Chapter 19. Saturday, November 10: Combined Jorchö and Lama Chöpa Puja
Extensive offering practice
Ven. Sarah Thresher: Then there are the extensive offerings. So, first of all, blessing all the offerings here. Rinpoche?
Rinpoche: So, we will recite the mantra for blessing, though this mantra is not only for blessing. It has two functions. It blesses and multiplies the offerings so that each of the numberless buddhas receives clouds of offerings. The power of this mantra is unbelievable. This mantra has such powerful blessings that each buddha receives an unimaginable number of offerings.
Remember the offerings that are to be blessed: all the offerings here and all the extensive offerings at the Aptos house, where there are many hundreds of water offerings and many thousands of light offerings, as well as flower offerings inside and outside the house. Also remember all the extensive offerings in all the gompas of all the FPMT centers in the East and the West. And there are a thousand offerings in the center in Mongolia. Remember all of them. [meditate]
OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VAJRA SARA PRAMARDANE.... (3x)
Next is the verse expressing the words of truth. The benefit of reciting this is that the buddhas actually receive the many offerings that you have mentally transformed, or visualized. So, if you have visualized skies of offerings, each buddha receives all of them. Think that each buddha receives that many offerings.
[The group recites The Power of Truth.]
First we make charity of all the offerings here and those in all the rest of the places to every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every human being, every asura being, every sura being and every intermediate state being. Make charity to all sentient beings.
We now offer all the offerings on their behalf. You can think that you’re offering them for you yourself to achieve enlightenment to be able to enlighten all sentient beings. By our making the offering on behalf of all sentient beings in this way, every sentient being gets the merit.
We will now offer all the offerings here, all the light offerings in the Ashes Temple, all the extensive offerings at the Aptos House and those in all the rest of the FPMT centers, the nature of which is infinite bliss.
First we will offer them to the gurus, by thinking that each one is, in essence, all of the buddhas. In this way, while we are actually offering to the guru, we are also offering to all the buddhas. By offering to each guru, we offer to every buddha without exception. [meditate]
Make the offering not just one time but as many times as possible. Think that they generated infinite bliss within their holy minds. [meditate]
Put your palms together and then offer. Repeat “I prostrate, make offering and generated bliss within them...” five, ten or twenty-one times. [meditate]
Prostrate and make all the offerings here, all the offerings in all the gompas of all the FPMT centers, which are of the nature of infinite bliss, to the whole Guru Puja merit field, by thinking that the essence of every single being in the merit field is your root guru. Meditate that each one is your root virtuous friend. Now offer.
“I prostrate, make all these offerings, generated bliss. I prostrate, make offering, generated bliss....” [meditate]
Prostrate and make all these offerings here, those in the Aptos house and those in all the rest of the centers, which are of the nature of infinite bliss, to all Buddha, Dharma and Sangha in all the ten directions, thinking that in essence they are your root virtuous friend.
“I prostrate, make all these offerings, generated great bliss. I prostrate, make offering, generated great bliss....” [meditate]
Prostrate and make all the offerings here, as well as those in the Ashes Temple, the Aptos house and all the FPMT centers, which are of the nature of infinite bliss, to all the statues, stupas, scriptures and thangkas in the ten directions, thinking that in essence they are your root virtuous friend. [meditate]
“I prostrate, make offerings, generated great bliss. I prostrate, make offerings, generated great bliss....” [meditate]
Now, to elaborate more, we will specifically offer all the offerings here, in the Aptos house and in all the FPMT centers, the nature of which is infinite bliss, to all the holy objects in India, thinking that in essence they are the root virtuous friend. [meditate]
“I prostrate, make offering, generated bliss.... [meditate]
Prostrate and make all the offerings here and those in all the rest of the places, the nature of which is infinite bliss, to all the holy objects that are in Tibet, including the most precious Shakyamuni Buddha statue blessed by Buddha himself, the stupa that we have built at Sera Monastery, the Most Secret Hayagriva statue, the Maitreya statue that is meaningful to behold in Drepung Monastery, as well as all the rest of the holy objects in Tibet. Meditate that in essence they are your root virtuous friend. [meditate]
“I prostrate, make offering, generated bliss....” [meditate]
Prostrate and make all the offerings here and those in all the rest of the places, the nature of which is infinite bliss, to all the holy objects in Nepal, including the two most precious objects in Kathmandu, the Swayambhunath Stupa and Boudhanath Stupa. Think that the essence of all them is your root virtuous friend. [meditate]
“I prostrate, make offering, generated bliss....” Repeat this twenty-one times. [meditate]
Prostrate and make all the offerings to all the holy objects in the rest of the world, such as in Burma and Sri Lanka, by meditating that their essence is your root virtuous friend. Think that they generated bliss within them.
