December 7, 2005

REFUGE CEREMONY MOTIVATION: THE BENEFITS OF OFFERING TO THE BUDDHA

It is mentioned in a sutra we should put our palms together and prostrate to the Buddha. In the prayer, Praise to Shakyamuni Buddha, it says,

To the founder, the endowed transcendent destroyer, the one gone beyond, the foe destroyer, the completely perfected, fully awakened being, perfect in knowledge and in good conduct, Sugata, knower of the world, supreme guide of human beings to be tamed, teacher of gods and human beings; to you, the completely and fully awakened one, the endowed transcendent destroyer, the glorious conqueror, the subduer from the Shakya clan, I prostrate, make offerings, and go for refuge.

The transcendent destroyer means the one who has destroyed the enemy, meaning the inner enemy, the delusions including all the negative imprints. De zhin sheg pa dra chom pa means fully enlightened, fully awakened being, one who has fully completed the realization, the Buddha, sang gye. Sang is eliminated all the defilements, gross and subtle, with nothing left, and gye is fully developed. So a buddha is somebody who has fully developed all the realizations, all the understanding, with nothing missing. The Tibetan word sang gye shows that—sang, completed the qualities of cessation, and gye, completed the qualities of realizations. This meaning is very rich. I guess that’s what is contained in the Sanskrit “Buddha” and is clarified in the Tibetan.

Simply reciting that and putting our palms together; the Buddha says, “I will guide that person.” It reminds me a little bit of the Bible! The sutra says that the Buddha will guide anybody who simply puts their hands together and recites the Buddha’s names like this, that he will guide that person to achieve the sorrowless state, cessation, liberation from samsara. It can also mean great liberation, full enlightenment, the cessation of even the subtle defilements. That is the benefit of reciting this. We end of the suffering of samsara; we are able to achieve that. We finish the oceans of samsaric suffering, the continuation which has no beginning.

So simply by reciting Buddha’s name and putting the palms together like this, we achieve the sorrowless state, and it also brings the great liberation, full enlightenment. The Buddha said, “I don’t have much worry for that sentient being who recites the Buddha’s name and simply puts their palms together. I will guide them so they will achieve the cessation of all suffering and its causes. They will achieve great liberation.” So, reciting the Buddha’s name has benefits like limitless sky. We create the cause to achieve the whole path to liberation and enlightenment. We achieve all the realizations, all those different levels of the path that are detailed in the scriptures, the philosophical texts that monks and nuns study in the monasteries for so many years.

One thing I didn’t get to mention the other day that I want to mention now. This is like a person studying an entire airplane: all the machinery inside, every single nail, everything. That person studying the whole thing is like studying the whole path to enlightenment, not only liberation but also enlightenment, including all the Buddha’s qualities. We can’t do this just from books. Even an arhat who is free from karma and delusion, from all the sufferings of samsara, even a tenth bhumi bodhisattva who is close to achieving enlightenment cannot see every single quality of the Buddha or the secret actions of the Buddha. They are inconceivable.

It’s mentioned in the sutras how making offerings to the Buddha, doing prostrations, all these things, bring unbelievable benefit. We collect unconceivable merit with every single one of those actions, even just putting our palms together to the Buddha. Any respect given to the Buddha becomes the cause of enlightenment, even if the motivation is ignorance, anger or attachment clinging to this life. Even if it is nonvirtue, by the power of the object, everything becomes the cause of the highest achievement, enlightenment.

That means if we offer one stick of incense to the Buddha, it has that result. Even if the motivation is nonvirtue, it still becomes the cause to achieve liberation from samsara. We shouldn’t think liberation from samsara is easy. Liberation means being free from every single problem of human beings forever, and from all the oceans of hell beings’ sufferings, the oceans of hungry ghosts’ sufferings, the oceans of animals’ sufferings. We are free forever from those unbelievable, unbelievable sufferings, as well as the oceans of sufferings of the intermediate state beings, the gods and the demigods. We are free from karma and delusion forever. Just from offering a stick of incense, we achieve that. That’s without talking about enlightenment! It’s just unbelievable we can achieve these results.

That means offering just one small stick of incense causes us to achieve the whole path, the renunciation of this life and the renunciation of future lives’ samsara, then we enter 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 so many details, so much to study, but one small stick of incense offered to the Buddha, to a statue or picture of the Buddha or just to the Buddha visualized causes us to achieve all this. Not only that, we achieve the entire Mahayana path, with the five Mahayana paths and the ten bhumis. Again, this is unbelievable. There is so much to study. And gradually it causes us to achieve full enlightenment, to attain a buddha’s holy body, holy speech and holy mind, which has skies of qualities. All from this one tiny stick of incense.

The two kinds of the Buddha’s holy body, the rupakaya or form body and the dharmakaya or truth body, have infinite qualities. The holy speech has infinite qualities and the holy mind has infinite qualities. Even the tenth bhumi bodhisattva cannot see every single quality of the Buddha, only a buddha can. Offering that stick of incense causes us to achieve all this.

Similarly, offering one tiny flower and putting our palms together, even with one hand, respecting a picture or statue of the Buddha, or the visualized Buddha, even just put our head down respectfully has all these unimaginable benefits, all these results up to enlightenment.

You can say it this way: we can achieve all the qualities of the Sangha from this. All the qualities of the ordinary Sangha and the absolute Sangha, the arhats, those exalted beings who have wisdom directly perceiving emptiness within the Hinayana, and the Mahayana Sangha, those great bodhisattvas who have achieved various levels of bhumis and have those unbelievable qualities, abiding in either the seven impure bhumis or the three pure bhumis, the eighth, ninth and tenth. With this offering we achieve all the qualities of the Sangha, and the Dharma, and all the qualities of the Buddha. It’s just amazing.

Offering before we eat is part of the refuge practice, after having taken the refuge vow. Before we eat and drink, we first make offerings, even if it’s just a glass of water or some fruit or candy. We remember the Buddha and offer. And it’s the same; it has all these benefits up to liberation and up to enlightenment. It causes us to achieve all the qualities of the Sangha, Dharma and Buddha. It’s amazing.

Why is there such a benefit? Because the Buddha’s qualities are unimaginable, limitless, unfathomable. There are four: limitless, unfathomable, unimaginable, and there’s one more that I don’t remember. Maybe we’ll keep it for later!

Therefore, practicing Buddhism is incredibly joyful; there’s no need for depression. These practices are so simple and yet they have limitless skies of benefit. It is so easy to collect this extensive merit and to achieve all these realizations, to attain all these temporary and ultimate benefits. This is talking about the path and the result—enlightenment—but while we are in samsara, from these practices that I mentioned, we have a good rebirth, long life, health and wealth, we attain so many temporary needs before we achieve liberation and enlightenment.

