December 15, 2017

Preliminary to the Vajrasattva Jenang

[The chant leader begins to recite the protector prayers]

We are going to begin. This is the style of my root guru, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, beginning the jenang with protector prayers, mainly Mahakala and Kalarupa. But here I’ve added a Namthose and Palden Lhamo puja. When there is time we will also do Hayagriva.

First of all, most importantly, this is for His Holiness’ wishes to succeed immediately and all the obstacles to be pacified. Second, for all the activities of the FPMT to spread and preserve the stainless Dharma teachings, in particular those of Lama Tsongkhapa, to be most effective for sentient beings in all the activities. And for Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery and all the Sangha who are learning the Dharma, who are preserving and spreading the Dharma. And the next is for yourself, to be able to complete the Dharma practice in this life. That contains many things, the complete Dharma practice in your life.

So, we’ll recite the Dharma protector prayers.

[Restricted tantra teachings]

Quicker and Quicker

Sorry, again it is taking time. In this particular tradition, Lama Tsongkhapa’s tradition, in the Lama Chöpa, in the special motivation of bodhicitta to practice Dharma [LC 5] there is nyur wa nyur war, “quicker and quicker.” [Generally when we say that] the first “quick” is the lower tantra path. The lower tantra is much quicker to achieve enlightenment [than the Sutrayana.] You can achieve buddhahood in one life by practicing even the lower tantra, whereas by only practicing Mahayana Sutrayana, you can still achieve enlightenment but it takes three countless great eons to complete the merits of wisdom and merits of virtue. Therefore, “quick” here refers to the lower tantra. Then, the next “quicker” of “quicker and quicker” is highest tantra.

That is normally how it is, but here in the Lama Chöpa, the first “quicker” means highest tantra, general highest tantra, and the next “quicker” means practicing Guhyasamaja, Yamantaka and Chakrasamvara without separation. The quickest way to achieve enlightenment is to practice all three without separation.

So, in Lama Chöpa itself, you begin with generating yourself as Yamantaka. Then the extensive offerings are from Heruka. Then, before the offerings, there is a visualization of the merit field. The Guhyasamaja body mandala in your guru’s holy body, to realize it in that nature. Lama Chöpa indicates all three deities, therefore it is the quickest path to enlightenment.

The Three Protectors in Tsongkhapa’s Tradition

In Lama Tsongkhapa’s tradition there are three main protectors for the practitioner of the lamrim: Mahakala, Kalarupa and Namthose. They are the protectors of the paths of the three capable beings: the lower capable being, the middle capable being and the higher capable being. Kalarupa is the Dharma protector of the lower capable being, Namthose is the Dharma protector of the middle capable being and Mahakala is the Dharma protector of the great capable being. They are also protectors of the three principal aspects of the path. Namthose is the Dharma protector of renunciation, Mahakala is the Dharma protector of bodhicitta and Kalarupa is the Dharma protector of emptiness. They are also the protectors of the three higher trainings. Namthose, the one riding a lion, is the protector of the higher training in morality; Mahakala is the protector of the higher training in concentration, shamatha, calm abiding; and Kalarupa is the protector of the higher training in wisdom. That is in the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition. Palden Lhamo has been added by His Holiness and has continued from many great yogis and pandits in history.

[Rinpoche begins the jenang]

The Power of Compassion to Purify

As I mentioned before, it is important to generate [compassion] and loving kindness toward sentient beings. No matter how much they desire happiness, day and night, all the time, they destroy the cause of happiness. It is like this in reality. They desire happiness but always destroy the cause of happiness by, for example, rising heresy and anger to different living beings, to ordinary beings and to bodhisattvas and buddhas. One second of anger of a non-bodhisattva to a bodhisattva destroys one thousand eons of making charity to sentient beings and making offerings to buddhas. That is what A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life says. There is unbelievable harm in having anger for even one second to a bodhisattva, and you don’t know who is a bodhisattva and who is not a bodhisattva. You can’t tell.

