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LIBERATING ANIMALS
[Refuge and bodhicitta]

Maybe one question?

Student: Rinpoche, I just want to ask about Milarepa’s mantra. Can you recite it to animals who are dying?

Rinpoche: Very good. There’s a book we put together many, many, so many years ago, particularly when I was in Taiwan because a lot of people were saving the lives of animals. I made a book about how to save the lives of animals, how to liberate them. Of course, first you have to buy them from the place where they’re going to be killed.

Of course, there are two meanings for “liberate.” The first is to save from death, the other is to liberate from samsara. That’s why when a group brings animals to the center in Taiwan, if there’s any way, they circumambulate outside the center because the center has many holy objects, statues, stupas, scriptures, many holy objects.

If you can take the animals around outside around [a center], you can do like that. Otherwise, like in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, you set up an altar at the place where there’s a reservoir or water or when you can liberate them. In Hong Kong the people usually take the whole thing to a place near water where they can put the animals back in the water. It’s mostly sea animals. So there’s a big table and then another smaller one on that on another level, then another level and another level like that. They bring many tsa-tsas, statues, stupas, as many as possible, and set them up very nicely, then the actual statues, then Dharma texts—the lam-rim and Prajnaparamita texts, like the Diamond Cutter Sutra—on top. So, the Buddha, lam-rim or Prajnaparamita scripture, a stupa, whatever you have, even a whole bundle of photos of buddhas, like card of the merit field, which means thousands of buddhas, or the thirty-five Buddhas or even many photos of Buddha, bundles of them, all put around.

If you have one more buddha statue or stupa or picture there, that means one more cause for enlightenment for the people who go around and animals that you carry around, if you have one more statue of buddha or stupa or Dharma text or picture of the Buddha. If you have a hundred set up there, when you take this most precious sentient being, this insect or whatever, around one time, then this sentient being creates a hundred causes of enlightenment, of peerless happiness, of full enlightenment, and by the way a hundred causes to achieve liberation from the oceans of samsaric suffering and its causes. This precious sentient being, this insect or whatever, creates that, those hundred causes of happiness for all the future lives.

If you have a thousand holy objects, then by going around once carrying this precious sentient being, this insect or whatever, this dog, cat, goat or fish, whatever, taking one time around creates a thousand causes of enlightenment, and by the way liberation from samsara and happiness future lives. Then if there are a hundred thousand holy objects, for example, the pictures there, one photo with many buddhas on it, when you carry one insect or ant or something around, it creates for that sentient being, that most precious sentient being, that ant or worm or whatever, a hundred thousand causes of enlightenment, and by the way, a hundred thousand cause to achieve liberation from samsara, to be totally free forever, not just free for some time and then come back then and suffer, not like that. Free forever. Because you have ceased the cause to completely cease karma and delusion, including the seed of delusion from where the delusion rises, it’s completely totally ceased. And if there’s no cause, how can there be suffering?

They create a hundred thousand causes of happiness of all the future lives no matter how small they are, like the ant or even much smaller, and no matter how big. The merit they create all depends on how many holy objects there are. So it’s best to create as many as possible; that’s very, very important.

Since I’m telling this, I can also mention this. A pig was chased by a dog around the stupa, and the pig tried to run around the stupa, tried to run away, but it become a circumambulation because the dog chased it. It went around and it became a circumambulation. When the pig died it was born in the higher realm. The cause was being forced to circumambulate the stupa by being chased by the dog. That caused after death the pig to be born in the deva realm, the higher realm, the thirty-three deva realm. There are many stories like that.

THE IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD HEART
There is one thing very important to understand. Whether we have gone through that or not, a very important lesson, to become cause of the happiness our actions—eating, sitting, drinking, sleeping, working, walking, listening, reflecting, meditating, whatever action we do—to become cause of the happiness, whatever you do, doing our job, playing golf or soccer, anyway—for all these actions to become cause of happiness, to not become cause of suffering, [they need to be done with the right motivation.] That means the happiness not only this life, but the happiness of future lives, long run happiness. That means until we remove the cause of suffering, karma and delusions, until we remove it completely, there’s continual reincarnating in samsara, and suffering in the oceans of hell suffering, the oceans of hungry ghosts’ suffering, the oceans of animal suffering, the oceans of human beings’ suffering, the oceans of sura beings’ suffering, the oceans of asura beings’ suffering and intermediate state sufferings. We’ll continue to be born then suffer all this, and then we’ll die. Then we’ll be born again, suffer and die.

We have been doing that since beginningless time; we have been doing this from beginningless rebirths up to now. We need to cease the cause of reincarnating, circling in samsara, the cause that makes us circle in samsara, to be born and suffer and die, this is by karma and delusions, the action and delusions, we need to do this by actualizing antidote, the remedy, by actualizing the path then totally remove it. That’s what directly ceases the defilements, the disturbing obscuring delusions, the defilements. What directly ceases them is by the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness.

All the other things, such as renunciation, support that. Realizing the renunciation of samsara is the door. When we have that, we have entered the path to liberation. But of course, if we have bodhicitta, on the basis of that bodhicitta, then we enter in the Mahayana path to enlightenment.

I was talking about the action becoming the cause. Whatever action we’re doing, all those actions I mentioned before, become the cause of happiness. Happiness is not just this life’s happiness; it’s the happiness of all the coming future lives, then ultimate happiness, liberation from the oceans of samsaric suffering and its causes. That’s much more important, much more important than achieving the happiness of all the future lives—that’s temporary happiness. More important than that happiness to achieve is ultimate happiness, liberation from oceans of samsaric suffering and its causes. Now even more important than that, the most important, is peerless happiness, full enlightenment, completing the qualities of the cessation of mistakes, the gross and subtle defilements, and completing the qualities of all the realizations. Then, our actions no longer become the cause of suffering but cause of happiness. So, there are different levels of happiness.

The basic thing for our daily life’s activities to become the cause of happiness, all these happinesses, the action itself has to become virtue, it has to become Dharma, it has to become Dharma. For our actions to become Dharma, the motivation for the action has to become Dharma, has to become virtue.

The meaning of Dharma is protecting ourselves from suffering. To put it simply, the meaning of Dharma is to protect ourselves from suffering and the cause of suffering, holding up, as Geshe Sopa Rinpoche said one day, holding up. Holding up means protecting ourselves from or holding up from falling down into the lower realms, so that means Dharma. Then also protecting ourselves from samsara, instead of repeatedly reincarnating in samsara, protecting ourselves from that, holding up from that; that means the Dharma.

Then holding up from lower nirvana, protecting ourselves from the lower nirvana, then we direct our life towards enlightenment, so that’s what’s Dharma. So, the meaning of Dharma is like that, holding up from falling down in the lower realm, all this protecting from suffering, suffering and its cause.

Our daily life activities, whatever we are doing—listening to the teachings, reflecting, doing meditation, all the normal activity such as eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, doing our job and so forth—all this becomes the cause of happiness; it doesn’t become the cause of suffering. For them to become the cause of happiness, they have to become virtue, Dharma, and for these actions to become Dharma, virtue, then the motivation for the action has to become Dharma, virtue, pure, unstained by ignorance, anger, attachment.

Nagarjuna, the second Buddha, who propagated the Buddha’s teaching unbelievably, wrote six or seven texts, very deep, profound, on wisdom, on emptiness. There are tantra teachings by Nagarjuna. So anyway, Nagarjuna said,

Desire, hatred, ignorance, and
The actions they generate are non-virtues.
Non-attachment, non-hatred, non-ignorance,
And the actions they generate are virtues.

From non-virtues come all sufferings
And likewise all bad transmigrations,
From virtues, all happy transmigrations
And the pleasures of all lives.⁴

Then, whatever activity we are doing, it becomes virtue, and it becomes the cause of happiness, the cause of the happiness of future lives, a good rebirth. Then if that daily life’s activity is done with the renunciation, with the detachment to the future lives’ samsara, like the samsaric happiness or perfections, that action becomes the cause to achieve liberation, ultimate happiness, everlasting happiness, the cessation of the oceans of samsaric suffering and its cause, karma and delusions.

