The Benefits of Reciting the Buddha’s Name Mantra
Remember this!
[Rinpoche begins by reciting Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s name mantra many times]
Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s Holy Name Mantra
LA MA TÖN PA CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ PÄL GYÄL WA SHA KYA THUB PA LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO
To Guru, Founder, Bhagavan, Tathagata, Arhat, Perfectly Completed Buddha, Glorious Conqueror, Shakyamuni, I prostrate.
TADYATHA OM MUNE MUNE MAHA MUNAYE SVAHA
These few syllables of the Prajnaparamita have unbelievable benefits. It has unbelievable benefits.
First, when we recite this, it purifies 80,000 billion eons of negative karma, 80,000 billion eons of negative karma. This is mentioned in the Buddha’s teachings, the Kangyur. The Buddha’s teachings, the Kangyur has more than a hundred volumes, and it is mentioned there. If you want to know where it is mentioned, it is mentioned in the Kangyur. I don’t remember the number of pages; there are a number of different texts. It depends on the different texts, depending on different volumes, the page changes.
It purifies 80,000 billion eons of negative karma when you recite this. You must write it down! It is mentioned in the Kangyur. The benefits are also mentioned in the lamrim texts, but much less. When you read the Kangyur, it is mentioned that 80,000 billion eons of negative karma are purified. You have to know that. You have to know that.
Second, our life always goes toward enlightenment; it never goes down. Our life always goes to enlightenment. That’s the second benefit, that our life always goes directly to enlightenment, it never goes down.
That helps us to not get depressed, thinking “I can’t do anything. I’m nothing!” In the West, there are millions of people with depression. The major problem is that they don’t know the meaning of life, they don’t know how to make life meaningful. The problem is that they don’t know how to make their life happy. Does everybody understand?
When we don’t know how to make our life happy, we moan and cry, “Ooooooooh,” like this for months and years. [Rinpoche hangs his head] “Nobody loves me, nobody loves me,” for months and years, years and years. Our precious human body is wasted.
It’s like arriving [on an island] where there are so many wish-granting jewels that we can collect but we never recognized them and so we return empty-handed. Do you understand? Like that, we have totally wasted our perfect human rebirth. We only have this one time and then death happens and it’s finished.
Our whole life is used to create negative karma, the cause of the lower realms, the cause to be born as a hell being, a hungry ghost or an animal. Our whole life, day and night, is used for that. It’s very sad.
This is not the first time. It has been like this from beginningless rebirths. Fortunately, like in a dream, something impossible has happened this time and we have attained a human rebirth, which we can use to achieve the three great meanings. You have meditated on that already. The three great meanings are to achieve higher rebirth, to achieve liberation from samsara, not just a few months or a few years and then come back, but forever. Forever free from samsara and its causes. And the third great meaning is attaining full enlightenment for the sake of sentient beings, so we are able to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment.
The third benefit is that reciting [this mantra] creates the karma to be able to practice tantra. It creates the cause to actualize the tantric path, the quick path to enlightenment, to achieve enlightenment in one lifetime. Especially, by practicing highest yoga tantra we can achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate times or within a few number of years, like Gyalwa Ensapa did.
Then fourth, we can bring incredible, unbelievable extensive benefits to sentient beings. By reciting this, we are able to do like Chenrezig, the compassionate buddha, and like Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. Just as they received benefits from this, by reciting this we will also get the same, because the nature of our mind is buddha nature. I’m not saying that our mind is a buddha mind. I’m not saying we are a buddha. If that were the case, if we were already buddhas, it looks like there would be two sorts of buddhas: obscured, suffering buddhas and buddhas who are free from suffering. Therefore, we would be an obscured buddha!
What does the term “buddha” mean? “Buddha” means being free from all the sufferings and obscurations. That is the meaning of “buddha.” And the completion of all realizations, that is what “buddha” means. That means we are not a suffering being, that we don’t have obscurations, if we are a buddha. Like that, like Chenrezig, we are able to bring incredible, extensive benefits to sentient beings, which is the fourth benefit.
You must write this down. You must know the four benefits of reciting the few syllables of the Prajnaparamita. It is incredible.
I’ll do the lung of that, OK. To achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, I’m going to do the lung. [Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s Holy Name Mantra.]
LA MA TÖN PA CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ PÄL GYÄL WA SHA KYA THUB PA LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO
To Guru, Founder, Bhagavan, Tathagata, Arhat, Perfectly Completed Buddha, Glorious Conqueror, Shakyamuni, I prostrate.
