Yesterday I mentioned three titles: Vajrayana, or vajra vehicle; vehicle of the method; and vehicle of the result.

It is useful to understand the meaning of vehicle of the result because it describes the basic practices of secret mantra. Result refers to the state of enlightenment. Why is it called vehicle of the result? Meditating on aspects similar to the four complete purities of the state of enlightenment enables you to achieve the resultant state of enlightenment, which is qualified by four complete purities. The four complete purities are complete purity of body, complete purity of place, complete purity of enjoyments, and complete purity of actions. They refer to the complete purity of the holy body, the holy field, the holy enjoyments, and the holy actions.

So, how should you meditate on this in order to achieve the state of enlightenment qualified by the four complete purities? The way to completely purify the place is by visualizing it as the mandala, or pure realm, of the deity. You don’t allow the ordinary, impure view of the place, a house made our of wood and stone as we see here now, to appear.

Those who have received a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation and meditate on the path of that deity, can understand this. In the practice of secret mantra you always have to transform the place. You have to stop the appearance of an impure place and visualize it in the form of a pure realm or the mandala of the deity.

The way to completely purify your body is to visualize yourself in the aspect of the holy body of the deity.

The way to completely purify the enjoyments, such as material possessions, is to transform them into the form of offerings.

The way to completely purify your actions is to meditate on them in the aspect of the holy actions of a buddha.

In the Paramitayana there is no method for meditating on yourself as a deity. The Paramitayana way of achieving the rupakaya, the holy body of form, which is adorned with the thirty-two holy signs and eighty exemplifications (each holy sign signifies a realization achieved by buddha and each exemplification describes the causes created in past lives when Buddha was a bodhisattva following the path), is through various practices such as accompanying the guru when he departs, going from your place to this place to accompany him when he comes back, receiving the guru and making prostrations to him at that time. Various practices are explained by Maitreya Buddha in Abhisamayalamkara, which explains in detail all the Paramitayana methods to achieve the rupakaya and each of the causes to achieve each of the holy signs and exemplifications of a buddha.

In many lifetimes you practice these methods and create those causes, then when you achieve the bodhisattva’s level, you achieve a body with signs and exemplifications that are similar to those of the rupakaya. They are not the actual final signs and exemplifications, but they are similar to them. Even after you have achieved such a holy body by achieving the bodhisattva’s bhumi, of which there are ten, you again have to collect good karma for many eons. The signs and exemplifications of a bodhisattva become more and more pure as the bodhisattva collects more and more good karma.

When the subtle obscurations to the objects of knowledge are completely purified, his body becomes the holy body of a buddha, and at that time the signs and exemplifications become the real holy signs and exemplifications of a buddha. This is the way that the rupakaya is achieved through following the Paramitayana.

In secret mantra, the way of achieving the rupakaya is by visualizing now the rupakaya qualified by perfect pure holy signs and exemplifications that you will achieve in the future. You visualize now as if you had already become that future buddha. You visualize your own body in the aspect of the deity you want to achieve in the future. That itself is the path to the rupakaya, the holy body of the deity. In relation to Avalokiteshvara, you transform yourself into the aspect of Avalokiteshvara, which is what you will achieve in the future. What prevents you from achieving Avalokiteshvara’s enlightenment and from seeing yourself in the aspect of Avalokiteshvara is the ordinary, impure vision of yourself as an ordinary person with an ordinary body. As you continuously practice transforming yourself into the aspect of Avalokiteshvara, you purify the impure vision that sees an ordinary person with an ordinary body. That is how meditating on yourself in the aspect of Avalokiteshvara, similar to the aspect of the future Avalokiteshvara that you are going to achieve makes it possible for you to actually become Avalokiteshvara with that aspect.

In the Paramitayana, through creating those various causes and by also meditating on shunyata, you then achieve the rupakaya. In the Paramitayana you collect those different causes many times for many lifetimes, and after you become a higher bodhisattva, you again create much good karma for many eons. By meditating on shunyata, you then achieve the rupakaya.

In the Mantrayana, you meditate on a path in which you visualize yourself as similar to your future rupakaya. You also meditate cooperatively on shunyata. Transforming yourself into the deity is one side of the practice, like one wing of a bird; meditating on shunyata is the other wing. When a bird flies it depends on both wings. So, in secret mantra, by meditating on the path, you transform yourself into the aspect of the rupakaya, similar to the future rupakaya you are going to achieve, and then cooperatively meditate on shunyata.