“I prostrate, make all the offerings, generated bliss within them....” [meditate]
Prostrate and make all the offerings here and those in all the rest of the places, the nature of which is infinite bliss, to the seven Medicine Buddhas, for success; to bodhisattva Kshitigarbha, to be able to instantly fulfill the wishes of all sentient beings; and to Thousand-arm Chenrezig, to be able to develop great compassion so that you can liberate sentient beings as quickly as possible and bring them to enlightenment. Meditate that their essence is your root virtuous friend and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. [meditate]
“I prostrate, make offering, generated infinite bliss within them. I prostrate, make offering, generated infinite bliss.... [meditate]
We will now do the verses of offering. Think that there are numberless of each of the eight offerings. Numberless offerings of drinking water, water for cleaning the feet and all the rest of the offerings have already been transformed. Then, as we go through the prayer, offer them and think that the merit field generated bliss. At the end, we then visualize offering numberless eight auspicious signs, eight substances, seven royal emblems and offering goddesses carrying the sixteen offerings, which is a practice from Heruka Chakrasamvara. We prostrate, offer and think that we have generated bliss within the merit field.
[The group chants the verses of offering from Lama Chöpa, followed by the taking of bodhisattva and tantric vows. The remaining verses of Lama Chöpa are chanted through to the end of the recitation of mantras.]
Dedications
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, which are empty, may the I, who is empty, achieve Guru Vajradhara’s enlightenment, which is also empty, and lead all the sentient beings, who are also empty, to that enlightenment, which is empty from its own side, by myself alone, who is also empty from its own side.
“I dedicate all the merits to be able to follow the extensive deeds of the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Manjugosha, as they realize.
“And I dedicate all the merits the way the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the three times dedicate their merits and the way they admire the most.
“May Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching be completely actualized in my own mind, in the minds of the members of my family and of all the students and benefactors, especially those who sacrifice their life to the organization to serve others. May Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching spread and flourish in all directions, and may I cause this to happen.”
[The group recites the two Lama Tsongkhapa dedications in Tibetan.]
At the end of guru yoga practice, it’s very important to dedicate in the following way.
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, from this moment on, in all future lifetimes, may I, the members of my family, all the students and benefactors of the FPMT, and all the rest of the sentient beings be able to meet only perfectly qualified Mahayana gurus. From our side, may we be able to see the virtuous friend as only an enlightened being. May we be able to do actions only most pleasing to the holy mind of the virtuous friend, and may each of us be able to immediately fulfill the holy wishes of the virtuous friend.”
It is extremely important to do this dedication at least once each day.
Thank you. Sarah did unbelievable chanting. It’s hard to believe....
Chapter 20. Saturday, November 10: Final Medicine Buddha Session
Bodhicitta motivation
It is about only this one time that we will receive not only a precious human body but especially a precious human body qualified by eight freedoms and ten richnesses. Many of us have also met the Buddhadharma, the unmistaken path through which we can definitely achieve cessation of the entire suffering of samsara and its cause, delusion and karma. Besides that, we have met the Mahayana Paramitayana teaching, the complete unmistaken path which, if we practice it correctly, definitely enables us to achieve full enlightenment, and we can then liberate the numberless sentient beings, who are the source of all our past, present and future happiness, realizations and enlightenment. Practicing this path enables us to free the numberless sentient beings from all suffering and its causes and bring them to full enlightenment.
Not only that, but we have also met the Mahayana Secret Mantra, or Vajrayana, teachings, with which we can quickly achieve enlightenment, because it is unbearable that sentient beings are suffering. Sentient beings are the field from which we receive everything: all happiness and all the collections of goodness, both temporary and ultimate, including every single quality of a buddha. A buddha has infinite qualities. A buddha’s holy body has infinite qualities, a buddha’s holy speech has infinite qualities, and a buddha’s holy mind has infinite qualities. It is from the field of sentient beings, in dependence upon their kindness, that we receive every single one of the qualities of a buddha. We also receive every single realization of a bodhisattva, of both an ordinary bodhisattva and an arya bodhisattva. We achieve every single one of those qualities in dependence upon the field of sentient beings, in dependence upon their kindness.
Bodhicitta has limitless skies of benefit. It is said that even Buddha, the Omniscient One, could never finish explaining the benefits of bodhicitta. All the benefits of bodhicitta are extensively explained in the sutra teachings of Buddha and by the great bodhisattva Shantideva in the first chapter of A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, which has incredibly inspiring stanzas on the benefits of bodhicitta. Also, in Praise to Bodhicitta,69 Khunu Lama Rinpoche wrote a stanza about bodhicitta for every day of the year. The benefits of bodhicitta are limitless like the sky. All these benefits come from the field of sentient beings, from the root of sentient beings. By achieving bodhicitta, you yourself can actually experience all these limitless skies of benefit, which come about in dependence upon the kindness of every single sentient being.
