1. The Ultimate Deity
This practice has meditation on six deities. The first is meditating on the ultimate deity, or the deity of absolute nature. In this meditation, we see the emptiness of self as inseparable from the emptiness of Chenrezig.
It’s difficult to teach voidness. But if we listen to the teachings of the guru and imitate our guru, that still leaves a strong karmic imprint of listening to the teachings on voidness. Depending on the collection of extensive merits and our study of texts like lamrim and mahamudra, and due to the kindness of the guru, later we’ll have the experience of voidness. When we really experience it, check up on what we thought before.
If a foreigner has never been to Solu Khumbu and someone explains to them that it’s like a paradise, but they don’t tell that person you have to climb dangerous paths there or that there’s a food shortage. Then the foreigner tells someone else come to Solu Khumbu, based on what he heard. But, when they do come to Solu Khumbu, they see that their previous mental picture is different from what they actually see there. There they see that they made a mistake.
Likewise, if someone with no experience of voidness talks about it, although they use the words of the text to teach, it’s different because they don’t have the taste. When they do experience it, they see what emptiness means and what is to be refuted. Although they’ll use the same words to teach, when they have experienced it, they’ll have the real taste of it. Before we have meditated on voidness and experienced it, although we talk of the emptiness of phenomena and of self, it won’t make much sense, even though we talk about it a lot. It’s like a person who hasn’t eaten cheesecake [describing it]. But someone who has eaten it remembers the taste when they talk about it.
Although we may not understand, listening to the teachings is important as it creates a strong karmic imprint. If someone says, “If I listen, I won’t be able to keep it in mind,” and so they drop it, this is very ignorant.
Vasubandhu, a holder of the extensive lineage, lived in a cave and chanted scriptures every night. There was a pigeon outside who heard him and when this pigeon died he was born as a human being. The pandit saw this with his clear perception. He didn’t mention anything to the parents about the previous life of that son, but when he asked the parents to give the son to him, they agreed. From childhood he was brought up by Vasubandhu and became his disciple. As in his previous life he had heard the constant chanting of Vasubandhu, when he was born human, he had no trouble in understanding the texts and teachings because of this strong karmic imprint.
This disciple, Acharya Sthiramati [Lobpön Loden], wrote many texts, including a six-volume commentary of the Abhidharmakosha. Of Vasubandhu’s disciples, it is he who is the master of Abhidharma. This is due to the ripening of his previous karmic imprint and his strong faith in the Three Jewels. When he was young, he offered cookies to a small Tara statue on a shelf. The place was uneven and the cookies rolled down. Feeling sad, he began to cry and so Tara stretched out her hand to catch the cookie.
There’s a similar story from the life of Nagarjuna. When he was writing a text on voidness, there was a pigeon around. When this pigeon was later born as a human, he benefited sentient beings extensively.
We should try at least to create a karmic imprint, especially since it works even with animals. Even if we can’t understand right away, it’s important to listen. Because of our obscurations from beginningless time, it’s difficult to understand, but by listening, it’s very beneficial and creates merit.
When we chant prayers clearly and loudly, the animals nearby that listen to us have a karmic imprint created in their minds. In the future, they will be born as our disciples. If we recite mantras with a kind heart in an animal’s ear, it creates a karmic imprint. This is very meritorious as they don’t have the chance to create virtue because of their form. If with compassion and a kind and noble mind we say mani mantras loudly and clearly, it’s the generosity of Dharma. Generosity doesn’t just mean giving a bowl of rice to others. Dharma generosity is best, especially for those who have given up the interests of this life and who are totally directed toward Dharma. Especially if we are short of material things. Generosity is very vast and consists of many types. The generosity of Dharma also includes giving advice and teaching people.
2. The Deity of Sound
At the beginning, [we understand] the voidness of self and that it’s inseparable or one taste with the voidness of Chenrezig. That appears as the sound of the long mantra, like dragon thunder in empty space. If we think properly at the beginning, the voidness of self is inseparable, one taste, with the voidness of Chenrezig. That itself appears as sound. While the sound of the long mantra is being made, there appears a lotus, moon disc and syllables which look like stars. They are silver in color, like a star, emitting clusters of rays which pervade all places like the sun’s rays do. They extend very far in the distance, as does the sound of the mantra. The rays from the silver syllables, like the sun’s rays, pervade the whole world.
3. The Deity of Syllables
The mind in the form of the sound of mantra appears in the form of syllables. This is the meditation on the deity of syllables. The HRIH and letters are themselves Chenrezig; they are the same as the voidness of self and the voidness of Chenrezig that is appearing here.