This practice becomes the cause of achieving the rupakaya. In this way, without needing to collect merit by following the path for three countless great eons, you can achieve enlightenment in one lifetime. This gives you the general idea of how you can achieve enlightenment in one lifetime, without needing to follow the path and collect merit for three countless great eons as in the Paramitayana. That is why it’s very important to do the practice of transforming yourself into the pure form of the deity, the aspect of a buddha.

Then, how do you achieve the completely pure holy place, the mandala, which is an aspect of the transcendental wisdom of that deity? Even now, you have to stop your impure view of the place, as you now see it, and meditate on it in the aspect of the mandala, which is similar to the actual mandala, the nature of which is the transcendental wisdom of the deity, you are going to achieve in the future.

In a similar way, you achieve the completely pure enjoyments that a buddha experiences, that appears to a buddha’s transcendental wisdom. What makes it possible for you to achieve these is, even now, stopping your impure view of ordinary material enjoyments and meditating on your material possessions as being the completely pure offerings that appear to a buddha’s holy senses.

Also, what makes it possible for you to achieve the completely pure actions of a buddha is even now stopping your impure view of ordinary actions and meditating that any actions you do are the holy actions of a buddha, the buddha you are going to achieve in the future. The holy actions of a buddha are working to benefit other sentient beings. That’s why in the sadhanas of deity yoga practice, such as in Avalokiteshvara yoga practice, you visualize so many offerings, transform the place into a mandala, and during the recitation of the mantra, send out numberless Avalokiteshvaras on the tips of light rays to all sentient beings, and the Avalokiteshvaras then purify all the sentient beings. That’s why there is this meditation practice. An Avalokiteshvara on the tip of each light ray emitted from your body, which is in the aspect of Avalokiteshvara, goes to the crown of each sentient being, then purifies each sentient being. This is similar to the holy action of Avalokiteshvara that you are actually going to do in the future. You meditate now on performing actions similar to that. This itself becomes a path to achieve the effortless infinite holy actions of Avalokiteshvara, accomplishing infinite work for other sentient beings.

The conclusion is that you meditate now on using all these results—the completely pure body of the deity, place, enjoyments, and actions—that you are going to achieve in the future. That’s why the method to achieve enlightenment according to the path of secret mantra is called the vehicle of the result.

The secret mantra is also called the vehicle of the method because it is more skillful than the Paramitayana. How is it more skillful? It is highly skillful in regard to the object of concentration and in regard to the unimaginable power of the [environment or condition]. I’m not sure of the correct term, but the explanation will come afterwards. This is similar to the previous explanation; it is just a commentary to the meaning of the vehicle of the method.

It is highly skillful in regard to the object of concentration because Paramitayana has no method to meditate on all the views as in essence...

Death is definite, and what can benefit at the time of death is only Dharma. Nothing else can help you at the death time not to have fear and not to receive rebirth in the lower realms. However, receiving the rebirth of a happy transmigrator is not enough, as that is still in samsara, the suffering realm.

Wherever I am born in the six realms of samsara, I will continuously experience the three sufferings: suffering of suffering, changeable suffering, and pervasive suffering. I am always attacked and tortured by these three sufferings in any realm of samsara where I am born. Changeable suffering refers to the samsaric pleasures and pervasive suffering to being under the control of karma and delusions. I am always tortured by these.

For myself alone to be free from samsara and achieve nirvana is not sufficient. Sentient beings are the field from where I receive all my happiness and perfections, from all the small pleasures in a dream, up to ultimate happiness. The base from where all suffering arises is from me, from my self-cherishing thought. Because of self-cherishing thought, so far I haven’t achieved enlightenment, I haven’t been freed from samsara. As long as I keep in my heart this self-cherishing thought, from where all my suffering arises, I will never achieve enlightenment, and I won’t obtain even samsaric pleasures. So, there is no benefit in keeping the self-cherishing thought in my heart for even a moment.

Since cherishing others is the basis of all my happiness and benefit, I must cherish other sentient beings by renouncing the self-cherishing thought. No matter how much sentient beings wish for happiness, they are ignorant of the causes of happiness, or even if they know its causes, they are lazy about creating the causes of happiness. Even though sentient beings don’t desire suffering, they are ignorant of the causes of suffering, or even if they recognize the causes of suffering, they are lazy about practicing the methods to get rid of suffering.

