December 10, 2017
The Graduated Paths of the Middle and Higher Capable Beings: Motivation for the Eight Mahayana Precepts
[Students recite Prayers Before Teachings]
As Lama Tsongkhapa mentioned in the heart of the Buddhadharma, the Three Principal Aspects of the Path, generally there are 84,000 teachings taught by the Buddha, that are included in the three levels of teachings, the Lesser Vehicle teaching, the Mahayana sutra teachings and the Mahayana tantra teachings. There are different levels of teachings because sentient beings have different levels of intelligence, different levels of merit. Those three levels of teachings taught by the Buddha are all included in the graduated path to enlightenment, lamrim. There are the graduated path of a lower capable being in general, the graduated path of a middle capable being in general and the graduated path of a higher capable being.
Yesterday I was introducing the capable beings, then I got stuck explaining the ordinary capable being, [which is below the lower capable being] so probably I didn’t go beyond that.
To not be reborn in the lower realms and to seek a higher rebirth, you need to take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, to rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and you need to protect your karma, to abandon negative karma and engage in virtue, such as living in the precepts. Even for lay people, besides taking refuge you can take five precepts or four precepts or three precepts or two precepts or one precept, in order to protect your karma. These are the general precepts and then of course there are the eight Mahayana precepts you take for one day. You have been taking the eight Mahayana precepts but there are also the eight precepts of pratimoksha, which are also taken for one day, but for individual liberation and without visualizing the buddhas and bodhisattvas.
What you are taking here is the eight Mahayana precepts with bodhicitta—to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and to bring them to peerless happiness, buddhahood.
It is mentioned in the prayers that you do this to not have disease, to not have famine—I think I have added to stop war—and to stop the dangers of fire, water and earth, all these things. That includes global problems. Now you can see there is a solution to stop the global problems, the ice melting, the oceans increasing and washing away the cities, the problems in the West. To stop those things, you take the eight Mahayana precepts. It includes all those.
Then, abandoning the ten nonvirtues and practicing the ten virtues, according to what you can do, is [also part of] the graduated path of the lower capable being in general. It is “general” because it is the foundation to actualize the graduated path of the middle capable being and higher capable being. To actualize bodhicitta, the higher capable being, and to actualize right view, the realization of emptiness, needs that foundation.
The goal of the graduated path of the middle capable being is to be free from samsara. It is a better aim than before. To be free from samsara, to achieve liberation from samsara forever, to achieve that, you practice the three higher trainings—the higher training of morality, the higher training of concentration—the nine levels of shamatha you have to go through—and the higher training of wisdom. On the basis of the realization of shamatha, calm abiding, you do the analysis of emptiness, then you derive the rapturous ecstasy of body and mind. That is the higher training in wisdom.
The graduated path of the middle capable being is “general” because you need that foundation for bodhicitta. For the graduated path of the higher capable being you need that foundation. So here, achieving nirvana, achieving the blissful state of peace for yourself, is what is to be abandoned. Before it was what was to be achieved, but now, in relation to bodhicitta on the Mahayana path, thinking of your own happiness, even ultimate happiness, is to be abandoned.
Abandoning achieving liberation from samsara, being free from that, not falling into that, means achieving buddhahood, the total cessation of obscurations and completion of all the realizations, sang gye, achieving that for all sentient beings.
It is not just something nice up in the sky. Starting from you, whoever is around you, the people, all your family members, chickens, dogs, ants, the tiniest insects—whoever is around you—from there up to those equaling the limitless sky, the numberless sentient beings, your goal is to achieve buddhahood for the benefit of each and every single sentient being. No one is left out. No matter how tiny an insect or no matter how big it is, nobody is left out. For that reason, you generate compassion for the numberless sentient beings.
Before, [you developed] renunciation of your samsara. Realizing your samsara is totally in the nature of suffering, you had aversion to your own samsara, bringing total renunciation. That led you to achieve nirvana, the blissful state of peace for yourself. But now this is much more advanced. You think of others’ samsara, how the others are suffering in samsara, by using yourself as example. You are suffering in samsara and you know others’ suffering to that depth, so you naturally generate compassion when you look at others. For the numberless others suffering in samsara you generate unbearable compassion.
As I mentioned, you have received your past, present and future happiness including enlightenment, every single comfort and happiness, from every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every human being, every sura and asura being, from every intermediate state being, from everyone. Even though there are numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas working for sentient beings, it is your responsibility to work for those numberless sentient beings, to repay their kindness.