TADYATHA OM MUNE MUNE MAHA MUNAYE SVAHA
Not “MUNI MUNI.” That is wrong. Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche said that is wrong. It’s MUNE MUNE but many texts have MUNI MUNI because they didn’t check. Sanskrit is not like English. Rinpoche said that is mistaken. TADYATHA OM MUNE MUNE MAHA MUNAYE SVAHA.
You have received the lung, the oral transmission, which I received from Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche and I think His Holiness.
I’ll continue.
The Wheel of Life [Back to]
The text Gyuwa Namche then says [of the Wheel of Life], “you draw the Buddha’s holy body pointing to a white circle, which signifies the cessation of suffering.” Often this is depicted [in the top corner] of the drawing of the Wheel of Life, where there is the Buddha, pointing his finger to this side. [Rinpoche points up and to his left] This shows this is the true path, [leading from] the three poisonous minds, from the three lower realms’ suffering, creating good karma that means we get a higher rebirth as a deva or a human being.
Besides the desire realm, there are also the form and formless realms. The form realm has four firm contemplations, samten zhi. Within that, there are seventeen categories. The beings of the third realm, the formless realm, have no form, only mind. That is not normally drawn in the Wheel of Life. Some drawings show seventeen lines depicting the seventeen of the form realm but not the formless realm. Because it doesn’t have form, it is not drawn.
Geshe Sopa said that there is suffering of change in the form realm but in this text it says there is no suffering of change in the form realm. Anyway, in the formless realm there is pervasive compounding suffering, the third suffering, but no suffering of pain or suffering of change.
If we want to be free from the all-arising, from karma and delusions, from all suffering, the Buddha points this finger out here, pointing to the true path. [Rinpoche gestures up and to his left]
Then, there are a few lines of a verse and, on top of that, a circle, which is sometimes above the Buddha’s hand. If we want to be free from suffering, we must practice the true path. Then, we will achieve the true cessation of suffering, the sorrowless state. There are sometimes two verses either here or here, and the Buddha points above this, indicating if we practice the true path we will achieve the true cessation of suffering.
In Nepal, many people, both men and women, draw Wheels of Life to sell to Western people in order to make money. But if you don’t know how it should be, what you buy will be imperfect. Many thangkas, many mandalas, many drawings and designs are imperfect, and if you don’t know how to buy them, you can spend so much time and money. People buy huge thangkas of mandalas, but they are not perfect; they are just made up. You need to take somebody from Kopan, somebody who knows well what is correct, and they can help you buy the correct one. Otherwise, many Wheels of Life are incorrect because the artists don’t know the teachings. Of course, there are also artists who have been taught correctly, as the Buddha explained in the teachings, but many Wheels of Life are incorrect.
The form realm, which has four firm contemplations, is not there most of the time. There is no space, so there is no Buddha, no true path. Even the Buddha pointing the way out [of samsara] is not there, pointing out true suffering and the true cause of suffering. If we practice the true path, we achieve the true cessation of suffering. That is what the Buddha is pointing out. That is the solution. It’s so important. In most Wheels of Life the Buddha is there, but in many [there is no indication of] true suffering and the true cause of suffering. In many Wheels of Life you get in Nepal there is just Amitabha Buddha Pure Land. The true path is not there.
When the Buddha taught the four noble truths in the first turning of the wheel of Dharma in Sarnath, he taught the true path, but he did not mention pure lands. It comes later. Many don’t have that, [the true path,] so it’s very sad. There is only true suffering and the true cause of suffering but there is no solution to get out of suffering. Then, we would have to stay in suffering forever, whether we like it or not. Very sad. This is not there in many Wheels of Life. Some don’t even have the Buddha. Like that, it’s very sad.
Even if the Buddha is there, there is no true path, or there is just a pure land, which the Buddha did not mention in the sutra teachings. [Later] it was explained that even if we are full of delusions and mistakes, it is easy to be born in Amitabha Buddha Pure Land. If we pray and collect merits, if we think of the qualities of Amitabha Buddha Pure Land and recite Amitabha Buddha’s mantra. As I mentioned, if we are born in Amitabha Buddha Pure Land, we are so lucky; we don’t experience the suffering of pain, the suffering of change or pervasive compounding suffering. We are free.
Many great lamas who have completed the path said that. Asanga said that. Jetsun Chökyi Gyaltsen, of our Sera Je College, mentioned that. It’s OK, but we must have the true path; we must have those words [in the drawing of the Wheel of Life]. If that is too high, we write there, but we should have the English, so everybody can read it. That is too far away to read. [Rinpoche gestures up and to his left] So, maybe the English can be here. That is very good.
