Chapter 9. Wednesday, October 31: Final Medicine Buddha Session

Meditating on emptiness

We are extremely fortunate to be able to recite at least the correct words of emptiness. Of course, these words are based on those of our kind, compassionate Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, Nagarjuna and so forth, and on Lama Tsongkhapa’s clarification of emptiness. Due to Lama Tsongkhapa’s kindness at least the words are correct, even if we don’t know how to meditate and even if we don’t know what he’s talking about. It’s very important that first the words be correct. In dependence upon the correct words, we then have a chance to understand the correct meaning. Explanation in the correct words gives us the opportunity to have the correct understanding of the Prasangika Madhyamaka view of emptiness. There are four schools of Buddhist philosophy, one of which, the Madhyamaka school, has two divisions: Svatantrika and Prasangika. The Prasangika view is the only one that is the emptiness.

You can’t meditate on emptiness if you don’t have a clear idea of what emptiness is or, even if you have a clear idea, you can’t concentrate on that idea. There are these two factors: no clear idea and no concentration. You can’t really meditate on emptiness if you’re not clear about what phenomena are empty of and what emptiness is; and even if you have some idea of emptiness, you can’t meditate on it if you can’t really concentrate.

At least we have the correct words, the correct explanation. If even the words aren’t correct, you have nothing to hold on to; you have no basis on which to really do correct meditation. I think Lama Tsongkhapa’s particular explanation of emptiness is very clear—it’s an example of Lama Tsongkhapa’s special kindness. Of course, it’s not the only example of Lama Tsongkhapa’s kindness, which is shown in many other subtle, important points of sutra and tantra.

I think we’re very fortunate to have these correct words. Even if we don’t understand what we’re saying, at least the words we’re saying are correct. Getting the idea from that leads to realization of the Prasangika school’s view of emptiness, which then leads to the unification of dependent arising and emptiness.

There are many different ways of explaining, or presenting, emptiness. Of course, if somebody has a lot of merit from the past, has performed strong purification and has imprints from meditating on emptiness in the past, they can receive incredible blessings because of great guru devotion and have everything click in their mind. When they read the teachings everything clicks, and one day their meditation works.

My root guru, His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche, used to say that guru devotion and bodhicitta are more difficult to realize than emptiness. With emptiness it’s a question of untying a knot. You just need to recognize the vital point that can release everything. It’s simply a question of recognizing that vital point. Once you can hit upon that point you can release the knot very easily. It’s a question of recognizing the object to be refuted.

The object of refutation, or object to be refuted, is called gag cha in Tibetan. It refers to the inherently existent I or inherently existent phenomena, which don’t exist. We have to recognize that this is the object to be refuted. We have to understand the meaning of “inherently existent,” “truly existent” or “existing by nature.” In our view everything appears to be truly existent twenty-four hours a day, from birth until death, from beginningless rebirths until we totally remove the subtle negative imprints left by delusion. Cessation of those subtle negative imprints is full enlightenment, great liberation, the nonabiding sorrowless state. However, until that happens, the subtle negative imprint left by the concept of true existence projects dualistic view, inherently existent appearance. That negative imprint constantly projects, or decorates, truly existent appearance. The moment after our thought merely labels, or imputes, something, that negative imprint projects an inherently existent appearance of it. Twenty-four hours a day we have that hallucination. It covers all phenomena: the merely labeled I, the merely labeled mind, the merely labeled body, the merely labeled senses, the merely labeled forms, sounds, smells, tastes and tangible objects. It covers the merely labeled hell, the merely labeled enlightenment, the merely labeled problems, the merely labeled happiness, the merely labeled samsara, the merely labeled liberation, the merely labeled nonvirtue, the merely labeled virtue. It covers the merely labeled bodhicitta and all the other merely labeled realizations, as well as all the merely labeled sufferings and all the merely labeled delusions: the merely labeled ignorance, the merely labeled anger, the merely labeled attachment.

Every time, right after the mere imputation, the negative imprint projects the truly existent appearance. All phenomena are covered by this hallucination, by this inherently existent appearance.

Everything that exists is merely labeled by mind in dependence upon a valid base. The valid base is also merely imputed; it’s a mere imputation in dependence upon another base. It goes on and on in that way. All phenomena exist in that way, in mere name, being merely imputed.

If everything that exists is merely imputed by the mind, why doesn’t it appear to us all the time in that way? That appearance is blocked because everything is covered by this projection of inherent existence. There is an inherently existent appearance on the merely labeled I; there is an inherently existent appearance on the merely labeled aggregates; there is an inherently existent appearance on the merely labeled mind and the merely labeled body; there is an inherently existent appearance on the merely labeled form, the merely labeled feeling, the merely labeled aggregate of recognition, the merely labeled compounding aggregates and the merely labeled consciousness. Hallucinations completely cover the seconds of consciousness and even the split seconds of consciousness.

In our life we believe all these hallucinations of inherent existence to be real. We think, “I am this inherently existent I. This is me.” And it’s the same with everything else.

You can see that that real thing appearing from there, from the side of the object, is not there. In reality it is totally nonexistent. That real thing appearing to your mind is not there. All these things are totally nonexistent. Totally nonexistent.

It is exactly the same with everything else. An appearance of inherent existence covers the merely labeled text; an appearance of inherent existence covers the merely labeled table; an appearance of inherent existence covers the merely labeled lights; an appearance of inherent existence covers the merely labeled ceiling, the merely labeled beams, the merely labeled pillars. An appearance of true existence covers the merely labeled Medicine Buddha statues. A truly existent appearance covers the merely labeled flowers, white, red and yellow. The merely labeled white, red and yellow colors are covered by a truly existent appearance. This hallucination covers everything we look at—everything.

And when we go out outside, the merely labeled road is covered by an appearance of true existence. When we look at the sky, when we think of the sky, it is merely labeled but it is then covered by a truly existent appearance.

It is the same with every phenomenon. When we eat, again an appearance of true existence covers the merely labeled food. A truly existent appearance covers the merely labeled vegetables, the merely labeled rice, the merely labeled noodles, the merely labeled soup, the merely labeled bread. A truly existent appearance covers everything. It’s like eating a hallucination. The hallucinated person eats hallucinated food from a hallucinated bowl or plate with a hallucinated fork. And the hallucinated food is made by a hallucinated cook. The cook is merely labeled but is then covered by an appearance of true existence, making them a real cook.

When we read a book, every single letter is merely imputed by our mind. While we are reading, our mind is imputing every letter. We were taught by somebody that this letter is A and so forth; we were introduced to the labels. We label “A” on this design, we label “B” on that design. While we are reading each page, our mind is constantly labeling because of the different designs in the writing on each different line. We have been introduced to which labels to apply, so we then apply those labels from the beginning of the page. When we are doing a sadhana, from the beginning of the sadhana to the end, we are constantly applying labels: “this is A,” “this is B” and so forth.

In reality the letters are all mere imputations. All these letters are merely imputed by the mind, but a projection of true existence is then put on all the merely labeled letters. Therefore, when we read a book, every single letter appears to us to be a real letter from its own side; not a single letter appears to us to be merely labeled by our mind. For example, when we look at an L, there is a real L appearing from there, an L that is not merely labeled by mind. It is completely covered by all this hallucination. When we read a book, the whole thing, including all the pages themselves, is a hallucination. No matter how many pages we turn, it’s all hallucination.

It’s the same when I play these cymbals. By seeing how it’s made and what it’s used for, we call this instrument “cymbals.” The cymbals are merely imputed by mind, but because we haven’t purified the negative imprints left by delusion, they project a truly existent appearance onto the merely labeled cymbals, so that they become real cymbals appearing from their own side. So, I am playing real cymbals, hallucinated cymbals.

When we look at these offerings, it is the same with every offering. No matter how many details there are in all these many different flowers, it is the same: they are all covered by a truly existent appearance.

When you go shopping in a supermarket or department store, it is the same with all the billions of bright objects that you see. It is the same with every single object that you see there in the supermarket, with all the billions of different colors in all the bottles in the cosmetics department and with all the billions of things you see when you go to the clothing section. When you look at each thing, you apply a label; your mind merely imputes this and that. You apply the label because of what that thing looks like, its shape, and what it’s used for, its function. In dependence upon shapes and functions, you constantly apply labels while you’re looking at things in a shop, department store or supermarket. When you look at food in a supermarket, you can see thirty or forty different types of cheese, including the cheese that smells rotten. One lama, new in the West, said that when he went into a supermarket, there was so much stuff there that it made him want to vomit.