Exchanging Ourselves with Others
Repaying the kindness is one thing. From cherishing the I all the suffering and problems come. It is the main blockage to achieving enlightenment for sentient beings. It is the greatest obstacle to being able to fully enlighten your mind in order to perfectly benefit every single sentient being. The self-cherishing thought is the source of all the obstacles, all the misconceptions, all the sicknesses—even black magic—all the failures, not only in Dharma but also in business and worldly activities. Everything, all the failures, all the problems, all the sickness, whatever, it all comes from cherishing the I.
A few days ago I mentioned a quote from A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life but I think a word was missing in Tibetan at the beginning, “who wishes to guide,” to guide or save.
Thus whoever wishes to quickly afford protection
To both the self and other beings
Should practice that holy secret:
The exchanging of self for others.20
If you wish to save yourself and others quickly, secretly practice exchanging yourself and others. That contains a lot of answers, if you want to know them. Many young people want to help others but do not really know the way; they don’t know how to make their life beneficial for others. The real secret is to change your mind, to exchange yourself and others.
Usually we all live life letting go of others and cherishing ourselves. That has been our practice from beginningless rebirths up to now. That is how we have been living our life. But there has still been no end to experiencing problems and suffering. Can you imagine—[you have had problems] from beginningless rebirths and you still haven’t finished your problems because of the self-cherishing thought. You have never given up the self-cherishing thought and have always cherished this I, whereas with the numberless sentient beings, you have been careless with their happiness, careless with their lives. The proof is that.
The first thing is to change your mind, your attitude. You change from the root of the problem, the self-cherishing thought, into cherishing others, the root of happiness for yourself up to enlightenment and for numberless sentient beings. By cherishing the numberless sentient beings you open the door to all the happiness up to enlightenment for yourself and all the happiness for all the sentient beings up to enlightenment. Sorry, I should have done the “all” longer!
Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche was a great bodhisattva from India, from Khunu in Ladakh. When he was young he went to Tibet and from very learned ones he received not just teachings on philosophical subjects but other teachings such as poetry and grammar. In Bodhgaya, His Holiness received extensive teachings from Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche on A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. I received the lung, the oral transmission, of A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life and a commentary on the wisdom chapter. I also received it publicly with many other lamas and monks. Rinpoche himself is known outside as a Nyingma, but he knows all the four sects’ teachings. When he explains, he explains it like, “For Gelug, Lama Tsongkhapa’s tradition, it is like this, for Sakya it is like this, for Nyingma it is like this.” Of course His Holiness the Dalai Lama also teaches like this—"The Nyingma tradition is like that, Lama Tsongkhapa’s tradition is like that.” Rinpoche wrote A Praise of Bodhicitta21 and I received the lung, the oral transmission of that, and several teachings, from Rinpoche. There it says,
The precious supreme thought [bodhicitta] alone has the power
To be the ground for the continual production of benefits and happiness
For wandering beings, pervading space, who have been one’s mother,
And for relieving the suffering of each of them.22
The basis of happiness of every sentient being up to enlightenment is bodhicitta. That means if you have bodhicitta, you are able to bring all the happiness for yourself up to enlightenment, and then you are able to bring happiness to every single hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human being, sura being, and asura being and intermediate state being, to everyone. There are numberless beings in every realm and you are able to bring happiness up to enlightenment to all of them if you have bodhicitta. It totally depends on your bodhicitta.
You have to write that down. Really. Therefore, you must generate bodhicitta in your mind in this life. That should be the main aim of living your life. What are you living your life for? Why are you surviving? The aim should be to generate bodhicitta in this life; everything should be for that. Whenever you collect merit, you must dedicate for that.
I don’t remember the words after that. There is a verse in Bodhicaryavatara, I don’t know it by heart, what? [Ven. Ailsa: The first chapter.] Yes, yes, the first chapter.
All the buddhas who have contemplated for many eons
Have seen it to be beneficial;
For by it the limitless masses of beings
Will quickly attain the supreme state of bliss.23
For many eons the buddhas have been checking what is the most benefit for the sentient beings and found it is nothing else except bodhicitta.