Then if our actions are done with bodhicitta, much higher, if our daily life’s activities are done with the motivation of bodhicitta, the thought to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, cherishing sentient beings, then all your actions—eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, doing our job, and no question, listening to Dharma, reflecting and then meditating—all become virtue, the cause of happiness, the cause of full enlightenment, the state of omniscience, peerless happiness. That’s the most important one. Among the success, that is the greatest success in the life.

On the other hand, if listening Dharma, reflecting, meditating, and the normal activities such as eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, doing our job and so forth, all these things—if they are done with attachment to this life, then all those actions become worldly dharma, not holy Dharma, not holy Dharma, worldly dharma, they becomes nonvirtue. Even listening to the teaching, reflecting, meditating become worldly, so of course eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, doing our job, everything becomes nonvirtue.

Why? Because the motivation is nonvirtue, attachment clinging to this life, that motivation is nonvirtue. Because that motivation is attachment to this life, it doesn’t bring peace in our heart. It only causes disturbances to our heart, to ourselves and to our mind, making the mind unsubdued. It’s the opposite; it doesn’t bring peace to our mind, inner peace, because the motivation is nonvirtue. That means if we’re not practicing Dharma, if you’re not practicing lam-rim, then waking up in the morning, dressing, washing, eating—everything is just done with attachment. Maybe sometimes there’s anger, but there’s always ignorance and there’s attachment, attachment clinging to this life. So everything from early morning, from the beginning of the day, already all those actions become negative karma, nonvirtue which only result in suffering.

Rushing, going for our job, even if the motivation is not bodhicitta, to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings—even if we don’t think about enlightenment particularly but if we think about benefiting all sentient beings in order to free them from suffering and have happiness, or at least the company we’re working for, or the family member we’re working for—if the motivation for whatever we do such as working for a company, helping an old person who is sick, cleaning for them and so forth, if the motivation, if the main goal is our own happiness, is to achieve our own happiness, attachment to this life, then no matter how many hours we work—washing, cleaning, even washing the old person—if it’s all done for ourselves, the everything becomes negative karma, nonvirtue.

But then in our heart, if our motivation is the happiness of that person, not our happiness but the happiness of that person, it becomes virtue. Here it becomes virtue; that’s the difference. Is the main goal of our life our own happiness or the happiness of that person? If it’s the happiness of that person, then our action becomes pure, it becomes virtue. The action becomes virtue and therefore it is Dharma. It becomes very pure Dharma because our main goal is the happiness of that person, happiness of that sentient being. That’s very important. The motivation is, so then [it] becomes pure dharma, and cause of enlightenment, so that [pause]. Then it becomes Dharma, pure Dharma, the very powerful means to purify all our past heavy negative karma. The harder we work, the more hardships we endure taking care of that sentient being, then even much more heavier negative karma collected in the past—many eons of negative karma—gets purified.

Every day our life is like that. If we have good heart, if our motivation like this, every day our job becomes Dharma, becomes meditation. Therefore, you can see now here how it’s so urgent to have a good heart, good heart in the life, so unbelievably important.

Even if we might not believe in reincarnation, in karma, or we don’t understand those subjects, even if we are only thinking this one life, it still becomes the most unbelievably important issue to have a good heart. If we have good heart, thinking of the happiness of the person, then all our actions become Dharma, so this becomes the purest action.

Otherwise, however many hours we do our job, everything becomes negative karma, the cause of suffering, because the motivation is attachment to this life. When the motivation is like that, that is dissatisfied mind, we never get satisfaction. With that motivation, we never get satisfaction in life; we never get inner happiness, peace at all. There’s no inner happiness, peace, satisfaction in our heart. That attachment only brings disturbance to our heart, not peace.

Because of that attachment, anger can arise very easy, or any of those other minds like jealousy, in fact all those afflicting negative emotional thoughts; attachment makes it easy to arise. So it constantly makes us suffer while we’re doing our job in everyday life, as well as harming other sentient beings. There are so many ways we harm other sentient beings with these wrong concepts. We are under the control of the dictatorship, of the dictator, the selfish mind, the self-cherishing thought. This is the mind that is dictating to us how to lead our life.

Instead of giving peace to others at home or in the office, we give no peace to others but instead give so many types of harm to others, disturbing others because of all of these negative thoughts, these delusions that arise. Thinking only of ourselves, only of our own happiness, only of our own profit, we disturb others based on the self-cherishing thought. Then we don’t care for others. Then other receives so much harm, disturbance, so it harms others, creating negative karma, and that causes us to be reborn in the lower realms and then experience those unbelievable, most unbelievable, unbelievable sufferings—of the hell beings, the hungry ghosts, animals—and then later, after some time, due to another good karma ripening, if we get reborn as a human being, then in that life, we still experience many problems, many problems.

THE FOUR SUFFERING RESULTS OF KARMA
There are four suffering results from a negative action. The first, the ripening result, is to be reborn in the lower realms. The other three are if we are reborn as a human. The possessed result is to do with the place, we are born in a place where there’s a lot of negative attitude or suffering, a lot of problems. There are a lot of sicknesses, contagious diseases, or a lot of fighting or many famines. It can be a place where there’s no water or no food. Anyway, there are a lot of problems.

Then, with experiencing the result similar to the cause of that negative karma, we receive harm from others. We receive harm from others because we created negative karma in the past, we harmed them in the past. So then, in another life after some time, when we’re born as a human being we receive harm from others, we experience a result similar to the cause.

Then the third result, because of the habit or negative imprint left on the mind by the past negative karma of harming others, like the ten nonvirtues, we do that negative action again. We create that negative karma again because of the habituation or negative imprint left on the mind by the past negative karma. That is creating the result similar to the cause.

Since I mentioned this now I would like to add this. As a result of the past negative karma, one of the ten nonvirtues, whatever is done, we then do that action again in another human life. We’re born as a human being due to some different good karma, but then we do this again, we harm others, we commit the ten nonvirtuous actions. As a result, we do it again, we create it again.

A completed negative karma has four parts: shi¸tsam-pa, jor-wa and tar-tuk. Shi is the object. For example, killing or telling lies, the object is a sentient being. Then there is the thought or intention, in Tibetan, tsam-pa, and the action, jor-wa. Finally, there is the conclusion or goal, tar-tuk. For instance, if our intention is to kill a person and we complete the action of killing that specific person and he dies before we do, then all four factors are there and the karma of killing is a complete action.

With lying, when the other sentient being has heard and understood what we have said, the meaning, then the goal of telling lies is completed. If that didn’t happen, the action is not completed. We want to tell a lie but we did not complete the action or the person didn’t understand the meaning. It’s the same with the experience of sexual misconduct, when then goal is completed the action is complete and so we experience the complete results of the action.

When the four parts of the action has been completed, that produces the four suffering results again: the ripening aspect of being born in the lower realms and the three sufferings in the human realm. I haven’t seen a text talking about experiencing those three other suffering results in the deva realm. I haven’t seen it in the texts, but you can ask that question. In the texts three suffering result are always related to the human realm. So that’s something that can be checked.

So, the fourth result is doing it again, engaging in the same negative karma, then the four factors are gathered, the object, shi, the action, the intention, tsam-pa, and the conclusion, tar-tuk.. Then again, that produces the four suffering results, and then that fourth one again is engaging in the negative karma.

Since I’m talking here, I want to take opportunity to emphasize this. We create one negative karma, one negative karma, killing, sexual misconduct or telling lies, whatever. For example, today, let’s say only one time we kill or commit sexual misconduct or telling a lie. Let’s say we’ve only done this one time in this life. That leads to the four suffering results, and then creating the result similar to the cause produces another four suffering results, then that fourth result, creating the result similar to the cause produces another four suffering results. It goes on, goes on and on and on and on. On and on and on, endlessly! This is the endless suffering of samsara.

If we examine it, this is how one negative karma done one time, just once this life, produces endless suffering. If we don’t purify the negative karma, if we don’t purify the negative karma, if we don’t practice purification, if nothing is done to that. By actualizing the remedy, the path to be liberated, having ceased the delusion and karma. We did not purify negative karma, so nothing’s done. Then in that case, this one negative karma causes endless suffering, endless—there is no end, there is no end.