It says in the text that death, [intermediate state] and rebirth are like the bucket that is lowered into the well and then brought up. For the Wheel of Life, the Buddha said to draw the evolution with the twelve dependent-related limbs, [forward as well as] backwards.
Another thing is [the wheel] held in the mouth [of Yama], showing impermanence and death. Yama is not a deity. There are no skeletons. Having skeletons is a mistake. The artist who draws skeletons and offerings down there is wrong. Holding the wheel in Yama’s mouth shows us how our life is trapped in impermanence and death. The numberless beings circling in the six realms—we and everybody else—are in the nature of impermanence and death and being held in the mouth [of Yama] shows this.
I think the [two folds of] a monk’s dongka, the yellow robe, represent Yama’s fangs. Seeing them we are supposed to be aware of impermanence and death, how our life is. We are supposed to always remember how we and the numberless beings are in the nature of impermanence and death. It’s easy that way. This is not only to frighten us but so that we practice Dharma all the time, so that we never waste our life. This is so that we not only make our life meaningful for ourselves but—the best way—so that we make it meaningful for every sentient being: for the numberless hell beings, the numberless hungry ghosts, the numberless animals, the numberless human beings, the numberless suras and asuras, as I mentioned yesterday.
The benefits of practicing the mindfulness that our life is in the nature of impermanence and death are like that. We achieve higher rebirth; we achieve liberation from samsara; we achieve enlightenment! All the numberless sentient beings in the six realms, in samsara, are under the control of impermanence. This impermanence is what the Lord of Death shows by holding the whole Wheel of Life in his mouth. It is to show that every being in samsara is under the control of impermanence and death. But the Lord of Death is not a deity. It shouldn’t be drawn like a tantric deity, with skeletons. Skeletons? [Ven. Ailsa: Skulls.] Skulls. [The Lord of Death] doesn’t have skulls.
And holding the wheel with his two hands shows true suffering and the true cause of suffering. I think it might be like that. Holding it like that shows that we are all under that, under true suffering and the true cause of suffering. But [Yama] is not a deity. That is one mistake.
Then there are two verses [from the Dhammapada]:
[23:327] Delight in heedfulness! Guard well your thoughts. Draw yourself out of this bog of evil, even as an elephant draws himself out of the mud.
We should enter the Buddha’s teachings, [but not] like an elephant going into a mud hut. When an elephant goes into a mud hut it ruins everything!
Anyone who has great conscientiousness,
Should enjoy the holy Dharma of the Vinaya.
There are five paths we must complete to be liberated, to be free from samsara, but the essential path is the three higher trainings: the higher training in morality, the higher training in concentration and the higher training in wisdom. Morality is unbelievably important; it is the basis for the other two. To be free from samsara, that is the basic path. But it can also be the Vinaya. “Dharma” means subduing our mind. It has that meaning.
The perfect human rebirth has eight freedoms and ten richnesses. The eight freedoms include being born as a human being and in the center of a religious country, like Bodhgaya or somewhere where there is the lineage of vows with male and female getsuls and male and female gelongs. Wherever there is a lineage of vows that we can receive, that is a religious country. [With morality, we can be born] with perfect organs and not fall into committing extreme actions, such as the five immediate negativities: killing our own father and mother, killing an arhat, [maliciously] drawing blood from a buddha and causing disunity among the Sangha. If we have done any of these, we have fallen into the extreme action; if we have not committed any of them, we have not fallen into the extreme action.
Another teaching says it is not having committed any of the ten nonvirtues; that is the strictest way [of interpreting it]. It is having faith in the teachings in the Tripitaka, but my guru Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche said [practicing] the Buddhadharma is subduing the mind, so it is the Buddhadharma, and not just the Vinaya, that subdues the mind. Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche said that in Varanasi many years ago when I received the lamrim teachings for the first time.
I don’t have to say all that. Having faith in the Tripitaka, or having faith in the dulwa la depa, that is not necessarily just the Vinaya, it’s having faith that the Buddhadharma subdues our mind. It means having faith in the lamrim, having faith in karma. The text says,
Anyone who has great conscientiousness,
Should enjoy the holy Dharma of the Vinaya.
If you enjoy this, you abandon rebirth in samsara.
Your suffering becomes the last; there is no continuation.
We abandon the cause of suffering, negative karma, and we create the cause of happiness, virtuous karma. As I mentioned, in that way, we can be free from samsara. The basic path is the higher training in wisdom, which depends on the higher training of morality. That is contained there. We can abandon rebirth in samsara. As the text says, “there is no continuation.” Our suffering in samsara is finished. This shows the true path.