Those who can complete the path in this life, that’s different, but otherwise, for the rest of us, we need to have a good rebirth, either being born in a pure land and completing the path there, or receiving another perfect human rebirth, which give us the opportunity to practice the Dharma again. That’s temporary; it’s like a bridge to go to the other side of the river. By achieving another perfect human rebirth or a higher rebirth, we can practice the Dharma and develop our mind more in the path. Then again, if it’s not completed in that life, we need to take another good rebirth—a perfect human rebirth is best—then again we can develop the qualities of the mind that we haven’t developed in the past. In that way, we gradually achieve enlightenment.

In the meantime, we need to reincarnate in a higher rebirth where we can practice the Dharma, one that has the conditions to practice the Dharma. All these temporary needs such as long life, health and all the needs of the future life, all this comes by the way. I’m not going to repeat it again. Whatever I mentioned before, it includes all this. It comes by the way. Not only in the next life but also in this life, all the benefits we haven’t looked for, if we are not attached to them, if we don’t cling to them, they come, just as if we plant a seed in the soil and water it, it grows. Even if we plant the seed in the ground and pray that it won’t grow, it still grows because all the causes and conditions are there together. Similarly, once we do these practices and create the karma, when we have more and more merit, our wishes are actualized very quickly and easily. In the big way, any wishes we have to benefit other sentient beings happen.

If we think of all these benefits, our life is not hopeless, it is full of hope. There is no need for depression, only joy. Life is a reason to rejoice; it is full of joy day and night. Practicing like this is so easy and it brings skies of benefit. Of course, if we don’t practice, that’s our great loss. It’s our mistake; nobody else’s. From our side the only question is whether we learn. Without listening to the teachings, without learning, we will not have all these benefits. We will not have all the advantages we can get in this life. It is unbelievable what we can achieve by having this precious human body that we have received at this time.

NEVER WASTE THIS HUMAN BODY

Anyway, since I mentioned it, I would like to mention this one thing! Where this subject of karma belongs in the lamrim is very important to understand. Then, we can see how we are so fortunate, how this human body is so precious. Because of this human body that we now have, we are able to understand the Dharma, whereas animals can never understand either the words or the meaning. Even if they were to listen for billions of eons, having it repeated over and over, day and night, all the time, nonstop, there is no way they could understand. No animal could—not turtles, cats, dogs, cows, horses, pigs or chickens, even chickens! Well, small chicks anyway! There is no way they could understand, but at this time we have received this precious human body and we can.

Normally, I say it this way. It’s important to remember, so you know. Your human body is so precious, therefore you must not waste it. It’s not that you have it all the time. No, you have this body about once. So, you must not waste it by doing meaningless, nonvirtuous activities, which only result in suffering. You should only use it for virtuous actions that only bring the result of happiness for you and for others.

I often say that. Normally, I would mention this in the section on the perfect human rebirth, on being a human being with the eight freedoms or endowments and ten richnesses. The first one is being a human being. As I just mentioned, if we explained to dogs or cows or horse or turtles—let’s take a turtle—that the cause of happiness is virtue, and that virtue is action that results in happiness—that’s the shortest definition of virtue—and if we expanded it to make it clearer, how it is an action motivated by non-ignorance, non-anger and non-attachment, if we repeated that day and night for billions of eons continuously to the turtle, there is no way it could understand this. It couldn’t understand the meaning, but if somebody explained this to us, even within a minute, even within a few seconds, we could understand the cause of happiness is virtue and virtuous actions, actions that result in happiness motivated by non-anger, non-attachment, non-ignorance. For us, it’s easy. That’s because we have this human body whereas those other animals do not. If we explained it to them for billions of eons continuously day and night, there is no way they could understand.

Therefore, how could they ever practice? Impossible, impossible. Now, you can see why in Buddhism it’s emphasized so much that this human body is very precious and thar we shouldn’t waste it. You can understand from this simple example, without talking about all the rest of the path, just this, just talking about the cause of happiness and the cause of suffering, about what is Dharma and what is not Dharma.

It’s the same thing. What is Dharma, what is virtue is the same thing. We can understand it within a few seconds [Rinpoche snaps his fingers], and from that time we have total freedom in our life. Anytime we want to practice Dharma, by knowing the definition of Dharma—what is Dharma, what is virtue—we can transform our mind into Dharma [Rinpoche snaps his fingers], not allowing ignorance, attachment or anger to overcome the mind, but letting the mind become pure, virtuous, positive. Then, our actions become virtuous and only result in happiness.

Once we have the wisdom knowing what is the cause of suffering and what is the cause of happiness, what is Dharma and what is not Dharma, then we have total freedom. We can practice at any time in the heart. However much we want to practice, day and night, we have the freedom. That’s an example. Therefore, by having this human body, it is so unbelievably easy to learn the entire teachings to actualize the path to achieve liberation and enlightenment. It makes it so easy to learn and to have realizations through practice.

As I mentioned before, there is no way animals can do this, even animals living with the human beings, it’s impossible. The difference is that they don’t have a human body whereas we have a human body. That shows how easy it is to achieve liberation, how easy it is to achieve enlightenment, how easy it is to be fully qualified to liberate the other sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and to enlighten them. To achieve all this, to offer extensive benefits to sentient beings, it is so easy through having a human body.

While we have this precious human body this one time, it is so unbelievably precious, because it offers unbelievable limitless skies of merit. What it can do for us is to be the cause of all the happiness for ourselves and for the numberless other sentient beings.

ONLY WITH THIS HUMAN BODY CAN WE DO THE BODY MANDALA PRACTICE

And the other thing is this. Who can achieve enlightenment in one lifetime? Not the hell beings, not the hungry ghosts, not the animals, not the suras or asuras; only human beings, only beings in the human realm. And that is not all the human realms. For example, in this one entire universe, there’s the eastern human continent, the southern human continent, the western human continent and the northern human continent, and then there are the branches. Those other human beings do not have the opportunity to achieve enlightenment in one life; only the human beings of the southern continent, where we are now. At this time, being born as human beings in the southern continent is so precious, because with it we have the opportunity to achieve enlightenment in one lifetime. Other human realms don’t have this opportunity.

In this southern continent where we are, there are twenty-four holy places of Heruka and Vajrayogini, these enlightened deities. There are numberless dakas and dakinis in these holy places in Nepal, India and Tibet. When we take a Heruka, Vajrayogini or Tara Cittamani initiation and so forth, they all have the body mandala. The meditations [of each practice] are a little bit different but they are the same in that they all have this very special meditation called the body mandala. When we do this tantric meditation on the body mandala, those numberless dakinis in those holy places see us meditating and at the same time enter our body and bless our chakras, winds and drops.