Can you imagine how many times in this life we have committed the ten nonvirtues—killing or telling lies—how many times we have done it in this life, as well as gossiping, sexual misconduct, all these things. It’s a basic example of the ten nonvirtues. How many times we’ve done it in this life. Getting older and older, how many years old we are, and all the time creating all those negative karmas. Can you imagine it? We’ve collected an unbelievable number those negative karmas.

Can you imagine? Even in one day, in one day doing our job, eating, walking, and talking, including night time and the last activity sleeping, the whole activity of the body, speech and mind is done with attachment to this life, for this life’s happiness. Can you imagine? Everything during that twenty-four hours, everything, including the last one, sleeping, everything becomes negative karma, everything becomes negative karma. Then no question of any action done with the anger, no question of that. In one day of our life, it’s like that. And then of course, can you imagine? Unimaginable, unimaginable, unimaginable negative karma in one day. Can you imagine?

From birth, the motivation has been the same, attachment clinging to this life, to the happiness of our own life, so it has been nonvirtue up to now.

THE NEED FOR PURIFICATION
Even without meeting Buddhism, it’s a question of how much good heart a person has, it’s question of that. Even without bringing up the subject of meeting Buddhism, without understanding Buddhadharma, without having met Buddhism.

Sometimes we help an animal or insect that is starting to be eaten by other insects or other animals or going to be killed by human beings. Saving that animal has nothing to do with our profit to ourselves; it’s just purely the happiness of that sentient being, that worm or that insect in danger. We simply want to save that sentient being for its own happiness.

If we sometimes have a good heart like that, then of course that becomes pure Dharma. As I mentioned before, thinking of that person’s happiness, of the being’s happiness, not our happiness but the person’s happiness, then taking care or whatever, that becomes pure Dharma.

Otherwise, every day like this, all the activities become negative karma. For the whole lifetime, the whole lifetime. If we don’t know Buddhadharma, if we don’t come to learn Buddhadharma. Of course we can learn, we can learn but then we need to practice, we need to put the practice into our daily life. Otherwise our action does not become Dharma and cannot cause happiness up to enlightenment. Just learning, just intellectually understanding is not enough. We need to put it into practice in daily life.

We need to change our attitude, to transform our mind into Dharma, into the cause of happiness, making it pure and healthy. Here I want to use the term “healthy mind.” When the mind becomes Dharma, it become a healthy mind, otherwise it is not healthy mind, it’s a sick mind. If it’s an attached, angry, jealous mind, then all that is a sick mind, not a healthy mind. But when the mind becomes Dharma, it becomes a healthy mind, a virtuous mind, a pure mind and then the next action will be pure Dharma, positive, virtuous, and will result only in happiness.

Without meeting the Dharma, without practicing, then for our whole life, this most precious human body is used to collect only the cause of suffering, the cause of suffering of the lower realms. I’m talking just about this life, but now we have to think about past lives, past lives when the mind did not become Dharma, and the motivation for all our actions was ignorance, anger or attachment. Then, everything became negative karma. Then in the life before that it was the same. So can you imagine from beginningless rebirths? Can you imagine?

Now you can understand, now you can get some idea of negative karma from beginningless rebirths, negative karma which we haven’t finished experiencing, and which we haven’t purified. The negative karmic imprints are uncountable, they are uncountable, like the dust of this earth. Therefore you can see now how important it is to practice purification in daily life. You can see now how the practice of purification in everyday life is so important.

A retreat like a Vajrasattva retreat is very powerful, where you do a lot of practices in the short time. You can organize have the some weeks and month and you can do the 100,000 recitations of the Vajrasattva mantra. Then there is the most unbelievably powerful purification practice, the recitation of the Thirty-five Buddhas, that is most powerful. By reciting each of the buddha’s holy names just once, it has the power to purify many eons of the different negative karma, two eons’ negative karma, two thousand eons’ negative karma, then five thousand eons’ negative karma, six thousand eons’ negative karma, then there’s the one I mentioned already this morning, the reciting the first buddha’s name, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s name, which purifies a hundred million eons’ of negative karma. Not just that but on top of that, hundreds of thousands of times of eons, that amount of eons of negative karma gets purified just by reciting once time, it has the power.

Then… what was your question? I forgot.

[Student asks about Milarepa’s mantra.]

Rinpoche: Yes, yes. I see, I see. [Rinpoche laughs] So there’s one, De zhin sheg pa me tog päl la chhag tshäl lo. “To the Tathagatha Glorious Flower I prostrate.” If you recite that name even once, De zhin sheg pa me tog päl la chhag tshäl lo, it purifies a hundred thousand eons’ of negative karma.

So reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas is most amazing. That’s why Lama Tsongkhapa did many hundreds of thousands of prostrations at Olka Chölung in Tibet, in a hermitage, a cave. People can go to see where he did many hundreds of thousands of mandala offerings on the rock. Not on silver, not on the very comfortable place, but he offered mandala on the rock. And then he did many hundreds of thousands of prostrations reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names, with the confessing downfalls.

At the beginning he didn’t recite, “De zhin sheg pa” this title, “tathagata” but just the bare name were mentioned. Then he saw the Thirty-five Buddhas in the cave, but without heads—not without a “hat” but without the head, and so he added the De zhin sheg pa, literally “Gone As it Is.” I already this explained yesterday. So then he saw the Thirty-five Buddhas with the heads. Although in other traditions, the texts don’t have De zhin Shek pa, in the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition, we recite De zhin sheg pa because of that story of what happened to Lama Tsongkhapa.

So reciting the names is a most amazing, powerful purification practice. Then, with prostration, wow! One prostration, wow! The merit, good luck, the merit we collect is most amazing.

So, we’ll quickly finish this subject.

So anyway, as I just mentioned, lay down with the full-length prostration, called a five-limb prostration. The full length prostration is according to the Mahayana oral tradition, and it is mentioned in some texts, according the Indian great yogi, Naropa’s, tradition. The full length prostration is mentioned there.

The Buddha has explained, with every atom of our body covering the ground when we’re doing a prostration, we collect inconceivable merits to be born as wheel-turning king for one thousand lifetimes. If there’s one atom of our body covering the ground while we’re doing a prostration. To create the cause to be born as wheel-turning king one time, in one life, we need to collect inconceivable, inconceivable, inconceivable merits. Two wheel-turning kings at the same time doesn’t happen in this world. Like the Buddha revealing the Dharma. The Buddha who descended in this world to reveal Dharma, showing the twelve holy deeds like Guru Shakyamuni did, inspiring sentient beings, teaching the sentient beings how to practice Dharma and why we should practice Dharma , the need to achieve liberation from samsara, the need to achieve full enlightenment, the importance of that—two buddhas do not happen, showing the twelve deeds in this world at the same time. So, it’s like that. Only one wheel-turning king happens in this world at one time.

When a wheel-turning king happens in this world, everybody, everybody is able practice virtue, everybody is able to live their life in practicing the ten virtues. So when that happens in this world, it has the same power, that kind of benefit, unbelievable to sentient beings. Besides the wealth and richness that happens, to be born as wheel-turning king once, we need to collect most unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable merits.

But here, when we do a prostration, if our body covers one atom, that means we collect inconceivable merits to be born as a wheel-turning king for thousands of lifetimes. So now from here, how many atoms of the ground our body covers when we’re doing prostrations, from here down to the bottom of the earth, it’s numberless, unimaginable, unimaginable. Even just how many atoms our one finger covers, from here down to the bottom of the earth, it’s most unimaginable. And one of our toes, while we’re doing prostrations, how many atoms one of our toes covers from here down to the bottom of the earth is most unimaginable. Can you imagine?

Even a piece of hair—of course if somebody has long hair, there’s no question—but if we have a piece of hair, when we do prostrations, the hair covers unimaginable number of atoms from here down to the bottom of the earth. We get merit, an unimaginable number. Can you imagine? We get inconceivable merits to be born as wheel-turning king for thousands of lifetimes equaling the number of atoms that our hair covers from here down to the bottom of the earth. Can you imagine the merit, the good karma, the good luck when we do prostrations to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha?