I’ll mention some stories. For example, Asanga, the pandit from Nalanda, did twelve years retreat in the cave but didn’t see Maitreya Buddha, nothing. Then, when he left and saw a dog whose lower part of the body was filled with maggots, he got unbearable compassion. It was Maitreya Buddha but Asanga’s mind was obscured that time, so he could only see Maitreya Buddha as a dog—not even as a human being but as a dog full of maggots. What made him see Maitreya Buddha as Maitreya Buddha was the unbelievable compassion he felt and how he sacrificed his life, cutting the flesh of his leg and spreading it out for the maggots to eat. Then, he went to pick them out [with his tongue]. Only then, on the road, he saw Maitreya Buddha. Even though he had meditated in the cave for twelve years, nothing had happened. You have to understand the point; the whole point is compassion. It only happened that he saw the wounded dog on the road and generated compassion, and then he saw Maitreya Buddha. To generate compassion in your life is so important; it is the quick path to enlightenment. Whether you are learned or not, compassion is the most important. Unless you can generate compassion, even for one sentient being, there is no enlightenment.

I think I also told you about Getsul Tsimbulwa, who saw Vajrayogini. He generated compassion for a lady who had leprosy, with pus and blood coming out, unbelievably filthy. It was Dorje Phagmo, but he could only see her after he felt unbelievable compassion for her. He didn’t refuse to touch her because he was a monk and she was a lady or because he would get leprosy. Without thinking, there was unbelievable compassion and when she asked him to take her to the other side of the river, he immediately grabbed her and put her on his back. He didn’t cross the whole river, halfway across his karma was purified. She was Dorje Phagmo but he couldn’t see that; he was too obscured. But by generating compassion, by sacrificing his life, the ordinary karmic appearance was finished. Then she took him without needing to die to Dagpa Khachö pure land. It is possible he got enlightened before his guru, Ngagpo Chopawa.

You have to know what is the most important practice in your daily life. You have to pay attention. Doing retreats, trying to finish a big number of mantras—I’m not sure whether that is qualified, it’s even difficult to know what the motivation is with that kind of retreat. You understand the point.

You need compassion, like Asanga. Maitreya Buddha took him to Tushita pure land. One morning in Tushita is fifty years for human beings. In one morning Maitreya Buddha taught Asanga, then Asanga came down and wrote five commentaries, and numberless beings have become enlightened by realizing what Maitreya Buddha taught. They have realized the path and become enlightened. This happened in the past and will happen in the future, and all that is due to Asanga’s compassion for the wounded dog. You have to pick up the point and practice, not just leave it as a story.

To develop compassion is the most important thing in life. It is the most important practice in daily life. In the monastery, for their whole life monks learn the five great scriptures: Pramanavartika, Abhisamayalamkara, Madhyamaka, Abhidharmakosha and Vinaya. These are all condensed in the lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment, the subjects of the lower capable being in general, the middle capable being in general, all of which talk about how the nature of samsara is suffering, the suffering of the lower realms, the three higher rebirths, the general suffering of samsara, the six types of suffering, how you cycle in samsara, the twelve related limbs. You need to not only study these, to not only understand the words; you have to meditate, you have to feel it, you have to get realizations in effortful meditation and effortless meditation.

Then you can generate compassion not only for the beings of the lower realms but also compassion for human beings, for form realm beings and formless realm beings. You can generate compassion for all beings if you study the lamrim. Then the compassion you generate will be for all, not just limited compassion for some.

The Early Days of Kopan

Even if you explain to people about the correct way to create the cause of happiness, they get scared and run away. For example, in our course here so many people run away. They get afraid, they run away. That is just a small example.

Sorry, I have to tell you this. In the past, many years ago, the course was done many times under a roof of iron sheeting. This was well before we built the Chenrezig gompa. After the third and fourth courses were done in the old gompa here, many people came, so we put a tent at the back. We put some grass and the young monks slept on the dry grass. The temporary houses built were for the Western students. Norbulingka was quickly built of three stories or something, but because it was needed for the Western students, the young monks slept on beds of grass.

We did a few courses in the tent before we moved into the room with iron sheets. Then they put bamboo around, which the little monks painted on, doing whatever they liked. They stuck the paintings all around. There was one door where you came in and another door at the end. What was I saying? I forget.

