, these statues or paintings. At the moment our mind is totally obscured, impure; we cannot see the actual Buddha to do prostrations. Therefore, the Buddha is so kind. Because of his compassion, he never gives up on us sentient beings, no matter how deluded we are, how difficult we are, how stubborn or thickskulled, how unable to practice. Because of his compassion, because he never gives up on us sentient beings, he manifests in these holy objects. These holy objects exist in order for us to purify all the obstacles, the defilements, and to collect merit. In that way, they make it possible for us to have realizations of the path to enlightenment; they guide us in the path to full enlightenment. They exist for this purpose, to liberate us from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and its causes and to bring us to enlightenment.

How does this happen? By seeing them, by using them to prostrate, to make offerings, to circumambulate, by using them in this way, we collect inconceivable merit each time we do this.

Even if there is no monastery in our country, if there are no pilgrimage places to go to, to make offerings at or circumambulate, we can make a holy place in our own home with all these holy objects, and then we can do all the practices to purify and collect merit, to achieve enlightenment.

Also, for example, when we look at the books of buddhas, such as the many art books with photos of statues and paintings of buddhas, each time we turn a page, if we put our palms like this and rejoice in their qualities or the infinite benefits that they brought to sentient beings, we should say this prayer as we see their pictures, “May I be able to benefit sentient beings like the sky just as you did, by having the same qualities within me as you have.”

Putting our palms together and praying like that, by the time we finish going through the art book, however many buddhas there are in the book, we create thousands and thousands and thousands of causes of enlightenment. The causes of liberation, a good rebirth and all these realizations are collected many hundreds of thousands of times.

In that way, we take the essence of our life. We use every single picture of a buddha that we see to achieve a good rebirth, to achieve all the realizations of the path to enlightenment, to achieve liberation and enlightenment in order to benefit and enlighten numberless other sentient beings. We use every picture of a buddha we see.

This is making pilgrimage in a book! A pilgrimage means to purify the negative karma and to collect merit in order to have realizations. That’s the purpose of pilgrimage. So, it’s the same here.

Maybe I’ll stop there.

In America, in the Aptos house, besides the ceiling in my own room which is left empty, it’s completely covered by thangkas and holy objects, except the floor and the ceiling where there are no buddhas. [In this room,] but not right on the carpet, there’s a table where there are many relics of past buddhas and relics of many yogis from recent times and especially from ancient India. Many highly enlightened beings, yogis, have relics. And I don’t know how many pictures of buddhas there are, probably many thousands. There can be many thousands of buddhas in one photo. [The holy objects are] surrounded by light offerings and water offerings, and there is a place to circumambulate in the room. I think what’s left empty is the ceiling and the floor.

If it’s a private room that people don’t have to come in, you can put mandalas of the deities [on the ceiling], because each time we see the mandala of the deity, as it is mentioned in Manjugosha root text, it has the power to purify the five very heavy uninterrupted negative karmas: killing the father and mother of this life, killing an arhat, causing the blood of a buddha to flow and causing disunity among the groups of Sangha. These five uninterrupted negative karmas are so heavy that after death we immediately go to the unbearable suffering of the heaviest hell realm. Among the hell realms, the heaviest suffering of the hell realm is the eighth hot hell.

Just by seeing the painting of a mandala or a sand mandala these [five uninterrupted negative karmas] are purified, as well as the ten nonvirtuous actions. This is mentioned in the Manjugosha root tantra text. There are also quotations in other texts that say how powerful it is to purify the mind, although I don’t remember the verses right now.

If other people haven’t received a tantric initiation or don’t have faith in these holy objects, it’s maybe better not to see them. Otherwise, we can have many mandalas of the deities, and every time we see them, it purifies and leaves a positive imprint. They only leave a positive imprint, not like TV or magazines!

What I wanted to mention was not that, but anyway I mentioned it already. The other thing is that there’s a room just for offerings, completely filled with pictures of buddhas and tsa tsas. The tsa tsas were not made by me but by other people, by other students.