Without thinking “Buddha, Dharma and Sangha,” when we just do the action, it only becomes physical exercise; it does not become a prostration, purifying negative karma. But once we have a holy object— even there are no actual statues, stupas, scriptures, nothing, but we visualize them—but once we have the holy object to prostrate to, then it becomes prostration, then it purifies our mind, then we collect extensive merits. Can you imagine? By doing one prostration, the merit we collect is most unimaginable, unimaginable.

There are so many other practices to help us purify, but even if we only know these two, just Vajrasattva and especially the Thirty-five Buddhas, that’s so unimaginable.

I mention this so that you’ll come to know the importance of the practice of purification and the Vajrasattva practice, in everyday life Vajrasattva meditation or as a Vajrasattva retreat for three months. It is so fortunate we have had this here in the FPMT organization for so many years due to Lama Yeshe’s kindness.

The first initiation Lama gave after we moved here to Kopan was the Vajrasattva initiation. At that time there was no monastery built, not even the first monastery, so we were in the house that belonged to the Nepalese king’s astrologer, which was built in the British style.

Lama and I shared a room. When you enter inside, the very first room, one tiny room, maybe this big. [Rinpoche shows] There was Lama’s bed. There can only be one bed, [Rinpoche shows], then there’s a door. So it was a small room and we were there for many years.

There were three American students, one is a professor now the, I don’t know which university, Jan Willis, she an African American. And there were two other American students, a couple. They lived in the Nepalese house. I don’t know if the same house exists now or not, but it was outside the gate. It’s not the house outside the gate now, that’s the new house but back from that, what was called Ran’s house, the Nepalese man who worked for many years at Kopan in the kitchen.

They were upstairs. They received initiation from Lama Yeshe and they did retreat upstairs. The Nepalese family who lived downstairs made a fire and upstairs where they were doing the retreat got totally filled with smoke, totally filled with smoke. I don’t think they were familiar with wood fires, they’d never lived that kind of life, so I think they had great difficulties with all the smoke every day in their room coming from downstairs.

So anyway, they did a three month retreat. They were the very first. Then it spread, and many students received the Vajrasattva initiation, and then Lama did it and I did it, then so many people, so many students here at Kopan, in Dharamsala and other places in the West did three-month Vajrasattva retreats. It’s so fortunate, unbelievably fortunate. Then, practicing Vajrasattva every day is so fortunate. Then of course many people did many hundreds of thousands of practices in their preliminary practices.

So, I’m just saying here how our actions become the negative karma usually, and so we need to understand how important, how urgent, how most urgent it is to practice Vajrasattva and do prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names. Anyway, since I’m talking, I’m going to mention also this.

So, I’ll finish today. The Vajrasattva initiation is tomorrow in the evening.

Anyway, since I’m talking about karma, the other thing is this.

If we recite in the case of Vajrasattva, a hundred thousand hundred-syllable Vajrasattva mantras, then even you break all our vows they get purified. For example, say somebody takes ordination, then breaks the four root vows, killing a human being and received the defeat, stealing things, things that have not been offering, committing sexual intercourse and telling lies. Or while he doesn’t have realizations he tells the lie, saying “I have such-and-such realization.” Like this, very heavy karma is collected, but if you do the Vajrasattva mantra a hundred thousand times, all that gets completely purified, and you don’t have to be reborn in lower realms where you suffer.

The next thing to understand so we can see, we can understand how important it is to practice Vajrasattva even in daily life is this. Today’s negative karma expands. For example, killing a very, very tiny insect that’s crawling on the damp wood, damp wood, that get multiplied, it become double tomorrow, triple the next day and so on. Every day it multiplies.

So after fifteen days, the karma is as heavy as having killed a human being. We kill that tiny insect killed and then we don’t purify, and day by day it increases—doubled tomorrow and so on—so that after fifteen days, it’s the same heavy karma as killing one human being. After eighteen days, after fifteen days, the negative karmas increases 131,072 times or something like that; it increases.

So by the time we die, this one tiny negative karma, by multiplying day by day, becomes like the size of this earth, from one atom multiplied it become size of this earth containing so many atoms.

This is similar with any negative karma. If we don’t purify it, by multiplying it becomes like the size of this earth—such an unbelievable increase—by the time we die. Then, can you imagine the next life? The most unbearable, most unbearable suffering, so many eons, eons, eons, eons have to be born in the lower realms and experience suffering. And this is only talking about one negative karma.

As I mentioned before, in twenty-four hours we do so many other negative karmas with the body, speech and mind, all those done today, yesterday, the day before yesterday, so many, all this gets multiplied, everyday it gets multiplied, it increases, unbelievable, most unbelievable. So, can imagine, like that, wow!

If we don’t practice purification in this life, if nothing is done, then you can imagine, then future lives become so, for eons, most unimaginable, most unimaginable numberless eons become so difficult, most unbelievable sufferings, with no chance of a human rebirth. Can you imagine? You can’t imagine, after this human body, in next life to be born as a tiny insect. I just mentioned this, unimaginable, most unimaginable after this human body, this human life, then we die and we’re born as a red worm, a worm on the road—can you imagine?—or a scorpion or spider—can you imagine?—or a frog.

Then, it’s impossible to practice. There is no way to practice Dharma. I just mention this. No way to practice dharma. For example, with a turtle or your cat or dog or snake, you can explain to them for billions of eons, day and night without any break at all what the cause of happiness is, that the cause of happiness is virtue, without break for billions of eons you can explain, but there is no way they can understand, no way they can understand.

But we who have this human body, when somebody explains to us, it doesn’t even take minute, within a few seconds we can understood that the cause of happiness is virtue, and the definition of virtue—an action which result in happiness, motivated by non-anger, non-ignorance, non-attachment. That’s it; it doesn’t even take a minute. Within a few seconds we understood. That proves how our human body is so precious, unbelievably precious, most unbelievably precious.

So that means it’s unbelievably easy to learn Dharma, how unbelievably easy it is to practice, how unbelievably easy it is to have realizations, how unbelievably easy it is to be liberated from oceans of samsaric suffering, how unbelievably easy it is to achieve the state of omniscience, full enlightenment. It’s unbelievably easy with the human body, but it’s impossible for them. That’s a way of developing most compassion for them.

So you see, here it becomes most important, it becomes the most important thing to take care of this precious human body, and to make this life meaningful, to make it meaningful. Taking care means making the life meaningful, practicing Dharma. Can you imagine how most important it is to practice Dharma.

So please have tea.

[Tea offering: Lama sangye lama, Chö de zhing lama, ge dun te Kun gyi je po lama, te lama namla, chö pa bul]

I didn’t know if I finished. There was some left. Whatever negative karma that we do today, just one negative karma, it becomes double tomorrow. At end of the day today, if it’s not purified, reciting the Vajrasattva mantra, without purifying that with Vajrasattva practice, it becomes double tomorrow, then the next day it becomes four times. And the third day it becomes eight times. So it increases like that, goes on. So this one negative karma today, if we don’t purify it at the end of the day, this is how it increases as the days go. So it becomes most unbearable.

So then like that, how many negative karmas collected with the body, speech and mind today, all those increase, it becoming double tomorrow, triple the next day and so on.

Then not only that, there is yesterday’s negative karma, the day before yesterday’s negative karma and so on. If the purification by reciting Vajrasattva’s mantra, the remedy with the four powers, the perfect confession or purification, if we apply the four powers then it becomes a very powerful, perfect confession, purification.

Can you imagine from birth time, wow! We can go back all the way through—can you imagine?— if no purification is done with the remedy of four powers, we have to experience all the suffering results. Then there’s all that from past lives. Can you imagine?

The remedy, the four powers, we purify the negative karmas collected in connection with the Buddha and Sangha, by taking refuge, we purify. Then the negative karmas collected in connection with the sentient beings, by generating bodhicitta, we purify.

Then we think what the shortcomings of this negative karma are, what harm the negative karma gives to us, reflecting like that. All those different negative karmas with the body, speech and mind, what harm they give us, like that we think about their shortcomings.

When we see them as harmful, negative, we get inspired to generate the thought to purify. Then, the power of the remedy, the “power of always engaging,” it might be that. But that translation can be checked; it could be that. That is the recitation of Vajrasattva mantra itself and so forth.

Then the power to not commit the negative karma again. After we finish the mantra we recite this twenty-one times, for example, to stop increasing today’s negative karma, to not let it multiply tomorrow, then we recite the Vajrasattva mantra.