The Buddha explained that monasteries should not only have [the Wheel of Life] drawn outside in the gateway, like we have at Kopan, to be seen when you come in, but also for people who don’t know the meaning, there must be a monk, a bhikshu, to explain it to people.
I was thinking, in Bendigo [in Australia], where we are building a huge stupa similar to the Gyangtse stupa in Tibet, we should have a very big Wheel of Life, maybe lit from behind so it stands out very nicely. Then of course, when there is the need, somebody can explain the details. In Lung Namche, the Buddha said that when brahmins, when families, go to the monastery, there should be a monk, a bhikshu, who can explain the meaning of the Wheel of Life.
Another text, Lung Tensag, talks about when the Buddha was abiding in Shravasti, living in Shravasti. Shravasti is an incredible holy place where the Buddha lived for twenty-five years, somewhere near there for five years and then in total twenty-five years [doing the rainy season retreats there]. It was the longest time [he lived anywhere].
Kyabje Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, one of my gurus, said it is incredibly powerful for meditation. I sent an Italian student, Stefano, who was maybe a monk at that time, to check out Shravasti. He said, “When you are there, meditation just comes. You need effort in other places, but there, meditation just comes.” That is the benefit of the place he experienced. It is so powerful. So, I thought to build seven retreat houses there. This was many, many years ago.
At that time, it was not so easy. We have many centers, in Dharamsala, Bodhgaya, Pokhara. In India and Nepal we have different places and you always have to find people to take care of these places. That is so difficult. People say yes, but that is not enough. The person has to take care of the place. It’s difficult to find people to look after these centers, especially in those times. When I think of that, I get very tired! Then, I lose hope to build those seven retreat houses there, so that not only me but other people can do retreat there. I have to find the right people but it is so difficult.
When the Buddha was abiding in Shravasti, a lay benefactor offered the kunga rawa, which I think is the place where you keep Dharma texts, sort of like a library, with the Dharma texts on the shelves. He offered to build the kunga rawa in the park for the four-directions Sangha. It didn’t have a painting. It looked ugly, so they asked the Buddha, who told them to make a drawing. They didn’t know what to draw, so again they asked the Buddha, who told them to draw a gateway, like the outside gate of Kopan, [depicting] the Buddha’s great miraculous powers, the miracles he displayed over fifteen days, and the Wheel of Life, and the Buddha’s life story. The Buddha explained this clearly.
When the Buddha was abiding in India, in the outlying country, Urgyen or Oddiyana, King Udrayana (Making Sound) sent a very precious jewel armor to King Bimbisara (Zug Chen Nyingpo, Essence of Form). Bimbisara couldn’t find a suitable present to send back so he consulted with the ministers who suggested he ask the Buddha. [First] the ministers said to draw the Buddha’s holy body. That might be better to send that to the outlying country, Oddiyana. They tried to draw the Buddha’s holy body by looking at it, but the Buddha’s holy body was so magnificent they couldn’t draw it. Then Buddha sent a shadow on a cloth stretched on the ground, and they could draw from that. Then, the Buddha asked them to put paint on it. After the Buddha was drawn, down below [there should be] taking refuge, the higher training of morality and the twelve dependent-related limbs, [which should be both the evolution of that [in forward order] and in reverse order. They were the verses to be written, and the Wheel of Life was to be there.
When that was sent to the outlying country’s king, Udrayana, just by hearing the name of the Buddha and seeing the painting of the Buddha’s holy body, he got incredible devotion. Then, he went for refuge to the Buddha. Then, day and night he meditated on the twelve dependent-related limbs, the evolution and backwards. Udrayana directly realized emptiness and in the end achieved arhatship. This is brief. The detailed explanation is mentioned in Clarifying the Vinaya.
Gen Sopa-la said that the best method for the sentient beings to be free from samsara is through the four noble truths and the twelve dependent-related limbs. The twelve dependent-related limbs show the evolution of samsara and [the four noble truths] show how to be free from it, how to achieve nirvana, what is to be practiced and what is to be abandoned. That is the path shown here.
For example, as I told you already, at the hub of the Wheel of Life are the three poisonous minds, then there are the twelve dependent-related limbs, with the meaning [clearly shown] in the painting, with various methods precisely shown.
Most Buddhist temples are supposed have this outside the temple. Geshe-la said in the center of Tibet, most of the temples have this at the door, like Kopan, [so people see it] before entering the gompa. [This is not common] in other Buddhist countries, like Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand. They don’t have this drawing. This is what Geshe-la said. Then, he said there were often some incorrect [elements] in the drawings.
