Motivation: Extended seven-limb prayer

[Chanting]

We are going to do practice of the seven-limb prayer like before. Visualize Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, either all the merit field into one aspect, called all-encompassing jewel tradition, or visualize the elaborate merit field, like the refuge merit field.

So we collect merit and practice. We begin with sang gyä chö dang, with refuge and bodhicitta, with that prayer.

[Chanting]

“How wonderful it is if all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from discriminating thought, anger, attachment, discriminating some sentient beings as far, some as closer. May they abide in equanimity. I’ll cause them to abide in equanimity. Please Buddha grant me blessing to be able to do this.”

“How wonderful it is if all sentient beings have happiness and the cause of happiness.” In your whole heart, think of enlightenment, of peerless happiness—not just ordinary happiness—think of peerless happiness, of full enlightenment. The happiness you wish for others is not just temporary pleasure, not only samsaric pleasure, it is ultimate happiness, even full enlightenment.

Wish the numberless hell beings to have that happiness, as well as the numberless hungry ghosts to have that happiness, the numberless animals to have that happiness; the numberless human beings to have that happiness, the numberless sura beings to have that happiness, the numberless asura beings to have that happiness, the numberless intermediate state beings to have that happiness. Wish like this. “May they have happiness. I will cause them to have happiness.” Think of all the hell beings, think of all the hungry ghosts, all the animals, think of all the human beings, think they all receive this. Think of all the suras, asuras, all the intermediate stage beings, taking responsibility upon yourself.

“Please Guru-Buddha grant me blessings to be able to do this.”

“How wonderful it is if all sentient beings are free from all the suffering and the causes of the sufferings.”

Think of all the hell beings, free them from all the suffering and its causes. Think of all the hungry ghosts, free them from all the sufferings and causes. Think of all the animals, free them from all the suffering and causes. Think of all the numberless human beings, free them from all the sufferings and causes. Think of all the suras, free them from all the sufferings and causes. Think of all the asuras, free them from all the sufferings and causes. And think of all the intermediate stage beings, free them from all the sufferings and causes.

“May they be free from all the sufferings. I will cause them to be free from all the sufferings. Please Guru-Buddha grant me blessings that I will be able to do this.

“How wonderful it is if all the sentient beings are not separated from the happiness of the upper realms, deva and human being, and ultimate happiness. May they not be separated away from this happiness. I will cause them to not be separated from this happiness.”

Again, think of all the numberless hell beings, the numberless hungry ghosts, the numberless animals, and cause them to not be separated from all the temporary and ultimate happiness. And then all the human beings, suras, asuras and intermediate stage beings, and cause them to not be separated from the happiness of upper realms and ultimate happiness.

“May they not be separated away from this happiness. I will cause them to not be separated from this happiness. Please Guru-Buddha grant me blessings to be able to do this.”

[Chanting]

All the offerings here and all the offerings in all the FPMT centers, the extensive offerings in the FPMT centers’ gompas, which are in the nature of infinite bliss. All the extensive offerings at Aptos House in the United States, all those extensive offerings, all the flowers outside and inside, all the water offerings, all those thousands and millions of light offerings, tea offerings, food offerings and all the water offerings, light offerings in Washington. As well as at Lillian Too’s house upstairs, all the extensive offerings, also Derek’s house in Singapore, all the extensive offerings, the offerings here at Kopan gompa, upstairs, all the extensive offerings, are all in the nature of infinite bliss. Think like this and offer.

And then you can also think of the whole sky filled with the various offerings, mentally transformed offerings, with scented smell, the blissful smell of incense, the blissful nature of various beautiful flowers. The whole sky is filled with the lights, with light offerings, like when you look at a whole city from an airplane before landing and see all the lights, the whole ground covered by the lights.

And then the offering goddesses, making music offerings, food offerings and nectar drink. They are offering nectar, cleaning the feet with water and making the offerings. Then you can think, other than that, of offerings that are owned and all the beautiful offerings in this world that don’t have an owner.

You can make all these extensive offerings here, those that are in all the FPMT centers’ gompas and Aptos house, also in Washington, all the offerings they perform there in the Washington house, at Kopan upstairs, all the offerings there, that which have been performed. And all the extensive offerings in Derek’s house in Singapore, upstairs, all the extensive offerings upstairs in his house. Offer to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, as well as to all the gurus, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, all the statues, stupas, scriptures, all those holy objects.

Offer toward all the ten directions’ buddhas, the Dharma and Sangha, by meditating on how their essence is the root guru, your own virtuous friend, from your own side.