Anyway, what I’m saying is that it’s the same with a shop or department store as the example of reading a book. While you’re looking at things, your mind is constantly labeling. Right after that moment of mere imputation, the negative imprint left on your mind constantly projects something real; it makes everything real. That is how it then appears to you, as a real thing existing from there.

However, that is not the main problem. Even though things appear to you to be truly existent, if you are aware that they are all hallucinations, there is then no basis for attachment or anger to arise. You don’t find any reason to get attached or angry or jealous. If you recognize all those hallucinations as hallucinations, even though you’re still hallucinated, there’s no problem. It’s like recognizing a dream as a dream: you can play with things but you don’t get attached to them, because nothing is real. You can have great fun when you recognize a dream as a dream. You also have no fear when somebody is hurting you because you don’t have the concept that the things in your dream are real. And when you see a beautiful object you feel no desire because you know that it’s a dream. You see what is happening but you feel no clinging.

The main problem is that we don’t practice mindfulness of the hallucination. We haven’t recognized that everything is a hallucination, that it doesn’t exist. We haven’t recognized the false as false; we haven’t recognized that which doesn’t exist as nonexistent. And we allow our mind to hold on to things as true, to believe that the way things appear to us is true. That is the root problem. When we allow our mind to apprehend as true the way things appear to us, we then become jealous of other people, angry with others, attached to others and so forth. Allowing our mind to hold on to as true the way things appear to us then becomes the basis for all those other emotional negative thoughts, which then motivate karma. We then make the oceans of samsaric suffering endless. As samsaric suffering has no beginning, we make it have no end. Every day we are creating the cause of samsara; we are creating samsara.

There’s a sentence here in Tibetan: chö tam che rang zhin tong pa tong pa nyi. We spent half an hour or an hour translating just these words, I think.

Can you read the translation? I don’t remember it now.

Ven. René: “All phenomena are empty by nature and thus become emptiness only.”

Rinpoche: Now, the key point, as I mentioned, is allowing our mind to hold on to the hallucination as true. Of course, having this hallucinated appearance is a problem, but allowing our mind to hold on to the way things appear as true is the very root problem. That is the biggest problem in our life, because all the trouble comes from that concept. We think that being depressed is a big problem, but all the emotional thoughts that make us unhappy actually come from this concept, which many of us are not aware of in our daily life. All the trouble comes from this concept. The root of suffering is created the moment we allow our mind to believe that the way things appear to us is true. That is what produces a frightening death. It’s not that every single person finds death a frightening subject, but for ordinary people, death is generally something frightening. This concept is the root of all the trouble, including that frightening experience even at the end of life. Also, if you have much pain in your knees or in your back, that concept is the root of it.

So, what is the antidote? The antidote is not to allow your concept to hold on to the inherently existent appearance, which is the object of refutation, as true, as one hundred percent correct. The antidote can be just a very simple thing, such as being mindful every day that your whole life is like a dream. Philosophically, the correct wording is “like a dream” and not “a dream.” But I think for meditating in our daily life we can practice mindfulness by simply thinking “I’m dreaming”: “I’m dreaming that I’m doing retreat here at LMB,” “I’m dreaming that I’m doing the sadhana,” “I’m dreaming that I’m walking,” “I’m dreaming that I’m eating.” It’s helpful to practice mindfulness in this very simple way, because it brings you to the point of seeing that the way things appear to you is not true. You can say things are “like an illusion” or as the teachings say, “like a dream,” or you can simply say, “I’m dreaming,” even though that’s not really correct. If you are just dreaming that you are at LMB doing retreat, it means, of course, you’re not doing retreat and you’re not at LMB.

The objects you see in a dream don’t exist. Otherwise, after you have dreamt that you have found or somebody has given you a trillion dollars, when you wake up you should have a trillion dollars, but you don’t. And if what you see in a dream exists, there would then be no difference between a dream and your daytime state after you have awoken from the dream. If you married somebody in a dream, in the daytime when you woke up you should then be married to that person. But when you wake up that marriage doesn’t exist. If you had a dream of marrying and having children, in the daytime when you woke up, you would ask,” Where are my children?” They don’t exist. Dreams are hallucinations.

For meditation, you can say that everything is like a dream or just say, “I am dreaming.” I think it’s very good to do this. It’s like in the Heart Sutra where it says “no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind....” The no is like an atomic bomb or like one of the missiles the Americans are shooting at the Taliban in Afghanistan. You throw the no like a bomb, but not on the merely labeled eye, which exists; not on the merely labeled ear, which exists; not on the merely labeled nose, which exists; not on the merely labeled tongue, which exists; not on the merely labeled body, which exists; not on the merely labeled mind, which exists. You throw this no bomb on the right target, the object of ignorance, the concept of true existence. You throw it on the eye that appears to you to be not merely labeled by mind, on the real eye that is appearing from there, and which you then believe to be true. You see that that inherently existent eye is nonexistent, as it is totally nonexistent, totally empty, in reality. And it is the same with all the rest of the phenomena: “no form, no sound, no smell, no taste....”

You can meditate here in a similar way to meditating on the Heart Sutra. Where you put no in the Heart Sutra, you can put dream or illusion. When you say, “I am dreaming,” you put the dream on the real I that is appearing to you, on the real body, the real mind. You put the dream on the real enemy. Thinking, “I am dreaming,” you put the dream on the real friend, the truly existent friend that is appearing to you.

Even this simple meditation, practicing mindfulness of “I am dreaming,” is an antidote to this wrong concept of true existence in daily life. You think that everything is like a dream or even say, “I am dreaming.” Even though the wording is not philosophically correct, it’s very powerful for your mind. While you are walking, while you are eating, while you are doing a session, while you are talking to somebody, you think, “I am dreaming.” It then gives you the understanding in your heart that everything that is appearing to you and that you believe is not true. It brings you to the conclusion that all these things are empty. This protects you from the king of delusions, this ignorance, the concept of true existence. What is the antidote to this concept that believes that things exist in the way they appear to exist? You don’t let your mind hold on to those things as true, but think the opposite. You instead think, “It’s like a dream” or “It’s like an illusion” or “I’m dreaming,” as I mentioned before. You think that these things are false, hallucinations, which means that they don’t exist. The concept holding, or grasping, on to that then doesn’t happen. Because you don’t allow that concept to happen, anger, attachment and all the other emotional thoughts don’t then arise. Then, by the way, it brings your mind into a stable state of peace, of tranquility.

Here, simply keep your mind in the awareness of chö tam che rang zhin ton pa, All phenomena are empty by nature. Practice mindfulness of this. No matter what words you use—“dream,” “illusion,” “object of refutation,” “dependent arising ”—the point is that you understand that all phenomena are empty.

If you let your mind hold on to phenomena as existent by nature, truly existent or independent, which is a projection of the negative imprint, you could say that when this is happening, you’re not meditating on emptiness. The moment you let go of that truly existent object, the moment you stop grasping that object, such as the real I, you are meditating on emptiness. At that time you’re meditating on emptiness. But as long as you’re holding on to that real phenomenon appearing from its own side, you’re not meditating on emptiness, no matter how many hours you spend doing that and no matter what other experiences happen. Whatever discovery you make, you’re not meditating on emptiness. You have the belief, “I’m meditating on emptiness,” but you’re not. You’re doing the total opposite.

Of course, if you’re able to recognize the object of refutation as the object of refutation, there’s no doubt that you’re meditating on emptiness. However, even if you can’t recognize the object of refutation, it’s still useful to train your mind in what it says in the Seven-Point Thought Transformation:

Reflect on phenomena as being like a dream.

These are very powerful words, like an atomic bomb. When you meditate on them, they bring you to an understanding, or awareness, of emptiness. You may not realize that phenomena are empty, but at least these words give you that idea. It’s very powerful for destroying delusions, especially ignorance.

The next line is:

Examine the nature of the unborn mind.

This means that the mind meditating on emptiness is also empty.

The third line is:

Even the remedy is naturally free.

Even the person who is meditating is empty of inherent existence, devoid of inherent existence.

Place the mind in the basis of all, which is the essence of the path.

When you place your mind in the emptiness of the basis of all, since all phenomena come from emptiness, perhaps at that time it becomes the essence of the path. I don’t remember now in which way it is the essence of the path.

The Seven-Point Thought Transformation then says:

In the break-times, be the illusory person.