A nun who was abbess of a Chinese nunnery in America, Thubten Munsel, received a commitment from me to make 200,000 or 300,000 tsa tsas, I’m not sure. She finished them and she is now in retreat at Vajrapani. I think it’s mostly her tsa tsas filling the room. And there are about four or five hundred water bowls, many of them very big. There are no tiny water bowls there, only big and very big ones. Right now they’re fixing the house, so probably the offering room is not there. There are offerings completely around the table, in the center, and there are stupas with offerings around. When I take people on a guided tour, I give them incense in their hands to put their palms together with the two lighted incense sticks. Then, I make them first generate a bodhicitta motivation, by thinking, “The purpose of my life is to free all sentient beings from their suffering and bring them to enlightenment, therefore I must achieve enlightenment, therefore I’m going to make offerings and prostrations.”

Then, inside the room there are many stupas and tsa tsas. The people look at all the buddhas and make offerings all the way round. So, I guide them around like this, making them look at all the buddhas and think, “I’m prostrating and making offerings,” but not just thinking about the buddhas and holy objects but, with the meditation on guru yoga, seeing they are all manifestations of the guru. From the person’s side, they meditate like that, with the mindfulness that all these are the guru.

As I often say, giving a biscuit or a chocolate or a glass of water to even a disciple of the same guru, by remembering in your mind that this is the guru, the merit you collect is unimaginable, much more merit than making offerings to all the ten directions’ Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and all the ten directions’ statues, stupas, scriptures, thangkas. Making offerings to all of them, who are numberless, and making offerings to one of the guru’s pores—the guru’s pores means the guru’s disciples and even the guru’s animals, the dogs, cats or horses, and the guru’s friends, those in the guru’s neighborhood and if the guru is a layperson, the guru’s spouse and children—if you offer to just one of the guru’s pores you create far greater merit than having made offerings to all the ten directions’ Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and all the statues, stupas, scriptures. When you compare all those merits to giving a small piece of biscuit to a dog that belongs to your guru, by thinking of the guru and how this is one of the guru’s pores, the merit is far greater; all those other merits are much smaller.

Therefore, if you actually make offering to the guru, there is no question how much more merit you collect than making merit by any other means. So I tell the visitors they should make the offerings with mindfulness, with the mind of guru yoga, making the prostration, offering the incense while thinking from their side that they are making offerings and prostrating [to the guru]. If they continuously think like this as they go around, by the time one circumambulation is finished, many thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of causes of enlightenment have been created. By prostrating and offering incense, it also becomes circumambulation to all those holy objects that are in the center. So, three practices are done.

This is so much more profitable than anything else! Especially, life is very short and death can happen at any moment, therefore it’s very important to be ambitious and use every single possible opportunity to collect merit, to create the cause of good rebirth, liberation and enlightenment, to gain all the realizations. However much you can create in every moment is excellent. Being ambitious for samsaric pleasures is no good; being ambitious for realizations, for liberation, for enlightenment is good. Being ambitious for merit is very useful.

When we go to see holy objects, such as in these holy places, Swayambhunath or Boudhanath Stupa, where there are many holy objects in the monasteries there, if we can do like this, as I explained, this makes life most meaningful.

The other part of the explanation about prostrations, maybe I’ll do that tomorrow or maybe tonight, when we do the Mickey Mouse dance!

WE NEED ALL THREE OBJECTS OF REFUGE TO BE FREE FROM SAMSARA

You have already gone through refuge during the course, and I have also already gone over samsara, with all the sufferings. From the lamrim subjects, I have gone over all the lower realm sufferings and all the samsaric sufferings, all the delusions and so forth. That’s the reason to take refuge, because we don’t want to experience them, we don’t want to suffer again and again, we want to be completely liberated from all this, from delusion and karma. That’s a reason to take refuge.

To just not be born in the lower realms, we don’t need to take refuge in all three, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. If we just take refuge in the Buddha, if we remember the Buddha at the time of death, we won’t be reborn in the lower realms. If we can remember the prayer at the time of death, like in our prayer book, our meditation prayer book, such as the Essence of Wisdom or a lamrim prayer, if we can remember the meditation from the lamrim text at the time of death, we won’t be reborn in the lower realms. Even if we remember a buddha’s name or a mantra at the time of death, we won’t be reborn in the lower realms.

When we are dying, if we die with the thought of seeing an ordained person we have devotion for, not necessarily the guru but just a member of the Sangha we have devotion for, if we can die with that thought, we won’t be reborn in the lower realms.