We need to recite the hundred-syllable mantra twenty-one times to stop today’s negative karma increasing tomorrow, you need to recite 21 times. If we are reciting the short one OM VAJRASATTVA HUM we need to recite it twenty-eight times. There’s also OM VAJRASATTVA HA, but I asked my root guru, His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama’s younger tutor. From here I wrote a letter and asked which one we should recite for the short one. His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche answered it’s more comfortable to recite OM VAJRASATTVA HUM, not HA; OM VAJRASATTVA HUM. So if we’re reciting the very short one, then we need to recite twenty-eight times to have power to stop today’s negative karma increasing tomorrow, becoming double tomorrow.

So now here, even reciting the hundred-syllable mantra twenty-one times in the power of the remedy within the four powers, it purifies, it stops today’s negative karma increasing tomorrow. And not only does it purify today’s negative karma, it purifies yesterday’s negative karma, it purifies past lives’ negative karma.

How much it purifies depends on how we recite. How we recite is not so much the sound, it’s more the motivation, whether the motivation is strong, whether there is stronger compassion for sentient beings. Recited with that, it becomes unbelievable, the most unbelievably powerful; even if we recite only a few mantras, it becomes the most unbelievably powerful purification.

If we recite with the right view, then it’s so unbelievably powerful. If we have the realization of bodhicitta, of right view, if we recite only once, it’s the most unbelievably powerful purification, collecting extensive merits, most unbelievable.

Even if he breaks all the four root vows, receiving the four defeats, a fully-ordained monk can purify all that even by reciting just once, if recited with the bodhicitta realization or right view, the realization of emptiness. So how much negative karma gets purified depends on how it is recited.

And how much faith. Another one is how much faith we have in the benefits of reciting the Vajrasattva mantra. The stronger the faith, the more power to purify negative karma.

By practicing the remedy, the four power, it has the benefit that we don’t experience the four suffering result: the ripening aspect, where we experience the result of rebirth in the lower realms—we don’t experience that—or the three suffering results in the human realm, the possessed result, the suffering to do with the place —we don’t experience that—then experiencing the result similar to the cause, where other sentient beings harm us as we harmed them in the past—we don’t experience that—and we don’t experience creating the result similar to the cause, where we do the negative karma again. That doesn’t happen; we don’t do that. That’s the importance of the Vajrasattva practice. If we do it twenty-one times, it stop today’s negative karma multiplying tomorrow, if it’s done with the remedy of the four powers.

LIBERATING ANIMALS
Then just to finish. The way we in the FPMT liberate animals is this. Set up an altar, if not in a building, outside in the garden or at the reservoir where there’s water we can liberate the animals into and we can perform the prayers. And then people come.

In Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, also I think Malaysia, children come, their parents come, the grandfathers and grandmothers come, everybody comes. Then, even the children take the fish and carry them in their hands and go to the water to release them. So it’s very good, it’s a very good education for children, a very good thing because I guess, I don’t know, I guess there’s no pride, there’s not expectation to receive something for doing it. They just simply help them, put them back in the water. After finishing the circumambulation, they taking them round and place them in the water.

Setting up the altar, if you can, place relics of Buddha there. Of course, I don’t know if the animals can see the statues, stupas, scriptures and other holy objects. It is said in the teachings that animals cannot see, even though we can see. I don’t know. Of course, if you’re able to see a Buddha relic, it purifies a thousand eons’ negative karma. It might be same also if you circumambulate that. Anyway, it’s a very powerful purification.

Right at the beginning, when the animals are brought there, immediately take as many as possible around as much as possible. Say you have a thousand crickets in a plastic bag. (Make sure the bag is not full, just half.) Crickets are so not expensive and easy to buy; they’re sold to feed other animals. When you take them around once, those thousand crickets create the cause of enlightenment. Even if you only take them around once, every one of them creates the cause of enlightenment. However many times you go around, that creates that many causes for enlightenment and causes of happiness for them.

This is similar with the worms from the supermarket that are sold for fishermen. In the United States in the Washington and at the Aptos house, we buy worms there from the supermarket, then take them around the stupas as many as possible, as many times as possible. After that we recite the prayers.

At the altar, on the last platform, there are also offerings set up to offer them, so it’s sort of like a puja for the animals, done for them. Then everybody chants mantras and there’s a bucket of water. Everybody chant those powerful mantras to purify negative karma. Then after one mala or seven malas or half a mala or whatever, it depends, someone recites OM MANI PADME HUM, and recites more than other mantras. Then everybody blows over the bucket and that water is sprinkled over the birds for sea animals you can pour it over them. In Hong Kong or Singapore, they have a big sack of shell animals, and they pour the water over the water on top so the blessed water purifies them. It has unbelievable benefits, as explained in the texts by Buddha. Their negative karma of the big sack of shell animals gets purified, it’s so good. Then you can also sprinkle on the birds and other animals, or pour on like the frogs and fish.

What they’ve been doing in Singapore for many years is have a truck for the big fish, with tanks which they oxygenate, maybe it’s oxygen or not. Anyway, there are big fish in the truck’s tanks and there are also many small ones, turtles or frogs. They drive the truck around the relics; they take them around in the containers. But with the big fish in the truck they also purify them with the blessed water.

At ABC, Amitabha Buddhist Centre, in Singapore, the truck goes around the center, it circumambulates the whole center. Downstairs there are animals, there with the set up altar. The big fish and those in the truck, in the water, go around as many times as possible. Then the people take all the animals to the reservoir to liberate them.

In Hong Kong, it’s not at the center, they take the animals to the reservoir. There’s a place where you can set up an altar and everybody comes and circumambulates the altar, carrying the animals, go around and then blessing the bucket of water. Then the third thing is they chant the mantras loudly, so some of the animals can hear. That purifies their negative karma and it plants the seed of enlightenment in their hearts.

In recent times, I suggested that one boat has all the turtles and big fish and one boat had the altar with the relics that I carry. There are relics of the Buddha and many other enlightened beings’ relics, with many precious relic mantras, which I carry with me. Normally on the altar the center has there are pictures of the deities, tsa-tsas and so forth. I thought they could put the altar on one boat that just sat there and the boat containing the fish and different animals could go around it.

That makes it very easy for them to purify negative karma and create cause of enlightenment and happiness of all,. Then you do the dedication at the end, dedicating the merits firstly for the one savior of us sentient beings, the originator all the peace and happiness including enlightenment, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to have stable life and all the holy wishes succeed. Then all the other holy beings and all the gurus to have long life. Then dedicate the merits for the long life of the Sangha, the other holy beings who have different teachings, who are in this world only to benefit other sentient beings, for their long life. And then the Sangha who preserve the Dharma, who spread the Dharma for the sentient beings, for their long life and their wishes to succeed.

Then the benefactors who offer service to the Sangha, so the Sangha get the opportunity to practice Dharma and to spread Dharma in the world, so the benefactors’ long life. And then after that, dedicate these merits to the long life of all the people who are reciting OM MANI PADME HUM, making their life meaningful by reciting OM MANI PADME HUM, collect skies of merit every time and unbelievable purification. So dedicate for the long life of all those sentient beings.

And then the next one is dedicate the merits for the long life of all those people who are living in morality, the lay people who are living in the lay vows, five precepts, or the eight Mahayana precepts, all those who are living in morality, even one vow, one holy being living even in one precept, so they’re doing something meaningful with their life, so dedicate for their long life.

Then the other one is dedicate the merits for the people, the sentient beings, who are doing good things for others, people who are working for good things for others, to benefit others, so therefore dedicate for their long life.

And then if you have names of the people who have cancer, dedicate for them. Sometimes because they need this, one of the methods to recover from cancer and have long life is to liberate animals, to save the lives of animals, to cause long life to others, to cause happiness to others. Then as a result, effect then you have long life, you’re able to recover the cancer, so the cancer becomes weaker. It doesn’t multiply, it doesn’t increase or it gets better.

Liberating animals, saving the lives of animals or even human beings who have a suicidal mind, you do a consultation and then save the lives from being killed. Anyway there are different things. So you can dedicate these merits for a particular person, your friend or somebody who asked you to pray, who has cancer. Sometimes, I send the names of people who have cancer to Amitabha Buddhist Centre. I think a few years ago they have finished liberating a hundred million animals, a hundred million animals. They did that a few years ago.