All the limitless skies of qualities of a buddha, all the limitless skies of qualities and realizations of the different levels of bodhisattvas and all the infinite benefits of bodhicitta come from every single sentient being. They all come from that one tiny mosquito that you see taking blood from your body. They all come from that one tiny flea that bites you. It all comes in dependence upon the kindness of that one tiny flea. Just as we get crops from a field, all those collections of goodness come from this field of sentient beings.
Overcoming anger and ego
You label as abusive a person you believe badly treated you, didn’t take care of you when you were a child and so forth. You interpret that person’s attitude or actions of body, speech and mind as harmful or bad. You see it as bad because it bothers your own attachment. What the person does or the way they think of you, the actions of their body, speech and mind, harms your attachment. It harms your ego, your self-cherishing thought.
If a person acts in a way that is not what your attachment wants, anger arises, and you then label them “enemy.” It’s an enemy from the point of view of anger, of self-cherishing thought. It’s not an enemy from the point of view of bodhicitta. It’s not an enemy from the point of view of patience. It’s not an enemy from the point of view of compassion. It’s not an enemy from the point of view of the wisdom seeing emptiness or seeing things as illusions.
It is just another view of your negative thought. It is the view of one of your negative thoughts, your impure thoughts, your hallucinated thoughts, your wrong concepts. It’s the interpretation of one of your negative minds, not of all your minds. It’s not the interpretation of your positive minds, your pure minds. In the interpretation of your pure mind, this person is kind. In the view of patience, this is the kindest person, the kindest sentient being. They are the most precious one.
They are the kindest one because they give you deep inner peace and give special training to your mind. They give you a special opportunity to practice. You cannot achieve this deep inner peace and special training of the mind from a person who gives you a billion dollars. You cannot achieve this deep inner peace even if somebody gives you six billion dollars. There may be excitement but not this deep inner peace. But this person you believe to be your enemy, the one who puts you down, criticizes you or provokes you, gives you deep inner peace if you take the opportunity to recognize, “I myself always follow the ego, but this person is now helping me to destroy my ego, my self-cherishing thought, as well as to overcome my anger.”
You have always been overwhelmed by anger. Anger has always defeated you. You have always let your anger abuse you. You have always let your ego, your self-cherishing thought, abuse you. You let your ego use you to do whatever it wants. You have allowed yourself to be a slave to the ego, to be completely used by the ego for whatever it wants. During beginningless rebirths, you have let the ego give harm to you. That’s why you’re still in samsara. The ego didn’t allow you to have any realization and allowed you to create only the cause of samsara. That’s how you let the ego harm you.
When you gave yourself to the ego, you were then unable to offer perfect service to other sentient beings and bring them unmistaken benefit, as Buddha did. You can’t even do what arhats can do to benefit sentient beings, let alone what bodhisattvas can do. Even a new bodhisattva can bring incredible benefit to sentient beings, and a higher bodhisattva can bring unbelievable benefit. As a bodhisattva proceeds through each bhumi, they bring greater and greater benefit to sentient beings. We’re unable to do that because we have always given ourselves, made offering of ourselves, to the ego, the self-cherishing thought. That is how self-cherishing thought has harmed us and other sentient beings during beginningless rebirths.
Think, “During beginningless rebirths, I have always allowed myself to be controlled by anger and used by the ego. This person whom I believe is abusing or criticizing me or putting me down is now helping me to destroy this ego and to overcome this anger that destroys all my merits, happiness and peace of mind and makes me harm many sentient beings from life to life. Anger leaves a negative imprint on my mind, which then makes anger arise again. As this imprint then goes from life to life, I harm numberless sentient beings. By enabling me to practice patience, this person is helping me to overcome my anger. After some time, through training in patience, I will never give rise to anger again.”
Anger destroys merits. Since merits are the cause of liberation and enlightenment, anger destroys your liberation and your enlightenment. Your main objective in being born as a human being is to liberate every one of the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full enlightenment. You have been born as a human being this time to achieve this unbelievable aim. What you can offer others is incredible, but it has to come from merit, from developing your mind in the path, and anger destroys all this.
Think, “This person is now giving me the opportunity to practice patience and overcome my anger, which is more harmful than the hell realms.” You experience hell one time, then your karma is finished; but if you allow yourself to be controlled by anger, it leaves a negative imprint. You still get angry at this time because you haven’t actualized the path that ceases the imprint, or seed, of anger. To completely cease the seed of delusion, the imprint, you need to actualize the arya path, the wisdom that directly perceives emptiness. It happens only by developing that wisdom.
You didn’t apply the meditations on patience and compassion and didn’t look at the very nature of phenomena, at how everything is merely imputed by your mind. There is no such real thing existing from its own side. Since you didn’t use wisdom, the right view, you didn’t recognize the hallucination as a hallucination. You looked at the hallucination as the reality, as the nature of the object. The reality is the total opposite. You didn’t see the actual nature, because you believed the hallucination to be true. Reality is covered, so you don’t see it. You veil your mind from seeing reality. First, you haven’t actualized the arya paths, the path of seeing and the path of meditation, which cease the seed of delusions. Second, you didn’t know the other meditations on patience and compassion or didn’t apply them if you did know them. In that way, since there is no protection, anger arises.