In this way they are continuously suffering. It is the responsibility of me, the son, to free my mother sentient beings from all their sufferings and lead them to the highest happiness of enlightenment. Therefore, I must achieve enlightenment. In order to quickly achieve enlightenment in order to enlighten them, I must actualize bodhicitta. In order to quickly actualize bodhicitta, I must depend on a special deity such as Avalokiteshvara. Therefore, for the benefit of all sentient beings, I am going to take the Avalokiteshvara initiation in order to achieve Avalokiteshvara’s enlightenment.

Try to cultivate at least this pure motivation. Try to have a motivation for taking the initiation that is not wanting your own happiness. Don’t think, “I want to achieve enlightenment because then I won’t suffer and I will be extremely happy. Therefore, I’m going to take the initiation.” That is all self-cherishing though. We should give up this thought. It is necessary to think mainly of sentient beings achieving enlightenment. The method for that is by your achieving enlightenment; therefore, you are going to take the Avalokiteshvara initiation. Working for other sentient beings is not a method for you yourself to achieve enlightenment. Your achieving enlightenment is not the main thing.

[Rinpoche then gives the Avalokiteshvara initiation.]

In Paramitayana there is the method of meditating on non-activity, as it’s sometimes translated, which involves dissolving the view of self-existent phenomena and meditating on that emptiness. However, it doesn’t have the secret mantra method of trying to see all views as, in essence, the transcendental wisdom of the deity. Meditating in this way turns any object that is seen into a skillful object of concentration. Trying to see every object that appears in the essence of the transcendental wisdom of the deity is a method to quickly purify and to collect extensive merit. It is a very skillful method to quickly finish collecting merit and making purification.

Second, secret mantra is highly skillful with the condition, or environment. Perhaps the Tibetan term could be translated as “beneficial place.” Anyway, if I describe it, maybe you will get the idea.

It is talking about the basis of living in samaya, pledges, or ordination. This means not only the samayas of Mantrayana but it also the bodhisattva ordination and pledges. The bodhisattva ordination is needed as a basis before the ordination of secret mantra, because there is no way to achieve enlightenment without it. The only way you can achieve enlightenment is for the sake of other sentient beings, not for your own. It’s impossible to achieve enlightenment only for your own happiness.

So, before you practice secret mantra, as the foundation you need to practice the bodhisattva’s actions, which means you have to have the bodhisattva ordination, which means you have to generate bodhicitta. This is what makes the practice of secret mantra really beneficial; this is what enables it to become the path to the goal you want to achieve: enlightenment, the Vajradhara state.

It is on the basis of living in the bodhisattva ordination and the ordination of secret mantra, that you then attempt to do the meditations on the mandala. Because of the power of that practice, you quickly receive the blessings of all the buddhas. Again, secret mantra is highly skillful because of the power of the condition, which means meditating on the mandalas on the basis of these ordinations. As you quickly receive the blessings of all the buddhas, you can achieve enlightenment in one life. Secret mantra is highly skillful through the unimaginable power of the helpful conditions of the ordinations and meditating on the mandala, which help to quickly bring blessings.

Secret mantra is also highly skillful through actions. This means meditating in a way similar to how the buddhas and bodhisattvas purify the field, or place, and work for other sentient beings. You, the practitioner, meditate in a similar way as the path. By meditating in this way, you quickly collect extensive merit and purify negative karmas and obscurations. The negative karmas and obscurations collected over an incredible number of eons get purified even in each second.

As I mentioned just before, in the sadhanas of deity yoga practice, there are so many practices where you visualize the deity, the seed syllable, or mantras and purify sentient beings. There are many meditation on actions that you are actually going to do in the future.

When we visualize purifying other sentient beings, because we have visualized numberless sentient beings, in just a second we perform great purification and collect infinite merit. Since this is done with the secret mantra method, not just the bodhisattva’s practice of tong-len, it has more power to purify and collect merit.

By meditating in this way, you achieve enlightenment in this life. Therefore, secret mantra is highly skillful.

Giving secret mantra the title “the vehicle of the method” explains the specific qualities and benefits of secret mantra, which the Paramitayana doesn’t have. The method of secret mantra is higher and more skillful than the method of Paramitayana The method of secret mantra transcends that of Paramitayana.

I’m sorry we didn’t get to the Avalokiteshvara method, but perhaps it might leave some impression to be able to practice Vajrayana.

[End of fourth teaching]