If you want to know who the wise person is, it is this.24
Otherwise, even if somebody plays soccer and wins a million times, that is not a wise person. Even if we can fly without wings, or with our hands tied to wings [we are not a wise person]. Many insects can fly. So, if you are doing a retreat, meditate on bodhicitta. If you are eating food, eat with bodhicitta, to help sentient beings. If you are sleeping, sleep with bodhicitta, to help the sentient beings.
[Tea offering and break to drink tea]
Contemplate the Faults of Self-Cherishing
In the Guru Puja, composed by Panchen Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen, it says all the great yogis of the past gained enlightenment by pleasing the guru. That is what all the past pandits and yogis practiced, including Saraha, Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa, and many in Tibet from the four traditions. This is what caused all of them to become enlightened, including Gyalwa Ensapa, Lama Tsongkhapa’s disciple who achieved enlightenment very easily, very comfortably. As my guru Kyabje Zong Rinpoche in his past life said, Milarepa achieved buddhahood in a brief lifetime of degenerate times by enduring so many hardships but Gyalwa Ensapa achieved full enlightenment very comfortably. Rinpoche often said that. That is Kyabje Zong Rinpoche praising the purity of Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings.
Many from the Gelug tradition also achieved buddhahood not just in one lifetime but in one brief lifetime of degenerate times. The main thing that made them achieve enlightenment quickly is the special guru practice. Panchen Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen checked what the Buddha taught and how the Tibetan pandits and yogis who achieved enlightenment practiced. Then he collected all the advice on what they practiced and put it together in the Guru Puja practice. Pleasing the guru allows you to become enlightened in one brief lifetime of degenerate times. It is an unbelievable highest tantra practice, which puts together the lamrim, and in particular lojong, utilizing everything in life—whether you have problems or not; whether you have an unhappy or a happy life—utilizing everything on the path to enlightenment for sentient beings.
It is mentioned in the Guru Puja [LC 91],
RANG NYI CHE PAR DZIN PÄI CHONG NÄ DI
This chronic disease of cherishing myself
MI DÖ DUG NGÄL KYE PÄI GYUR THONG NÄ
Is the cause giving rise to my unsought suffering.
LE LÄN DÄ LA KHÖN DU ZUNG JÄ TE
Perceiving this, I seek your blessings to blame, begrudge,
DAG DZIN DÖN CHHEN JOM PAR JIN GYI LOB
And destroy the monstrous demon of selfishness.
This is talking about the bodhicitta practice. Rang nyi che par dzin päi chong nä di means seeing that cherishing the I, this chronic disease, has been with you not only in this life, but from beginningless rebirths, and because it is the cause of all the sufferings, you put the blame on the one, the self-cherishing thought. Because all the problems come from that, you give them back to the I, le län dä la is “Put all the blame on your self-cherishing thought.” All problems come from the self-cherishing thought, so that is where you put all the blame. Although you have [continually] asked the self-cherishing thought for help, it never has. There are many stories like that. You always harbor in your mind any harm a person has given you with body, speech and mind. You always keep it in your mind, getting angry back. Then, if you can, you harm them back.
That is what people normally do. But now you use that example [and you do the same to] the self-cherishing thought, your real enemy, Mara, the demon. Whatever harm it has given you, you harbor it. That is your real enemy, the self-cherishing thought. In reality there is no external enemy, only in your mind, the self-cherishing thought. For example, in A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, it says,
Unruly beings are as unlimited as space;
They cannot possibly all be overcome.
But if I overcome thoughts of anger alone
This will be equivalent to vanquishing all foes.25
The enemy comes from your mind. Your mind has made the outside enemy. So you see, if there is no anger there is no enemy outside. Wherever you go, east or west, mountains or cities, in the oceans, there is no anger in your mind. What you call “enemy” comes from your mind, from your anger, from your self-cherishing thought.
There is also a quote from Nagarjuna, I don’t remember exactly. It says,
Killing your anger is like killing all your external enemies.
It is also mentioned in A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life,
Where would I possibly find enough leather
With which to cover the surface of the earth?
But wearing leather just on the soles of my shoes
Is equivalent to covering the earth with it.26
To try to cover the whole earth with leather to protect your feet is impossible, but if you have shoes wherever you walk no thorns can go inside, so that is the same as the whole earth covered with leather. That means with no anger, with patience, there is no enemy outside. You have to know this.