So, just to protect ourselves from reincarnating in the lower realms, we don’t need to take refuge in all three, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. But to be free from the entire suffering of samsara including the cause, delusion and karma, for that we need to rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Dharma is the actual refuge, but just as a sick patient has to rely on the doctor, the nurse and the medicine, all three, we need to rely on all Three Jewels. To be free from all the oceans of sufferings, from delusions and karma, we need to rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Just relying on one, only the Dharma or only the Sangha or only the Buddha, we cannot be liberated from the entire suffering of samsara and all the causes, delusions and karma.

Therefore, I usually mention that when we are dying, if we think of all the scientific knowledge that we have acquired, how does it help at that time? What benefit does it have when we are dying? At the time of death, it cannot purify our negative karma and protect us from the lower realms. It cannot stop us being reborn in lower realms or help us have good rebirth when we are dying, the most critical time of our life.

But, when we are dying, if we can simply remember even the name of a buddha or the mantra of a buddha, or even a Dharma text, if we can simply remember that, [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] or if we can simply remember a member of the Sangha, an ordained person we have devotion for, if we die with that thought, we will not be reborn in the lower realms. Even one object of refuge protects us from the unimaginable suffering realms, from a lower realm rebirth.

Normally I introduce the subject of refuge, saying how powerful refuge is, how important it is, how we need it in life and how beneficial it is at the most dangerous, most critical time of life. I don’t need to say much here because you have already gone through all this, through all the meditations and teachings in quite some detail this time. You have already received the explanation.

Therefore, those who are taking refuge now, it is important to understand how you must rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha to get out of samsara, for your own happiness. Of course, there is no doubt it is the most urgent emergency, it is needed immediately.

However, the reason to take refuge doesn’t finish here. As I explained the other day, numberless other sentient beings are suffering like we are in samsara. There are numberless other sentient beings in samsara experiencing the oceans of sufferings of samsara, and they want happiness and do not want suffering, like us. Therefore, it is our responsibility, our job, to free the numberless other sentient beings from all the suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment. That is the universal responsibility we have.

To do that, we need to achieve enlightenment ourselves. And that is all based on taking refuge. Therefore, we are going to take refuge in the Buddha, the founder of the actual refuge, in the Dharma, the actual refuge, like useful medicine, and the Sangha, those who help us actualize refuge. That is the motivation for those who are taking refuge.

First, meditate on this.

[Long pause]

THE IMPORTANCE OF VOWS

I already explained the other day about the importance of practicing morality, of taking precepts, so when we take refuge in the Dharma, there are two things: one is what is to be abandoned and the other is what is to be practiced.

What is to be abandoned is giving harm to others. In regards to giving harm to others, there are so many different types of actions that harm others. Usually, killing is regarded as the heaviest, most frightening. Of course, that’s not same for everybody. For some, speaking harshly is more painful than being killed, but mostly killing is the most frightening, I think. Therefore, I usually advise that if you are taking refuge, because you have to abandon giving harm to others by taking refuge in the Dharma as part of the precepts, it’s good to at least take the vow of not intentionally killing. Even if you don’t take the other vows, at least take the vow not to intentionally kill.

Without knowing you are killing something, it can happen. You can inadvertently step on a worm or something like that without knowing, but the vow is to stop intentionally killing, to live in that vow. Normally I emphasize that.

Of course, if it is difficult for somebody to take and keep this precept to not kill, and if not telling lies is easier, you can take that, or one or more of the other vows from the five lay vows, such as not taking alcohol. If you are unable to take the others, then you can take this vow. Normally I explain it like that.

However, as I mentioned one night, you should know that by creating one complete negative karma, whether it’s sexual misconduct or killing or whatever it is, when the negative karma is complete, there are four suffering results. The ripening aspect result is rebirth in a lower realm, as a hell being, a hungry ghost or an animal. Then, experiencing the result similar to the cause is that the harm you gave others you experience in this life when you are born a human being. Others treat you the same as you treated them in the past. And creating the result similar to the cause, again when you are reborn as a human being, you repeat the same negative karma again and again.

So, again, with creating the result similar to the cause, when you commit this the next time you are born as a human being, that again produces the four suffering results, which means creating the result similar to the cause again, and again that produces the four suffering results. This goes on and on like that, meaning there is no end to the suffering of samsara, no end to creating negative karma.