Why does anger arise? Because the seed of anger, the negative imprint, is there on your mental continuum. Since you did nothing to remove it, it still exists. The imprint left by your past anger has continued from your past lives and then, with the right conditions, anger arises. If you get angry again, you again leave an imprint on your mental continuum, which then makes anger arise again. There is a circle, like an egg and a chicken.
As I mentioned the other night when I was talking about karma, just one complete negative karma of sexual misconduct can lead to endless suffering of samsara. Each complete negative karma has four suffering results, one of which is creating the result similar to the cause, and that complete negative karma again produces four suffering results. So, it goes on and on like that, until you purify the negative karma, abstain from it by living in morality and actualize the path. The ultimate method is to actualize the path and cease the seed of delusion.
You can now see, even in relation to anger, that it makes the suffering of samsara endless. If you don’t practice, if you don’t apply the meditations, if you don’t try to actualize the path, the suffering of samsara is endless. You continuously imprison and torture yourself. No one else does that to you—only you yourself. That is way I said that giving rise to anger is worse than hell. With hell you experience the result of the karma once for a certain length of time; but anger leaves a negative imprint on your mental continuum, which makes anger rise again, which again leaves a negative imprint on your mental continuum. The more negative imprints that anger leaves, the easier it is for anger to arise. It is similar also with attachment and the other delusions.
Delusion is much more terrifying than the hell realm. You don’t want to meditate on the hells; you don’t want to see even a painting of the hell realms because they are so scary; you don’t want to think of the hell realms and of the things that could happen to you there—even a description of them is terrifying. But if you analyze and recognize the harm from delusion, delusion is actually much more terrifying, much more horrible. Where does hell come from? Hell comes from delusion. Hell doesn’t exist from its own side; hell comes from your mind. In a similar way, any undesirable thing that happens to you in your daily life comes from your mind. Hell comes from your own mind. It comes from delusion; it comes from anger, desire and ignorance—and the very root is the ignorance that apprehends true existence. I would say that the mind that is ignorant of the ultimate nature of the I itself and the aggregates is much worse than hell.
This person who is abusing you is helping you to destroy the ego. You are working together to overcome your anger and other delusions. So, they are the most precious, most kind one. They enable you to achieve liberation and full enlightenment, to complete the path and to liberate numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. In your life there is no one kinder than this person, who gives you all this opportunity to benefit others. They give you the opportunity to become a wish-fulfilling jewel and bring all temporary and ultimate happiness, including enlightenment, to all sentient beings. This person is helping you to develop your mind in the path, to overcome your delusions, especially the ego. In your life there is no one kinder than this person.
This person is allowing you to put into practice the Buddhist path that you have read about and studied. Without practice, nothing happens, no matter how much knowledge you have, no matter how learned you are. No realization will happen without practice.
As said by great bodhisattva Shantideva in A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, “As you respect the Victorious Ones (the buddhas), why don’t you also respect the sentient beings?”70 One reason that Buddha is so precious is that Buddha gave teachings that showed the path to enlightenment. How does Buddha free you from suffering and the cause of suffering and lead you to liberation and enlightenment? By giving teachings. It is the same here. If you don’t practice, you suffer; if you practice, you can complete the path to liberation and enlightenment. If you practice patience, compassion and so forth, if you practice lamrim, in relation to this person who shows anger toward you, who abuses you, who puts you down, you are able to overcome the self-cherishing thought and your other delusions. Without obstacles, you can then achieve liberation from samsara and full enlightenment. Therefore, you have an unbelievable need for this person. This person is extremely important, the most important person in your life. You need this person for your liberation and enlightenment. You are in urgent need of this person because they give you the opportunity to practice. Therefore, why don’t you respect this person the same as you respect Buddha?
Of course, as I often say, sentient beings are even more precious because Buddha, Dharma and Sangha came from sentient beings. As mentioned during the motivation for refuge practice, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, to whom we always pray for refuge and who have the power to save us from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring us to enlightenment, came from sentient beings. Because of this, sentient beings become even more precious.
It’s unbearable that the most precious, most kind sentient beings, who are the root of all your happiness of the three times, including enlightenment, are suffering in samsara. To liberate them as quickly as possible and bring them to enlightenment, you need to achieve enlightenment, and the method for that is to practice tantra. Because you have received a great initiation, you have the opportunity to do that. Therefore, at this time, while you have all these opportunities, it’s not enough that after death you not be reborn in the lower realms and receive a deva or human body. That’s not enough, because that’s still in the nature of suffering, under the control of karma and delusions. Any realm we are reborn in—as a deva or human being in the desire realm, in the form realm or even in the formless realm—is only suffering. Even the formless realm is only a suffering realm. Since these realms are all contaminated by the seed of delusions and completely under the control of karma and delusions, they are only suffering. None of these realms, including the formless realm, is free from pervasive compounding suffering. So, we must be liberated from the whole suffering of samsara. But just that alone is not sufficient. That is not the real goal of our life. Especially because we have this perfect human body, we must achieve full enlightenment for the sake of the numberless kind, most precious sentient beings. Think, “For this reason, I will listen to the holy Dharma.”
