Vajrasattva preparation: Give up stretching the legs
You should give up stretching your legs. There is a verse that says,
Give up stretching the legs,
Give up entering samsara.
Generate bodhicitta to achieve Vajrasattva,
The Great Victorious One, for all sentient beings.
Because the human body that you have received with the eight freedoms and ten richnesses is the most precious one, you can accomplish the three great meanings. This perfect human rebirth is extremely difficult to find, but you have received this. You have it now but it doesn’t last a long time, it doesn’t last forever. Death is definite and death can happen at any time. The time of death is very uncertain; death can happen at any time and at that time nothing can benefit except the holy Dharma. After death, the mind continues on, to either a rebirth in the lower realms or in the higher realms, as a god or human being.
As I mentioned before, even for somebody trying to practice Dharma, in one day there may be some virtue but most actions—eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, working and so forth—become negative karma. Sometimes even reciting mantras, saying prayers or meditating becomes nonvirtue.
By analyzing one day of your life like that, you see that you create more negative karma, even if you are trying to practice Dharma. Therefore, the negative karma of this one day is more powerful than the positive and so when you add that to all the negative karmas from this and past lives, can you imagine? There is no third alternative, only these two. Either you are reborn in the lower realms because of negative karma and have to experience the most unimaginable sufferings, or you are reborn in the upper realms because of positive karma.
Shantideva said,
If, when I have the chance to live a wholesome life
My actions are not wholesome,
Then what shall I be able to do
When confused by the misery of the lower realms?2
The essence of this verse is that although you have the most unbelievable opportunity in this life to collect virtue you only ever engage in nonvirtue, so of course you will be reborn in the lower realms. Once you are born there it will be almost impossible to collect any virtue at all and it will be impossible to come back to the upper realms. It’s very unsure when that could happen.
For that reason, you must give up “stretching the legs,” which means abandoning laziness, abandoning the attachment clinging to this life, abandoning not practicing Dharma. This advice is very important.
You need to understand that samsara and samsaric perfections, samsaric happiness, are only suffering and not look on them as real happiness. Samsaric happiness is only suffering; samsaric perfections, wealth and so forth, are only in the nature of suffering. Samsara itself is in the nature of suffering.
Neil has already explained this and you have meditated on the three types of suffering, including pervasive compounding suffering. I might have mentioned it, I’m not sure. Anyway, pervasive suffering refers to these aggregates being under the control of karma and delusion. That’s why they are in the nature of suffering and are pervaded by suffering. There is also the contaminated seed of delusions, pervaded by suffering. It compounds the suffering of the body and mind of this life, and it also creates karma. From the seed of delusion, delusion arises and that motivates karma, which leaves a negative imprint on the mind that compounds future rebirths and future lives’ suffering. So, besides this life, this seed of delusion also compounds the future lives and future lives’ suffering. Because of pervasive compounding suffering these aggregates are only in the nature of suffering.
I might have mentioned this already but I’ll repeat it just so you can understand the words. After feeling very hot because the body was exposed to the hot sun, when you go in the cold water the greater suffering is stopped by having stopped the action of exposing the body to the hot sun. The action of being in the cold water is compounded discomfort already but it’s so small that it’s unnoticeable. The more you continue the action of being in the cold water, the more this compounded discomfort grows. Another greater discomfort has stopped and a smaller discomfort—the discomfort of being cold—has begun, but because it starts from being small, you label that feeling “pleasure” or “comfort.”
That’s one example. All the rest of the samsaric pleasures are like that—the pleasure of sleeping, the pleasure of sex, the pleasure of music, whatever—every samsaric pleasure is like that. The experience you label “pleasure” is only suffering. That’s why samsaric pleasure doesn’t continue and, not only that, it doesn’t increase. But you can continue your Dharma happiness and you can complete it, so it’s totally different. You can now see how unbelievably worthwhile it is to practice Dharma. Samsara is total nonsense; the eight worldly dharmas are total nonsense. Samsara is only in the nature of suffering and all the samsaric pleasures are only in the nature of suffering. Material possessions, everything, is in the nature of suffering.
It’s like this. If there is honey on the sharp blade of a knife and you lick the honey, you will cut your tongue. Samsaric pleasure is like the honey. Every time you try for samsaric happiness thinking it is real happiness, you grasp onto it with attachment, which is the blade of the knife. It harms your mind and creates the cause for further samsara, the cause to be reborn in samsara, in the lower realms. It constantly deceives you; it cheats you. In that way, you keep yourself in the prison of samsara, having to be continuously reborn in samsara and experience all the sufferings again and again. This is how it is unless you can see that samsaric pleasures are in the nature of suffering—like honey on a knife blade—that cause you to wander in samsara, continuously circling without end. This is the result if you don’t practice Dharma, if you don’t generate renunciation for samsara.