Then, that makes it easy to succeed in the meditations of the Six Yogas of Naropa like the tummo meditation, where the wind enters the central channel and abides and absorbs there. Then, we are able to actualize the extremely subtle consciousness. We have gross, subtle and extremely subtle minds and this is the extremely subtle mind, the clear light. That is the direct cause of the dharmakaya, so the meditator who has that realization of the clear light will achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerated time.

Because those dakinis in those holy places are immediately able to see us doing the meditation, they enter our body and bless the winds, drops and chakras, making them functionable. As we meditate, they are able to function, and we are able to complete the tantric path. Like an atomic bomb, this is the quickest way to cease the subtle dual view, the quickest way to cease even the subtle negative imprints. That’s how we can achieve enlightenment in the quickest time by practicing highest tantra.

Again, with this human body that we have received in this world, in this southern continent, and particularly in these countries where there are these holy places, that is why this body that we have is so unbelievably precious. It’s good to understand the many advantages of having this body, otherwise we can spend our entire life using this incredible precious human body, which is wish-fulfilling like the jewel, for meaningless activities, just for the works of this life, for nonvirtue. We might sometimes do something virtuous but normally we use it to create negative karma to be born in the hell realm, the hungry ghost realm or the animal realm. We use it to create the cause to be born again in the lower realms where we came from before. It’s very important to know how this is so precious.

THE BENEFITS OF OFFERING TO THE BUDDHA (BACK TO)

What I was going to mention before was this. If we offer one grain of rice or one tiny flower to a picture or a statue of the Buddha or a visualized Buddha, it is mentioned in the sutra, I think The Sutra of Heaped Flowers or something like that, it says the benefit we get from offering once that tiny flower or grain of rice to a stupa—it may not be a stupa; it means an “object of offering’” which could be a statue, a stupa, a scripture, a picture of an actual living buddha, whether it’s big or small, as long as it’s offered to the Buddha—the benefit is equivalent—now, you have to concentrate—to all the happiness that we have experienced in the past from beginningless samsaric rebirths up to now, as well as all the samsaric pleasure in the future. So that much is contained in offering one grain of rice or one tiny flower to a picture or statue of the Buddha or a visualized Buddha. Now, on top of that, from that we can achieve liberation from samsara, the sorrowless state. It is commonly said in the teachings, as I mentioned at the beginning, offering, prostrations, all these actions done to a statue, stupa or scripture, besides an actual living buddha, everything immediately becomes the cause of enlightenment. That’s common. Here, it not only mentions liberation from samsara, but on top of all that I mentioned before, all the samsaric pleasure we experienced from beginningless samsara up to now and what we will experience in the future, on top of that, there is liberation from samsara, and on top of that, there is great liberation, enlightenment.

Then, I think the results of the benefits still don’t finish, because after we achieve enlightenment, we then liberate numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering. That’s unimaginable! We liberate the sentient beings who are numberless from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. All this comes from this offering of one grain of rice or one tiny flower to a picture or statue of the Buddha or a visualized Buddha, or to a stupa or scripture. Can you imagine the benefit? This unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable benefit is what we achieve from this tiny offering. There’s that power because the Buddha has unimaginable qualities, which I mentioned before. Therefore, it is unbelievably easy to create the cause of happiness. Due to the Buddha’s kindness and compassion for us sentient beings, he fully completed all these qualities for us sentient beings, to make it so easy for us to achieve all this unbelievable happiness. That’s one aspect of the subject of karma we must understand.

Therefore, in our everyday life we should take advantage of making offerings. We cannot see the actual Buddha but we are so lucky to be able to see statues, stupas and scriptures. Many human beings don’t have the karma to see them and it is said that animals cannot see them. We can see a statue of the Buddha but animals cannot; they don’t have the karma. Therefore, it is mentioned that even the holy objects are manifestations of the Buddha.

There was somebody who went to Lhasa from Kham, to the famous temple in Lhasa where there is a Shakyamuni Buddha statue. The common people could see that statue, but that particular person could not see it; he just saw darkness. He must have been so heavily obscured. Then, he did a lot of purification. Then what? I forgot the story a little bit. I messed it up a little bit. After that, he saw piles of meat instead of the statue or something like that. Anyway, later he saw some light. So, the example is like that. Even though there are many human beings, not everybody has the karma to see holy objects. There are human beings who never see holy objects.

So, in our everyday life, we must take the opportunity every time to make offerings. Even if we don’t have an altar at home, we should visualize the Buddha and make offerings. If we can’t set up an altar because our friends might get upset, we can still collect merit by offering to a visualized Buddha.

After we have taken the refuge vow, there are eight pieces of general advice. One of them is before we eat and drink, we first make offerings to the Buddha. Another is before we go to sleep and when we get up, we do at least three prostrations to the Buddha. The benefit is unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable. When we know this, we can’t wait to do the practice. By understanding these benefits, it’s something that we want to do all day and night, non-stop.

When we are outside and we see a beautiful flower in the market or on the roadside when we are travelling, we should immediately remember Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and offer it. And if we make offerings to Buddha who is in oneness with the guru, even in the aspect of the Buddha, we collect much more merit, the most extensive merit. By thinking of the guru as one with the Buddha, we collect more merit than having made offerings to the numberless Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, the numberless statues of the Buddha, the numberless stupas and scriptures. That’s amazing. Before I was just talking about offering to the Buddha. Now, even though we are offering to the Buddha, when we think of the guru, that creates much greater merit. Even if we see a beautiful flower, we immediately see the deity or the Buddha as oneness with the guru or root guru. By looking at it, we see that’s all the buddhas in the aspect of the root guru. The Buddha-Guru or the Guru-Buddha, whichever way we say it—here, the Guru-Buddha—the minute we see something, we think that’s the root guru, that’s all the buddhas. Then, we make an offering. Even if it’s somebody else’s flower, we can offer our karmic view of the flower.

I’m using this as an example in the daily life of how we should take advantage of that to collect merit, and not just merit but extensive merit. Whenever we collect merit, we should think how to collect the most extensive merit, like a businessperson, who even while travelling always thinks how to make the largest profit, in which country they can make the largest profit. This just became side talk!

REFUGE CEREMONY MOTIVATION: A BUDDHIST IS AN INNER BEING

Now, we’ll go back to refuge. Whenever we do a practice in our life, such as a sadhana, it always begins with refuge. If we do the practice with refuge in the meditation, if we begin with refuge, the benefits are much greater, a hundred times greater if we begin with refuge. That’s one thing.