Benefits of Medicine Buddha practice
We’ve been talking about the incredible benefits of practicing Medicine Buddha, of reciting Medicine Buddha’s name and mantra. Before becoming enlightened, Medicine Buddha made extensive prayers to be able to benefit sentient beings, as I read out to you the other night. During Medicine Buddha’s past life as the bodhisattva Stainless Star, he practiced the bodhisattva deeds.
All the benefits of practicing Medicine Buddha that I mentioned the other night were explained by Buddha in the sutra called Inconceivable Secret. This will be a continuation from that text. Buddha is saying that even if the prayers made by bodhisattva Stainless Star were explained for eons more than eons, you could never reach the end of that bodhisattva’s prayers. That bodhisattva became enlightened in the eastern field, King of Lapis Lazuli Light.
Buddha then said to his attendant Ananda, “The benefits of Medicine Buddha practice, its qualities and powers are due to the power of the tathagatas, the Ones Who Have Gone As It is.”
In other words, it is due to the power of the buddhas.
There is also another quotation in Sutra Requested by Maudgalyayana. (In temples a Shakyamuni Buddha statue usually has two arhats standing beside it. One of them is Maudgalyayana, the one among the Buddha’s disciples who excelled in psychic power. The other arhat, who excelled in wisdom, is Shariputra.) Sutra Requested by Maudgalyayana says:
Maudgalyayana, the followers of the Hinayana path, the Hearers and Self-Conquerors, won’t believe all these benefits of practicing Medicine Buddha, of reciting the holy name and mantra of Medicine Buddha and doing the meditation. Because their merit is so small, it will not fit their minds. It will be difficult for them to believe.
I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I think this next part might be referring to the bodhisattvas who have only one life until they become enlightened.
Because bodhisattvas have unbelievable merit, they can understand the limitless skies of benefit and qualities that Medicine Buddha has. The fortunate one who has good karma and much merit and the one who has miraculous psychic powers is able to believe in this, and they should cherish this Medicine Buddha practice. The devas of the white side will be very happy with any sentient being who reveals this Medicine Buddha practice to other sentient beings or talks about the qualities of Medicine Buddha. Those devas will protect and guide any sentient being who spreads the Medicine Buddha practice.
There are white-side and black-side devas. The white-side ones are devas who are happy when sentient beings practice Dharma and who support them. The black side devas, or maras, don’t like sentient beings to practice Dharma; they interfere with their practice of Dharma and cause sentient beings to engage in negative karma.
For quite a long time, I have always carried around Medicine Buddha pictures with me. I put them on a table and circumambulate them and make offerings to them. When other people come to visit, I also have the opportunity to collect merit by giving them a picture of Medicine Buddha and the mantra and by talking a little about the qualities and power of Medicine Buddha. I have been doing that for quite a number of years, after seeing some of the benefits of Medicine Buddha. I hadn’t read these sutras before, so I didn’t know of the extensive benefits. Now, having seen the different texts, including this one, I know that it has unbelievable, unbelievable benefit.
Many years ago, I started to make offerings to various monasteries and asked them to do pujas on the special days of Buddha, when you collect one hundred million times more merit. If you offer one rupee (or tea or bread or something else), you collect the merit of having offered one hundred million rupees. In the monasteries, the puja is usually done in the morning, so the monks eat breakfast. So, on the special days of Buddha, when all this merit is collected, the monks receive tea, bread and also a money offering. I think we also make the offerings on each solar eclipse. The pujas are mostly done in the monasteries of my gurus, because the offering is then made to disciples of the same guru. Those nuns or monks are pores of that guru; their guru is also my guru. By offering one fellow disciple one rupee or one piece of bread or one cup of tea, you collect far greater merit than from having made offering to numberless buddhas, numberless bodhisattvas, numberless statues of Buddha, numberless stupas and numberless scriptures in all the directions. By making offering to one disciple of the same guru, you collect far greater merit than from making offering to all those other holy objects. That other offering becomes insignificant.