When you meditate on how by creating one complete negative karma, you have to experience the suffering result again and again without end in the future lives, you can understand how important it is to not commit even that one negative karma. If you don’t do that one negative karma this time, what happens is that you stop experiencing the four suffering results, not just once but you stop what would happen again and again without end. By stopping this one negative karma, this one day, like today, you don’t need to experience all these four suffering results that go on and on from life to life without end.

When you think of this, you can see how urgent it is, how it is so unbelievably important to practice morality, to take vows. Even if it’s just one vow, it’s so important. You need to take and keep that vow in this life right now, because death can happen at any moment. You need to start creating the cause, to stop the cause of suffering right now. Right now you need to make the preparation.

Now you have to understand, by living in morality, by abstaining from sexual misconduct or killing, whatever, from that good karma, you have the four happy results. You have to understand it’s the other way round. You experience the four happy results, the four happinesses.

The ripening result is rebirth in a god or human realm. Then, you experience the other three happinesses in that life. Creating the result similar to the cause means you again create good karma, abstaining from killing or sexual misconduct, whatever, and so you experience the four happy results on and on. You achieve the four happy results again and again for so many lifetimes.

Even in this life, even taking one precept today, it gives happiness in all your coming future lives, then liberation and then enlightenment.

If you analyze like this, you can understand how it is important not just for ordained people, those living in ordination, but even for the lay people to live in lay vows, how it is the key thing for happiness for you and for all other living beings.

THE REFUGE CEREMONY

So now, make three prostrations to the Buddha by thinking of the actual living Buddha.

[Rinpoche gives the refuge ceremony and the five lay vows]

As I mentioned before, how many vows you take, this is your most practical contribution for world peace. Otherwise, when you just talk about peace, it’s just words. From your side, try to dedicate your life to not harming others, make the vow that in such and such a way you will not harm others. That includes not harming yourself.

Harming yourself is also indirectly harming others. For example, if you commit suicide, you stop benefiting others. You destroy this human body which has so many opportunities, which has the capacity to help others. You stop that, so that indirectly harms others.

So, I’ll emphasize again that taking precepts is the most practical contribution to world peace. Now here tonight, for each of you taking refuge, especially if you also take precepts, it’s related to world peace. There is always the possibility of others receiving harm from you, but then, by living in the vows, all people, all sentient beings, all human beings, animals and so forth, those who are around you no longer receive harm from you. How many vows you take, they no longer receive that many harms. What they are receiving from you is peace and happiness.

Therefore, you must rejoice! You must feel happy that you are doing something for the world, not only for the peace of this world, but you are doing something for the peace and happiness of all sentient beings.

[Rinpoche continues the refuge ceremony]

Now the ceremony is completed. Make three prostrations to the Lama you took refuge from. 

There’s a request to give the Mickey Mouse name mantra! The mantra that contains my name. So, please sit down for just a short time.

This is like the example of the mother who was longing very much for a relic of the Buddha. She asked her son to bring her a relic, but her son forgot. So, on the way home, he picked up a dog’s bone and gave that to his mother saying it was a relic of the Buddha.

Even though it was a dog’s bone and not the Buddha’s relic, the mother really sincerely believed it was. She was devoted to it and worshipped it. And after some time she actually got the relic of the Buddha—actual pills—from the dog’s bone. Pills, Buddha’s white relic pills, actually manifested from the dog’s bone. That happened because of her devotion, thinking that the dog’s bone was the actual Buddha’s bone, the Buddha’s relic. From that strong devotion, the pills manifested. The actual cause of that Buddha’s relic was her devotion and she received the benefit of having a Buddha relic due to her devotion. The condition was the dog’s bone, but she received the Buddha’s relic due to her devotion.

This is similar. I’m not saying I’m the Buddha, but from the Lama’s side, even if they are not the Buddha, from the disciple’s side, by practicing guru yoga, looking at them as the Buddha and seeing them as the Buddha, from that devotion the disciple receives blessings, and then from the blessings they receive realizations of the whole path to enlightenment.

Then of course, you can enlighten all sentient beings. That’s the ultimate aim of doing the guru yoga practice, to be able to enlighten all sentient beings.

For that, you need to achieve enlightenment, and for that, you need to achieve all the realizations of the path. For that, you need the cause; you need to receive the Guru’s blessing, and the cause of the blessing is guru devotion, which is your own mind and your own heart.

So, the purpose of giving my name mantra is for that.