In the sessions, you meditate on emptiness, then in the break-times you become the illusory person. In other words, you practice mindfulness of that, as I explained just before.

To return to what I was going to say at the beginning, but which got elaborated.... When you meditate on emptiness, when you say “empty” you shouldn’t think that it means the way my two hands are empty at the moment. That was actually what I meant to tell you at the beginning. When you do the blessing of the offerings and later all the offerings are taken away, the altar is then empty. If your idea of emptiness is like that, it’s not emptiness but actually getting close to nihilism. If, while the offerings are there, you believe there are no offerings, you are falling into nihilism. If you meditate that the offerings are taken away and there’s empty space there, you’re simply meditating on the absence of substantial phenomena. You’re not meditating on the absence of truly existent offerings. You’re not meditating on emptiness, which is the absence of true existence, but on ordinary emptiness, the absence of the substantial offerings.

All the offerings are empty of inherent existence or of existing by nature. This is the view of Lama Tsongkhapa and Milarepa and all the others who became enlightened in the other traditions. Phenomena are empty of true existence, empty of existing by nature or empty of independence. At least you should use the correct words, and you can then think about those words as correctly as you can.

Now tonight the correct words are “All phenomena are empty by nature and thus become emptiness only.”

I described before how everything, starting with the I, is false. I gave examples of how the hallucination of true existence covers the merely labeled I and all the rest of the merely labeled phenomena here: the merely labeled forms, sounds, smells, tastes and so forth. The hallucination of true existence covers all the merely labeled phenomena. It is the same with hell and enlightenment, samsara and nirvana, problems and happiness—the hallucination of true existence covers all these merely labeled phenomena.

We will now meditate for a little while on this. [meditate]

Practice mindfulness of how this hallucination covers all these phenomena, which are merely labeled by mind. [meditate]

It is the same with everything, from the I down to the particles of the atoms of the body and the split seconds of the consciousness. Even though everything appears to be truly existent, everything is completely covered by the hallucination of inherent existence. [meditate]

The merely labeled I and everything else are completely covered by this hallucination. [meditate]

Think of all the external phenomena around you. Then think of all other phenomena: hell, enlightenment, samsara, nirvana, happiness, problems, suffering, cause, cessation, path. Everything is completely covered by hallucination. All the merely labeled phenomena are covered by hallucination so that they appear to be independent, to be not merely labeled by mind. [meditate]

Think of the meaning of “All these are hallucinations.” What does it mean? It means all of them are totally nonexistent right there, from where they are appearing. Everything is totally nonexistent right there, from where it is appearing. [meditate]

Everything is totally nonexistent from where it is appearing as a real one. [meditate]

Now, from the I down to the atoms of the body and the split seconds of the consciousness, the real I appearing from there is totally nonexistent. [meditate]

All phenomena are empty by nature. [meditate]

If you want to make this stronger, think, “In emptiness there is no I, no meditator. There is no action of meditating. There is no meditation.” You can add this to make the meditation more precise and stronger.

Now, your mind is aware that nothing in the slightest exists from its own side. Everything is totally emptiness only. You see emptiness only.

Your wisdom seeing emptiness, nondual with emptiness, then manifests a PAM, which transforms into a variegated lotus, with BHRUM in the center.

Please read.

Ven. René: “At my heart on a moon disk is the resounding mantra circle. From this radiates....”

Motivation for mantra recitation

Think, “I am going to recite each mantra for the long life of the Buddha of Compassion, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and of all my other virtuous friends and all the rest of the holy beings. May all their holy wishes succeed immediately.

“I am going to recite every single mantra for the numberless hell beings, to free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment.

“I am going to recite every single mantra for the numberless hungry ghosts, to free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment.

“I am going to recite every single mantra for the numberless animals, to free them from all their unimaginable suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment.

“I am going to recite every single mantra for the numberless human beings, to free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment.

“I am going to recite every single mantra for the numberless asuras and suras, to free them from all their unimaginable suffering, their hallucinations and distractions, and its causes and bring them to enlightenment.

“I am going to recite every single mantra for the numberless intermediate state beings, to free them from all their suffering, all their terrifying fears, and its causes and bring them to enlightenment by myself alone.

“And I am going to recite every single mantra for world peace, and for all of us to generate loving kindness, compassion and bodhicitta. May all the wars, disease, spirit harms, famines, natural disasters and all other problems that are happening now be stopped, and may nobody ever experience such things again. May everybody have perfect peace and happiness.

“May all the FPMT projects and centers succeed immediately, including, here at LMB, the 100,000 Medicine Buddha statues, the 100,000 stupas, the school and other social service projects, and all the other projects.

“May all the projects to build holy objects succeed immediately, including the large stupa at Bendigo, which will be a replica of the Gyantse Stupa in Tibet. And may the building of the 500-foot Maitreya Buddha statue and all other holy objects be completed as quickly as possible.”

King of Prayers

This is to wake everybody up. [Rinpoche plays the cymbals for a long time.]

Ven René: Long-life prayer, page 7.

Rinpoche: King of Prayers.

Ven. René: First the long-life prayer, then King of Prayers.

Rinpoche: No, King of Prayers instead of the long-life prayer.

Ven. René: All right.

Rinpoche: Reciting King of Prayers, the extensive bodhisattva’s prayer, definitely enables you to quickly achieve enlightenment, as mentioned in the prayer itself.⁴³ And it is a very powerful means of purifying heavy negative karmas, as also mentioned there.⁴⁴ From the prayer you can see that you can quickly purify even the heavy negative karmas of having killed your father, mother or an arhat, harmed Buddha and caused disunity among the Sangha. The five uninterrupted negative karmas cause one to be reborn in the lower realms immediately after death without the interruption of another life. Even those heavy negative karmas are quickly purified.

Since this prayer contains numberless hundreds of thousands of extensive bodhisattvas’ prayers, if we pray in this way, we will then be able to benefit sentient beings in a way similar to a bodhisattva.

Reciting this prayer is also a means of collecting extensive merit. It is mentioned there that by reciting or hearing this prayer and generating faith in it, you collect much more merit than by offering to the buddhas the universe filled with jewels and all the enjoyments of devas and human beings.⁴⁵

Reciting this prayer every day is also one method to be reborn in the Amitabha pure land when death comes. That’s one very important benefit.

Dedications

“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 within my own mind, in the minds of the members of my family and in the minds of all other sentient beings without even a second’s delay. And may the bodhicitta that 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 the Buddha of Compassion, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and all other virtuous friends have stable lives. May all their holy wishes succeed immediately.

“May Lama Ösel Rinpoche also have stable life, show the aspect of having all the qualities of Lama Tsongkhapa and be able to offer skies of benefit to all sentient beings and to the teaching of Buddha. May he be able to complete his Dharma activities in this life without any obstacles and complete his studies in the monastery.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, may the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts and animals, who are unimaginably suffering right now, and those people who have died whose names have been read or have been given to me, for whom I have promised to pray or who relied upon me immediately be liberated from 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 by meeting perfectly qualified Mahayana gurus and Mahayana teachings.

“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 somebody is sick cause that sentient being to immediately recover, including those people with cancer and other illnesses whose names have been given to me. May this happen not only in this life but in all future lives. May my hearing a sentient being has died cause that sentient being to immediately be born in a pure land where they can become enlightened.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, may the sentient beings who are sacrificing themselves through the organization to serve other sentient beings and the teaching of Buddha 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, including everyone here, have long lives and be healthy. May all our wishes succeed immediately according to the holy Dharma. (If it’s according to the holy Dharma, there’s no danger of its becoming negative karma.) And may we be able to actualize in all our minds Lama Tsongkhapa’s stainless path, which unifies sutra and tantra, all the realizations of the steps of the path to enlightenment, in this very lifetime without even a second’s delay.

“May all the Sangha in this organization be able to complete the scriptural understanding and realizations of the path to enlightenment in this very lifetime by living in pure vinaya and by receiving all their needs and all protection.

“May all the meditation centers and all the social service centers, such as hospices, schools, hospitals and so forth, be most beneficial for all sentient beings, immediately pacifying the sufferings of body and mind of sentient beings. And may they be able to spread the complete teaching of Lama Tsongkhapa in the minds of all sentient beings by receiving everything needed for that.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, every day for the many hundreds or thousands of years that the temple with 100,000 Medicine Buddha statues, the place for the Sangha and the 100,000 stupas exist, may they purify many sentient beings without words, in silence, liberating them from the lower realms and from samsara and bringing them to enlightenment.”