[The drawing shows how] samsaric beings, being motivated by the cause, the delusions, the three poisonous minds, collect various virtuous and nonvirtuous karma. Due to that, the result, they take birth in samsara. They get reborn in the six realms. Then, unceasingly, they experience the three types of suffering. The drawing of the Wheel of Life signifies the suffering of pain, the three lower realms, and the suffering of change, the human world and the world of the desire realm gods, the suras and asuras. Pervasive compounding suffering is signified by the form devas, but very few Wheels of Life have the seventeen categories, the world of form, and none have the formless realm, which is also not free from the third suffering, pervasive compounding suffering.
Nagarjuna said,
If you have the grasping at the I, karma is motivated.
From the karma comes rebirth.
Motivated by karma, birth comes, with no beginning, no end, no center. The circle of the samsara is like fire, [like twirling a lighted stick of] incense. [Rinpoche spins his hand quickly] It goes around and there is no beginning, no end, no center. Like that, we circle in samsara due to karma and delusions. Unceasingly going around through the twelve dependent-related limbs, like that, we circle. [The Wheel of Life] is shown in forward and reverse order.
Geshe Sopa said there are different examples of the twelve dependent-related limbs, but the purest reference is what Lama Atisha taught Dromtönpa, who is Chenrezig. He was a translator for Lama Atisha in Tibet. Lama Atisha came from Nalanda in India and Dromtönpa is Tibetan.
I don’t know there is not much time, but Lama Atisha taught Dromtönpa this:
Ignorance is signified by the blind old lady. (And he gave all the reasons.)
Compounding action is signified by the potter who makes many clay pots. (Which means the karmic formations.)
Consciousness is like a monkey.
Name and form is like going by boat.
The six sense bases is an empty house.
Contact is signified by [two people] kissing.
Feeling is shown by somebody with an arrow shot in the eye.
Craving is shown by somebody drinking alcohol. (With somebody putting a bottle of alcohol on the table, like a Tibetan-Sherpa-style party, which they are enjoying.)
Grasping is shown by a monkey catching fruit.
Becoming is signified by a pregnant woman.
Birth is signified by the child coming out.
Old age and death is signified by a person carrying a corpse.
It is said in the sutra, all these beings are held by impermanence, so this is in the mouth of the Lord of Death. (Which I’ve already told you.)
We Are in the Fangs of Yama
[Video extract: You Spend Your Whole Life Between the Fangs of Yama]
I mentioned that the [two folds in a monk’s] dongka represent the fangs of Yama. It’s like we are in the mouth of Yama, in the nature of impermanence, under impermanence. At any time, his mouth can close. At any time, death can happen. We never know, we never know. By this time next year, we could be somewhere else, in the hell realm or the deva realm. We never know where. By this time next year, by this time tomorrow—we can’t say—Yama can close his mouth, the mouth we are inside now. We are between the fangs now, but it could close at any time.
That is a very good meditation, to meditate on how it could close at any time. [Rinpoche closes his fingers] It could close at any time. Death could happen at any time. We never know. Even recently, I think in America or somewhere, [Thubten] Pende’s mother and father were talking to each other in the house and his father did like this. [Rinpoche turns his head] During that time, his wife just died. The father and mother were just talking and when the father looked away, the mother died. It often happens like that.
A student here wanted to become a nun so much. Khadro-la could see that. She was young. I don’t think I inspired her to become nun. Of course, Khadro-la can see the past, present and future. She died here in the bathroom. I have a big Buddha in my room. I told [her parents] to make [offerings] there for her good rebirth. I was thinking that her father could keep the Buddha in their house but the father didn’t want it, so I have it in my room. I forgot her name.
Then another student, an Iranian lady, what is her name? She was here many years. When she came to Kopan she was always drunk. What is her name? [Student: Mandana.] Her husband is a bank manager of a world bank in a very high [position]. He’s a very good human being. She died in England in the bathroom. I think she might have slipped.
Then, there is the Chinese nun, Dechen, that we had long time ago in America, in Land of Calm Abiding. She was there with another Chinese nun for some years. I think she died a few days ago. She was found in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet. Maybe there was some blood. We didn’t know that.
So, you really can’t say. Death can happen any time. I think that is the most important meditation. I haven’t started the Vajrasattva yet, but that is my last advice. To always remember impermanence and death, to always be mindful of it. That is my last very important advice.
I think that was also said by the Buddha to his disciples. Kadampa geshe Sharawa said,
You have a hundred thoughts, but the mistake is not having thought the one thought.