The Guru Puja says,
Having abandoned the mind that views this unbearable prison
Of cyclic existence as a beautiful park, I seek your blessings
To hold the three trainings as the treasure of the aryas’ wealth
And, thereby, to uphold the victory banner of liberation.3
It is very important to recognize that what cheats you is this attachment to samsaric pleasure, which is only in the nature of suffering but looks as if it is real happiness. Looking like something wonderful, beautiful, it constantly cheats you, tying you to samsara from beginningless rebirths up to now. If you don’t change, if you don’t realize it is suffering and develop renunciation, you will be tied to samsara continuously.
One of the Kadampa geshes, Lama Atisha’s followers, said,
Because the I is the root of all negative karma, of all suffering and problems, of all the undesirable things, what is called the “I” should be cast out; it should be thrown far away. And without delaying even a second you must cherish others, dedicating your life to them.
All the oceans of the hell beings’ sufferings, the oceans of the hungry ghosts’ sufferings, the oceans of the animals’ sufferings, the oceans of the human beings’ sufferings, the oceans of the gods’ and demigods’ sufferings, the oceans of the intermediate state beings’ sufferings—all these oceans of suffering in each realm come from karma; and karma comes from delusion, it is motivated by one of the three poisonous minds such as attachment. The root is ignorance, holding the I as truly existent while there is no such I at all. This real, truly-existent I is totally non-existent, it’s totally empty.
Due to the ignorance that holds the real I, existing from its own side, the selfish mind arises. This is the mind that sees the self as the most important one, more important than the numberless buddhas, bodhisattvas and sentient beings. The selfish mind thinks that this I that is totally non-existent is more important than the numberless buddhas, bodhisattvas or sentient beings. But it’s not there, it doesn’t exist at all. All these sufferings come from the selfish mind, therefore, because it is the root of all negative karma, it should be “thrown very far,” meaning it should be completely abandoned.
Only if you do that will you be able to generate bodhicitta, the mind that fulfills all your wishes for happiness up to enlightenment. And with bodhicitta you are able to fulfill the wishes of each and every single sentient being: each and every hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human being, god, demigod and intermediate state being, including their wishes for the highest enlightenment. This bodhicitta is the most precious wish-granting jewel, more precious than the whole sky filled with diamonds, gold and wish-granting jewels. All your past, present and future happiness comes from bodhicitta.
Bodhicitta comes from cherishing other sentient beings. In short, you receive all your happiness from beginningless rebirths, all your present happiness and all your future lives’ happiness up to enlightenment, from other sentient beings. I’m not only talking about your friends, those who praise you, who give you money or things like that. It includes your enemies, those who get angry at you, who don’t love you. All your happiness comes from the numberless hell beings, the numberless hungry ghosts, the numberless animals, the numberless human beings, the numberless gods and demigods, from every single sentient being without leaving one sentient being out. Every single sentient being from each realm, without leaving out even one insect, is the root from which you receive all your past, present and future happiness, including all your realizations up to enlightenment, everything.
As the Kadampa geshe said, without delaying even a second, immediately, you must cherish others and dedicate your life to serving them, to freeing them from suffering and bringing them happiness. Every sentient being is the most precious, the most kind, the most dear one in your life—every single hell being, every single hungry ghost, every single animal, every single human being, every single god and demigod. Therefore, the happiest, most meaningful life is cherishing sentient beings, serving them, helping them to be free from suffering and obtain happiness. That is why each one is the most precious, the dearest, the kindest one in your life.
Therefore, you should help others in whatever way you can, no matter how small. As His Holiness Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche said, help every being that has a problem, even saving an insect from drowning or one that is fighting by pulling it from the other insect. Or carrying a heavy load for an old person, helping to make their load lighter. This is besides practicing Dharma, taking the eight Mahayana precepts or living within the five, four, three, two or one lay vows in order to attain enlightenment for yourself so you can bring peace to your family, to your country and to the world and finally to enlighten other sentient beings. Besides that, whatever service you can offer others is the greatest joy in life, the happiest thing you can do, because you are doing it for this being who is the most precious, the dearest, the kindest.
Not only that, when you serve others, when you cherish others, that’s what pleases all the buddhas and bodhisattvas the most; it’s what makes them the happiest. Even a little service, whatever you can do to help, is the best offering to the buddhas and bodhisattvas; it’s what pleases them the most. When you do this sincerely from your heart, this is the greatest purification. You purify negative karma collected not only from this life but from past lives, from beginningless rebirths, and you collect extensive merits.