4. The Deity of Form
Fourth is the deity of form. The voidness of the self and of the deity we meditate on and of all dharmas is inseparable, of one taste. Of all the dharmas, the most important are the self and the deity together. There’s the appearance of sound. Now our mind is empty and this emptiness is of one taste with the emptiness of Chenrezig. The mind itself appears in the form of a lotus and moon. The lotus and moon are our own mind appearing like this.
The sound is transformed into letters: the inseparability of the voidness of self and the voidness of the deity appears in the form of sound and letters. That also transforms into emptiness. Instantly there appears a large thousand-petaled golden lotus and moon. On the moon is OM MANI PADME HUM, and HRIH is at the center. From the syllable letters and HRIH huge five-colored rays--the five wisdoms of the Dhyani Buddhas--are emitted. On the tips of these emanating rays are Chenrezigs. It’s as if you stretch a thread and drops roll along it. Chenrezigs go along the beams of these rays and fill the whole space.
The whole space is filled, saturated with these innumerable emanations of Chenrezig. Each Chenrezig makes incredible offerings of the eight outer offerings and eight auspicious signs. These offerings saturate the whole place, making clouds of offerings. When the sky is overcast, it’s filled up [with clouds]. In the same way our offerings, created mentally, emanate. They are like just a few bowls on our altar, but they fill the whole space with offerings.
We should visualize the merit field or Chenrezig while we’re saying auspicious words; then when we throw the rice grains, we should think we’re offering innumerable wish-fulfilling gems filling the whole space. If we think properly, then we collect that much merit in one instant. There’s a big difference between throwing rice and visualizing Chenrezig and making offerings filling space. We should try to think that ourselves, the object to which we offer and the wish-fulfilling gems are void, that they are all dependent arisings, existing merely by terms and concepts. If we think like this, then our offering won’t be influenced by the evil thought of self-grasping.
If we offer with bodhicitta, then the offering is the cause to achieve the physical body of Buddha, and by thinking of the voidness of the three, that becomes the cause for actualizing the dharmakaya. If we can think properly and do it, then in one instant we will collect the causes for the dharmakaya and rupakaya. When we offer, if we mentally create many such offerings, it accrues more merit, especially when we offer a mandala.
Once there were three children playing in the sand and Buddha passed by. As they had only sand to offer, one boy stood on the other’s shoulders and offered a handful of sand, while thinking that it was real gold. As a result, he was born as the Dharma king, Ashoka, who built one million stupas in one day. He was able to accrue that extensive merit by offering sand but thinking it was gold. The cause, a handful of sand, was small, but the result was extensive.
If we create a small karma, the result is enormous. Don’t ignore or underestimate a small virtuous action like offering food or one stick of incense. Don’t avoid doing it because it’s small. Be scrupulous. It’s the same with negative actions. Even stealing a small thread, thinking it’s so small, can give us suffering in future lives. All the time, cultivate conscientiousness for doing virtuous actions and avoiding nonvirtuous actions.
If we think properly while making a mandala offering, then by saying just one verse, we get the merit of offering Mt. Meru and the four continents. Although we don’t have even a small bowl of rice, we get the merit of offering big things. In one short instant, we have created extensive merit. So, we say offering the mandala is good for collecting merit. But if we offer only rice, we get the merit of offering just rice.
The rays from the mantra letters and HRIH bear countless Chenrezigs which make offerings to all the buddhas. Then again, rays emanate, sending innumerable Chenrezigs to all six realms. The Chenrezigs emanate huge white clouds from where nectar showers drip onto the hot hells. Because of the nectar shower, the glowing red iron surface disappears, along with the suffering of the sentient beings there. By sending nectar to the cold hells, the big glaciers disappear. We should feel the sentient beings there are satisfied, filled with happiness and they become Chenrezig. Visualize the other realms similarly. Think the obscurations and negativities of the sentient beings are purified and they are satisfied and become Chenrezig. When this is complete, the rays and Chenrezigs all come back and dissolve into our own mind.
The mantra also dissolves into our mind. That transforms again into a multi-colored lotus. On that is a moon and oneself, generating the appearance of Chenrezig: white, youthful, with eleven colored heads all having thin, long, narrow eyes and a loving appearance, like parents smiling and receptive upon seeing their children. Whenever we visualize Chenrezig, whether in front of us or oneself as Chenrezig, visualize him as very receptive.
The mala symbolizes leading sentient beings from samsara. The colored lotus could mean it’s the family of Vairochana. Although the lotus grows from mud, it is free from it. In the same way, Chenrezig used the sense objects of samsara but he is free from delusion. There are other significations too. The bow and arrow symbolizes having direct non-conceptual understanding of voidness. We shouldn’t visualize Chenrezig like a clay statue, but we ourselves should emanate rays.
[End of discourse]