The Messages on Rinpoche’s Car
We have two cars at the Aptos house in America that have messages on the back. I wrote that message: “No anger, no enemy.” At airports or restaurants some people copy it. They learn from the car. It is a very important message, so important now, especially now you look at the world, it looks like boiling hot water. Because so many hundreds of thousands of people get killed, die or suffer, that message is very important. You don’t need to fight [any external enemy]; you fight your enemy inside, the one enemy, anger. Kill that and there is no outside enemy. By having patience you can’t find an outside enemy.
The message I have at the front of the car might be harder for some people to understand; anger might be easier. It says: “Less desire means more happiness.” That is at the front car at the bottom. At the top there are many mantras, which are supposed to purify or bless any insects that hit the car.
Of course, it has Namgyälma protection for the many insects and ants that get killed by being hit or run over by the car. The car has become holy by having the protection of the Namgyälma mantras, which are extremely powerful purification. Stuck on the car, however many insects get killed are all purified and don’t get reborn in the lower realms. Due to negative karma they would certainly get reborn in the lower realms, but because the Namgyälma mantra is stuck on the car they don’t get a lower rebirth and they get a higher rebirth. There are many mantras on the car for people to see, like OM MANI PADDME HUM and other mantras. By seeing them people purify the negative karma of killing their father and mother or an arhat, causing blood to flow from a buddha, or causing disunity among the Sangha. All those are purified by seeing the mantras and it plants the seed of enlightenment.
On the back of the car, on the wheel, I have the message, “Anybody who sees the car, touches, remembers…,” anyway, like that, “…not to be reborn in the lower realms,” I think, “…and to achieve enlightenment.” That dedication has been put on the back of the car, on the wheel. Many people copy those sayings when the car is parked, or sometimes when we go to the airport or drive around. Other people do like this [Rinpoche shows thumbs up gesture]. On one side of the car it says, “Kindness is my religion” by His Holiness and on the other side of the car it says, “Cherishing others is the source of happiness.” Probably not everybody can know about that. You have to collect a lot of merit and be intelligent to know how that is important.
Wherever the car goes, driving back and forth, it is giving education to people, as the world has so much suffering. But that message, “less desire means more happiness” is so important to know in life. When you have less desire your peace and happiness naturally increases. Millionaires, billionaires, zillionaires have unbelievable, unbelievable dissatisfaction, unbelievable suffering. That is because their desire doesn’t become less, it increases more and more. That is how they have incredible, unbelievable dissatisfaction and so much suffering.
It is said in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand that [when they are faced with their own death] the suras have mental suffering thirteen times greater than hell beings. Hell beings have unbelievable physical suffering but suras have thirteen or fourteen times more mental suffering than them. The suras have unbelievable sense pleasures. The most developed country in our world is very primitive compared to theirs. Even what we think of as so rich is very primitive in comparison.
I heard that in President Trump’s house in America everything is gold. The water taps and everything are gold. It is a huge house he gave to his son or something, huge, beautiful, but that is nothing, that is like a beggar’s hovel compared to the sura’s world. But mentally they have more suffering, just as in the human realm millionaires, billionaires, zillionaires have great dissatisfaction, great suffering. They have much more mental worry than a beggar outside begging for food every day. This psychology was not made up by somebody, not figured out by somebody; it is experience. “Less desire means more happiness” is according to practitioners’ experience, not made up by some psychologist. Sorry. Not like that. It is the experience of Dharma practitioners who renounced attachment to this life. That is the first thing they experience.
That is the solution in the West, especially in the West. Less desire means more happiness, more peace. That is the main solution; that is the main psychology. That is the main thing if you don’t want problems. That is the thing just there! You don’t have to go anywhere. It’s just there. Inside here, you have to get peace just there. There or here? There or here, what do you think? There? In the brain, not the heart? Anger doesn’t come from here. [Rinpoche points to his head] Why do you think it comes from here? In the West the brain is everything. But anger doesn’t come from the brain, compassion doesn’t come from the brain, it comes from here, loving kindness and compassion come from here, [Rinpoche indicates his heart] not there. You understand? You analyze.
So, I didn’t finish.
When we drive around in the car with messages like His Holiness’ “Kindness to others is my religion,” I don’t know, maybe some people, maybe some missionaries, don’t like it because it mentions His Holiness’ name. Sometimes they do like this. [Rinpoche gives a thumbs down gesture] Is it bad upside down like that? And then some cars circumambulate our car like this. [Rinpoche indicates with his hand circumambulating] They might be students; they go like this, circumambulating us while we are driving.