There is no monastery that has only one monk, and most of the monasteries, especially Sera, Ganden and Drepung, have a large number of monks. Just our college, Sera Je, alone has almost three thousand monks, and Sera Me has fewer than that. Ganden Monastery has two colleges, and Drepung also has colleges. There are also the two tantric colleges. There are also Kopan Monastery, His Holiness Chogye Trichen Rinpoche’s monastery and Trulshik Rinpoche’s monastery, where we also offer lunch, which started during Lama Pasang’s time.71 There is also Nalanda, our monastery in France, and we have recently also included Chenrezig Institute, where there are many nuns. I don’t know how many nuns are there now. The offerings are made wherever there’s a Sangha community. Some Sangha are spread all over, but the offerings are made where there is a community. There is also the monastery of His Holiness Sakya Trizin, because I received the Thirteen Golden Dharmas, which includes Vajrayogini initiation, from His Holiness Sakya Trizin after Lama passed away. Lama had a plan to do it, but he hadn’t decided, so I then checked with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Some of us then took that initiation in Bodhgaya quite a number of years ago. His Holiness Sakya Trizin has two monasteries. Apart from Namgyal Monastery, which we haven’t included yet, offerings are made to all those other monasteries. Of course, especially in the Gelugpa monasteries, almost everyone is a disciple of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and many are also fellow disciples of other gurus. Offerings are also made to the gurus on those special days.
There are also offerings to Boudhanath Stupa and Swayambhunath Stupa. For quite a number of years, on every special day of Buddha, Marcel, who has been working for Maitreya Project, and I together offer to Boudhanath Stupa the white color and saffron, a new umbrella on top and the canopy around where the eyes are. Now, even when there’s no special day, we have asked Denpa Chöden, the manager of Kopan Monastery, to offer all these on the fifteenth of every month. I thought it was an unbelievable opportunity to be able to make this offering to this unbelievably precious holy object. We now offer them once a month, on the fifteenth, and if there’s a special day of Buddha, we also offer on that day.
Since last year we now include Swayambhunath Stupa, the original, most precious stupa in Kathmandu. Swayambhunath Stupa contains a crystal stupa, an embodiment of the dharmakaya, which appeared when the Kathmandu valley was filled with a lake. The crystal stupa appeared from the lake, as Buddha himself had predicted. Near Swayambhunath, there’s a high mountain called Langri Ruden, where many Tibetans go to offer incense; that’s the place where Buddha placed his holy feet and gave the prediction about the crystal stupa. It is said in a sutra that Buddha gave a prediction on this mountain. There it talks about the Swayambhunath Stupa and another stupa mentioned by Kashyapa (I don’t know whether this is Buddha Kashyapa—or Ösung, in Tibetan—or the arhat Kashyapa). If these two stupas are taken care of and people make offerings to them, Kathmandu will be fine; but if these two are abandoned, there will be many problems in Kathmandu. I also recently saw that it says in that sutra that if the king doesn’t live an ethical, or moral, life there will be danger to his life and a lot of catastrophes. I think that what Buddha predicted in that sutra has probably happened, with the king being killed. For quite a few years there have been lot of disasters in the royal family.
The point of my bringing up this story is that many of the pujas I request are Medicine Buddha pujas. I think that in His Holiness Sakya Trizin’s monastery, we request the self-initiation of Hevajra and maybe Vajrayogini, and in Chogye Trichen Rinpoche’s monastery we also request Hevajra self-initiation. But in many of the Gelugpa monasteries we mostly request Medicine Buddha puja and Namgyalma puja. At the tantric colleges we request Kalarupa puja, or trukchuma, which is a very powerful puja to eliminate obstacles. We request the monks to dedicate for the sick people that I meet, the benefactors and the organization.
For a long time these offerings weren’t made public, but then Roger thought that if it was publicized, maybe other people would want to join in and there could then be continual offerings forever. It was mentioned one time in Mandala magazine, I think. The idea is for these offerings to go forever, for as long as these monasteries last, to benefit them and to collect merit. Pujas are also done separately for the Maitreya Project.
The organization has some merit to have been able to offer food to Sera Je college, which has almost three thousand monks. We have been able to offer the monks lunch and dinner and now also breakfast. I don’t remember whether or not the whole year is covered.
His Holiness also asked us to help support teachers in the major monasteries. Some students in Singapore and other countries have become benefactors of teachers in basically the major Gelugpa monasteries: Sera, Ganden and Drepung. As an offering, we pay the salary of ten teachers in each of those monasteries to educate the young monks. There are many more teachers, but we support just ten in each monastery. We also make offerings to Tashi Lhunpo, the Panchen Lama’s monastery, and the two tantric colleges. We also make offerings to the Gaden Tripa, high lamas and all the ex-abbots.
So far, as there haven’t been any heavy obstacles, we have been able to continue these offerings. I have mentioned the major ones. I think one of the benefits of the organization is being able to offer service to the monasteries so that they can continue their education and practice to actualize the path and to spread Dharma in the world. Therefore, we can rejoice.
If you make offerings and requests to Medicine Buddha, in that country the crops will grow well, and there will be a lot of peace and happiness. The rains will come at the right time, and the wind will come the way you like it....