We have a hundred thoughts, but the mistake is not having thought that one thought. Because of that we are under one mistake. We might have so many degrees from university, we might even know all this Dharma—we know the Madhyamaka, we know Pramanavarttika, we’ve done this retreat, that retreat, and so on and so forth—but if we are not mindful of impermanence and death, if there is the concept of permanence, our life is under the control of hallucinations.
Even if we have a hundred qualities, we are under the control of that one mistake. We might have learned so many things in Dharma texts, but if we never have the thought of impermanence and death, we will always live with a concept of permanence, thinking we will live for a long time. If we always live with the concept of permanence, our actions of body, speech, and mind don’t become the Dharma. We might have become very learned in Dharma, unbelievably learned, but we never think of impermanence, we never think our life is [in the shadow of] impermanence and death. Thinking we are going to live long, our actions of body, speech, and mind don’t become Dharma.
So, even if we are an expert in Dharma, we waste our life. We’ve done this retreat and that retreat, but we’ve never seen how our own life is impermanence and death; we always live with the wrong concept of permanence. That is what Kadampa geshe Sharawa said. Even living in a monastery, doing extensive study, being able to understand and explain [profound texts], when we never have the thought of impermanence and death, with the concept of permanence, our actions don’t become Dharma.
Then, when death happens, we know we have cheated ourselves. That is what we totally come to know. As I said, even if we are not learned in Dharma but have a lot of degrees, a lot of education in science, but we have never thought of our life as impermanent, always living in the concept of permanence, then suddenly when death happens, we get so upset. We have so many regrets because we didn’t expect it.
If we are normally mindful of impermanence and death in our life, if we remember to practice mindfulness every day, then even when death comes suddenly, we are not surprised. We are not worried because we did the preparation. Because of the mindfulness of that, we have already done the preparation. Thinking of impermanence and death, we have no worries when the actual time of death comes, knowing in our future life we will achieve happiness, the body of a happy transmigratory being, and then liberation from samsara and enlightenment.
We might think that for businesspeople it would be easier, but normally because people don’t think [about death], there is incredible fear, even anger, like what happened to the Japanese boy. There can be incredible fear, and then of course, [that affects] the next life reincarnation, whether it’s a higher rebirth or a lower rebirth.
Here it says, our [human] body is here now in our bed, but by this time tomorrow our body could be on the firewood, burning, with [the brains] coming out of the skull. [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] This can happen any time. [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] It is so good to meditate on that, even that we are dying now. We should meditate on the whole thing that is going to happen: the body being taken to the cemetery this time tomorrow and put on the fire. It could happen next year or next month, next week or tomorrow. The body could be there.
It is such a good meditation to think that. That is the reality. [Rinpoche snaps his fingers multiple times] Then, our attachment to this and that, our anger to this and that—there is no purpose to get angry or attached to this and that, to have all the problems. Because there is no reason for anger and attachment to arise, the mind has great peace, free from attachment, free from anger.
[End of video extract]
Now, I am about to finish.
The sutra said,
Your life of impermanence and death is in the aspect of wrathful Yama.
Wherever you are, there is no place where you are free from the harm of death.
While you are in samsara, you can’t be liberated from the mouth of the Lord of Death.
Even if you actually meet the Buddha, there is nothing higher to teach you.25
Yama holds the Wheel of Life like this, with both hands. What do you call them? [Ven. Ailsa: Claws.] With the claws, holding with the claws. So, Geshe [Sopa]-la said that the Buddha explained it should be drawn like this. Then, even if we were to actually meet the Buddha, there would be nothing more to teach us, nothing more to tell us.
Geshe-la said that for people who follow the Buddha’s compassion, the compassion buddha, it is good to spread out [disseminate?] the Wheel of Life, because it helps the Buddhadharma to spread in the ten directions and last a long time.
There are some more details about the twelve links, but I’ll stop here.
The Meaning of Vajrasattva
Now Vajrasattva. Some of you may have received Vajrasattva in the past, the highest tantra Vajrasattva with the wisdom mother. Vajrasattva is a buddha so you don’t say “consort.” It’s Vajrasattva with a wisdom mother. You shouldn’t think of ordinary couples, like in New York, embracing each other, kissing or embracing or having sex. It’s not like that.
