How we know whether the path that was shown by the Buddha is right or wrong is that the pandits and the yogis of the past checked the teachings, practiced them and achieved exactly the same realizations as the Buddha.

There is a path already explained by Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, from his own experience, a path that he has completed. He has freed himself from the oceans of suffering in samsara and its causes, delusions and karma. Not only that, Buddha has eliminated even the subtle negative imprint—left in the mind as a result of grasping at true existence in the past—and achieved full enlightenment. As a result he has liberated countless sentient beings and brought them to enlightenment. He has done this in the past, is doing it right now and will continue to do it every second, until all beings have achieved enlightenment.

The Buddha has taught this entire path to enlightenment so that others can also achieve liberation from suffering—from samsara, the real prison—and achieve full enlightenment. There are so many great yogis and pandits from India, Tibet, Nepal and other places, as many as there are stars in the night-time sky, who by following the path correctly, as Buddha taught, have achieved liberation and enlightenment.

In this way, the Buddhadharma is well-proven. Up to now there is proof that people can actualize the path—people who know Buddhism, who know the path and practice it. This not only happened in the past, it is happening now, in the present.

Therefore, you too can achieve enlightenment by following this path, by studying Dharma books and doing the practices. It is not a question of just faith, of mere belief: we can follow in the steps of Buddha himself by meeting the guru, receiving the teachings and correctly following them.

Countless buddhas have seen the same things

There are no buddhas, no omniscient minds, who have found that what Guru Shakyamuni Buddha explained is wrong—and there are numberless other buddhas. This is clearly the proof that what he explained is correct. How we know whether the path that was shown by Buddha is right or wrong is that the pandits and the yogis of the past checked the teachings, practiced them, and achieved exactly the same realizations as the Buddha.

It would be a different matter if one of them, another buddha in other words, had found that what Guru Shakyamuni Buddha explained was incorrect. If another buddha’s omniscient mind were to see the opposite of something that Guru Shakyamuni Buddha taught, then it would mean that what Guru Shakyamuni Buddha explained is incorrect. But numberless other buddhas have seen the same thing.

There are subtle phenomena that only buddhas can see

There are subtle things, subtle phenomena, that only buddhas can see. Even the arhats cannot see them—those who have removed the sufferings of samsara; have removed the causes of suffering, karma and delusions; have removed even the cause of delusions, the imprints of delusions, so that it is impossible for delusions to arise again, impossible to experience suffering again; and have inconceivable qualities and psychic powers, such as the power to make very small forms huge, as big as mountains, or the power to make huge things small. They have completed so many realizations, but there are still some phenomena they cannot see.

It’s the same with bodhisattvas. At the first bhumi, they can manifest one hundred bodies to benefit others, to give different teachings to sentient beings and practice meditation, etc. At the next bhumi they can manifest one thousand bodies, and then the number of bodies they can manifest multiplies by ten with each bhumi up to the tenth.

These tenth-bhumi bodhisattvas, therefore, can manifest billions of bodies that can work for sentient beings. They can manifest bodies of water, rivers, bridges, mountains, trees. They can go to pure lands and take teachings. They can do anything for the happiness of sentient beings, unimaginable things, things that don’t fit our minds. It is way beyond our imagination what these bodhisattvas can do.

They can see unbelievable, unimaginable distances of time and place. For example, on the first bhumi these bodhisattvas can see one hundred past lives and one hundred future lives of sentient beings. The second-bhumi bodhisattva can see one thousand lives past and future, and so on. It goes on like that, until the tenth level bodhisattva, who can see billions of past and future lives.

The whole world is in one pore of their body; the whole world pervades their holy body and they pervade the whole world. They have unbelievable, unbelievable qualities and psychic powers. These unimaginable, unbelievable things are explained by Lama Tsongkhapa in his commentary on the Middle Way. In the West, it’s an impossible thing to understand.

All this is possible because of the power of a mind that has purified the defilements, the delusions. Their minds are free from limitations. (Our mind is very limited for benefiting others—we can’t manifest even one more body to benefit others.)

Nevertheless, for even these bodhisattvas there is still one thing they cannot see: the subtle karmas of sentient beings. Even though they have skies of qualities, they cannot see the subtle workings of karma. Only a buddha’s omniscient mind can see the subtle karma of sentient beings. They also cannot see the secret actions of a buddha. Only a buddha’s omniscient mind can see that. And there are incredible distances and incredible lengths of time and lives that only a buddha’s omniscient mind can see.

In other words, until one is a buddha, there are still obstacles to doing perfect work for sentient beings, especially the obstacle of not knowing the subtle karma of sentient beings.

The story of Householder Pälkye

One common example is the story about Householder Pälkye. He lived at the time of the Buddha and was eighty years old when he began to practice Dharma. Nevertheless, in that one life he was able to actualize the path and became an arya being. He achieved the wisdom realizing emptiness and was able to cease the defilements.

He was fed up at home because all the children made fun of him every day, so he decided there would be more peace if he became a monk in the monastery. He went to see the abbot to request ordination. The abbot was Shariputra, one of the Buddha’s heart disciples, who was the supreme one in wisdom among all of Buddha’s disciples. Shariputra told him that he checked whether there was karma for him to be a monk and could not see any. “You are old, you can’t read, so you can’t study in the monastery. You can’t even offer service in the monastery.”

The old man became very depressed, so unhappy. He laid his head on the lower crossbar of the gate of the monastery and cried. Then, still crying, he went to a nearby park. Even though the Buddha was elsewhere in India, he saw the old man and had compassion for him. The Buddha sees all sentient beings with his omniscient mind, and whenever there is karma for a sentient being to receive guidance, the Buddha arrives at that place, without even a second’s delay.