No, I’m just joking about that last one.
The rains will come at the right time, and the crops will ripen. The king, or leader, of the country will be healthy, with no sicknesses, and will have happiness. That king will be able to control, like servants, the sentient beings who are evil. One becomes very powerful, and all disharmony is pacified and wealth, life and fortune increased.
The four guardians said, “Due to Shakyamuni Buddha we have heard the name and mantra of the Medicine Buddha, so we won’t experience the suffering of the lower realms. We will protect from all harm any other sentient being who makes offerings to the Medicine Buddhas, who offers them service, who recites the holy name and mantra, who keeps the name and mantra, who hears the name and mantra, who sees a statue of Medicine Buddha or the mantra, and who remembers, touches, recites, writes, meditates on or reveals it to others. We will protect all those sentient from all harm and accomplish all their wishes.”
That’s what the four guardians promised.
Tsog offering
Ven. René: Please, those who have taken precepts, remember not to eat or drink.
Rinpoche: You can drink, but not eat. I’m joking! I’m joking.
Ven. Sarah: We’ll do the long-life prayer for Lama Zopa.
Rinpoche: No, I think we’ll do de zhin sheg pa....
[Rinpoche leads the chanting of Song of the Spring Queen.]
Protector practices
We’ll now do the protector prayers. We are going to recite the Six-arm Mahakala prayer three times for the protection of Lama Ösel Rinpoche, for Lama to be able to return as quickly as possible to the monastery, and then for the success of all the FPMT projects, including the Maitreya Project and the projects here.
[Rinpoche plays the cymbals, then the group chants the Six-arm Mahakala prayer three times, the praise to Four-arm Mahakala, Palden Lhamo and so forth, then the long-life prayers of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Ösel Rinpoche. The group then reads Stages of the Path in English, with offering of the leftover tsog. There is then recitation of the Maitreya Buddha mantras, Dedication of Merits and Verses of Auspiciousness.]
Dedications
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, gang ri ra wäi khor wä zhing kham dir....
“Päl dän la mäi ku tshe tän pa dang....
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, may bodhicitta be generated in my own mind and in the minds of all other sentient beings. May that which has been generated be increased.
“Jang chhub sem chhog rin po chhe....
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, may all the father and mother sentient beings have happiness; may the three lower realms be empty of beings forever; may all the bodhisattvas’ prayers succeed immediately; and may I be able to cause all this to happen by myself alone.
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, in every second from now on, in all my future lifetimes, may I be able to offer extensive benefit like the limitless sky to all sentient beings and to the teaching of Buddha, like Medicine Buddha and like Lama Tsongkhapa, by having the same qualities within me.
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, in whichever universe, world, country, area and place I am, just by my being there may all the sentient beings living in that universe, world, country, area and place never ever be reborn in the lower realms from that time, and may they immediately be able to find faith in refuge and karma and actualize bodhicitta. May everyone in the entire universe live in peace, happiness and prosperity.
“May those who are blind be able to see, those who are deaf be able to hear, those who are lame be able to walk. May anyone in a coma or with an incurable disease, such as cancer or AIDS, or any other sickness immediately recover just by my being there in that universe, world, country, area, place and house. May the hearts of those who have relationship problems, which are like living in a hell realm, with so many emotional problems of disharmony, worry, fear and so forth, be filled with great loving kindness and compassion and with satisfaction and joy.
“May those who have manic depression, which the doctors can do nothing to help, immediately be healed, and may their hearts be filled with great bliss just by my being there in that universe, world, country, area, place and house.
“May those in poverty have wealth. May those who would like to meet a guru find a perfectly qualified guru who can show them the complete path to enlightenment. May those who want teachings be able to receive unmistaken, perfect teachings; may those who want to do retreat be able to find a most suitable place and all the necessary conditions for that, and may they be able to have realizations of the path to enlightenment. May they immediately be liberated from all disease, spirit harm, negative karma and defilements and actualize the whole path to enlightenment, achieving enlightenment as quickly as possible.”
We now give away all our own past, present and future merits, especially all the merits collected today by taking precepts and by doing each session, with the various practices of prostrations, extensive offering and so forth. We have collected skies of merit many times, so we now give everything—all those merits and all the resultant happiness up to enlightenment, as well as our possessions and our own body, as a wish-granting jewel that fulfills all wishes—to all sentient beings. We now give everything to every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every human being, every asura being, every sura being, every intermediate state being. They receive everything they need, everything they want. Also, their environment becomes a pure land where there is no suffering and not even the word “suffering.” They have whatever perfect, pure enjoyments they wish, and all the enjoyments they receive cause them to actualize the path in their mind. They cease all their gross and subtle defilements, and they all become the deity.”
By giving our body, all our merits, happiness, perfections and so forth, we collect limitless skies of merit so many times. “Due to this merit, may whatever suffering sentient beings have ripen on me, and may whatever happiness I have ripen on all sentient beings.”