I very briefly mentioned how a buddha’s holy mind is the dharmakaya. I must have mentioned something like that. Otherwise, this initiation would be single, only the father, not with the mother. Highest tantra Vajrasattva is with the wisdom mother. I don’t say “consort.” “Consort” is on the way to enlightenment. Vajrasattva is a buddha. A buddha’s holy mind, the dharmakaya, the mind of transcendental wisdom—those of you who practice highest tantra should understand that. That is the definitive meaning of Vajrasattva. The dharmakaya has skies of joy nondual with emptiness. That is the definitive meaning of Vajrasattva, which manifests in the holy body, the rupakaya, in the aspect of male and female. So, the definitive meaning Vajrasattva manifests in the male and female aspect, embracing.
[Ven. Karin begins to tell people who are not taking the initiation that they can leave]
Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Until tomorrow at six o’clock. You can go to bed at six o’clock!
A very special disciple who has so much merit, who has the highest intelligence, can achieve enlightenment in one life. By practicing lower tantra, we can achieve enlightenment in one [extended] life, and if we only practice sutra we have to collect the merits of wisdom and the merits of virtue for three countless great eons. It takes a long time to achieve enlightenment, but even practicing lower tantra we can achieve enlightenment in one life. But now, practicing highest tantra like Vajrasattva father and mother embracing, by practicing that we can achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate times. For the disciple who has so much merit, so much intelligence and so much devotion, when that disciple fits this practice, they are able to achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate times.
There are many single father deities but also many deities like Vajrasattva father and mother, where father and mother embrace. This is talking about a highest tantra practice. It is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment.
I’m explaining what the definitive meaning of Vajrasattva is, which I said takes the form of Vajrasattva father and mother, manifesting in that aspect for the special disciple who has so much merit, intelligence and devotion to quickly achieve enlightenment. This is a very special meditation. It is not a couple, not like ordinary people having sex or kissing. We don’t visualize it like that. To do this, we need to have so much merit, devotion and intelligence, we need to have the karma to practice highest tantra. We need to quickly diminish and overcome the ordinary defilements, the ordinary concepts. We need the quickest way to actualize the clear light, which is the highest tantra path.
Those of you who have received Vajrasattva before as a single, lower tantra father aspect, you just do the same meditation. Here it is Vajrasattva father and mother, but I think that for many of you here it is the first time. You might have had Vajrasattva from lower tantra without the wisdom mother.
I’m not going to talk much but there is one thing that is very important to understand about the Vajrasattva practice. Lama Atisha said if you put the mandala like this and suddenly dust comes, it will be full of dust. It’s like how when we don’t cover our car, it becomes full of dust. We receive so many vices, so many negative karmas, by breaking the pratimoksha vows, the bodhisattva vows, the tantric vows. It’s like dust falling on the mandala, covering it completely in a short time, just as dust covers a car if we don’t cover it. But Lama Atisha said because of the Vajrasattva practice, we can clean the mandala in just one time. Like that, it is gone.
There were two Drepung geshes whose view was to never take initiations because they couldn’t keep the vows, such as the tantric vow and samaya commitments that come with great initiations. Their view was to never take initiation because they couldn’t keep the vows. That meant for them to achieve enlightenment it would take eons and eons and eons—an unbelievable length of time. That means that sentient beings would have to suffer in samsara, in the lower realms, samsara, for so many eons.
Lama Atisha said that the two geshes thinking like this is like a blind yak who cannot see all the grass. A blind yak can’t see all the grass, so it eats some and leaves some. Lama Atisha said the two geshes are like that. He said that even though there are so many vices, so many negativities, like a waterfall, the two geshes didn’t know the practice of Vajrasattva, how even a mandala full of dust can be cleaned in one time. With Vajrasattva we can purify more and more and more, and get higher and higher realizations, better and better realizations. Then, we can achieve enlightenment. Probably, the two geshes could never achieve enlightenment!
Please understand this. Even if we cannot do much practice, Vajrasattva is so important! (I didn’t have to make a very loud noise!) Because our motivation from this morning has been either anger, attachment or ignorance. When we get up, we get dressed with attachment to this life, so it is nonvirtue. When we wash, it is with attachment to this life, so we will look good, so again it is attachment to this life; it is nonvirtue. When we eat breakfast, it is with attachment to this life, it completely becomes nonvirtue. Again, the motivation for going to do our job is normally attachment to this life, attachment to achieve happiness. There are people who don’t believe in reincarnation but are very good-hearted, helping others, benefiting others, but generally, for people like me, we go to work with attachment, seeking the happiness of this life, which is nonvirtue. We spend many hours working, doing actions of body, speech and mind, and it is all negative karma. Then, we eat lunch with the motivation of attachment, with nonvirtue, and dinner with attachment to this life, with nonvirtue. Everything. Sleeping, no question. We think, “I’m so tired,” and we go to sleep with attachment. Everything is like this.