Since they are meaningful to behold, anybody who sees or touches these holy objects purifies their negative karma and defilements. Anybody who remembers or dreams of the stupas and other holy objects plants the seed of enlightenment. Every time somebody remembers them or sees pictures of them, that memory plants the seed of enlightenment in their mind and brings them to enlightenment, so there is no doubt about the result for those who circumambulate or make offering to these holy objects. They are all meaningful to behold.

“May the universal education school, the hospice and the other social service projects here and all the projects in the rest of the centers succeed immediately by receiving everything needed.

“May the large stupa, a replica of the stupa in Gyantse in Tibet, that we are trying to build in Bendigo and all the other projects for building monasteries, nunneries or stupas in Colombia, Mexico, Spain and other countries succeed immediately by receiving everything needed. May they be most beneficial for all sentient beings, purifying the negative karma of numberless sentient beings and allowing them to generate loving kindness, compassion and bodhicitta, as well as the wisdom realizing emptiness. (This is besides the people who are actually engaged in building these holy objects.) May these holy objects make an extremely important contribution to world peace.”

World peace depends on good karma. All the good things—health, happiness, success—have to come from good karma. These holy objects are actually very powerful means to create good karma for sentient beings. That’s how they benefit the world. They bring not just temporary peace but end samsara and then bring sentient beings to enlightenment. That’s the most important achievement.

“May the 500-foot Maitreya Buddha statue also be completed as quickly as possible by receiving all that’s needed. May all these projects cause bodhicitta to be generated in the minds of all the sentient beings. Through that may nobody experience war, famine, disease, torture, poverty, sickness or dangers from fire, water, air or earth, such as earthquakes. May everybody have perfect peace and happiness.”

Benefits of holy objects

I know it’s late, but I would just like to mention that in the sutra text, Engaging the Mudra Generating the Power of Devotion, it says that simply seeing a statue of Buddha, or even a picture of Buddha, collects numberless great merits. It collects greater merit than offering the entire universe filled with jewels to how many arhats? (Arhats are those who have put unbelievable effort into ceasing karma and delusions and are free from samsara.) Arhats equal in number to the sand grains of the Atlantic Ocean. The merit is more than from offering the entire universe filled with jewels to that many arhats for many eons. I mentioned the other day that the good karma from somebody offering a medicinal drink to four monks was so powerful that in their next life that person was born as a very powerful, wealthy king in India. This was from offering just a medicinal drink to four members of the Sangha. Here we’re talking about offering to so many arhats.

Buddha explained in that sutra that a sentient being simply seeing a statue of Buddha collects numberless great merits, far more than from making offering to that many arhats. You can now see that if you really want to bring happiness to sentient beings, holy objects are the practical means to do so. Happiness has to come from good karma. Sentient beings generating loving kindness and compassion has to come from good karma, from merit. Without merit, how are you going to change your mind? Having intellectual understanding alone doesn’t mean that you can change your mind. Even if you know all Buddha’s teachings by heart, that alone doesn’t mean you can change your mind. You have to have good karma, or merit, to change your mind.

There is no doubt about how much merit the people in the FPMT organization who are actually building statues or stupas collect, but even a sentient being who sees the statue or stupa collects mind-blowing merit.

Dedications

“May Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching be spread all over the world. May it flourish in all the directions, and may I be able to cause this to happen.”

I left out my favorite dedication!

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, which are totally nonexistent from their own side, may the I, who is totally nonexistent from its own side, achieve His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s, Medicine Buddha’s, enlightenment, which is also totally nonexistent from its own side, and lead all sentient beings, who are also totally nonexistent from their own side, to that Medicine Buddha’s enlightenment, which is totally nonexistent, empty, from its own side, by myself alone, who is totally nonexistent from its own side.”

[The group recites the multiplying mantras.]

The Bendigo stupa

I would like to introduce Ian and Judy Green from Atisha Centre in Bendigo in Australia. Maybe you could come up here and just introduce the essential points about the stupa.⁴⁶

A long time ago, in Lama Yeshe’s time, when Lama came to Bendigo Ian offered a place to build a monastery, and Lama said to build a stupa. I didn’t know that Lama had told Ian that, so when I came to Bendigo many years ago, I said it would be very good to build a large stupa there. Dr. Adrian has built the monastery, so that has been done. Last time I was in Australia Ian had already laid the foundations for the stupa.

Ian Green: Thank you very much, Rinpoche. As Rinpoche mentioned, I am Ian, and Judy is over there. Twenty years ago last August, Lama Yeshe was in Australia, and my family had just offered fifty acres of land to Lama. Lama walked around the site and laid out a master plan in August 1981 for a Dharma center, a large monastery, a hospice and a lay community. Right in the middle of this was to be what Lama described as a big stupa, and he said that inside this big stupa was to be a big gompa and also a library.

During the past twenty years, we’ve been developing our center, and three or four years ago Dr. Adrian, Thubten Gyatso, also completed building the first stage of the monastery there in Bendigo. A lay community is also just starting to happen at the moment, and a small group is working on the hospice. So, most of the plan that Lama laid out for us is happening.

About eight years ago we still hadn’t decided what this big stupa should look like, and then Rinpoche said that this was his idea for the big stupa. This is the Gyantse Kumbum, which was built around 1450 by Rabten Kunsang, a prince of Gyantse. We are building a stupa that is exactly the same size and that will externally have exactly the same appearance. In feet, it’s approximately 150 feet high and 150 feet square. For those of you who know meters, that’s almost 50 meters high and 50 meters square. Inside our stupa will be a three-story high gompa that will seat 500 people. When you walk in, you will see at the end a large three-story high Buddha with light coming down around it.

This is the stage we’re at. At the moment, from a distance and from the air it looks as if a spaceship has crashed into the bush. But it hasn’t. In the middle of the picture you might be able to see three or four little dots. They’re bulldozers, big earth-moving equipment.

The inner circle is where the stupa will be located. The three rings around that are for circumambulation, a ling kora. Around those circumambulation paths, on the retaining walls, will be 100,000 small stupas.

Rinpoche: Nothing unusual. Nothing new!

Ian: I’m pleased it’s not more.... There will be 100,000 small stupas. There will also be 5,000 larger stupas, as well as many prayer wheels.

Rinpoche: I thought there were 100,000 prayer wheels?

Ian: Yes, you did say that, but I was hoping that you might have forgotten. Well, it will be very difficult to fit 100,000 prayer wheels unless they’re very, very small, which I know Rinpoche doesn’t want.

The project is well under way in terms of construction. This is the time-line chart for the construction of the stupa. What it shows is that there will be actual concrete in the ground in those earthworks next year. And in two and a half years the construction will commence. Initially we’ll just be building the gompa part as a functioning building, and then from there the rest of the building will be built in stages, with ultimate completion of the building in 2010. So, that’s the schedule, and on paper it all seems to work very effectively.

Judy and I have been traveling around India and around America telling people like you about the project. We’ve been offered some wonderful relics and holy objects for the stupa, and we’ve also had many great offers of support. This is very much part of an ongoing program, and I’m just letting people know about the stupa and just gaining support for it around the world. Here in America we’ve had absolutely fantastic support from the people we’ve met in Colorado and in New Mexico. They’ve shared information about their stupas and also backed us as much as they possibly can.

Rinpoche: What happened in India?

Ian: The reason we went to India was to take a large model of the stupa, two meters square, which is about six or seven feet square, and about this high. One of the monks in Bendigo worked on the model for about four months and then four volunteers painted it beautifully. We air freighted it to Delhi, which was far and away the most expensive part because everything else was volunteered. And, of course, getting it out of Delhi airport was really expensive and time-consuming. There was a lot of trouble getting it there, and Judy and I had $US500 stolen, and many other things like that happened.

Anyway, we got the model to Kushinagar which, as many of you will know, is where the Buddha passed into parinirvana. There is a large Buddhist museum there, with a new international wing, and our stupa is sitting right in the middle of it on permanent display. Kushinagar is one the four holiest places of Buddha, where Buddha said that it’s good for Buddhists to make pilgrimage. It’s also where Buddha was cremated. Before Buddha was cremated he gave instructions on what was to be done with his ashes, which was, of course, to make stupas with them. So, the whole birth of the Buddhist stupa tradition was in Kushinagar.