We have done tonglen so many times in the past and made prayers so many times to receive other sentient beings’ sufferings on ourselves. It is not only about doing prayers. In our daily life when we actually encounter a problem, some undesirable thing, at that time we immediately have to remember, “I have been praying all the time for this to happen, and now I have received it.” You then enjoy that problem, thinking, “I have received what I have made prayers to receive so many times. I have succeeded in my prayers.” Also enjoy the problem by thinking, “How extremely fortunate I am that I can receive and experience the problems of all other sentient beings.”
In this way you use your problems in the path to achieve enlightenment. You use any problem you encounter to liberate not only yourself but numberless other sentient beings from all their suffering and bring them to full enlightenment. You use the problem to cause not only temporary but ultimate happiness to all sentient beings. This is what transforming problems into happiness means. You make having the problem worthwhile, meaningful. What appeared to be negative, you make positive.
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, which are empty from their own side, may the I, who is also empty from its own side, achieve Medicine Buddha’s enlightenment, which is empty from its own side, and lead all the sentient beings, who are empty from their own side, to that enlightenment, which is also empty from its own side, by myself alone, who is also empty from its own side.
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, may all the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts and animals, who are experiencing unimaginable suffering, and the people who have died whose names have been given to me, who rely upon me and for whom I have promised to pray immediately be liberated from all the sufferings of the lower realms and reincarnate in a pure land where they can become enlightened or receive a perfect human body and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, may my hearing that a sentient being is sick cause that sentient being to immediately recover; may my hearing that a sentient being has died cause that sentient being to immediately be born in a pure land where they can become enlightened. And if that sentient being has been born as a human being but with no opportunity to practice Dharma, may they achieve enlightenment quickly by meeting a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru and by receiving Mahayana teachings and putting them into practice.
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others (buddhas, bodhisattvas and other sentient beings), may all of us here, the members of our families, all the students and benefactors in this organization, especially those who sacrifice their lives to serve others through the organization, and those who rely upon me, for whom I have promised to pray, whose names have been given to me and those who are offering service have long lives and be healthy, and may all our wishes succeed immediately according to the holy Dharma. And, most importantly, may we be able to actualize the steps of the path to enlightenment, the lamrim. May we completely actualize Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching, which unifies sutra and tantra, in this very lifetime.
“May the virtuous friends have stable lives, and may all their holy wishes succeed immediately.
“May all the Sangha in this organization complete the scriptural understanding and realizations of the path to enlightenment in this very lifetime, based on receiving all their needs and all protection.
“May all the social service projects and meditation centers be most beneficial for all sentient beings, immediately pacifying all the sufferings of body and mind of sentient beings. May they be able to spread the teaching of Lama Tsongkhapa in the minds of all sentient beings by receiving everything needed. May all the projects here at LMB—the temple with 100,000 Medicine Buddha statues, the 100,000 stupas and the social service projects—succeed as quickly as possible and be most beneficial for all sentient beings. As well, may all the projects of all the rest of the centers succeed immediately and be able to be most beneficial for other sentient beings. And may all the monasteries and nunneries and all the projects to build holy objects in different parts of the world, particularly the building of the 500-foot Maitreya Buddha statue, be completed as quickly as possible by receiving all the funding and other needs.”
This week it has become essential to start the project, to not delay it any more, as well as to have success in the funding.
“May all the projects and centers be most beneficial for sentient beings, causing bodhicitta to be generated in the minds of all sentient beings.
“May nobody experience war, famine, disease, torture, poverty, sickness, dangers from fire, water, air or earth or any other problem. May everybody have perfect peace and happiness.
“May all these centers and projects, and the Maitreya Buddha statue, cause all sentient beings to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.
“May the teaching of Lama Tsongkhapa be spread in all directions and flourish, and may we be able to cause this to happen.”
[The group recites the multiplying mantras.]
We’ve recited the Buddha’s name and mantra to increase any merit we have collected one hundred thousand times. The next one also does that, and it has the particular benefit of causing whatever prayers we did to succeed.
[The group recites the final multiplying mantra.]
“I dedicate all the merits to be able to follow the holy extensive deeds of the bodhisattvas Manjugosha, Kshitigarbha, Samantabhadra and so forth, as they realize.
“As the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the three times dedicate their merits, I will dedicate all my merits in the way that they admire the most.”
Good night, good morning.
Notes
69 Published as Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea. [Return to text]
70 A Buddha’s qualities are gained
From the sentient beings and the Conquerors alike,
So why do I not respect them
In the same way as I respect the Conquerors? (Ch. 6, v. 113.)
[Return to text]
71 Lama Pasang, a Tibetan disciple of Lama Yeshe, supervised much of the early building work at Kopan Monastery, Tushita Meditation Centre and Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery. He died in 1993 in an accident digging a well for the Nunnery. [Return to text]