It’s said that the benefits of refuge, if they materialized, even three thousand galaxies, that many universes, would become too small a container for all the benefits of refuge. Or maybe it’s the three realms: the desire realm, the form realm and the formless realm. I think it might be the three realms.

And by having refuge in our heart, we become an inner being, not an outsider but an inner being. What is the benefit of being an inner being? Because of that, we can take the pratimoksha vows to achieve liberation for ourselves, we can take the bodhisattva vows to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings and we can take the tantric vows to achieve enlightenment quickly so that we can enlighten sentient beings quickly and they don’t have to suffer for a long time. Being an inner being has all these advantages. On the basis of refuge, we are able to have all the realizations of the path to liberation and to enlightenment. That’s why we should be an inner being.

I guess in English “Buddhist’” means somebody following Buddhism, something like that, but in Tibetan there is chipa, which means “outsider” and nangpa which means “insider.” The benefits of being an insider are all these. The realizations to liberation and enlightenment, ceasing all defilements, being liberated from all the suffering, all these are based on having refuge in the heart, being an insider.

THE TWELVE LINKS AND THE THREE REALMS

Relating to this life, this human rebirth with all its sufferings—the suffering of pain, the suffering of change that are the temporary samsaric pleasures and pervasive compounding suffering—is the result of the twelve dependent related limbs or twelve links. The first limb of this particular human life is the root of that, ignorance, which I’ve been talking about the last few days. This is the mind that is ignorant in that it is unknowing of the ultimate nature of the I, the self, unknowing of the ultimate nature of the mind, holding onto the I as truly existent, as existing from its own side, as not merely labeled by the mind, while the I is totally empty of that. While there is no such truly existent I, existing from its own side, not merely labeled by mind, ignorance holds onto it as such and believes the I to be like that. And it’s the same with the aggregates. While they are empty of that, empty of independence, empty of not being merely labeled by mind, the mind holds onto the aggregates as being truly existent, as not merely labeled by mind. From that, the three poisonous minds arise. Karmic formations, compounding action, is the second limb. The first is ignorance and the second is compounding action. This leaves the karmic seed on the mental continuum, the continuity, and there are the six consciousnesses. Of course, the Cittamatra school believe there are seven or eight, but here there are six.

The sixth one is the consciousness of the mind. [The karmic seeds are carried] on the continuum of that consciousness. Ignorance, the first limb, and the second, karmic formations, could happen in the life before this or a long time ago. However, in the life before this, craving and grasping form the twelve dependent related limbs of this human rebirth. Grasping is when craving becomes much stronger. It’s like the difference when we go shopping. First, there’s craving what we want to have, and then, when we actually very strongly decide to have the thing, we grasp onto it. So, these two, craving and grasping, from the karmic seed left on the mental consciousness make the consciousness ready to produce a future rebirth, which is called “becoming.”

So, from these twelve dependent related limbs of this human rebirth, the three delusions and two actions happened in the past: ignorance, craving and grasping (the three delusions) and two actions (compounding action and becoming).

Then, the consciousness takes place on the fertilized egg, and after that there’s “name and form.” Then, there are the six sources or six bases, and contact and feeling. Then birth and old age and death. Old age and death are put together, not separate, because death can happen even in the mother’s womb after consciousness took place on the fertilized egg. Did I count six or seven? I got confused. Seven?

[A student prompts]

And then birth and old age and death.

There are two ways of counting the consciousness. Some of the monasteries like Drepung count the consciousness as a cause, when the karmic seed is left. Some don’t count that; they count the birth-time consciousness. There are differences depending on the monastery and the scripture used. So, there are three delusions and two actions before, and in this life there are seven results. This is to get an idea of how these aggregates—this collection of this body and mind that we have now—are caused by karma and delusion.

Before that, I mentioned two actions and three delusions. That’s why our body and mind is in the nature of suffering, because it comes from karmic delusions, from impure causes, from an impure mind. This body and mind that we have is in the nature of suffering; it is pervasive compounding suffering, pervasive because, as His Holiness says, it is under the control of karma and delusion.

Being caused by karma and delusion is one thing. That’s why all the aggregates are in the nature of suffering, why they experience suffering. That can be one meaning of “pervasive.” A third meaning of pervasive is that these aggregates are contaminated by the seed of delusions. They are pervaded by the seed of delusions. That’s another meaning of pervasive, that these aggregates are the contaminated seed.

We are in the desire realm. The realm higher from ours is the form realm, the deva realm, where there is no suffering of pain, but there is still the suffering of change and pervasive compounding suffering. Then the form realm has four levels of firm contemplation. It’s like the log of wood you place across the door to lock it. As Choden Rinpoche used to explain, in Tibet, in Solu Khumbu, which is primitive, when you close the door, because there are no locks, if you are travelling for many days, you put a long log of wood inside that keeps the door closed from behind. Rinpoche used to use this example for strong contemplation meditation.

Three of the four levels of the form realm have the suffering of change, but the fourth level doesn’t; it just has pervasive compounding suffering. Now, in the formless realm, the highest realm of samsara, there are four levels: limitless skies, limitless consciousness, nothingness and the tip of samsara. The beings of this highest realm of samsara do not have the suffering of pain or the suffering of change, but they are still not free from pervasive compounding suffering. In the formless realm, there is no physical form, only the four aggregates of consciousness, but they are still contaminated by the seed of delusions. So, the desire realm, form realm and formless realm are all pervasive, contaminated by the seed of delusions.

Therefore, only when we realize emptiness, the wisdom directly seeing emptiness, can we directly eradicate the seed of delusion. Only then can we cut the cause of delusion. With that realization, we achieve the exalted path, which means we have actualized total renunciation.

For example, when we are in the formless realm, at the tip of samsara, we have total renunciation of the desire realm, totally seeing it as only suffering, with so much sickness, with so many problems, like the inside of a septic tank. Like [we might think of] Africa or somewhere like that, where there are so many diseases, so many problems, and have total renunciation [from ever going there], seeing only suffering. Then, the formless realm being even sees the form realm as only in the nature of suffering. Then, the being who has reached the highest level, the tip of samsara, sees even the other three levels of the formless realm as only in the nature of suffering.

A being is born in the form realm because they look at the desire realm as gross, with so much suffering, and they see that the form realm is better, with more happiness and a long life and peace. Analyzing in that way, they become detached from the desire realm and get reborn in the form realm. And in the same way, they realize the formless realm is better and the form realm is comparatively gross; that it too is in the nature of suffering. Understanding that, they become detached from the form realm and, with attachment, are born in the formless realm. It always comes about by seeing the next stage as better.