Then, I talked about the eight worldly dharmas and the hell realms for two or three weeks. People went like this, like the weather when there is no sun or moon, just filled with fog. Then, Lama Yeshe came and everybody woke up. When Lama came everybody laughed; it was kind of healing. He didn’t come every day, just from time to time. After the talk, people went out to have lunch under the tree but then the toilet smell came from nearby. The toilets were not well taken care of. People sat under the tree eating their food, and then the toilet smell came, an offering for the nose! This didn’t just happen once, it happened many times.

The people who attended the early courses went through so much. Now Kopan has become a five-star, a ten-star monastery, but the people who attended the early courses went through so many hardships you wouldn’t believe it. Because of them bearing hardships, we are able to continue the course and able to spread Dharma in the West. They went back and what they found beneficial they wanted to introduce to their friends, so that is how the 160 centers and some schools started. That is what has happened up to now, and that all came from people in the early days bearing hardships to learn the Dharma. The people working in the monasteries, all the staff and all the students coming to do the course, all had to bear so many hardships. It was very kind of them. Because everybody in the monastery and from outside, the students, together bore so many hardships, development happened, not only the development of Kopan but of FPMT in the whole world. This means FPMT has been able to help different people in different countries in the world. It has been able to help, not only by teaching Dharma but in many different ways.

Loving Kindness and Giving Our Body

Our loving kindness should not only be wishing others temporary happiness, but wishing them ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, and not only that but peerless happiness, buddhahood. And it should not just be a wish, but with great loving kindness we take the responsibility on ourselves. First of all, there is giving the body to sentient beings. My root guru, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, said you can’t visualize offering this ordinary body, made of pieces of flesh, with a skeleton, wrapped with nerves, covered with skin. It’s as if everything is just put in a sack covered with skin. Rinpoche didn’t say that but he said you cannot make charity with such a body. He didn’t mention chöd but in chöd there is red distribution and white distribution. In the white distribution you transform your body into nectar and offer it to the spirits. In the red distribution, you transform your body into mountains of blood and flesh. Those who like flesh get flesh, those who like bones get bones. The spirits come from ten directions and eat the red distribution. You don’t do that here.

In lamrim Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche said you visualize your body as a wish-granting jewel. If you think of the meaning, that is OK. Many times, in thangkas of the eight auspicious signs you see wish-granting jewels, either piled up or just one jewel. Sometimes the bodhisattva wheel-turning kings find them in the ocean. I saw a Tibetan medical book where it said that the Buddha’s relics in the end go into the ocean and become wish-granting jewels. They have to be cleaned of mud three ways, the last way the smell is cleaned, and then they are put on a banner on the fifteenth day. Then you pray to them.

The main thing to understand is that the person who prays has unbelievable karma. The jewel is the condition, and then you get whatever you pray for, all the material things and comforts of this life, however many swimming pools you want, however many cars you want, however many helicopters you want. Sai Baba did like this. He gave some people watches, some people gold chains, and they were not things that disappear. I heard of somebody who put huge piles of money in people’s hands but on the way home it disappeared. Sai Baba didn’t do like that. You could keep things for a long time.

[Visualize] your body is transformed into wish-granting jewels filling the whole sky. Then you offer them to numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless sura beings, numberless asura beings, numberless intermediate state beings, to everyone. With the wish-granting jewels filling whole sky, they get everything they want exactly according to their wishes, whatever they are looking for. Then, you think that they receive everything they need. First of all they get what they desire, then second, what they need.

Everyone receives a perfect human rebirth, which is what they need. They meet the Mahayana teachings and meet the perfectly qualified Mahayana guru revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment. Then, they actualize the path, the foundation, sutra and then tantra. They actualize the whole path. Then, once all the gross and subtle obscurations are removed, they achieve the dharmakaya and rupakaya, the holy mind of a buddha and the holy body of a buddha. Everyone—hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human being—everyone becomes a buddha. That is the end. That is what they all need.

First of all, they receive what they desire; then second, they receive what they need. Then after that, you dedicate all your enjoyments, however many you have. You have different hats to wear to different places, to parties and other places. That’s just an example. Or shoes. You have summer shoes, winter shoes, autumn shoes, spring shoes, outside shoes, inside shoes, shoes for parties. You have so many shoes. But even if you only have one pair of shoes, if you dedicate them for the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, and asuras, if you make charity to all sentient beings, from that one pair of shoes you collect infinite merit.