Because the motivation is negative, all actions become negative actions. Even if we try to do a meditation, we try to do some Dharma practice, even if we are making charity to a beggar or somebody, we fail to remember their kindness, we never think how precious they are. Or we give something to a beggar but we do it—I don’t know—with pride or with attachment.
All the negative karma [we commit today] becomes double tomorrow. That’s why we have to practice Vajrasattva! All of today’s negative karma done with body, speech and mind becomes double tomorrow and becomes triple on the next day and on the fourth day, after triple what do you call? What? [Student: Quadruple.] Qui-truple. Quite triple? I have to ask a hundred times. Anyway, it becomes double, triple and so on.
If we don’t purify with Vajrasattva, at the end of the day a small negative karma becomes double the next day and then triple, and after some time it becomes like a mountain. It becomes like the size of this earth. One negative karma, by multiplying, by the time we die becomes the size of this earth. One atom multiplying becomes the size of the earth. This is how negative karma multiplies. When we die, one negative karma becomes like mountains. Then, our life becomes so difficult. Because we didn’t purify it, we have to suffer for eons and eons and eons, in the hell realm, as a hungry ghost or an animal.
To the wise man, even a great negativity becomes small; to the fool, even a small negativity becomes huge.26
It is very important to listen to this. Somebody who doesn’t know Vajrasattva, even though the negative karma they collect is very small, because they don’t know Vajrasattva and don’t know how to purify, it increases every day and it becomes great. When we create it, the negative karma might be so small, but it increases and becomes unbelievable heavy negative karma. On the other hand, the wise ones know how to practice Vajrasattva, so even though they might create heavy negative karma, because they purify with Vajrasattva, it becomes small. They can purify it completely.
For example, if we don’t do Vajrasattva, even we do small negative karma, after fifteen days, by increasing, it has increased ten thousand times and eight thousand on top of that, and then a hundred eighty-four. I’ll repeat that. After fifteen days, the small negative karma increases to become the same as if we had killed a human being. It is very heavy. It increases ten thousand and eight thousand and a hundred and eighty-four. It’s the same as if we killed a human being. It’s not that we had killed a human being, but it’s as if we had, because the karma has increased day by day.
Kyabje Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche or Kyabje Chöden Rinpoche said something about how the numbers increased, how they become double and triple and more and more. I don’t remember what they said, but it’s amazing.
However, if we do Vajrasattva at the end of the day, reciting not even a mala but just the Vajrasattva mantra twenty-one times, the negative karma stops increasing. There is the hundred-syllable Vajrasattva mantra but also the short one OM VAJRASATTVA HUM, which we need to recite twenty-eight times to stop negative karma multiplying.
There is also OM VAJRASATTVA AH, but when I asked my root guru, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, he replied that OM VAJRASATTVA HUM is better.
So, this is important. Even if we don’t do much practice, if we recite Vajrasattva, all our negative karmas become so small. Even heavy negative karma becomes so small when it is purified. It makes a huge difference to all our future lives. I want to tell you, that is why we practice Vajrasattva.
And then, for general purification, there is the practice of reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas, and purifying today’s negative karma with taking self-initiation and other practices. Before going to bed, Lama Tsongkhapa recited the Thirty-five Buddhas thirty-five times, making his life very comfortable and happy, with no worries about death. Lama Tsongkhapa did that.
There are some more details about the twelve dependent-related limbs but I think maybe we’ll stop there and do Vajrasattva. Otherwise, everybody might become enlightened before the Vajrasattva initiation. Then, I won’t have a job. I’ll be jobless!
I’ll do the gegtor [the torma for the interferers]. You can meditate on compassion for sentient beings or meditate on emptiness or something.
[Rinpoche performs the gegtor ritual]
[Students offer mandala to request the initiation]
We’ll just do this quickly. Think “The purpose of my life is not just to achieve happiness for myself, not even liberation from samsara, but to benefit others. I must free the numberless sentient beings in each realm from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and lead them to the state of omniscience, Vajrasattva’s enlightenment, by myself alone. And to do that quickly, for that reason, I need to achieve the state of omniscience. For that reason, I need to actualize the path to enlightenment; I need to purify the defilements and collect extensive merits. Therefore, I’m taking the Vajrasattva initiation.” Think that.
[Rinpoche confers the Vajrasattva initiation]
Notes
25 Unable to find the source of this quote. [Return to text]
26 Quoted in a slightly different translation in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand (Wisdom Publications), p. 184. [Return to text]