When they reach the tip of samsara, the highest level of the formless realm, there’s no higher samsaric realm to compare it with, which would cause them to discover that the tip of samsara is also in the nature of suffering. Therefore, they can renounce every level of samsara as suffering except the tip of samsara, because there is no higher realm, nothing to compare it to that seems grosser and the next, higher realm seems better, with more peace. There’s nothing to compare it to. Therefore, there is no antidote for the attachment to the tip of samsara, and that being in the tip of samsara cannot have renunciation for the whole entire samsara. They have gained renunciation for the rest of samsara, but not for that realm. Because of that, they cannot enter the path to liberation and cannot attain the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, which ceases the seed of delusion.

Therefore, when the karma finishes for their time in the tip of samsara, they reincarnate again in one of the six realms. And it goes on like this, they circle again and again. We have been like this. Through meditation, we have achieved shamatha, calm abiding, which is perfect meditation but without the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, without the total renunciation of samsara. And through shamatha, through perfect meditation, we have achieved all that. We have been born in all four levels of the formless realm numberless times, including the tip of samsara numberless times, and we have circled like this again and again. Therefore, all three realms, the desire realm, the form realm and the formless realm, are only in the nature of suffering; they are only pervasive compounding suffering, the contaminated seed of delusion.

THE THREE TYPES OF SUFFERING

I’ve already mentioned this twice, so this is the third time. I’ll repeat it again. Our aggregates are contaminated by the seed of delusion, which compounds all the mental suffering. Even if there is no depression, depression can arise at any time, compounding all this loneliness and all these fears and worries, all these mental problems. And it compounds all these physical sufferings: sickness, hunger and thirst, heat and cold, old age—all these physical problems are compounded. This seed of delusion, the aggregates, also compounds future lives’ suffering. Because the seed of delusion is there, if we are not practicing mindfulness meditation, if we are not practicing the lamrim, when we encounter objects, the seed delusion arises, motivated by karma, which leaves an imprint, a seed, on the mental continuum, and that throws us into a future rebirth. So, you can see very clearly all our suffering comes from the seed, from karma and delusions. These are again pervasive and compounding sufferings, sufferings that compound our future lives’ suffering.

On this basis, we experience the suffering of change, the temporary samsaric pleasure: the pleasure of food, the pleasure of sleep, sexual pleasure and so forth. All these pleasures are the suffering of samsara, the suffering of change.

When we are hungry and we eat the first bit of food, we feel pleasure. When we start to eat, we feel comfort, pleasure. How did that happen? By eating food, our hunger, the previous suffering through not eating, is stopped. The suffering of hunger was compounded by not eating. The minute we start to eat, however, the discomfort starts already, after the first bite of food, but it is very small, unnoticeable. The more we eat, the more it increases. As we continue to eat, it becomes more and more noticeable. Sometimes, even at the beginning of the meal, the food seems very tasty, but then, when our stomach becomes fuller, even the taste changes; it is no longer the same taste as at the beginning. It can even become disgusting if we keep on eating when our stomach is already full. Anyway, when we start to eat, one suffering stops, the hunger, but another suffering begins, but it’s still too small to notice. That feeling we have as we begin to eat, we label “pleasure.” It is labeled “pleasure” and it appears as pleasure, and our hallucinated mind, our attachment, believes this is real happiness, real pleasure. But being attached to this, we never find satisfaction, we can never get satisfaction. No matter how many eons we eat, we can keep on eating without end, but we can never get satisfied.

From beginningless rebirths up to now, we have never found satisfaction being attached to pleasure. It’s like that with being attached to any samsaric pleasure; we can never get satisfaction. That’s another big suffering. Our mind labels something as pleasure only because another previous suffering has stopped and although a new suffering has begun, because we cannot yet notice it, we label that feeling as “pleasure” or “comfort.”

It’s the same as getting bored with something. First, there is the suffering of not having a car or not having a TV. Then, we get a new car or a new TV. But the pleasure and comfort we get from that new thing doesn’t increase hour-by-hour, day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-moth. According to our belief, the pleasure should increase, but it doesn’t. The longer we keep it, the more we get bored with it, and then we want another one, a newer car, a bigger and better TV. The old one has become boring. The pleasure didn’t increase, it didn’t last. So, one suffering stopped and another suffering begins, one we call “pleasure.” And when we’re attached to pleasure, we never find satisfaction. This is a big suffering. Being attached to any samsaric pleasure becomes the cause to tie ourselves to samsara again, the cause to be reborn in samsara again. It becomes the chain to tie ourselves to samsara, to always reincarnate in samsara.

I’m sure you must be feeling a lot of pain from sitting too long, pains in your knees or backside. I’m sure a lot of pain has already started. But when you stand up, there’s comfort. There is that pleasure because another suffering has stopped, compounded by sitting. From the comparatively greater suffering of sitting, another suffering begins, the suffering of standing. The discomfort of standing begins, that which is compounded by the action of standing, but it is still very small. If you were to keep on standing, that discomfort would gradually increase. Then, it would become unbearable after some time, and so it becomes the suffering of pain. When you first stand up, you feel release, comfort. You feel free, like you are given liberation! This is because the previous suffering has stopped. Although another suffering has begun, we call it “pleasure.” The reality is that it is only suffering. On that base, we label “pleasure.” It appears to be pleasure and we believe it to be pleasure. And we get attached to that. If we are not practicing, if we are not applying mindfulness, if we are not applying the meditation looking at its suffering nature, we get attached. Attachment arises and we cling onto that pleasure.

If we are meditating, even if there is no realization but we look at something as suffering, that which is the nature of suffering, then attachment doesn’t arise. There is no opportunity for attachment clinging onto samsaric pleasure to arise. Looking at the suffering which is suffering, looking at samsaric pleasure in the nature of suffering, attachment cannot arise; that causes us to achieve liberation. Therefore, if we are in samsara, even if we sit, we are suffering; even if we stand, we are suffering; even if we go to the beach, we are suffering; even if we stay at home, we are suffering; with the heater, we are suffering; with the air conditioner, we are suffering; if we go to the countryside, we are suffering; if we live in the city, we are suffering; even if we go to the moon, even if we move to the moon, we are suffering.

Until we are totally free from this fundamental suffering, pervasive compounding suffering, these aggregates whose nature is pervasive compounding suffering, everything is only suffering. As I mentioned, the whole of the desire realm, the form realm and even the formless realm, where there is only consciousness, are all pervasive compounding suffering; they are all in the nature of suffering. Until we are totally free from pervasive compounding suffering, until we cease the cause, karma and delusions, until we break the continuity of the aggregates, everything is just suffering, whatever we do. As Lama Tsongkhapa explained, we join the continuity of the contaminated aggregates that receive future samsara again and again from life to life, until we break this by ceasing the karma and delusions.