In each realm there are numberless sentient beings, so you create numberless merits by making charity to each realm, even if you only have one pair of shoes, for example. You have many, many shoes. I’m just talking about dedicating your enjoyments to sentient beings. Can you imagine? All the money in the bank, all the dresses—you have so many dresses for different times, outside, inside—all your enjoyments you dedicate for numberless sentient beings in each realm.

Then, like the wish-granting jewel, you dedicate for every hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human being, sura, and asura. They get everything they desire. Then, the next thing, they get what they need: a perfect human body, to meet the Mahayana teachings, to meet the perfectly qualified Mahayana guru revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment, who teaches the Dharma. Then they actualize the path, the base of the sutra and then the result, tantra. They remove all the gross and subtle obscurations and achieve the dharmakaya and rupakaya. Everyone becomes enlightened.

So, you collect unbelievable merits each time you dedicate like this. First of all, there are unbelievable merits by making charity of your body to the numberless sentient beings in one realm. Then dedicating each enjoyment you have, with each one you dedicate for numberless sentient beings in each realm, because they are numberless, you collect unbelievable, limitless merit. You can’t imagine how much merit you collect with that.

Then, after that, you dedicate your merits collected from beginningless rebirths, you are collecting now, and which you will collect in the future. You give the three-time merits that you collect to every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every human being, every sura and asura. Don’t just think of animals in general, but all those in the sky, the numberless mosquitoes, the numberless fleas, the numberless ants, the numberless rats. Sometimes, it is good to think like that. It is very effective when you think of a particular sentient being you don’t want to think of, like snakes or rats. It is so good for your mind. And think of the numberless human beings, numberless sura beings, numberless asura beings. They get everything they desire.

After that, they get everything they need; they attain a perfect human rebirth, meet the Mahayana Dharma and meet the perfectly qualified Mahayana guru revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment. After that, they all actualize the path—the basic [causal] path, the sutra path, and then the resultant path, tantra. Think like that. Then, they remove all the obscurations and become enlightened, achieving the dharmakaya and the rupakaya. They all achieve a buddha’s holy body and a buddha’s holy mind.

In that short time, the merits you collect are unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable. It’s beyond our concept. As I told you before,

Even if you don’t benefit them, the mere thought to benefit somebody is much more special than making extensive offerings to all the buddhas, like clouds in the sky.

I’ve already told you how much merit you collect making an offering of one tiny grain of rice or one tiny flower. Now here, you collect even more with the thought to benefit somebody, not all sentient beings, just to benefit one sentient being. Even if you didn’t get to actually benefit them, but it’s just the mere thought that you are giving to numberless sentient beings. Can you imagine? The merits you collect are unbelievable, unbelievable. Practicing tonglen like that, special bodhicitta, is the quick way to be free from samsara and the quick way to achieve enlightenment. I didn’t get to explain it before, so this is how to do the giving.

In your life, when you meet some people and they talk about their problems—relationship problems or incredible dangers or life-threatening diseases—you do tonglen. From your side, you keep quiet and do tonglen, taking not only those problems you hear about, but the problems of all sentient beings. You take those problems on yourself, into your heart to destroy the self-cherishing thought and even the object of ignorance, the real I, which is not there. You meditate on that.

Doing that, there have been many times when people have recovered from their problems. Then, you pray to the deity you have the strongest connection with or faith in, like Medicine Buddha or Tara. That will help. There are many stories about this but there is no time. For example, I was in Bodhgaya when I heard that somebody had been kidnapped in Singapore. I didn’t have time to pray because I had to go to the gompa to talk, so I relied on the Medicine Buddha, saying sort of like, “It’s up to you.” It’s like handing it over to him. I relied on Medicine Buddha because I didn’t have time to pray, I had to go to the gompa. The person who had been kidnapped was freed the next day. Then, another one was kidnapped, again either in Singapore or Malaysia. I was outside so I thought of Medicine Buddha. That person was also freed. This happened. There are many other stories of people’s experiences, just by relying on the deities. So, tonglen is very good. I will stop here.

[Rinpoche gives the Vajrasattva initiation]