The Faults of Self-Cherishing (continued): Give Your Problems Back to Your Self-Cherishing
Last one, le län dä la khön du zung jä te, “Please bless me to destroy the great demon of cherishing the I.” That is the last word. Whatever problems you have with anybody, even just with yourself, because they all come from the self-cherishing thought, you blame that, not just the problem. The great demon of the self-cherishing thought gave this problem to you, whatever it is—somebody abusing you, criticizing you, being angry with you, not helping you, whatever—your self-cherishing thought gave you all those problems, so now you give them back! You give back all the problems to your great demon self-cherishing thought.
You not only put the blame on the self-cherishing thought and harbor a grudge against it, because all these problems were given to you by the self-cherishing thought, you give them back! This last thought has been added by the pandits, not by the Buddha. You give the problem back to the great demon self-cherishing thought, instead of taking it on, and, by doing that, you destroy it.
It is like what I saw on the iPad or TV or something, when America was fighting Israel or Saudi Arabia. [Ven. Roger: Iraq.] Iraq. There was an army place and they shot this missile from a long way away right on that army place. From very far away they shot it exactly, and then everything became pieces. Your problem is exactly like that. When you are abused by somebody or even so many people complain about you or criticize you, you not only harbor a grudge against your demon, the self-cherishing thought, you give the problem back to it and destroy it. Like that, the great demon self-cherishing thought is eliminated, destroyed. It doesn’t exist, even in name.
Then, the real I that appeared and that you believe in all the time, day and night, from beginningless rebirths, is eliminated because ignorance is eliminated. There is no real I, and now even the object of ignorance, the real I, that is totally nonexistent, you see as nonexistent. So now, meditate on emptiness for a little while, whatever you can. Like that it is very effective.
What Greater Happiness Do You Need than Helping Sentient Beings?
In Lama Chöpa [LC 92] it says,
MA NAM CHE ZUNG DE LA GÖ PÄI LO
The mind that cherishes mothers and places them in bliss
THA YÄ YÖN TÄN JUNG WÄI GOR THONG NÄ
Is the gateway leading to infinite qualities.
DRO WA DI DAG DAG GI DRAR LANG KYANG
Seeing this, I seek your blessings to cherish these transmigratory beings
SOG LÄ CHE PAR DZIN PAR JIN GYI LOB
More than my life, even should they rise up as my enemies.
Ma nam che zung, “cherishing the mothers,” ma nam is plural for mothers. Then che zung de la gö is “the thought leading them to happiness.” So, you see that cherishing our mothers and leading them into happiness is the door to receiving all the happiness, tha yä yön tän, all the good things, all the qualities up to enlightenment, all the realizations of the path. Just to make it simple, that means from correctly following the virtuous friend you receive every single realization all the way up to omniscience. You can also think of all the success, all the happiness up to enlightenment. You can elaborate it like that. Then, tha yä yön tän jung wäi gor thong nä, “seeing it is the door for receiving limitless qualities,” dro wa, gor thong nä, “even if all transmigratory beings, all the six realms’ sentient beings, rise up as my enemy,” sog lä che par dzin par jin gyi lob, “please bless me to cherish them more than my life.”
That is the practice. Even if the numberless sentient beings of the six realms rise up against you as your enemy, you cherish them more than your life. This is what the verse is saying.
Here it uses the plural nam, but I say even one. Of course, often His Holiness says when you cherish the I you are just one, but by cherishing others, they are numberless. Generally in the world the president who acts for the benefit of the majority will win. Others are numberless, so of course they are more important. They are most important. You cherish the I, but that is only one, whereas others are numberless.
Even cherishing two is more important than cherishing one. Two people’s happiness is more important than one person’s—yours. Then, cherishing three people is even more important. You have to think, three people’s happiness is more important. Now, one hundred people’s happiness is very important. Their happiness is more important than yours. And like that, a thousand people, a billion people. So you can see how important it is to cherish others. Their happiness is so important. Sorry! I should make more noise.
If the bigger the number, the more important, can you imagine just how important it is to cherish numberless sentient beings—to serve and cherish them. Now you can understand how that is of utmost importance.