Before we become a famous actor or singer, we are suffering; when we become a world-famous actor or singer, we are suffering. Then, we are fed up, always surrounded by photographers, by so many people, without any freedom. Life has no freedom. We get bored. We get attracted to becoming a farmer, living on a quiet farm, growing our own vegetables! We are bored with living with so many people, always having our photos taken by so many people, always, everywhere. Then, after we have been living on a farm, growing our own vegetables, again we are suffering. We are still living a suffering life. Whatever samsaric life we live, it is always suffering. Until we are free from this pervasive compounding suffering, until we break the continuity of these contaminated aggregates, everything is only suffering.

THE SUFFERING OF THE SIX REALMS

Within the suffering of pain there is the hell realm, with the eight hot hells, the eight cold hells and the six or four neighboring hells as well as the ordinary hell sufferings. There is [the suffering of the hungry ghosts,] the suffering of the animals, being extremely foolish and being eaten by another one. That’s a major suffering as well as the heat and cold and being tortured, all these things. Even with ants, there are so many other animals that eat ants. I have seen quite a few different ones that eat ants. So, with animals, this one eats that one; that one eats another one; this other one eats another one; and so on like that. If you are an animal, another animal eats you or a human being eats you or kills you for your skin or your bones.

At the moment we are born as a human, so we don’t have that problem. Compared with animals’ suffering, this is an unbelievable liberation, if we put ourselves in their situation. They have constant fear, always afraid of the enemy around, and besides other animals there are human beings hunting them. They lead such a suffering life, constantly looking for food and often unable to find it. Can you imagine, those animals who have babies must take care of them, and they’re always afraid another animal will come and eat the baby while the mother and father are away. Birds’ eggs are always eaten by snakes and other animals while the parents are away looking for food. Anyway, that is the suffering of pain.

It’s very good to think of our situation now, born as a human being. We do not have all these problems. Comparatively, we feel so liberated. Because we do not have these problems for even one hour, we feel liberated in this life. Because we do not have these problems for even one day, we feel unbelievably liberated. For even this one day we don’t have these problems, therefore we must do something worthwhile in this life, even with this one day of life that we have. We are going to die tomorrow, we have only today left, so we must do something. We have no idea how many days, how many weeks, how many months we have left in this life, so of course we must do something even more meaningful, more beneficial, for others, or at least for ourselves.

The heaviest suffering of the hungry ghosts is a hunger and thirst that lasts for hundreds and thousands of years, even for tens of thousands of years. They don’t die due to their heavy karma, but they cannot find even one bowl of food, one spoon of food, one drop of water; they cannot even find moist ground for hundreds of years, for thousands of years. We should put ourselves in their situation and see how it is. We can see that we are so lucky because we don’t have that problem. Of course, we really don’t want to waste our life. We really want our life to be of benefit for other sentient beings. It really inspires us to achieve realizations in this life. Being hungry, thirsty, exhausted, disappointed, and having all the outer and inner obscurations to attaining food, all these sufferings are the suffering of pain.

Then, there are the sufferings of a human rebirth; the sufferings of old age, sicknesses and death, of being unable to find desirable objects and so forth. This is the suffering of pain. After we find something, we are unable to get satisfaction, that’s the suffering of pain. Then, even if we find what we desire, there is the worry and fear of being separating from it, of encountering enemies or undesirable things. Then, because of the five suffering aggregates, there is the suffering of death. This is the suffering of pain. Then, among the devas, there is the miserliness and jealousy of the asuras, killing each other in wars. And the heaviest suffering the devas have, the five near signs of death. This is all the suffering of pain.

REFUGE CEREMONY

The purpose of taking refuge is not just to be free from all the suffering of pain, not just to be free from the suffering of temporary samsaric pleasure, the suffering of change, but to be free forever from the fundamental suffering, pervasive compounding suffering, to be free from this forever. Then we become free forever from the previous two sufferings. That is actual liberation. Only this life has all the opportunities to do that with this present perfect human body, having met the Dharma, having met the perfect virtuous friend revealing the path to liberation.

However, that is not sufficient. We also must achieve great liberation, full enlightenment, for sentient beings. Therefore, we must actualize the actual refuge Dharma within our heart. For that we must rely upon founder of refuge, the Buddha, and then the ones who help us actualize refuge within our heart, the Sangha. We are like the severely ill patient who needs to rely upon the wise doctor and nurse. We are the severely ill patient who has been suffering in samsara from beginningless rebirths, with the chronic disease of the delusions, the root of all the three poisonous minds.

Those taking refuge, do three prostrations, first to the Buddha, the Buddha statue as actual living Buddha, then do three prostrations to me, the Lama who gives refuge.

Those who can kneel down, kneel down like in the morning time when we take eight Mahayana precepts. Then, place the hands in the mudra of prostration at the heart like that. Those who can’t kneel down, never mind, relax, but do not stretch out your legs. It’s not the right time to do yoga! You can do that at other times.

I explained the motivation before, feeling like that. Actually, you already have refuge in your heart when you rely upon the path, the lamrim, or when you generate the wish to meditate on the lamrim to have a realization. Then, of course, wanting to learn and practice the Dharma. The Dharma is founded by the Buddha, so of course, naturally you rely upon the Buddha. Then, you rely upon the Sangha who help you to actualize all this.

This is taking the refuge vow. Refuge is already in your heart. Here, through the ceremony, you are taking the refuge vow, making sure, putting yourself in the situation. It is like when you are going to fly to New York or somewhere, making sure you have the air ticket and everything, putting yourself in the situation, making sure everything is prepared. Or if you are going trekking, making sure you get a jacket and have all the food and clothing prepared for the trek, so you can get on the road and start. Today, you are taking the refuge vow, the ceremony in front of the lama. Please repeat the prayer.

[Rinpoche confers refuge]

The next one [is the pratimoksha vows]. Anybody can take refuge, but those who have taken higher ordination cannot do this one, which is a lower ordination. You cannot do it because it means you lose the higher vows that you have taken. The eight Mahayana precepts are exceptional; they can be taken by anybody because they are done with bodhicitta and taken in front of the buddhas and bodhisattvas and many other special things. Even between the eight pratimoksha vows and the eight Mahayana precepts, there are a lot of differences. The eight pratimoksha vows cannot be taken by those who have taken higher vows, the thirty-six or two hundred and fifty vows, or the fully ordained nun’s vows.

[Rinpoche continues refuge ceremony]

THE IMPORTANCE OF TAKING THE VOWS

Here is a very important thing at this point. Normally I emphasize that if you can’t take any of the five lay vows, you can still take only the refuge upasaka [or upasika] vow. The Buddha is so compassionate for others, allowing us so much choice. Because even if you only take the refuge vow, there are all these precepts: the three things to abandon and the three things to practice, and the general pieces of advice. There are so many things within the refuge that make life so meaningful, that allow us to collect so much merit and do so much purification, when we eat, when we go to sleep and so on—the things we normally do. Along with them, we collect so much merit and purify so much.