Representatives from His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Office, who were very supportive, were there, as well as people from the Uttar Pradesh government and even the Australian High Commission. It was a big event. Then afterwards we traveled to other places in India, including Dharamsala.

Is that OK?

Rinpoche: It was great.

Ian: Thank you.

[There is a round of applause from the audience.]

Rinpoche: The Gyantse Stupa in Tibet is very interesting. I don’t know much about it and so much has been destroyed, but there is a Kalachakra temple and also a Medicine Buddha temple, I think. There is also a combination of Gelug and other traditions just in that area. It’s a very, very interesting place. The different colleges of the monastery practice different deities. It’s very inspiring.

In the stupa as you go around there are different lower tantra, yoga tantra and maha-anuttara yoga tantra deities. I think there are about sixty different deities from the different levels of tantra. It’s very interesting. So much has now been destroyed, so you see the ruins. Fortunately the main stupa was not destroyed, but many of the small temples were.

Ian and Judy have taken on the great task of this stupa, which will be most amazing, not only generally in the world but especially in Australia. Near Chenrezig Institute there is a huge pineapple, about the size of a house, and people come from all over the world to see this pineapple. That’s right, isn’t it, Anila Ann? Thousands of people come each year to see this big pineapple, but what do they get? Nothing.

But when people come to Bendigo, there will be 100,000 stupas and prayer wheels and so many other holy objects. After they go around the stupa, they will go back home with many hundreds of thousands of causes of enlightenment planted in their mind and so many negative karmas purified. Even the tourists, who don’t have any devotion, will have made so much preparation in their minds to achieve enlightenment.

Both Ian and Judy, besides taking on this great task of building this incredibly inspiring stupa, have worked very hard for Atisha Centre. In the past when I was visiting Bendigo, I remember Judy working so hard for the center for many years. I have that strong imprint in my mind of their hard work, their service.

So, I think that’s it. I want to thank you both very, very much from the bottom of my heart. Really, thank you very, very much for dedicating yourselves for so many years to the center and especially to this project, which is actualizing Lama’s original wishes.

Thank you so much. Good night, good morning.

 

Chapter 10. Thursday, November 1: Final Medicine Buddha Session

Requesting prayer

“May whatever prayers you have done in the past ripen to me and all sentient beings. And may whatever prayers I have done be actualized immediately.”

Whatever prayers I have done refers to the many prayers you have done for yourself as well as for other sentient beings in your daily life. You are praying for all of them to succeed.

Aspects of the Medicine Buddhas

In regard to the colors and mudras of the Medicine Buddhas, I can’t say which ones are correct, because you find slight differences between different Tibetan texts. I can’t say which ones are correct because I haven’t met the seven Medicine Buddhas and been able to ask them,” What are your mudras? What are your colors?” Basically, I think you can follow the ones you see here in this text. The main point is to have some idea of the colors and mudras to distinguish the different buddhas.

We checked with His Holiness’s Private Office about the colors and mudras, but it seems there are differences between the different texts. I don’t really think it’s a problem. The main thing is just to focus on the deity itself. You can follow what we have in the text here. If all the other texts were one way and this was the only one that was different, this one could be mistaken, but there are differences between the different texts.

The nature of omniscient mind

In Highest Yoga Tantra there are two stages: the graduated generation stage and the graduated completion stage. The generation stage has gross and subtle stages, and in the subtle stage you’re able to clearly visualize every single detail of yourself and the entire mandala as a drop the size of a mustard seed at either the lower or upper tip of the central channel. You have that realization of stable concentration.

This then becomes preparation for the completion stage, which has isolation of body, isolation of speech, isolation of mind, clear light, the illusory body, and the unification of those two. When you have achieved the illusory body, your subtle body is able to do practices and activities without depending on your gross body. With unification, you are able to manifest many forms of yourself as the deity. By training your mind, you then achieve the unification of no more learning. In regard to unification, there is the path unification and the unification of no more learning. At that time you have removed the subtle negative imprints left by delusion that projected inherently existent appearance. There’s no resistance to the extremely subtle wind in that holy body and, of course, there’s no resistance to the mind. That’s according to tantra. From Highest Yoga Tantra you can see how there is no place where there is no buddha. It is not just that the omniscient mind can see everything from a distance. Omniscient mind covers all phenomena. There is no place where there is no omniscient mind, because the extremely subtle wind is beyond obstruction, beyond resistance.

Anyway, these are very secret points of tantra. If you don’t have a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation, it will be revealing secrets to discuss this. I can’t really clarify this as it involves talking about the dharmakaya, which is an ultimate secret. You can only understand precisely about dharmakaya from Highest Yoga Tantra explanations. With the sutra explanations, even though you can do extensive study of a buddha’s qualities, you can’t really clarify the very subtle points. You can do this only with Highest Yoga Tantra.

What I’m saying is that the Medicine Buddhas are always there. It’s just that our mind is obscured, so our defilements block our seeing all the deities. Medicine Buddha is always there on our crown or in front of us. The reason we do the invocation, even though the Medicine Buddhas are already there, is for our ordinary mind, because it helps us to have more faith.

Even with an ordinary spirit, who is a samsaric being, when you think of the name of that particular spirit to invoke it, it immediately enters the medium’s body. If this happens with even a spirit, there’s no doubt about when we invoke a buddha. Even ordinary spirits, who are not free from samsara, can see with their ordinary kinds of clairvoyance that you have invoked them and can come immediately. Pretas have ordinary clairvoyance; it’s not developed through meditation but is just their karma while they are in that state.

So, of course, when you mention the name of a buddha, when you invoke a buddha, there’s no doubt that they will immediately come. A buddha has an omniscient mind that can see all past, present and future existence directly and unmixed, that can see all the karmas, even the subtle ones, of each and every one of the numberless sentient beings directly and unmixed, so there’s no doubt that they are really there where you visualize them, especially if you invoke them by mentioning their name. There’s no doubt about this. Even without the invocation, they are always there with you. The numberless buddhas are always there with you wherever you are.

As our mind becomes more and more pure, we see more and more phenomena. When our mind becomes purer, we can then see a buddha’s form; we can then see a buddha in the aspect of a buddha. Other than that, what we see are just representatives of buddhas, such as statues of deities. It’s mentioned in the teachings that other sentient beings, such as animals, can’t see even statues of buddha, which we can see. It is said that these statues are manifestations of buddha. Even though we can’t see an actual living buddha in that aspect adorned with the holy signs and exemplifications, or in the aspect of a deity, all the holy objects that we now see are manifestations of buddha in accord with our present karma, our present state of mind.

Many other sentient beings can’t even see holy objects; they can’t see statues or stupas of buddha or texts. Their mind is so obscured that they don’t have the karma to see them. In the world there are also many human beings who never see even a statue of Buddha in their whole life. They have no opportunity at all to purify their mind by seeing that form and to plant seeds of liberation and enlightenment. So many human beings don’t have even that karma.

When we think of the sentient beings who don’t have this opportunity, we then see how extremely fortunate we are. I mean, in some ways we are pure compared to those sentient beings. Being able to see this many holy objects gives us the opportunity to collect merit day and night in our everyday life, unless from our own side we don’t do the practices of making offerings and prostrations or don’t take the opportunity to look at holy objects and purify our mind and plant seeds of enlightenment, which cause us to have realizations within our mind. Unless from our own side we don’t take the opportunity, we can see, have and make so many holy objects all the time, which gives us an unbelievable opportunity for quick enlightenment. It makes it so easy for us to create the cause of all happiness and to quickly achieve enlightenment. We can see that having and seeing holy objects are unbelievably precious. It shows that we are unbelievably fortunate.

As our mind develops more and more, we are able to see more and more. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo mentions in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand that a meditator who has entered the Mahayana great path of merit, (the Mahayana path of merit has small, intermediate and great divisions) is able to see the statues that we normally see as ordinary statues in nirmanakaya aspect, with the holy signs and exemplifications. And a meditator who has achieved the Mahayana path of seeing (and this can also be related to the tantric path) is able to see statues in sambhogakaya aspect. Of course, when that meditator then becomes enlightened, their mind becomes one, or mixed with, the holy mind of all the buddhas.

Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche says there are two views on this. Some people accept that the mind becomes one with all the buddhas and others don’t accept that. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo explains that when you become enlightened, your mind mixes with the holy mind of all the buddhas. I follow that explanation. In Maitreya Buddha’s teaching, Ornament of Mahayana Sutras, though I don’t remember the exact words, there are powerful quotations about how all the water from different springs or rivers comes into the ocean and becomes one with it and about how the beams of the one sun reach everywhere. In a similar way, all the various forms of buddha are manifested from dharmakaya and then liberate sentient beings and bring them to enlightenment.