Probably, I’m not sure, maybe they’ve already finished liberating a hundred animals for the second time. [Rinpoche asks someone in Tibetan.] So the first hundred million was done several years ago, and now probably the second hundred million is maybe finishing, maybe it’s already finished. That’s most amazing.

So I send the names of people who have cancer there to dedicate for that person, to liberate animals. They’re liberating animals, saving them, and dedicating that for that person. I don’t know but I think some have recovered from cancer.

Cancer is shortening life, any life-threatening disease is, and so saving lives, causing long life in others, saving the lives of others, that is very, very important to do. It’s not the only thing, but it’s very important.

According to my own experience, there have been quite a few people who have recovered. Some I don’t remember, but some recovered from cancer and got better. The first person I especially remember is Ann Kung, a business lady from Canada who makes predictions about fashion, saying what people would like in fashion next year. She speaks for an hour and makes a thousand dollars for that. She got cancer. I was in Australia but I got message through Karuna, a student. So I told her to visualize Vajrapani on the crown, and then chanting the mantra then can purify it. Then saving the lives of animals, that she should do a lot of that. And also taking the eight Mahayana precepts. Those were the three main ones.

It didn’t take much time. Then she went to hospital and the doctors could not find cancer at all. They were so shocked, surprised. Through practicing meditation, her cancer was completely recovered. They wanted to write a book because it had never happened in their life before, but then she said she wanted to write a book, they don’t need to write book.

She just took an interest in Buddhism by hanging around the centers, so she didn’t really get to learn. When the TV people wanted to interview her, she didn’t know how to explain about how the practice allowed her to recover from cancer. I was unable to go there so it didn’t happen.

After some number of years, The virus came back, something like that, because I think she told me at that time her conduct became not neat, it became a little bit of a mess. She didn’t do the practice, so the virus came back. Then she started to do it again, taking the eight Mahayana precepts and saving the lives of animals, and then it went. I haven’t met her in a long time. That was my first experience but there have been several other patients.

If you dedicate your animals liberation to those particular persons it can help, they can definitely recover, although of course this depends on the karma of the person also.

THE POWER OF THE GOLDEN LIGHT SUTRA
So there are two subjects, three subjects actually. Maybe I’m going to do them quickly. Maybe I’ll do refuge tomorrow. In the evening before Vajrasattva.

I talked about karma last time and there’s some more I want to say about karma, but there’s a most urgent need to practice purification, then you can get some idea from this. Today maybe, I want to read something from this letter, I’m going to read you a note from Rwanda.

“The reason why I want to talk to,” talk to Mickey Mouse “Yesterday you accepted to become my perfect teacher. [Rinpoche laughs] And I also come from a country where there is no holy Dharma.” So this is the one. “I need to know what steps to take since I want to spend my life working for the welfare of all sentient beings.” I was inspired by that. “I need to know what steps to take since I want to spend my life working for the welfare of all sentient beings.” That’s most wonderful. Then “Thank you sincerely. Fedel Dassal.” Right?

Anyway, I was very inspired by that. So I thought to mention a few things on this, sort of going over the lam-rim. This is also lam-rim anyway. So what I said, how I advised him to help his country—his idea is how to help his country, but it’s the same for your own country or the world—I advised him that as much as possible he had to read the Golden Light Sutra. The Golden Light Sutra is unbelievable, most unbelievable, powerful, this amazing, most amazing text, the Golden Light Sutra, to read that. Then you become most fortunate. I you read this, it directs your life towards enlightenment; it directs your life towards enlightenment.

As long as this text is in the world, the Buddhadharma exists. The minute the Golden Light Sutra becomes non-existent, then Buddhadharma, the Buddha’s teaching, becomes non-existent at that time. When the Golden Light Sutra becomes non-existent in this world, then at that time Buddhadharma becomes non-existent. It is mentioned there.

If you read this sutra, for example, in Kathmandu then it becomes healing for all the sick people in Kathmandu. So like that in the West. If you’re reading this if you are in the city, then it becomes healing for all the sick people in the city, the millions of people who have sicknesses. For the many millions of people who are sick, it becomes healing for them.

If you read this text, it gives so much power to the president or the king who runs the country, and the other countries who want to take over your country, they lose, they cannot take over. By reading this text, they cannot interfere, they cannot take your country, they cannot invade. So they lose. So this is great protection, this is great protection for the country, for the safety for your country and it helps the world.

If you have listened to the Golden Light Sutra, when other sentient beings take care of you or do service to you, who make offering to you, they collect unimaginable, most unimaginable, most unimaginable, most unimaginable merits, good karma. There are so many things, I don’t remember all of them. I’ve only mentioned a few points it makes. It helps the world, not only your country, so it’s very, very, very, very important. Then, all your wishes get fulfilled, all your wishes get fulfilled and then you’re always protected by so many devas and nagas. It has incredible benefit to bring peace, to bring peace.

THE FOUR HARMONIOUS BROTHERS
The other way to help the country, to help the world, is from your own side to take the eight Mahayana precepts as you’ve been taking here, to take the eight Mahayana precepts. Even if you can’t do it every day but as many times as possible. That helps the economy to develop, so there’s no scarcity in the economy in your country, in your area, in the world, so it has great benefit.

Probably you may have heard this already, I’m not sure, but in a country in India once unbelievable prosperity happened, rains came at right time and crops grew well so much prosperity happened. So the king thought, “I did it.” Each of the ministers said, “I did it,” somebody else said, “I did it.” So then, one minister suggested to the king, “There’s a sage we should see the sage who can tell us who’s effort has made this unbelievable prosperity happen to the country?”

They went to see the sage and the sage said, “It’s none of you. It’s the animals; it’s the four harmonious brother animals living in the jungle, in the forest, living in morality. The elephant practices the five vows and then spreads it to other elephants. The monkey practices the five vows and then spreads it to other monkeys. The rabbit took the five vows and spread it to the other rabbits. And the bird took the five vows and spreads it to the other birds. Due to that it affected the whole country, giving it this unbelievable prosperity.”

Shakyamuni was the bird, Ananda the rabbit, Maudgyalyana the elephant and Shariputra the monkey. They manifested like that to help the other animals. So there’s a whole story how it benefited the rest of the country.

The merit you collect taking the eight Mahayana precepts is unbelievable. Taking the eight precepts with bodhicitta, can you imagine? With each precept, taking each precept with bodhicitta, you collect eight times limitless skies of merits, limitless skies of merits. This is most amazing, most amazing. This practice is the greatest, unbelievable, unbelievable, most purification; you purify negative karmas collected from beginningless times and collect such unbelievable extensive merits, unbelievable benefit to the world and to all sentient beings, and of course you achieve enlightenment, to liberate and to enlighten all sentient beings. So that’s another incredible benefit. So if you cannot take every day but doing it as much as possible is a great benefit.

Of course for you, whenever death happens you have very good future. Your future is like the sun shining, your future is like sun shining, going to a pure land and so forth from life to life. Can you imagine? Like a sun shining opening your good future life to achieve liberation, to achieve full enlightenment, so it’s most amazing.

THE IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD HEART
The other way to benefit the country, to benefit the world, of course, what we have been talking anyway, is to practice the good heart, to practice good heart. That is the other one, it’s most important if you want to help the world, if you want to help your country, and the same thing, if you want to help your family, your friends, your area, your country, the world. Practicing the good heart as much as possible is the most the important thing. That should be kept as your heart, as your main practice, the good heart, bodhicitta. This should be your main goal.

You yourself must recognize, “This is my most important practice.” There are so many practices but think, “This is my most important practice, the good heart, the thought of not giving harm to others, the thought of benefiting other sentient beings.” Try to abandon harming others as much as possible, and then the thought of benefiting them increases.

Then every day, always try to talk with people about compassion, somehow try to bring the talk to compassion, and always attempt that, emphasize the importance of compassion, to practice compassion, how to practice compassion.

So in the daily life conversations, even gossiping, so you bring compassion, then like that, so message. You’re giving education to other sentient beings, to other human beings, so as much as possible that; very, very important, the most important thing, yourself practice and talking about it to other sentient beings, means educating others.