I want to bring this up again now; I mentioned it yesterday or the day before yesterday. All the three-times happiness—your happiness from beginningless rebirths, your present happiness and your future happiness—every single happiness up to enlightenment, every single comfort and pleasure you have experienced from beginningless rebirths and you will experience in the future up to enlightenment, has been totally received by the kindness of numberless sentient beings: numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless sura and asuras, and numberless intermediate state beings. I mentioned every single sentient being living in the ocean, under the ground such as worms and insects, living in the bush, in the trees and in the grass, like the tiniest flies. I’ve already explained how all our happiness comes from sentient beings, but I can repeat it once more in case there are people who were not there on that day and they may not understand.
All your past, present and future happiness comes from your good karma, your virtuous thoughts, and that is the buddhas’ actions. The buddhas’ actions are two types—one is possessed by their own holy mind, and one is by you. Buddhas come from bodhisattvas; bodhisattvas come from bodhicitta; bodhicitta comes from great compassion; and great compassion is generated by depending on obscured suffering sentient beings, everyone. Therefore, every single comfort you ever experience in everyday life from beginningless rebirths up to enlightenment is all received by the kindness of every single sentient being, even every single insect.
I explained that that is what His Holiness normally says. Therefore, as I told you, every sentient being is your most precious, your most dear, your most kind, your most wish-fulfilling one. Now you can understand why you begin every meditation with bodhicitta. Before you begin every practice, there is refuge and bodhicitta motivation. Whatever the practice is—even offering food, walking, sitting, sleeping, any meditation, any practice you do— you do it with a bodhicitta motivation, to benefit every single sentient being. Now you understand! Now you see the point!
Now you can see why you do everything for sentient beings, why you live your life for sentient beings. To free them from suffering and bring them to buddhahood, what greater happiness do you need? Now you can see how to make your life most beneficial for every sentient being, for every creature, even the tiniest one, it doesn’t matter what body they have. You need to benefit every sentient being. You collect more than skies of merit each time you generate a bodhicitta motivation; you collect the cause of happiness, merits, more than the sky. Now is the time to finish. There are quotations from Nagarjuna and Shantideva that explain why we must live our life for others.
Cherishing the Enemy
Looking at even one sentient being, when the choice is between you and one sentient being, who is more precious? You or this one person, this one insect? Who is more precious? You have to think about that; you have to analyze that. If you have an enemy, somebody you hate, somebody you don’t want to see or hear, ask the question. “Am I more precious than this person? Or is this person more precious than me?” Analyze.
The number is the same, one to one. Before the choice was simply numbers; you are one and there are numberless sentient beings, but now it is just one. If you cherish this one sentient being, especially somebody you call “enemy,” there is enlightenment. Because of them, you become free from samsara and achieve enlightenment. On the other hand, if you renounce this one sentient being, there is no enlightenment for you. You have to know that. If you cherish that one being, especially the enemy, the one who harms us, there is enlightenment. [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] If you don’t cherish them, there is no enlightenment. [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] There is just endless samsara. [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] Think that.
I will tell you a story. This is very important, so don’t forget. There are many stories that I don’t know, I haven’t read. But, anyway, this is a story I know that is very helpful for you to remember and meditate on, for you to help all sentient beings. In the commentary on Vajrayogini, a female enlightened being, there is the story of a great yogi called Ngagpa Chöpawa. He normally traveled in the sky with five hundred dakinis with damaru and bell. He went to do his last tantra practice before enlightenment, chöpa, tantra conduct, in a place in Oddi, near West Bengal, near Buxa where I lived for eight years, where the one thousand five hundred monks continued to study philosophy after they escaped from Tibet. This place, Oddi, is near Buxa. Each year there is a kind of celebration of the holy place and many people go there from Bombay. I heard there is a cave you climb up to by holding on to an iron bar. In the cave the earth is like ice melted down, and when some people go there, they hear music—cymbals and damaru—or chanting. I think an incarnate lama, the old leader of puja in Namgyal monastery, heard chanting when he went there. He taught in His Holiness’ Namgyal Monastery and he passed away a long time.
In the story of Ngagpa Chöpawa, there was a lady with leprosy, totally full of pus and blood coming out, waiting to cross a river. When she asked the yogi to carry her to other side, he didn’t pay attention; he just went straight across. The yogi was not a monk but his disciple was. Later the disciple monk, Getsul Tsimbulwa, came, and when she asked him to help her across, instead of ignoring her, he had unbelievable compassion seeing her suffering. He was a monk and she was lady but he had no thought that he could not touch the lady. He immediately grabbed her and took her on his back without thinking of catching her leprosy, that the disease would spread from her, just unbelievable compassion.