Benefits of holy objects

As you will remember, Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo explains in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand that you should have an altar in your home and that you must look at it every day. Don’t just think, “Oh, I know what’s there.” It’s emphasized that every day you must look at holy objects, even those in your room. By simply seeing them, as I mentioned last night, you collect unbelievable merit, purify your mind and plant seeds of enlightenment. Planting seeds of enlightenment doesn’t refer to just enlightenment itself. That’s the ultimate goal to be achieved, but I think it also includes achieving the realizations of the whole path to enlightenment.

For example, it is normally said that as soon as you offer one stick of incense, one flower, one bowl of water or one tiny grain of rice or do a prostration or show respect to a holy object, such as a statue, stupa, scripture or picture of Buddha, whether that holy object is actually there or you have visualized it, it becomes the cause to achieve enlightenment. And it is the same when you make a food or tea offering, where you offer the essence of the food and drink to holy objects. As soon as you make the offering by thinking of Buddha, it becomes a cause to achieve enlightenment. And how can you achieve enlightenment without actualizing the path? There’s no way you can. Becoming a cause to achieve enlightenment means becoming a cause to achieve all the realizations of the path from the beginning to the end: guru devotion, the three principal aspects of the path and the two stages of tantra. The moment you make the offering, you create the cause to achieve all that.

Therefore, you can see that holy objects, whether big or small and no matter what material they’re made of, are most precious, more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel. If you find a wish-fulfilling jewel, by praying to it you can get all the enjoyments you want. You can get as many limousines as you want, as many swimming pools as you want, as many motor cycles as you want. Anyway, I’m joking. By praying to that wish-fulfilling jewel, you can get as many enjoyments as you want. You might be thinking that this happens due to the power of the wish-granting jewel, but of course it’s based on your karma, your merit. Having the karma to have that jewel means that you also have the karma to have all those enjoyments.

These holy objects are far more precious than numberless wish-granting jewels. These holy objects bring you limitless skies of benefit: cessation of all karma and delusions, of all the defilements, the continuation of which has no beginning; cessation of all suffering, the continuation of which has no beginning; and all the realizations of the path from the beginning to the end, which means enlightenment. This is what you get from these holy objects. You are then able to liberate the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. The preciousness of these holy objects is beyond words. The benefit we get from them is definitely beyond our concept. It’s unimaginable. We could never finish explaining the benefit we get from them. Since they are extremely precious, we should have as many of them as possible.

We talk about good luck and success, and we use feng shui and many other methods to have them. Some people don’t believe in or use feng shui or those other methods, but they have their own understanding of how to make their life successful. They may think, “If I study this, I will be successful in my job.”

However, if you don’t have good karma, if you don’t have merit, you can’t even find a good doctor that can cure your sickness. Or even if you find a good doctor, they won’t be able to cure your disease if you don’t have merit. Even if you use feng shui, it won’t work if you don’t have merit, because feng shui is only an external arrangement. Feng shui alone won’t work. You first have to have the merit, the good karma. If you have the good karma, you will then find the person to do feng shui correctly. This is just an example, but it is the same with everything else.

It is the same with the Dharma. If you don’t have merit, you can’t find the right virtuous friend to reveal Dharma to you, to show you the path to happiness, to liberation and enlightenment. The very first thing is to find someone who can show you the path to happiness and not the path to suffering. You don’t want to be shown a path that leads to suffering, to the suffering of the lower realms and of samsara. You don’t want to follow a path that causes you to be born in samsara and to experience samsaric suffering. You need merit, because without merit you can’t meet an unmistaken guru who can reveal the right path. For everything you need to have merit.

Having these holy objects makes life so easy; they make it easy to collect merit and to create the cause of any happiness, any success. You can create all the good luck, or good fortune—or whatever else you want to call it.

In his lamrim teachings Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo emphasizes that we should treat holy objects as actual living buddhas. We should respect a statue as an actual living buddha. Respecting them in this way then becomes the cause, sooner or later, to actually see them as buddhas.

Meditating on emptiness

Yesterday I introduced the idea of first focusing on the hallucination. The essence of what I mentioned yesterday is to first just look at the I and the aggregates. Look at how your body, from your limbs down to the atoms and the particles of each atom, appears to you. Also look at your consciousness, down to the split seconds of consciousness and then the divisions of those split seconds. Look at how they appear to you and how you believe them to exist. Look at how your mind apprehends them.

On the merely imputed I there is a hallucination, or projection, of a truly existent appearance. On the merely labeled aggregates, there is a truly existent appearance. On the merely labeled form, there is an appearance of a truly existent form. And it is the same with the consciousness. On the merely labeled feeling, there is a truly existent appearance. On the aggregate of recognition, which is merely labeled, there is the projection of a truly existent appearance. On the merely labeled compounding aggregates, there is the projection of a truly existent appearance. And on the merely labeled consciousness, there is the projection of a truly existent appearance.

In regard to the body, from the limbs down to the particles of the atoms, which are all merely labeled, there is the projection of a truly existent appearance. And in regard to the consciousness, from the seconds of consciousness down to the split seconds of consciousness, which are all merely labeled, there is the projection of a truly existent appearance.

We can say either “projection” or “hallucination.” We can use either term. Just focus on this. Look at this. Reflect on this. Think,” This is how it appears to me. This is how I see it in my mind, and this is what I believe.” Think of all these things, from the I down to the particles of the atoms and the split seconds of consciousness, then think, “All these are hallucinations.” [meditate]

Mediate intensely on this: All of them are hallucinations. Look at all of them as hallucinations, as they are hallucinations. [meditate]

While you are looking at the hallucinations as hallucinations, the idea of emptiness comes in your heart as a result. There you have the understanding of all phenomena are empty by nature. Those words are an exact commentary to your experience. Your mind is seeing what the words in the texts say.

It is the same with all external things, with every single phenomenon that we see here. First of all we’ll start with the forms. All these forms are merely imputed by your mind, but a hallucination, or projection, of truly existent appearance completely covers all of them. This applies to everything here, whether you are looking at me, other people, the statues or the flowers.

It is similar with the sounds. On the merely imputed sound, there is the projection of an inherently existent appearance. When you hear my voice from my throat, it is a merely imputed sound, but with the hallucination of a truly existent appearance, a real voice, a real sound, is appearing to you.

I hope you have some smells there; otherwise, we can’t meditate on emptiness. Somebody can create the smell so that we can meditate on emptiness. Somebody can create the smell to support their neighbor’s meditation on emptiness. I’m joking. Anyway, whether you call it “a bad smell,” “a good smell” or “a fantastic smell,” it is a smell that has been merely imputed by your mind. And your mind has projected a truly existent appearance on that merely imputed smell. Your mind has made it a real smell appearing from there, a smell from its own side, whether it is the smell of perfume or incense or kaka.

It is the same with tastes. The taste that is merely imputed by the mind is covered by the hallucination, or projection, of a truly existent appearance.

It is the same with the merely imputed tangible objects, whether rough, soft or hard. The merely imputed tangible object is covered by the hallucination, or projection, of a truly existent appearance.

When you reflect on the heaviest suffering in samsara, your mind merely imputes “hell” to that. That reality is then covered by the hallucination, or projection, of a truly existent appearance. In a similar way, “enlightenment” is merely imputed to the mind (or the ultimate nature of the mind) that is free from all defilements and complete in all realizations. That’s the reality, but it is covered by the hallucination of a truly existent appearance projected by your own mind, by the negative imprint left by ignorance.

This is meditating on the meaning of All phenomena are empty by nature and thus become emptiness only. All these phenomena are covered by this hallucination. Starting with the I, as we meditated before, and including all other phenomena, all of them are covered by hallucination. Everything, which exists being merely imputed by mind, is covered by hallucination.