So then if you do the practice, then your friends will do that, follow, they will practice compassion, they will do this similar what you’re doing, benefiting others as much as possible and to stop and to decrease the their harm others. So that’s so essential, so essential. So then of course, then when you do that, then of course, it makes everybody happy in the family, in the office, wherever, even the animals, dogs, dogs and cats and snakes, the tigers, [Rinpoche laughs], so anyway.

There was a bodhisattva, a Chinese monk who came from China to Taiwan, in Kaohsiung, so when he, that time Kaohsiung. There was no rain, it was very dry and nothing grew. When this bodhisattva, this Chinese monk came from China, wherever he walked rain came. He was in a cave for many years, thirty years or something. And there was a tiger lying down, sleeping around outside but not harming him.

Animals don’t harm bodhisattvas because of the blessing, due to the power of the good heart of the bodhisattvas. They get subdued. They say that monk, the great master only lived on fruit. He is very famous in Taiwan.

Later he got [founded?] a nunnery and a monastery, then he passed away. He didn’t teach, but just because his great bodhisattva, just his presence was so great for so many people, and they got devotion and were impressed just with his warm presence and his kindness. He didn’t give teachings but there were four pieces of advice he gave.

Anyway, I got a little relic from his body. It was given by his chief disciple and the nun who became the abbess of the nunnery. She served the Chinese monk came from China as his main attendant. Then after he passed away, she became the abbess of the nunnery and the monastery. She’s quite short; she has a short body but she’s filled with compassion.

I went there to ask help for the Sera Je Monastery food fund, to offer food to all the monks. She helped, giving quite a bit of money at different times for the food fund. When I was explaining the escape from Tibet and how hard life was, studying Dharma in the monastery, she was crying, she was crying. So she gave one small relic of her teacher. Actually it looks like this attendant, this nun, was that monk’s mother. The mother passed away, reincarnated as a human being and became his student. Anyway, this monk passed away and his holy body was brought out in the… what do you call that thing people carry the body in? [Student: Casket.] Casket. So his holy body was put in the casket, although the decorations not quite as a Western coffin with the cloth or the robe and all the big decorations, but the same in Tibet when the high lama pass away.

Then one abbot came, then another abbot came who was very pure, very strict in morality. He doesn’t like to build temples or have elaborations; he was against that. But I think when I came to see this abbot, maybe because people pushed him, he was building something. But for many years, he stayed very simple. This abbot, whose name is Tsi Tsi or something like that, I think was a friend of this monk who passed away, this bodhisattva who passed away, he was the close friend. This abbot came, and the monk’s holy body was already taken outside in this casket, very beautifully arranged. Then he talked to the abbot. The bodhisattva, the Chinese master who has already died, spoke, responded to this abbot.

So anyway… [Rinpoche laughs] So, the third reason for having a good heart is so you yourself can be an inspiring example for the world. If you want to help the world, you want to bring peace to the world, this is the most important thing. To not harm others, to benefit human beings and animals, that’s the most important thing.

So always meditate, always remember the kindness of mother sentient beings, all the four types of kindness, then also the extensive kindness. That might come later in the teachings. Those who attended the course last year or the year before, you may have heard.

So anyway the next one, this one’s very good. We have Essential Wisdom. At the beginning it was called Universal Education, but then somebody else started Universal Education so we have Essential Wisdom. Here, there are the Sixteen Human Dharmas [the Sixteen Guidelines] and not only that, the Ten Divine Dharmas, but I changed the title to the Ten Skillful Means. What? [Rinpoche asks someone] So I changed the title, the Ten Skillful Means. I worked with Steve and two other students recently, I don’t know whether it’s recent time, in the United States, the Ten Divine Dharmas, the title became a little bit difficult so I just translated it into the Ten Skillful Means of Making Sure of Your Future Happiness. Making sure, making secure, do you remember? [Rinpoche asks someone.] Making Sure of Your Future Happiness. That means future lives’ happiness, the happiness of future lives and of course that could be up to enlightenment.

So the third one, try to practice that. It’s very good if even in your family you can possibly practice that. Then this is how you can teach others. First in your family, your children, the family, they can practice that. Then also you can help others while you’re practicing. So that’s to have the means of bringing peace, making life happy, to not create problems and to do only good things which results only in peace, peace for yourself, in your life, in your heart, peace in the family, peace in the neighborhood, peace in the country, peace in the world. So it’s very good. That is another way you can help the country.

Try to live the life as much as possible with compassion for others, with the thought of benefit others. As I think I already mentioned before try to always express the kindness of others, think of their kindness, then you can express others’ kindness to the people, so then if you talk about compassion, about the kindness of others, that person will talk to others, his friends, her friends about compassion, about how to develop compassion, about kindness to others. Then from those friends it will spread to their friends.

So first you start with one person—just an idea—then that person will tell others, educating his or her friends. Then each of those people will explain it to their own friends. Like that it spreads and spreads and spreads and spreads, inspiring and spreading in the country.

Quite a number of years ago I was in Adelaide doing retreat, but I did retreat watching TV. Listening to TV or watching TV? Huh? Watching TV or radio. I think listening to the radio. I did a retreat on watching TV and listening to the radio. [Rinpoche laughs]

At that time, many people died in Africa, maybe millions. Africa’s children and so many people died. Because there was no food with the drought, I was thinking to go there to help; it was just a thought. You go there and spend a few months, only two to three months, you meet friends and as well you talk about compassion, educating through you talk. Of course, not like talking this, you talk about compassion, and then they understand some. Then they are happy and they tell their friends and then their friends tell others, so gradually like this that’s how you can help the country. So I thought like that, but of course it didn’t happen that I went there.

But I thought also to invite some lamas, to spend some money to send them there to make rain. I thought about that. Then I thought, first they have to have karma to have rain, they have to have karma from their side. If things don’t depend on karma, the buddhas would never let us to suffer even for one second; the buddhas, the bodhisattva would never let us to suffer even for one second. They would never let us to be in samsara even for one second if it didn’t depend on our karma from our side effort. From our side we have to put effort into doing good.

What buddhas and bodhisattva cherish—even very new bodhisattvas, who generated bodhicitta only today—is all other sentient beings. Bodhisattva have totally renounced the thought of seeking happiness for themselves, cherishing the I, totally. Their attitude has completely switched from that into cherishing others who are numberless: numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, suras, asuras, intermediate state being. So instead of cherishing the I, that has completely changed into cherishing others who are numberless.

They seek happiness only for others, seek happiness for numberless sentient beings instead of seeking happiness for themselves. So the mind has completely changed. Even the new bodhisattva, who has only achieved bodhicitta today, holds us as the most precious one in his life, in his heart, like the most precious one, regarding us as a mother regards her beloved child, how she sees this being, her beloved child, as more precious than herself, Like that, the buddhas and bodhisattva regard every sentient being, like how the mother love her most precious, her beloved child, but for the bodhisattva this means the numberless hell beings, the numberless hungry ghosts, the numberless animals, the numberless suras—every sentient being is most precious, the most precious being.

Of course, the best is kindness. Only the thought seeking happiness only for others, like how a mother doesn’t want her beloved child to suffer even for one minute, one second. She feels so sad when somebody criticizes her child.

This is how the bodhisattva, even today’s new bodhisattva, thinks of us, as most precious. There is no way to give us up, no way to be careless, no way. Like a jewel, today’s bodhisattva thinks of us, as a jewel, like a wish-fulfilling jewel, wish-granting jewel. By praying to that jewel, you can get everything, all the material possessions, all the comfort, more than that. A bodhisattva thinks of us, each sentient being, as more precious than a whole sky filled with wish-granting jewels, filled with diamonds and gold. A bodhisattva regards us as even much more precious than skies filled with diamonds, gold and wish-granting jewels. Therefore he does not want us at all to suffer even for one second; the bodhisattva doesn’t want us to be in samsara even for one second.

This is a new bodhisattva I’m talking about, then there are the arya bodhisattvas, then there are the five Mahayana paths to enlightenment, the ten bhumis, then after that, the buddhas who have completed the whole path to enlightenment. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? It is said in the teachings, however much we love ourselves a buddha loves us many hundreds of times much more than how much we love ourselves. A buddha’s love is many hundreds of times greater. So it’s unbearable to think of our suffering, they don’t want us to suffer in samsara even for one second.