Think, “The purpose of my life is to free all sentient beings from all the suffering and bring them to enlightenment. Therefore, I must achieve enlightenment. Therefore, I’m going to take an oral transmission of the Guru’s mantra.”

OM AH GURU VAJRADHARA MUNI SHASANA KSHANTI SARVA SIDDHI HUM HUM

For the meditation, from your own side with a mind of guru yoga, meditate that the Lama and Shakyamuni Buddha are oneness with that guru yoga mind. Then, dedicate the merits.

“Due to all the past, present, future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by buddhas, bodhisattvas and all sentient beings, may the I, that is empty, achieve all the merit, that is empty—my merits and all others’ merits are empty—and may I, that is empty, achieve enlightenment, that is also empty from its own side, and lead all sentient beings, who are empty from their own side, to that enlightenment, that is also empty from its own side, by myself alone, that is also empty from its own side.”

Dedicate it for bodhicitta, as I often mention.

Jang chhub …

This particular dedication is for morality to be complete, to be able to practice it.

“Due to all the three-time merits collected by me, by the buddhas, bodhisattvas and all the other sentient beings, may I myself, all my family members, all the students and benefactors of this organization and all the sentient beings be able to complete the perfection of morality by keeping it without mistakes, without pride, and by keeping it pure.”

Dedicate to practice pure morality like this in all the future lifetimes.

And then dedicate, “I dedicate all my merits to be able to follow the great holy deeds of the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra, Manjugosha, Ksitigarbha and so forth. I dedicate all my merits in the way that the three-time buddhas and bodhisattvas admire the most.”

So this is a very important dedication. In this way we dedicate all the merits [in the same way] as all the bodhisattvas, so according to Samantabhadra’s extensive prayer called the King of Prayers, that includes the thousand prayers of bodhisattvas.

And please dedicate the merits to be able to actualize the complete teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa, to completely actualize this without delay of even a second in this very lifetime.

“Like Lama Tsongkhapa, may I be able to offer extensive benefits equaling the limitless sky to all sentient beings and the teachings of Buddha, from now on in all future lives, by having all the qualities of Lama Tsongkhapa within me.

“Because of all the merits of the three times created by me and all the buddhas, bodhisattvas, and other sentient beings, may there be no wars, famines, disease, quarreling, fighting, or unhappy minds. May there be great prosperity and may everything needed be easily obtained. May all the human beings in the world be guided by spiritual leaders teaching only Dharma and may everyone enjoy the happiness of Dharma.”

What it’s saying is may all the problems not happen; may we not have to experience them.

[Rinpoche chants in Tibetan]

Then, there is the mantra to multiply a hundred thousand times the merits that we collected now and today. Each one increases a hundred million times. It is said a hundred thousand times, not one hundred million. I think that’s too ambitious! You can recite together, follow my reciting, then your merit increases a hundred thousand times.

[Mantras for increasing merit]

Now the Buddha’s name, which has the power to bring all the success, whatever prayer you have done. It also increases each merit a hundred thousand times.

[The mantra for increasing merit]

“Due to the power of the blessings of the eminent buddhas and bodhisattvas, the power of infallible dependent arising, and the power of my pure special attitude, may all my pure prayers succeed immediately.”

[Rinpoche chants in Tibetan]

These are malas to count how many times you get angry! What? Roger says he needs a long mala. There are a few different ways you can use this. You keep it like this when you do prostrations.

If you are mainly counting the Thirty-five Buddhas prayer, you don’t count prostrations. From the beginning to end, when you recite each one once, that is one set. Then you pass one bead. You count mainly the number of names, reciting from the beginning to the last one. When you prostrate you count like that. Or you can count the actual prostrations rather than the names.

The other thing is, when you offer the short mandala, after you finish each one you pass one bead. That way makes it easy.

There are other practices for counting, where you need to repeat many times, like making offerings and so forth. You can count like this. [Rinpoche demonstrates] While you’re doing prostrations or making offerings, you can count the number of offerings.

I think that’s it.

[Rinpoche hands out the malas to the students]

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Notes

⁵ Rinpoche may be referring to The Exposition of Karma (Skt: Karmavibhanga), stanza 1.160. In this sutra the Buddha presents a discourse on the workings of karma to a brahmin youth. See 84000.co, a resource for translations of canonical Buddhist texts. [Return to text]