Practice mindfulness of this here for a little while. Be aware of the hallucination. Look at the hallucination as a hallucination. Look at how all these phenomena are covered by hallucination. [meditate]

Think, “This is my own hallucination. This hallucination came from my mind; it is projected by my mind. Everything, including the mind, is merely imputed, but it is covered by hallucination, so that an inherently existent mind, a real mind, is appearing from there. All these are hallucinations.” Be deeply mindful of how all these are hallucinations. [meditate]

Think of the meaning of hallucination. Think of the meaning of “All these are hallucinations.” What does it mean? [meditate]

It means they are all empty, nonexistent. Starting with the I and including the mind that projects the hallucinations, all these phenomena are totally empty, nonexistent. All these phenomena appear as something real from there but they are all totally empty. In other words, they are all hallucinations. That means they are all totally empty, totally nonexistent. What was appearing before was a hallucination, which means it’s totally nonexistent. Now, concentrate intensely on that emptiness. [meditate]

In emptiness, there is no this and that. There is no samsara and no nirvana. There is no hell and no enlightenment. There is no me and no you. There is no bad and no good. There is no pure and no impure. In emptiness, there is not even emptiness itself. [meditate]

Here you can see that if there is no appearance of conventional truth, there will be no appearance of inherent existence. For us sentient beings these two come together: if there’s appearance of conventional truth, there’s appearance of inherent existence. Here there is total absence of truly existent appearance, which is the object to be refuted. In Tibetan it’s called me gak. Here emptiness only makes sense. You are seeing emptiness only, tong pa nyi—nothing other than that. [meditate]

When you practice mindfulness of everything as a hallucination, as it is a hallucination, you start to see its nature is empty. Looking at the hallucinations as hallucinations, as they are hallucinations, enables your mind to see the nature of phenomena, which is that they are empty. Before you believed one hundred percent that they were truly existent, as they appeared to you to be. But after you have recognized the hallucination as a hallucination, at that time you are able to see that all phenomena are empty by nature, which means empty of existing from their own side.

You now see nothing: no conventional appearance, no truly existent appearance, nothing. You now see that all those are totally empty, nonexistent. You see only the total absence of that, the emptiness of that. Nothing else. That intense emptiness that your mind sees is the very nature of phenomena, emptiness only.

Now, that wisdom seeing emptiness becomes the creator of everything: the meditator, the action of doing the sadhana, the deity. Everything manifests from that emptiness.

Please read.

Ven. René: “While they are emptiness, a PAM appears, and from this comes a variegated lotus....

Rinpoche: I think it should be kept as before, “while it is empty” not “while it is emptiness only.” It becomes emptiness only, then while it is empty.... It’s different.

Before you were just concentrating on emptiness by stopping everything. When you meditate on emptiness, everything—the truly existent appearance and the appearance of conventional truth—is stopped. There’s nothing, so it’s emptiness only.

Your wisdom seeing that emptiness then manifests the mandala, the deity and various other things. What this means is that that mind understanding emptiness then takes these forms of the mandala and the deity. Whatever form is taken, the idea is that your mind is constantly aware that they are all empty. The moment it takes the form of the mandala, we’re aware that it’s empty of inherent existence, that it doesn’t have inherent existence. The moment it takes the form of the deity, we’re aware that it doesn’t have inherent existence, even though it appears to us to have inherent existence because we’re sentient beings. Even though it appears to be inherently existent, our mind, which is in the form of the deity, understands that it doesn’t have inherent existence. We have that awareness. So, there is constantly the practice of wisdom. And at the same time there is the practice of method, with our mind focused on the pure appearance of the mandala, deity and all the other things. At the same time, that mind is aware, as every single one of these things takes form, that it doesn’t have inherent existence. Even though everything appears to be inherently existent, we have the understanding that it’s not true. At the same time that mind is aware of this. That is the path of wisdom. The one mind practices method and wisdom together, inseparably. That’s what receives the name vajra, as in Vajrayana. If we meditate like this, with inseparable method and wisdom, our practice becomes vajra. Because this ceases the gross and subtle defilements and then brings us to enlightenment, it is called yana, which means vehicle. So, Vajrayana. This is the way we’re supposed to practice the sadhana from the beginning to the end. If we do so, our practice becomes Vajrayana. Otherwise, it doesn’t become Vajrayana. If we forget emptiness, the nature of phenomena, it’s only method, and it then doesn’t become Vajrayana. This inseparability of method and wisdom is the foundation of the practice. Here, the inseparability of method and wisdom of our mind is like flour, which can be used to make noodles, momos, bread, cake and all sorts of other forms.

So, if you say “while it is emptiness only” instead of “while it is empty,” it means you are supposed to see only emptiness, with no appearance of conventional truth. You then can’t have the appearance of the deity, the mandala or anything else. Therefore, you should say “while it is empty,” which means empty of true existence. You should use the same expression as you used previously during the offerings, “while it is empty,” or tong pai nang le, in Tibetan. It then fits. Otherwise, there will be confusion. If your mind is emptiness only, nothing of a conventional nature is supposed to appear, and yet at the same time you have to manifest the mandala and the deity. That problem arises. So, use “while it is empty.”

Ven. René: In the blessing of the offerings it was “while everything is empty.”

Rinpoche: That’s right. It should be the same here.

Ven René: So, we should say “while everything is empty” instead of “while they are emptiness”?

Rinpoche: “While it is empty” means while it is empty of true existence.

Ven. René: In the blessing of the offerings, it was “While everything is empty, OM appears....”

Rinpoche: That’s right. It should be exactly the same here.

Ven. René: And here it says, “While they are emptiness, a PAM appears....”

Rinpoche: I see. So we are going to throw away the word “only” this time?

Ven. René: There is no word “only” here.

Rinpoche: When we say “while” we don’t say “only.” It’s “While everything is empty of true existence....”

Ven. René: So the sentence goes “All phenomena are empty by nature and thus become emptiness only.”

Rinpoche: Perfect!

Ven. René: And then it goes on, “While they are emptiness, a PAM appears....”

Rinpoche: Oh, that’s great! “Emptiness” is OK, but not the word “only.”

Ven. René: There’s no word “only.”

Rinpoche: Oh, I’ve been hearing it. There might be something wrong with my ear—I have been hearing “While everything is emptiness only....”

Ven. René: No, it’s not there in the text. Maybe I said it, but it’s not in the text.

Rinpoche: Oh, I was about to blame someone. Anyway, go on, please. Now we’ll let the horse run....

Ven. René: “While they are emptiness, a PAM appears, and from this comes a variegated lotus....”

Motivation for mantra recitation

Think, “I am going to do the recitation of every single mantra for the Buddha of Compassion, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to have stable life and for all his holy wishes to succeed immediately. As well, may all other virtuous friends and all other holy beings who are working for sentient beings and for the teaching of Buddha, have stable lives, and may all their holy wishes to benefit others succeed immediately.

“I am going to recite every single mantra to free the numberless hell beings from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible.

“I am going to recite every single mantra for the numberless hungry ghosts, who are the most precious, most kind ones in my life, to free them from all their suffering and its causes and quickly bring them to enlightenment.

“I am going to recite every single mantra for the numberless animals, including every single insect. Some animals are as large as mountains and others are so small that you can see them only through a microscope. Every single one of them is the most precious, most kind one in my life. I’m going to recite every mantra to free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible.

“I am going to recite every single mantra for every single one of the numberless human beings, who is the most precious, most kind one in my life, to free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible.

“As well, I am going to recite every single mantra for every single one of the numberless asura beings, who is the most precious, most kind one in my life, to free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible.

“I am going to recite every single mantra for every single one of the numberless suras, who is the most precious, most kind one in my life, to free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible.

“I am going to recite every single mantra for every single one of the numberless intermediate state beings, who is the most precious, most kind one in my life, to free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible.

“Also, I am going to recite every single mantra for world peace, to stop all the wars that are happening, as well as all the terrorist attacks, famines, diseases, poverty and dangers from fire, water, air or earth.” Think especially of all those in Afghanistan who are having problems; thousands of people have lost or are losing their jobs, as well as facing poverty and disease. “May all these problems that are happening be stopped, and may sentient beings never ever experience them again.

“And may all the FPMT projects, including those here at LMB (the temple with 100,000 Medicine Buddha statues, the 100,000 stupas, the social service projects of the school and hospice) and all the other projects in all the rest of the centers, and especially the 500-foot Maitreya Buddha statue, be completed as quickly as possible by receiving everything needed.”

So, we are going to recite the mantras for all these purposes.

You can also think of either a particular purpose or a particular person that you want to pray for, perhaps someone who has died or is sick. The mantras can also be dedicated for that.