What others need is to purify, in order to be free from the suffering of samsara and its cause, karma and delusion, and to achieve the peerless happiness, enlightenment. Therefore, you should think, “I will do this by myself alone.” What makes it possible for you to help others achieve all this without any mistakes is by becoming enlightened yourself.
For that you must develop bodhicitta and that requires the special attitude. Now, Dorje Sempa Gyälpoche, the Great Victorious One, refers to the special attitude to practice tantra, to achieve enlightenment in the quickest possible time.
Think like this. “Only practicing Mahayana Paramitayana it takes three countless great eons to complete the merits of virtue—the cause of the rupakaya—and the merits of wisdom—the cause of the dharmakaya. During those three countless great eons sentient beings have to suffer. Even one sentient being trapped in samsara for one second is like eons, the suffering is most unbearable, but there are numberless in each realm, so this is much more unbearable. Therefore, I must liberate them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible. Therefore I must achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.”
This is the motivation to practice tantra and not only the lower tantras but also the higher tantras. To achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible, you need to achieve the realizations on the path to enlightenment, and for that you need to purify the defilements. The whole question comes to purifying the negative karma, like cleaning a mirror that has accumulated a lot of dust, then it can reflect very clearly because it has all the potential. Similarly, you need to purify all the defilements and all the obstacles. Think, “For that I am going to take Vajrasattva jenang for the benefit of all sentient beings.” You must generate the purest attitude like this, thinking to benefit all sentient beings.
Vajrasattva initiation preparation
Visualize the same as before, with all the lineage lamas, all the direct and indirect gurus, bodhisattvas, dakinis, protectors and so forth. Now, repeat the prayer for taking the bodhisattva vows.
With the bodhisattva vows, there are the entering vows and the wishing vows. With the entering vows, there are abstaining from the eighteen root falls and abstaining from the forty-six vices. Even if you can’t take the entering vows there are the wishing vows, which are abandoning the four black dharmas and practicing the four white dharmas. The four white dharmas are opening the heart to the guru—not telling lies to the guru; not being cunning to sentient beings; and praising the bodhisattvas instead of criticizing them. The last one is inspiring sentient beings who are around you, who rely on you, to follow the Mahayana path to achieve enlightenment.
The four black dharmas are the opposite of these but the last one is different. It is feeling regret when you hear that somebody is does a lot of retreat, but you don’t have that opportunity. This doesn’t mean a business retreat, going to a resort area and making very profitable business, not that kind of retreat! Here, retreat is abstaining from nonvirtue, the cause of suffering, and keeping the mind in virtue, the cause of happiness; keeping the mind in Dharma, in bodhicitta, in renunciation, in right view, all based on guru devotion. Then there’s tantra.
When somebody does a lot of retreat and is able to learn so much Dharma, or somebody’s attending many teachings but you yourself can’t, and then you feel regret, you feel unhappy, this is the last one of the black dharmas. It is different from just being the opposite of the white dharmas. I have actually seen that among students.
Once, in Australia we were staying at a student’s house where there was a nun doing her preliminary practices. She had a very busy life but every few minutes she made another water bowl offering in order to finish her preliminary practices. Every time there were a few minutes free, she did a water bowl offering. The student at whose house we were staying felt unhappy to see her doing all these offerings because he himself could not. Instead of rejoicing, he felt envious, sad.
If you can’t take the entering vow, you can take the wishing vow. Then, if you can’t even take the wishing vow, you can think, “I am going to practice more compassion, more good heart for other sentient beings than I did in the past.” At least think that.
[Rinpoche and students recite part of the seven-limb prayer]
If you have refuge in your mind, in your heart, then you are an inner being. Otherwise you are an outer being. Having refuge in your heart is the basis for all the different pratimoksha vows and the bodhisattva and tantric vows.
The next one is confessing all the negative karmas, in order to purify them. If you want to plant crops you have to clear away all the rocks and trees, whatever obstacles there are for the crops, otherwise you can’t plant the crops and you can’t get food from them. In the same way, in order to grow realizations from your heart, from your mind, you need to purify the obstacles, all the negative karma, all the defilements. To actualize bodhicitta and to live within the bodhisattva vows, you need to purify any obstacles to that. Therefore, think that all the negative karmas collected with your body, speech and mind from beginningless rebirths are purified; they no longer exist in your mental continuum.
[Rinpoche and students recite part of the seven-limb prayer]
Not only other human beings but even many Buddhists don’t have the karma to hear the name “bodhicitta.” You need a lot of merit to be able to take and live within the bodhisattva vows. The easiest way to collect merit is rejoicing. If you do any practice and then rejoice, you collect the most extensive merit. That is why rejoicing comes here in the prayer.