Now offer toward all the ten directions’ statues, stupas, scriptures and prayer wheels, and the Buddha’s relics, the various forms of other holy objects, by meditating that all their essence is the root virtuous friend, from your own side, and make all these offerings.

The next one, offer to all the ten directions’ statues, stupas, scriptures, the various forms of holy objects, to the seven Medicine Buddhas for success, and bodhisattva Kshitigarbha, so you can instantly fulfill the wishes of all the sentient beings’ happiness, and to the Thousand-arm Compassion Buddha so that you can generate great compassion, to be able to take full responsibility to free all sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings, like Chenrezig.

All the offerings here, upstairs, above the gompa, in those rooms, as well as all the extensive offerings in the FPMT centers’ gompas and at Aptos House, Washington, and in all those other places. Generate great bliss with all of them, the seven Medicine Buddhas, the bodhisattva Kshitigarbha, the Thousand-arm Chenrezig, by meditating they are the essence of your own virtuous friend, from your own side.

Now, make offering of all these offerings toward all the holy objects in India, and to the gurus in India, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and any other gurus there. Also make offerings together, by visualizing all the holy objects in India and meditating that their essence is your own virtuous friend, from your own side. Thinking of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, make offerings.

Now, offer all the things here and then all the offerings in the rooms here above the gompa, and those which are in the FPMT centers’ gompas and at Aptos House, Washington and all those in other houses, which are in the nature of infinite bliss, offer them toward all the holy objects in Tibet, by meditating that their essence is your own virtuous friend, from your own side.

Make offerings toward Guru Shakyamuni Buddha statue in Lhasa, which is blessed by the Buddha himself, the most precious holy object in the world.

And make offering, all the offerings here, above the gompa in those rooms, and then all the extensive offerings in FPMT centers’ gompas, at Aptos House, Washington and those other places, which are in the nature of instant bliss—offer every single holy object which is in Nepal, including the most precious ones in Kathmandu, Swayambhunath stupa and Boudhanath stupa, which are all-encompassing, wish-fulfilling. Anybody who does a prostration or makes an offering or a circumambulation, all their wishes get fulfilled. Anybody who makes prayer to those, all their prayers succeed. So, offer to the Boudhanath stupa and all the rest of the holy objects in Nepal, by meditating that their essence is His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the virtuous friend.

Now, make offerings toward all the holy objects which are in this world, altogether, all the holy objects which are in this world—all the offerings here, those above the gompa, all the offerings in FPMT gompas, in Aptos House, Washington and those other places.

Normally it’s done with prostrations, putting your palms together, prostrating toward all of them, and all the offerings, so that was left out.

So, put your palms together and prostrate to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, that is all the buddhas, the Dharma and Sangha. And now prostrate toward all the ten directions’ holy objects. Now prostrate to all the ten directions’ Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, that which are the virtuous friends, from your own side. Now prostrate to all the ten directions’ statues, stupas, scriptures and all those holy objects, the relics and prayer wheels, and any kind of holy objects. While meditating that their essence is your own virtuous friend, from your own side, prostrate toward all of them.

Now prostrate toward all the ten directions’ seven Medicine Buddhas, prostrate toward the bodhisattva Kshitigarbha and the Thousand-arm Chenrezig. Now prostrate with two palms together toward all the holy objects in India, meditating that their essence is your own virtuous friend.

Put two palms together toward all the holy objects which are in Tibet, meditating that they are in essence your own virtuous friend, His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Put two palms together toward all the holy objects in Nepal, meditating that their essence is your own virtuous friend, from your own side.

And now prostrate toward all the holy objects in this entire world.

[Chanting]

The merits I have collected numberless of times from beginningless rebirths up to now, which I have collected in the present time and which I will collect in the future are so precious. They are precious. How happy I am. How wonderful it is. All the sentient beings, including bodhisattvas and buddhas, collected merits numberless times, from time without beginning, from beginningless rebirth until now, and now and in the future as well, all that is so precious. Their wishes and all the happiness they wish for get fulfilled from all these merits. How wonderful it is!

May I be able to collect so much merit; may I able to collect so much merit for the benefit of all the sentient beings.