What happened was in the middle of the river—they didn’t even get across—in the middle of the river, carrying her, he was purified. Seeing the unbelievable suffering of the lady, the negativities obscuring his mind were purified. In the middle of the river this lady transformed into Dorje Phagmo, the female enlightened deity, the same as Vajrayogini but with a pig’s head, which signifies the antidote to sentient beings’ ignorance. Actually, from the beginning she always was Dorje Phagmo, not that lady, but Getsul Tsimbulwa’s mind was so obscured he saw a suffering lady with pus and blood. But carrying her across with unbelievable compassion he purified his negativities, allowing him to see her as the deity. She was the deity but before he couldn’t see the deity, he saw the suffering lady. Then, without need for him to die, she took him to the pure land, Dagpa Khachö.
If you go there, you will definitely get enlightened there, whereas in Amitabha’s pure land you don’t get enlightened. Bodhisattvas pray to be born here in our world, the southern world, where there are tantric teachings happening, so they can practice tantra and get enlightened. That is one reason for being born here. Our human body is very precious, so we must not waste time; we must make the most of it by utilizing it in the practice, for the Dharma and especially for tantra, to achieve enlightenment quickly, if possible in one brief lifetime of degenerate times, or however quickly.
She took Getsul Tsimbulwa, without him needing to die, to the pure land of Dagpa Khachö, and he became enlightened there. I’m not sure but maybe the disciple became enlightened before his guru, Ngagpa Chöpawa. Getsul Tsimbulwa generated compassion for just this one being and look at the benefits he got! He purified his negativities and was able to go to a pure land and get enlightened there. That is from generating compassion for one being.
Therefore, for one insect, for one human being, for anybody, it is so important to generate compassion even for one being in your daily life. For me, I’m very lazy. Don’t copy me, I’m terribly lazy. But on the road in India you see buffaloes carrying such heavy loads, piles of heavy iron bars. They have to pull such heavy things, and then they get beaten. You can’t do very much for them, so at least you should do tonglen meditation and do prayers for them. There are many prayers, such as Nagarjuna’s prayer:
Whatever suffering sentient beings have, may it ripen on me.
Whatever happiness I have, may it ripen on others.
You recite this prayer and dedicate your happiness, your merits, mentally giving them to these animals or people. You take the suffering in your heart and destroy the self-cherishing thought as I mentioned before. At least pray for them but, if possible, take their suffering. Visualize and give your happiness and merit to them.
In the road or wherever, there are so many suffering beings around that you can see. So, you can do like that while you are walking. At least you do like that, practice bodhicitta. Then, like Getsul Tsimbulwa, it is the most powerful purification, the quickest way to collect extensive merits. If you train your mind like that, it is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment.
So, I’ve finished. I didn’t reach emptiness. I was supposed to do the motivation, then reach emptiness. It didn’t happen. Do the emptiness meditation in your sleep, in your dreams. OK.
In the road there are people who don’t have legs or hands; there are so many different suffering beings. So, as you walk around, do tonglen, taking sentient beings’ suffering and the cause, and giving them your happiness and merits. If you can help somebody of course you should, but at least pray, at least do meditation. I will stop here. Even one sentient being is most precious. Cherishing yourself is the source of all suffering. Cherishing others is the source of all happiness, your happiness and other numberless sentient beings’ happiness. It opens the door for that, up to enlightenment. Understand that.
Dedications
[Mandala offering]
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, may bodhicitta, the source of all happiness and success up to enlightenment for ourselves and all sentient beings, be generated in the hearts of all sentient beings who have been our own mother from beginningless rebirths and have been most unbelievably kind from beginningless rebirths, numberless times.”
After she lays her eggs outside the water, because she has to live in the water, the crocodile keeps her babies in her mouth before she puts them in the lake. Her mouth is very long and she puts water in her mouth to keep the many babies in. Sometimes the babies’ legs come outside, but she tries to keep them inside, in the water in her mouth, to train them before getting into the lake. I don’t know how long she keeps them like that. It’s amazing. If she put the babies immediately into the lake they would get lost and die. After keeping them in her mouth for I don’t know how long, she slowly puts them in the lake when they get big enough. I’m sure you must know more about that. I’m talking about the kindness of the mother.