Protector prayers

From our hearts we should make strong prayers to the protectors that Lama Ösel Rinpoche have no obstacles to his studies. Lama Ösel recently left for Spain after doing very intensive study and examinations. His attendant said that he was the top student. Then just two days ago he sent a message expressing how much he needed a holiday. His mother and Francois came and spent a few weeks there, and Lama expressed a great need for a holiday, for his health and to recover from the intensive study. He expressed this strongly. It would be best for him not to go, but I said that maybe it’s OK to go for two weeks.

Make strong prayers for Lama Ösel to come back without any obstacles and to continue his study. May Lama’s mind not change, and may he be able to come back even within the two weeks and continue his study. Make strong prayers for this to the protectors.

This way of playing the cymbals is not particularly the Gelug way of doing it. It’s kind of the Solu Khumbu way, but not pure Solu Khumbu....

[Rinpoche plays the cymbals for a long time, then chants the protector prayers. Rinpoche then recites King of Prayers in Tibetan while the group recites it in English, with Rinpoche taking a little longer to complete it.]

So, I was late.

Dedications

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, may the Buddha of Compassion, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and all other virtuous friends have stable lives. May all their holy wishes succeed immediately.

“Gang ri ra wäi khor wä zhing kham dir....”⁴⁷

Then, for all other virtuous friends....

“Päl dän la mäi ku tshe tän pa dang....⁴⁸

“Jang chhub sem chhog rin po chhe....”

Dedicate the merits in the following way. “May the source of all happiness and success for me and for all sentient beings, bodhicitta, be generated within my own mind, in the minds of the members of my family and in the mind of every single sentient being without even a second’s delay. May the bodhicitta that has been generated be developed.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, from now on in all future lifetimes, forever, may I be able to offer extensive benefit like the sky to all sentient beings and to the teaching of Buddha, like Medicine Buddha and Lama Tsongkhapa, by having the same qualities within me as Medicine Buddha and Lama Tsongkhapa have.

“Due to all the merits of the three times collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, in whichever universe, world, country, area, place and house I am, may just my being there in that universe, country, area, place and house be most beneficial, so that all the sentient beings living in that universe, world, country, area, place and house never ever be reborn in the lower realms from that time. May they immediately actualize bodhicitta and realize emptiness. May they never experience war, famine, disease, torture, poverty, sickness and dangers from fire, water, air or earth, such as floods and other natural disasters that cause so many people to be homeless or to die. May those happening now immediately be stopped, and may they never ever experience any of those things again. May those who are deaf be able to hear; may those who are blind be able to see; may those who are lame be able to walk; and may those who are in comas be able to immediately recover consciousness. May the hearts of those who experience many depressions where nothing can help immediately be filled with great bliss. May those who have many headaches that are difficult to cure immediately stop getting those headaches. May all those with emotional problems, those who are sad, hurt, angry or otherwise disturbed by their own emotional thoughts, and all those with relationship problems, those who have been abandoned or abused, have their minds filled with great loving kindness, and may their lives be filled with joy and satisfaction. May those who are looking for a guru be able to find a perfectly qualified guru. May those who are looking for the Dharma be able to find unmistaken Dharma, the correct path to enlightenment and the teachings that reveal that path. May those seeking to do retreat be able to find a perfect place and conditions and then be able to have a successful retreat and achieve realizations during it. May everyone obtain peace and happiness. May everyone with sickness, including those with cancer, AIDS and other incurable diseases, immediately recover; and may they be able to complete the path and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible. May my being in that universe, world, country, area, place and house be able to cause sentient beings to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.”

In each session you have collected skies of merit so many times, with the bodhicitta motivation, by making offerings, by rejoicing and so forth. Each time you have rejoiced you have collected skies of merit. When you generate the four immeasurable thoughts in each session, with each one you collect skies of merit. During one session you collect inconceivable merit. And you have been living in the Eight Mahayana Precepts. Since each precept is taken for the benefit of all sentient beings, you collect skies of merit with each precept. The amount of merit you have collected today, and even within one session, is unbelievable.

“Due to all the merits collected by me today, during this retreat, in the past, and all the merits that I will collect in the future, and all the merits of the three times collected by others, which are empty from their own side, may the I, which is empty (the real I that is appearing from its own side, from there, is totally nonexistent; not even the slightest atom of it exists), achieve His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s, Medicine Buddha’s, enlightenment, which also does not exist at all from its own side, and lead all sentient beings, who appear truly existent from their own side but who are completely empty, completely nonexistent, to that Medicine Buddha’s 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 the numberless sentient beings who are experiencing unimaginable suffering in the lower realms now and those people who have died whose names were given to me, for whom I promised to pray and who rely upon me, including the Chinese student, Peter, who passed away yesterday, immediately be free from the sufferings of the lower realms and reincarnate in a pure land where they can become enlightened or receive a perfect human body and quickly achieve enlightenment by meeting a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru and the Mahayana teachings.”

I recently met Peter, a lawyer, who had cancer, in Hong Kong. He was a very intelligent, very nice person. I went to the hospital to give him refuge and the Medicine Buddha practice. He had been unable to get out of bed, but later, after chanting the Medicine Buddha mantra after I had told him how to think, he was able to get up and walk around. His parents were very surprised.

“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 be enlightened. And may any sentient being who has been born as a human being but with no opportunity to practice Dharma be able to meet a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru and the Mahayana teachings, and by putting them into practice, may they quickly achieve enlightenment.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, may I, the members of my family, all the students and benefactors of this organization, especially those who give their lives to this organization to benefit sentient beings and the teaching of Buddha, and those who rely upon me, those for whom I have promised to pray and those who are offering service have long lives and be healthy, and may all our wishes succeed immediately according to the holy Dharma.

“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 Sangha in this organization be able to complete the scriptural understanding and realizations of the path to enlightenment in this very lifetime, based on living in pure vinaya and by receiving all their needs and all protection.

“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 social service centers, such as the schools, hospices and so forth, and all the meditation centers become most beneficial for sentient beings, immediately pacifying the sufferings of body and mind of sentient beings. May they spread the teaching of Lama Tsongkhapa in the minds of all sentient beings by receiving everything needed for that.

“May all the projects that each center has succeed immediately. Here, may the temple with 100,000 Medicine Buddha statues, the 100,000 stupas and all the rest of the projects succeed immediately by receiving everything needed. May all the rest of the projects, such as building stupas and other holy objects, monasteries, nunneries and especially the 500-foot Maitreya Buddha statue, be completed as quickly as possible by immediately receiving all the finance and all other things needed. And may all these statues and projects and centers cause all sentient beings to generate bodhicitta and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.”

We will also dedicate the merit with the prayer for the flourishing of Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, which specifies the special qualities of those teachings. When it says, “May the conqueror Losang’s teachings flourish,” it means flourish within your own mind and in this world, in others’ minds. When we do this prayer, it’s good to think of flourishing both within our own mind and in the minds of others.

[The group recites in English Prayer for the Flourishing of Je Tsongkhapa’s Teachings.]

[Rinpoche and the group then recite the mantras to multiply the merits.]

Due to the blessings of the eminent buddhas and bodhisattvas, to my pure attitude and to dependent arising, may my pure prayers succeed immediately.

[Ven. Sarah starts to chant Rinpoche’s long-life prayer.]

No, no. Not tonight. Good-bye. Maybe you can recite it in your dreams!

---

Notes

⁴³ Have no doubt that complete awakening 
Is the fully ripened result—comprehended only by a buddha— 
Of holding in mind by teaching, reading, or reciting 
This aspiration of the bodhisattva practice. (V. 54.) 
[Return to text]

⁴⁴ Those who give voice to this extraordinary aspiration 
Will quickly and completely purify 
The five boundless harmful actions 
Created under the power of ignorance. (V. 51.)
[Return to text]

⁴⁵ One may offer to the buddhas 
All wealth and adornments of infinite worlds in ten directions, 
And one may offer during eons numberless as atoms of the world 
Even the greatest happiness of gods and humans; 

But whoever hears this extraordinary aspiration 
And, longing for highest awakening, 
Gives rise to faith just once, 
Creates far more precious positive potential. (Vv. 47–48.)
[Return to text]

⁴⁶ See stupa.org.au [Return to text]

⁴⁷ In the land encircled by snow mountains
You are the source of all happiness and good; 
All-powerful Chenrezig, Tenzin Gyatso, 
Please remain until samsara ends. 
[Return to text]

⁴⁸ May the glorious gurus’ lives be long and stable. 
May all beings equaling the extent of space have happiness. 
May I and others without exception accumulate merit and purify negativities, 
And may we be blessed to quickly attain buddhahood. 
[Return to text]