[Chanting]

So this time we are going to do the very important prayer that we need to practice in daily life for success of our Dharma practice, requesting to complete the three great purposes. By doing this, by doing this practice, a long mandala, then at the end doing requesting prayer for completing the three great purposes, this way there are no obstacles to our Dharma practice. There are no obstacles, delusions, our own mind blocking the Dharma practice, not allowing us to practice or delaying the practice, our own obstacles and as well as sicknesses, not allowing us to do the practice, being unable to do practice, whether it is due to pain or sickness. Our mind cannot concentrate or cannot do the listening, reflecting and meditation practice. To pacify these inner obstacles and outer obstacles, being under the control of people, being under the control of other people’s power so we are unable to practice Dharma, we are not allowed to practice Dharma as we wish. To pacify these outer obstacles, to be able to do the listening, reflecting and meditating practice, to continually practice to actualize the path, to achieve full enlightenment for sentient beings.

So, please make this request to the guru, the three aspects, the three precious sublime ones, the three rare ones, the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, the three types.

I prostrate to the precious guru, then to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. I prostrate and go for refuge. Please grant me blessings. Please bless my mental continuum.

I am requesting to immediately purify all the wrong concepts from the thought of mistakes, ordinary thoughts, this aspect, disrespect or non-devotional thoughts toward the guru, from there up to the subtle dual view, may all these wrong concepts be immediately pacified.

I am requesting to immediately grant all the right realizations from guru devotion up to enlightenment in my mental continuum. Please pacify all the outer and inner obstacles immediately.

To the guru and the three types, the three aspects, the precious sublime ones, I prostrate and go for refuge. Please bless my mental continuum.

Please pacify immediately the non-devotional thoughts toward the guru, from there up to the subtle dual view of the white appearance, increasing appearance and near-attainment, the dark appearance.

Please grant blessings to generate realizations from guru devotion up to enlightenment, the unified state of no more learning, to generate this immediately.

Please grant blessings to immediately pacify all the outer and inner obstacles.

To the guru and three aspects, the precious sublime ones, I prostrate and go for refuge. Bless my mental continuum.

Please grant blessings to immediately pacify all the wrong concepts, the non-devotional thoughts toward the guru, from there to the subtle dual view of the white appearance and the increasing appearance and near-attainment, dark appearance.

Please grant me blessings immediately to generate right realization from guru devotion up to the unified state of no more learning, full enlightenment.

[Chanting]

The foundation of all good qualities

Make a request to the lineage lamas, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, the rest of the lineage lamas down to the root guru.

[Chanting]

Is there the Foundation of All Good Qualities in English?

To plant the seed of the whole path to enlightenment, just by reading it through mindfully, this becomes a direct meditation of the whole path to enlightenment.

[Recitation in English of the Foundation of All Good Qualities and chanting of preliminary prayers in Tibetan]

So these are the preliminary prayers before the oral transmission. The requesting prayer to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, who is author of these teachings, then the lineage lamas. Then if there is time also do direct meditation on the whole path, lamrim. Reciting this mantra TAYATHA OM DHARE DHARE BHENDHARE SVAHA multiplies the merit many millions of times, the benefits increase, so even if it is recited only one time it is as if each page is recited many millions of times. So it has that power to multiply the merits.

I stopped after the fourth chapter, right? I was looking at the bottom of the text, one of the texts where it finishes. Maybe I will do the oral transmission backwards, since it seems difficult to finish.

[Chanting]

You may have generated the motivation already but just to remind you in case you did not generate the motivation of bodhicitta.

“The purpose of my life is to free the numberless sentient beings—the numberless hell beings from all the suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment, and to free the numberless hungry ghosts from all the suffering and it causes and bring them to enlightenment, to free the numberless animals from all the suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment, to free the numberless human beings from all the suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment, to free the numberless suras and asuras from all the suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment, and to free the numberless intermediate state beings from all the suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment. Therefore, I must achieve full enlightenment. So therefore then I am going to take the oral transmission of the king of sutras, the Golden Light Sutra, and by hearing each word, it purifies all the negative karma and collects inconceivable merit and brings peace and happiness in the world, in the country, in the area.”

[Oral transmission]

Page 365.

Extensive dedication

I think before I was reading the Tibetan number, and I’m not sure whether I mentioned the Western number. The Tibetan number is 183.

In the evening are you doing Vajrasattva or not? Starting from last night?

[Chanting]

[Student: Page 103.]

You read in English. I’ll recite in Tibetan.

So we are doing extensive dedication. Among the dedication prayers, this extensive dedication is the King of Prayers, the sublime prayer, the way of dedicating merits. All the extensive bodhisattvas’ prayers of the ten times, the hundred thousand prayers of the bodhisattvas are included in this; they are contained in this King of Prayers, the bodhisattva Samantabhadra’s prayer, or the prayer of the holy deeds.