It is amazing how, when the different beings are born, their mothers take care of them with ignorance, anger, attachment and the self-cherishing thought, creating so much negative karma from beginningless rebirths up to now. Then they suffer. The result is they experience unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable suffering from beginningless rebirths up to now. Unless you practice Dharma and realize emptiness, you will have to be born in samsara to sentient beings again. Like before, you will have to be born again and your mothers will have to endure samsaric suffering again and again, endlessly.
“May bodhicitta be generated in all the sentient beings who have been our mothers and have been so kind and suffered so much, especially in sentient beings in this world. May bodhicitta be generated in their hearts, especially in the hearts of all sentient beings in Nepal, in the hearts of all the students of the FPMT, in the hearts of all of us here, including our family members, those who have already died.”
Maybe some are in the higher realms but most are probably in hell, or are a hungry ghost or an animal. You just can’t imagine. You meet many of them as horses, or dogs or cats, or as worms or something but you don’t recognize them. You not only don’t have an omniscient mind, you don’t even have ordinary clairvoyance. You can’t recognize your kind mother, your kind father, you can’t recognize them now. So many times it is like that.
“May bodhicitta be generated in the heart of any sentient being who sees me, who hears from me, who remembers me, who touches me, who hears my name, who mentions my name, who sees my photos, who dreams of me. May bodhicitta be generated in all their hearts, and in those whose heart bodhicitta has been generated, may it increase.
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, may I be able to cherish every sentient being more than the sky filled with wish-granting jewels.”
Then we should pray for the world. There is a prayer for the world written by His Holiness but I don’t know it by heart.
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, may all the wars happening in the world now and in the future be stopped, and may all the famines, disease, dangers due to attachment and anger, dangers of earth, fire, tsunamis and so forth be stopped immediately. The ice melting, the water levels rising and washing away cities, may all those problems be stopped immediately.
“May perfect peace and happiness prevail in everyone’s heart and, by generating loving kindness and compassion in everyone’s heart, may the Buddhadharma last a long time. By meeting the Buddhadharma, may sentient beings receive peace and happiness and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, may any sentient being who sees me, touches me, hears me, remembers me, sees photos of me, dreams of me, just by that may all their suffering be pacified and may they achieve all the happiness including enlightenment.”
I must tell you this story. Not necessarily every day but I normally do those prayers. This happened last time I went to Australia, to Kangaroo Island, where the center there has built a stupa and a Padmasambhava statue, a standing one with water around. After I had been to bless it and we came back by boat to Adelaide, where the boat stopped there was a mother waiting. She had come to thank me. She had a dog and the vet told her the dog had no hope, it would die, so she should take it back home. They didn’t take care of it, they didn’t give it medicine because they thought the dog would die. When she took the dog home she put my picture on its pillow and she said the dog took refuge. She said that. It seems the dog saw the picture there on the pillow. Then, the dog didn’t die, it survived. So she came to where the boat was moored to thank me.
Then another time, also in Adelaide I think, a mother wrote saying she had a girl with heart pain. She gave her my picture and the girl rubbed it on her heart. It is karma but it seems her heart pain got better. That is what I can remember. I’m sure there are many other things I don’t remember or I haven’t heard. When you frequently do prayers like this, when you dedicate like this, it naturally helps. Your wish has power to help the world, to help anyone who has problems. I want to let you know that. Of course it is the expression of your good heart, but I want to show you some proof that it does have an effect.
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, that which exists in mere name, may the I, who exists in mere name, achieve buddhahood, which exists in mere name, and lead all the sentient beings, who exist in mere name, to that enlightenment, buddhahood, which exists in mere name, by myself alone, who exists in mere name.”
OK, thank you. Thank you very much.
Notes
20 Ch. 8, v. 120. [Return to text]
21 The Jewel Lamp: A Praise of Bodhicitta, published as Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea, Wisdom Publications, 1999. [Return to text]
22 V. 186. [Return to text]
23 Ch. 1, v. 7. [Return to text]
24 This source could not be located in either A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life or The Jewel Lamp: A Praise of Bodhicitta. [Return to text]
25 Ch. 5, v. 12. [Return to text]
26 Ch. 5, v. 13. [Return to text]