A buddha has omniscience, knowing everything, and perfect compassion for us, for every sentient being. A buddha has perfect power to reveal all the methods to guide us. A buddha has all these qualities, so a buddha can guide us but we have to put effort into it. We have to put effort from our side.

It’s like we are the patient. There’s a perfectly qualified doctor who knows the illness very well, who can diagnosis it and has all the medicine, and there’s a nurse but that’s not enough. If the patient doesn’t listen to the doctor’s advice, if from the patient’s side he doesn’t take the medicine, he cannot recover. Even though there’s a doctor, the medicine, a nurse, but if the patient doesn’t listen to the doctor, doesn’t follow the advice correctly and doesn’t take the medicine correctly, the patient won’t recover. So the patient has to put effort in from his side. Now it’s exactly the same from our own side, we have to put effort into it. Even though the buddhas have completed all the qualities, still from our side, we have to put effort in. It is said that sentient beings’ karma and buddhas’ power are equal.

Anyway, I don’t know how to say this, otherwise, put it this way, unimaginable eons ago, unimaginable eons, eons, eons, eons ago, we would have all become enlightened already, everybody. There wouldn’t be any sentient beings. If it was only up to the buddhas, there wouldn’t be sentient beings. But it’s not only up to the buddhas. We sentient beings, from our side, we have to put effort into it.

That understanding’s very important. Like the qualified doctor, the correct medicine, the nurse, that alone is not enough. From the patient’s side, he has to put effort in and take the medicine and to follow the doctor’s advice. From our side, if we don’t do that, then it doesn’t happen that we can be free from samsara, to achieve enlightenment.

Then, of course, whatever education you have, whatever wealth you have, use to benefit others as much as possible. I think I’ve mentioned similar things before but however, if you do that, then your friends and many people will follow your lead and they will do the same. Like that, it very much helps your country and the world.

Then do those extensive practices, practicing the six paramitas: morality, charity, patience, perseverance, concentration and wisdom. This becomes a very important means to help others.

The six paramitas is to ripen our own mind, and the four means is to ripen the mind of others. There is the practice of the four means. It’s translated as to “the four means to attract the disciple,” but it’s not only disciples. This is the four means to draw sentient beings, not only attracting disciples.

Those are very good. In additional in the world there are so many things you can do. Normally what the people do to help is to help with finance or medicine or help by giving shelter. That’s what people normally do in the world, but then there are also these things.

The most important thing is you yourself studying Buddhism, the most important, making your understanding deeper and deeper. You get deeper and deeper understanding and you learn about the mind, deeper and deeper. Then you know how to help others deeper and deeper. You can offer deeper and deeper benefit by learning Buddhism and through that gaining realizations.

Through learning Buddhism, you can develop bodhicitta and wisdom, the wisdom of what is to be abandoned and what is to be practiced, what is right and what is wrong, and to develop this Dharma wisdom, and wisdom, ultimate wisdom, the wisdom realizing emptiness.

Of course, if you have a good heart, especially if you have the realization bodhicitta, it’s like your life becomes transformed like from kaka, from poo poo, transformed into gold. [Rinpoche laughs] If you have the bodhicitta realization, then whether somebody benefits you or harms you, from your side there is no harm. Somebody harms you but from your side there is only benefit back.

I don’t remember the last verse of the chapter in the Bodhicaryavatara on the benefits of bodhicitta, but it pays homage to bodhisattva, saying you, the bodhisattva, receive harm but in return you benefits. I don’t remember the four lines.⁵

So, if you have the realization of bodhicitta, even if somebody criticizes you, harms you, beats you, whatever, from your side you only benefit back, you only benefit back.

For example, when the harm-givers, the spirits tried to harm the Buddha, in return he made charity of his blood. They sucked the Buddha’s blood and they became the Buddha’s disciples in their next life. And I think also there was a tiger family that Buddha gave charity of his body to, and they became the Buddha’s disciples in the future life. I think that maybe in the Sarnath, they became monks and took teachings from the Buddha in Sarnath.

Serving other sentient beings, wow! When you have bodhicitta and they serve you, when they make offering, they collect, wow, the most unbelievable merits and it becomes most unbelievable, unbelievable purification for them, so you become wish-fulfilling for them. When you have bodhicitta realization, even for those who harm you, you become wish-fulfilling to them, fulfill all their wishes and their happiness.

So I’ll stop here.

THE SIXTEEN HUMAN DHARMAS
One important is, of course, school for young people. For the future world to become better, then depends on the present the young people, the children. So it’s important to give them a good education like the Essential Education, the good heart, as I said before, the Sixteen Human Dharmas. I put this together.

The first one is kindness, practicing kindness day and night, all the time practicing kindness towards animals, towards human beings, towards others.

The next one is rejoicing. In daily life, whatever good things you see other people do, whenever you see good things happen to other people, always rejoice. “How wonderful that they have this.” Somebody has a beautiful house or swimming, pool, all those things, think, “How wonderful they have these things.” Someone has a beautiful house or someone has a beautiful car, think how beautiful it is, how wonderful it is they have that. Not praying, “May I get a car like that.” But for that sentient being, how wonderful it is that the person has it.

Or if somebody finds a friend that person likes, Think, “How wonderful it is that person has found a friend.” So you rejoice, thinking of that person’s happiness they’ve got. So that is the everyday practice of rejoicing. It’s the opposite of jealousy. Then you don’t help, you harm those people, you become jealous, you don’t like it and that brings no peace, only suffering in the world, in the family, in your life.

So rejoicing brings peace and happiness in your life, in your family, in the world. What happens in reality is you always create good karma. Even if you don’t know you’re creating good karma you are all the time when you practice kindness to others and rejoicing, you always create so much unbelievable good karma. Then as a result, you achieve happiness, your wishes get fulfilled all the time, now, in the future, in all the lives. Your wishes get fulfilled, the happiness you’re wishing for, as a result.

The next one is patience. Practicing patience is so important. It brings so much peace and happiness in your life, in your partner’s life, in your family, in the country, in the neighbor’s country, in the world. In the world it brings so much happiness.

Then next one is forgiveness. When others harm to you, when others say bad words or when others get angry, when they harm you, you immediately give forgiveness to them, then immediately that bring peace to you and to that other person, peace. And then you bring peace in the family, you bring peace to the neighbor, country, in the world.

Each of these practices brings world peace. If you did something wrong to others, say some bad words or got angry, immediately apologize, immediately apologize, so that second it bring peace to you, to others, to the world.

The next one is contentment. Contentment is very, very important. Contentment for the children, for the young people, the practice of contentment and of course we have to have contentment. Otherwise, your whole life gets destroyed by drugs or you become alcoholic, and so many bad habits destroy your life. And you can’t help the world, you can’t help yourself, so your life is totally ruined. You can’t even help yourself, you can’t even do your job. So contentment is an education practice we all should learn.

Even for the old people, contentment’s very difficult. Many wealthy people, famous people, people who have enough wealth to live for many lifetimes, but because of not practicing contentment, they try to make more money and more, then they cheat others, tell lies to others, then they go to prison, then they destroy even their reputation. Somebody sues them and they go to prison, they end up in prison. Even those who are famous people, wealthy, they need contentment practice, that education.

The next one is courage, the opposite of depression. You courage yourself.

That’s what I put together. There might be something extra from Essential Education, the organizers. I heard they added one or two other things. However, the very essence, the very essence is to help the country. With a good heart, your main practice is how to benefit others. Your life becomes meaningful now, you open your heart towards everybody. It’s a meaningful life, with happiness now. Your future is like a sun shining life-to-life, bringing unbelievable to benefit sentient beings. You are happy; everybody’s happy.

So that’s it. I’ll stop here.

[Rinpoche does the dedication prayers]

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Notes

⁴Precious Garland, vv. 20–21. [Return to text]

⁵  The verse is: I bow down to the body of him /In whom the sacred precious mind is born. /I seek refuge in the source of joy /Who brings to happiness even those who harm him.(Ch. 1, v. 36.) [Return to text]