[Rinpoche chants and congregation reads the text]

[Chanting]

Even though the extensive dedication is done, we still precisely dedicate again to generate bodhicitta. The first time we generated bodhicitta in our own heart, all of us here, in the hearts of all students, benefactors of this organization, those who give up their life for this organization, doing service to sentient beings and the teachings of Buddha, then in the hearts of all sentient beings.

[Chanting]

At the same time, may the bodhicitta be generated in my own heart, my own family members, all of us here, in the hearts of everyone in the world, without delay of even a second.

[Chanting]

Then, for the third time, may bodhicitta be actualized in my own heart, my family members, all of us here, as well in the hearts of all the leaders of this world and all the terrorists or Maoists, the groups who harm others, who are involved in violence, who do a lot of harm to sentient beings. May bodhicitta be generated in all their hearts without delay of even a second. And may this world be filled with great peace and happiness and not experience wars, famine, disease, torture, poverty, sickness, dangers of fire, water, earthquakes, all these undesirable things; may nobody experience them forever.

[Chanting]

Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three times’ merits collected by others, which are merely labeled by mind, may the I, who is also merely labeled by mind, achieve Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which is also merely labeled by mind, and lead all the sentient beings, who are also merely labeled by mind, to that enlightenment, which is also merely labeled by mind, by myself alone, who is also merely labeled by mind.

This is the most urgent time. Just as we were about to have success in receiving funds for the Maitreya Project—it was just about to happen—but an obstacle happened, so it is most urgent right now. So, please everyone dedicate all the merits, all the three times’ merits collected by ourselves and by others. May the future Maitreya Buddha statue be completed as quickly as possible and abide in this world until Maitreya Buddha descends in this world. And may it succeed in its special functions, to open the hearts of everyone is this world and cause them to generate faith in the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha and karma, to generate loving kindness, compassion and bodhicitta in the hearts of everyone in this world. May the statue cause all beings to purify all the defilements and negative karma, all the heavy negative karma, and then collect so much merit. The statue has that benefit but may all sentient beings from their side get the opportunity to see the statue, to circumambulate it, prostrate to it and make offerings. It’s not that it doesn’t have that benefit, it doesn’t have the power. The statue itself has all these powers but, from the sentient beings’ side, they must take the opportunity to see the statue and circumambulate it, prostrate to it and make offering.

In this way, all their negative karma gets purified, they collect extensive merit and in this way it softens their hearts, and there is the possibility to change their minds. Only in this way, from within their heart comes loving kindness, compassion, bodhicitta. Only then comes the good heart. Through purification, collecting the causes and collecting merit, this is how the statue benefits, bringing realization in sentient beings’ hearts. And that’s how it helps the teachings, by actualizing the teachings in the heart. It helps beings to understand the teachings, by collecting merit and being able to understand the words and meaning, and to be able to have faith, understanding and faith, and to have realization. In this way, it liberates sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings, it enables them to cease the delusions and karma and also then they are able to achieve enlightenment by ceasing the subtle defilements. They are able to complete the path of method and wisdom, the two types of merit. So, the statue’s special function is to enable sentient beings to open their hearts and to generate loving kindness, compassion, bodhicitta, in the hearts of all sentient beings.

May all the funding be received without the delay of even a second, without any obstacles, and may all the obstacles that are happening be pacified immediately.

[Chanting]

Due to all the three times’ merits collected by me and by others, due to the blessings of innumerable buddhas and bodhisattvas, and unbetrayable dependent arising, and due to my pure attitude, may all my pure prayers succeed immediately.

If we can recite these buddhas’ names and mantra, whatever merit we collect increases a hundred thousand times. It makes it very profitable. More merit means we are closer to achieving liberation from samsara. It is easier to achieve realizations of the path of liberation and enlightenment. So, we are closer to liberation, closer to achieving enlightenment, and closer to enlightening all sentient beings, to freeing them from all the suffering of samsara and bringing them to enlightenment. We are closer to that.

[Chanting]

This last name has some benefit, so any merit we collected from whatever prayers we have done is increased a hundred thousand times by reciting this buddha’s name—it makes us actualize whatever prayer we did. That is very important. And then the other one is the Medicine Buddha’s name and mantra. Whatever prayer we have done, to actualize for success, the other one [to increase merit and actualize success] is Medicine Buddha, reciting Medicine Buddha’s name and mantra.

[Chanting]

So, good night or good morning.