Normally I emphasize that, from the five lay vows, it may be good to take the vow to not kill. Generally, even if somebody injures you, you don’t want to be killed. That’s most frightening, but it depends on the individual person which is the most frightening. For some, it’s not killing that’s the most frightening but some other thing, maybe sexual misconduct.

You have already gone through each of the negative karmas, the ten nonvirtuous actions. Each completed negative karma has four suffering results. You have already gone through those, so you have an idea.

If we kill an insect—not even a human being but an insect—the karma is expandable, and we get killed by others in five hundred lifetimes. Karma is expandable, so keep that in mind. It is explained in Aryadeva’s commentary on the Four Hundred Stanzas. No, sorry, this is another text. In this commentary the Four Hundred Stanzas, the root text is written by Aryadeva but also the commentary, the auto-commentary, is written by Aryadeva. There, if we cheat a sentient being, we will be cheated by other sentient beings for a thousand lifetimes. That is mentioned in the text of Aryadeva, one of the great Six Ornaments.

Therefore, even you can’t take all five lay vows, it is so wise to take as many as you can, whatever is easier. This is your best protection for yourself and, of course, for the peace and happiness of all sentient beings, because you stop giving them harm. However many you can take from the five means you stop that many negative karmas to other sentient beings—killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, telling lies and taking alcohol. When you become intoxicated, you lose all shame and shyness and that makes the mind so uncontrolled and dangerous for yourself and others. You harm yourself and you harm others. It makes you unable to practice Dharma, unable to practice morality. And being unable to practice morality means being unable to protect yourself.

Living in morality, on the other hand, means you are protecting yourself; it also means you love yourself. Loving and protecting yourself, it’s all the same. If you are practicing Dharma, it means you love yourself. If you are practicing bodhicitta, it means you love yourself. If you are practicing renunciation, it means you love yourself. If you are practicing right view and especially bodhicitta, it means you love yourself. Cherishing others and letting go of the I, giving up the ego and cherishing others, that is the best way to love yourself, the best way to take care of oneself. When you’re not practicing Dharma, you are not loving yourself. It means you are engaging in nonvirtue so you are harming yourself and others.

In the West, people talk so much about loving yourself. Now here, if you want to know how to love yourself, this is it. The best way is practicing bodhicitta, letting go of the I and cherishing others. Why? This way you achieve all happiness. If you let go of the I and cherish others, you achieve all happiness and you can cause all the happiness for the numberless other sentient beings. Because of that, this is the best way to love yourself. In the West, for many people the way to love yourself is to be totally selfish, and that means harming others for your happiness, giving up others for your happiness. It’s like that. In reality that’s harming yourself, not loving yourself. You are ignorant, not knowing that harming others is harming yourself. Helping others is helping yourself. That’s helping yourself because when you help others, the karmic consequence is that you get happiness. That’s why His Holiness says, “If you want to be selfish, be wisely selfish.” When many people in the West advise you to love yourself by being selfish, that is the wrong meaning, the wrong psychology.

Therefore, from the five lay vows, however many you can take, that means you stop that many harms to yourself and especially to the numberless other sentient beings. Living in that number of vows means you are bringing peace and happiness to numberless other sentient beings, to your family, to the people in this country and in this world and to all sentient beings who are in all other universes, not only human beings but even animals, all other beings. You bring that much peace and happiness to all sentient beings by taking however many of the five lay vows you can take. And of course, it means that much peace and happiness for yourself.

However many vows you take, if you take one vow, then every day whatever virtue you collect, it increases a hundred thousand times. If you have taken one vow, like abstaining from killing or from sexual misconduct or telling lies or whatever, or not taking alcohol, you collect virtue all day and all night. While you’re eating, you collect merit all the time; while you’re sleeping, you collect merit all the time. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, by living in that vow, even one vow, you’re collecting merit all the time. You are making your life so meaningful all the time. And if you have taken two vows, three vows, four vows or five vows, of course, there is no need to say how much the merit increases all the time. And whatever other virtue you do increases even more. It makes life so meaningful.

For example, committing sexual misconduct once, that completed negative karma has four suffering results. The ripening aspect result is rebirth in the lower realms, and then there are three suffering results you experience in a human life. After some time, due to good karma, when you are reborn as a human being, you experience three suffering results. Experiencing the result similar to the cause means when you are at home, your family do not like you, they don’t have same mind as you have, they have the opposite wishes. Your wife or husband has the opposite wish to you. There’s disharmony. Even if you are physically living together, there are always fights, always unhappiness between you. The people in the office do not help you; their wishes are opposed to yours, so there’s disharmony. Your wishes do not get fulfilled.

With creating the result similar to the cause, in the future lives when you are reborn as a human being, you do the same thing again due to past habit. With sexual misconduct, you engage in that again. Then again, that produces four suffering results: the ripening aspect result of rebirth in the lower realms and the three suffering results you experience in the human realm. Again, there’s experiencing the result similar to the cause and creating the result similar to the cause, where you do it again due to habituation in the past. Then again, that produces four suffering results. Like this, there’s no end. From this one act of sexual misconduct, the result goes on and on, bringing endless suffering. As long as you don’t completely purify this one negative karma of sexual misconduct, if you leave it without taking care of it, never purifying it, you have to experience the suffering result on and on without end. That’s extremely frightening. It’s worse than the hell realm, where you are born there for a certain length of karma, but then that finishes. This one is unending.

The fourth result is the possessed result, which is to do with the place. You are born in a very filthy place, full of excrement or a very dirty, unhygienic place. Even if you are not born in such a place, somehow you have to live there. Even when you cross the road or while driving a car in a different area and there’s a terrible bad smell, even just for a few minutes, that is the result of past sexual misconduct.

So, one thing is it is not purified. And the other thing is that even if you purify that negative karma, you do sexual misconduct again, same thing. You purify one act of sexual misconduct but then you create another one, and then you have to experience the suffering result of that. Therefore, to not commit a nonvirtuous act again is very important, otherwise purification has no end. Therefore, to live in the vows and not commit them again seems very practical.

This is an example, but of course, from the five lay vows, you take anything that you think you can take and keep. I’ve already mentioned the essence of benefit, so you choose in your heart whichever one. You can take all five or you can take any number from that. Then, if you are taking any of the vows, think, “I’m taking the upasaka vow, one vow, two vows, three vows, four vows or five vows.” If you are taking all the five, think “I’m taking the complete upasaka vows.” If not, then think, “I’m taking one or two upasaka vows,” like that. If you are not taking any of the vows, only refuge upasaka vow, think that. Make sure that is very clear in your heart.