The Buddha appeared to Householder Pälkye and asked him what was wrong. The man explained his situation at home, all the difficulties, and how the abbot hadn’t accepted him for ordination. The Buddha said, “I have completed the merits of wisdom and the merits of virtue”—in other words, having ceased the gross and subtle defilements, he had achieved omniscience—“and because of that, I can see that you do have karma to become a monk.”

He explained that an unimaginably long time ago Householder Pälkye, as a fly, had followed the smell of cow dung around a precious stupa, thus inadvertently making a circumambulation. The Buddha could see that that small merit was the cause for him to become a monk.

You see, Shariputra had not completed the two types of merit—that is why he could not see that the old man had the karma to become a monk; he could not see that far back into the past.

Now the Buddha checked who could guide this old man. He saw that his other heart disciple, Maudgalyayana, who was the most excellent in psychic power among all the disciples and who was abbot of another monastery, was the best.

So Householder Pälkye became a monk at his monastery. But he was teased there too, by the young monks, so he got fed up with that too and ran away and jumped into the river. With his psychic power Maudgalyayana could see where the old man was and appeared right there and pulled Householder Pälkye out of the river. He was completely shocked—and embarrassed, because he had not been given permission to leave the monastery. Then he explained the problem to Maudgalyayana, who told him that it was because he didn’t have any renunciation of samsara.

Maudgalyayana told Householder Pälkye to hang on to his robes. They flew up into the sky and over the ocean, eventually landing on a mountain of bones. “These are the bones of many of your countless past lives,” Maudgalyayana explained. The minute the old man heard this, the hair on his body stood on end and he achieved renunciation right then. He realized the shortcomings of samsara: that nothing is definite, that all the enjoyments of samsara are uncertain, that you can’t get satisfaction, and that samsaric pleasures are only in the nature of suffering.

He immediately entered the first of the five paths, the path of accumulation. He realized emptiness and became an arya being in that very life; after you become an arya, you don’t go down from there. He then become an arhat, achieving liberation from samsara. After some time, the Buddha sent light and inspired him to enter the Mahayana path. He then ceased even the subtle defilements that had not ceased before and became enlightened. Now, as a buddha, he does perfect work for sentient beings, liberating them from all the sufferings of samsara and bringing them to enlightenment.

All that perfect work for sentient beings comes from his becoming enlightened. Before that, he entered the Mahayana path; before that, he was an arhat; before that he entered the Hinayana path; before that, he was a monk; and before that, unimaginable eons ago, he was a fly that followed the smell of cow dung around a stupa. It was not even intentional. There was no thought that this was a holy stupa and he would purify karma by circumambulating it. He didn’t have that intention. Rather, with attachment, he followed cow dung—but it became a circumambulation. That small action became a virtuous action, not because of any motivation, but from the power of the holy object, the stupa.

The benefit of omniscience

I have two reasons for telling you this story. One is that you can see that while arhats have incredible qualities—they are free from the oceans of samsaric suffering, free from delusions—still they do not have omniscience and therefore not everything they say is true. This story shows that. They cannot see the subtle karmas of sentient beings, so it hinders their ability to do perfect work for sentient beings. Only a buddha can see subtle karmas. Shariputra, as an arhat, had so many qualities, but he couldn’t see that Householder Pälkye did, in fact, have the karma to become a monk.

Until we are a buddha, we cannot actually judge any sentient being. We can’t correctly say what the situation is. We can’t correctly say, “This is like this, this is not like this.” Only what a buddha, an omniscient one, says is correct. That is the only one we can trust. Of course, there are so many things that people say that are correct, especially those who have completed the path to liberation; but not every single thing. Only what the omniscient ones say is correct: that such and such phenomena exist and such and such do not exist.

The power of holy objects

The other purpose of my telling you this story is to show how holy objects are so powerful. Merely going around a stupa as a fly, without any motivation, creates merit. Holy objects such as statues, stupas, scriptures and pictures of buddhas, which represent Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, have incredible power and therefore give unbelievable, extensive benefit to sentient beings.

Creating merit in relation to these holy objects is the easiest way to purify our negative karma. Then our mind changes, transforms, and we are able to actualize the path, cease the gross defilements and achieve liberation and, finally, cease the subtle defilements and achieve enlightenment.

Therefore, even a picture of Buddha, a statue or a scripture is so important to have. It is extremely important that there exist in this world as many holy objects as possible, to make as many as possible.

In their houses, people should have as many holy objects and images as possible, both outside and inside—but not in a disrespectful way. You can’t just put them anywhere, like on the floor, or in the bathroom where there is a bad smell, or outside on the ground.

You should know that the more merit you have, the easier it’ll be to achieve the realizations of liberation and enlightenment, and you’ll achieve them more quickly. Then the sooner it’ll be that you can liberate the numberless suffering sentient beings who are relying on you, who have a connection with you.

More merit means that not only in future lives but even in this life your wishes for happiness get fulfilled without effort. You just think of something and then it happens on the same day, without effort. It will surprise you! This is how merit helps.

Therefore, if in your prison you are allowed, and the person you are staying with is not upset by it, you can put many pictures of buddhas above your bed and on the walls.

Prove all this for yourself

Of course, the best proof is for you yourself to enter the paths, and as you go through the paths you get the experiences yourself according to what is explained in the teachings.

Remember

• A buddha sees everything that exists.
• There are subtle phenomena that only buddhas can see.
• Only a buddha can guide us perfectly.
• We can all become a buddha.
• We create infinite merit in relation to powerful objects that represent Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
• Prove the teachings for yourself.