[Rinpoche continues refuge ceremony]

DEDICATION

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others, may bodhicitta be generated within my own heart, in my family members’ hearts and in the hearts of all sentient beings, particularly in the hearts of all the sentient beings in this world, and in the hearts of all the leaders of the countries and in the hearts of all the terrorists, all those people who have the vicious thought to harm others.

[Prayers in Tibetan]

“Due to all the three-time merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others, may I and all sentient beings be able to complete the paramita of morality by keeping it without mistake, without pride, and keeping it purely.”

So, dedicate this well to be able to complete the paramita of morality by keeping it without mistake, without pride and keeping it purely.

For those who attended the course here every morning, when you take the eight Mahayana precepts, there’s the mantra:

OM AMOGHA SHILA / SAMBHARA [SAMBHARA] BHARA BHARA / MAHA SHUDDHA SATTVA PADMA VIBHUSHITA / BHUJA DHARA DHARA SAMANTA / AVALOKITE HUM PHAT SVAHA

This refers to the “unforgettable wisdom” that stops us engaging in nonvirtue and causes us to engage in virtue. That mantra is the mantra of pure morality. We say it to keep our morality pure. Reciting this mantra purifies our degenerated vows—that’s one thing—and it restores vows, making them pure. All the buddhas can also help us somehow receive the vows. There are these three things but I don’t remember the benefits of reciting this mantra. One is to purify degenerated vows, restoring them, maybe this. And then there is receiving all the buddhas’ pure morality, something like that, but I don’t know. So, reciting this mantra has the benefit to be able to keep our vows purely, particularly lay vows but also ordained ones.

In the morning when you do prostrations, if you recite the mantra of pure morality a few times at the end, it helps to keep your vows pure, to purify and restore the degenerated ones. That’s one method.

“Due to all the three-time merits collected by me and collected by others, may all the father mother sentient beings have happiness, may the three lower realms be empty forever, may all the bodhisattvas’ prayers be successful, may I be able to cause all this to happen by myself alone.”

We dedicate the merits that we have this incredible opportunity, that we are able to make our life so meaningful, so useful for sentient beings. May we be able to bring peace by living like this. By taking the refuge vow and then however many upasaka vows we have taken, we are able to stop that many harms to sentient beings, particularly in this world. We are able to bring peace and happiness to all sentient beings, particularly in this world. This is our real practical contribution for world peace, for peace for all sentient beings, particularly in this world.

THE FOUR HARMONIOUS BROTHERS

Maybe you have never heard this story. In the past in India, there was a country where there was so much wealth, where the crops grew and the rains came at the right time. Before that time, there had been a great scarcity of food, but then rains came at the right time, the crops grew and there was a lot of enjoyment. There was so much prosperity that the king thought he was responsible, and the ministers thought they were responsible. Then one day, a minister suggested to the king they go to see a sage, one who had clairvoyance, to see who brought the prosperity to the country. When they did, the sage said. “It was none of you. There are four harmonious brothers living in the forest and it is because of them that the country is prosperous.” There was an elephant, a monkey, a rabbit and a bird. Where was I? Anyway, I was telling some story! They were all under a tree. The elephant stayed there because of the shade, the monkey to eat the fruit on the tree, the rabbit for the dew on the grass or something, I’m not sure. I don’t remember the bird. Anyway, there was some reason they were all under the tree. They all sort of agreed to respect each other, the younger ones respecting the elders. Then, they all agreed to live in the five lay vows. The elephant spread the five lay vows to the other elephants, the monkey spread them to the other monkeys, the rabbit to the other rabbits and the bird to the other birds. Respecting each other, they lived harmoniously in the five vows. Because of that, the country enjoyed so much prosperity, without any economic problems.

Actually, I think the bird was Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and the others were Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s attendants, Kungawo (Ananda), Yegawo and maybe Chungawo. Living in the vows, even the lay vows, helps the country so much, bringing prosperity and stopping economic problems. So, it’s really the most practical contribution for the world peace. You should remember this every day when you wake up. “I’m living in this vow. This is my best contribution for world peace.” This is very good because then you know you are doing something for world peace and for all sentient beings. That encourages you to live in the vows all the time. You never want to break them, because you know that if you break them, you stop bringing peace and happiness to the world and to sentient beings. If you are in danger of breaking a vow, by remembering this, it’s very easy to stop.

DEDICATIONS (BACK TO)

We have this incredible opportunity due to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s kindness. So, please pray for his long life and that all his holy wishes succeed.

[Rinpoche and students chant His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long-life prayer]

And the same with Lama. This is also particularly due to Lama Yeshe’s kindness, so pray that all his wishes be fulfilled, that Lama’s wishes offer limitless skies of benefits to sentient beings like Lama Tsongkhapa, showing that same quality.

“Due to all the three-time merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others, may I be able to offer limitless skies of benefit to sentient beings by having the same qualities within myself as Lama Tsongkhapa has, from now on in all lifetimes.”

And please dedicate, “Due to all the three-time merits collected by me and collected by others, may the five-hundred-foot Maitreya Buddha statue be actualized as quickly as possible, and continue to completely abide in this world. May the Maitreya Buddha statue be most beneficial for sentient beings to bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible, and especially actualize bodhicitta in the hearts of all sentient beings and bring perfect peace and happiness in the world. May it receive all the funding it needs and be completed without delay of even a second. May all the rest of the projects be actualized to benefit sentient beings by Maitreya Buddha receiving all the funding.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others, may bodhicitta be actualized within the hearts of all sentient beings. By that, may war, famine, disease, torture, poverty, the dangers of fire, water, air, earthquakes, wherever they are happening, may they be stopped immediately and may no one in this world experience any of those undesirable things forever in this world.”

Dedicate the merits having taken the vows for this, for world peace.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others, which exist but which are empty from their own side, may the I, who exists but who is empty from its own side, achieve Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists but which is empty from its own side, and lead all the sentient beings, who exist but who are empty from their own side, to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists but which is empty from its own side, by myself alone, who exists but who is empty from its own side.

“I fully dedicate all these virtues to be able to train just like the hero Manjushri, who knows reality, and just like Samantabhadra as well.

“May the general teachings of the Buddha, and in particular the teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa, flourish forever in this world. May they spread in all the directions by being completely actualized within my own heart and in the hearts of all of us here, in the hearts of all the students and benefactors in this organization, especially those who sacrifice their life to the organization doing service for sentient beings, teaching Buddhism—in all their hearts and in the hearts of all the sentient beings in this world.”