While you are repeating this, first rejoice in all your own past, present and future merits, where all the causes of enlightenment, liberation from samsara, happiness of future lives and all such things come from. Think that is very precious. Feel happiness in your heart. Rejoicing means your mind has to feel happiness otherwise it doesn’t become rejoicing; it’s merely words. You have to feel happiness, joy, in your heart.
The next way to rejoice is, while you are repeating the prayer, you rejoice in all sentient beings’ past, present and future merits from which they can receive all the happiness including enlightenment. How precious that is, how wonderful that is. By thinking of your own merit, you think, “How fortunate I am,” and by thinking of the three times’ merits of others, you think, “How wonderful that is.”
After that, you do the same with the buddhas. When you do the first rejoicing and you think about all the merit you have collected from beginningless rebirths and how amazing that is, your merit is doubled. With the second rejoicing, in the merits of all sentient beings, the merit you have created with the first rejoicing is again doubled, which makes four times. When you rejoice in the actions of the buddhas, this third rejoicing means the merit is now eight times greater. It’s so easy to create the most unbelievable merit each time you rejoice. Each time you say, “How wonderful it is,” or “How fortunate I am,” everything is doubled and doubled and doubled.
When you rejoice at the merit of other sentient beings whose level of mind is lower than yours, you collect double the merits; for those whose level of mind is equal to yours, you collect the same amount of merit; and for those whose level of mind is higher than yours, you collect half the merit. However much merit they collect, you collect half of that just by rejoicing. This is most amazing when you think about the details like that. In your daily life, when you do your practices, there is always the seven-limb prayer, so if at that time you don’t rejoice, you just say the prayer, can you imagine how much you lose? By just reciting the words alone, you have missed out on all these merits, on this incredible opportunity.
I’ve been telling the students of the FPMT that when you lead the Medicine Buddha puja, when it comes to the lines in the prayer where you rejoice, you must stop there a little bit and meditate, you must give everybody the opportunity to meditate. This brings the most unimaginable merits. It reminds everybody to practice rejoicing. Everybody gets a chance to collect the most unimaginable merits by coming to the center. Can you imagine the skies of merit they leave the center with? It makes their life so easy; with fewer problems—fewer financial problems, health problems and so forth. It makes their life unbelievably easy. It becomes easy to achieve realizations.
In the FPMT organization we have this opportunity. Meditating in this way makes it easier and quicker for everybody to achieve enlightenment. It’s so wonderful. This is such an easy, simple thing but you create skies of merit. It’s most amazing, amazing, wow.
If you don’t do it, can you imagine how much you have lost? If you had planned to have a business that made a million dollars profit but then your plan didn’t succeed, imagine how sad you would be. If you lost one million or one billion dollars you’d probably become crazy and want to die, maybe you’d jump off the roof or something. Many business people do this, and Chinese people are similar to Westerners. If their business collapses, life becomes very hard and they think about suicide; they want to jump off the roof. It’s very common for suicidal thoughts like this to arise when people don’t make money. This is one example. Imagine how you would feel if you lost a billion dollars, a zillion dollars, a whole sky filled with gold and diamonds. Even the sky filled with wish-granting jewels is nothing. All this wealth comes from merit, good karma, and here, by rejoicing, you can collect the most unbelievable merit, the cause of total liberation from the oceans of samsaric suffering and, most importantly, of enlightenment. All those material things are nothing in comparison. So, please meditate.
Next is taking the bodhisattva vow. Those who are taking the entering vow think you are taking the vow to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. By taking the bodhisattva vow you are able to actualize the path to enlightenment and then achieve enlightenment and then be able to liberate sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. This is what you are able to do by taking the bodhisattva vow. Without taking it you can’t generate the realization of bodhicitta and those realizations of the Mahayana path to enlightenment and therefore you can’t achieve enlightenment and bring sentient beings to enlightenment. So the bodhisattva vow is the most precious thing.
For those who can’t take the bodhisattva entering vow, there’s the wishing vow. For those who can’t take the wishing vow, think that you are going to practice the good heart to other sentient beings more. Of course that is the very heart, the essence, of the Dharma. Practicing a good heart toward other sentient beings is what pleases all the numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas and what makes all sentient beings happy.
[Rinpoche recites and students repeat]
At the end of the third repetition, without a wandering mind, in the presence of all the lineage lamas and the lama who is Vajrasattva, with all the numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas around, those who are taking the vow think, “I have received the bodhisattva vow.” Whichever of the two types of vow you are taking, think like that. And those who are unable to take either type of vow, think, “I am going to practice more compassion and good heart toward sentient beings.”
[Rinpoche recites and students repeat]
Those who have taken the bodhisattva vow, every second you collect limitless skies of merits, so you are the most fortunate being. That’s what is mentioned in A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. However many hours you are sleeping you collect this, while you’re eating, while you’re walking, all the time, since you have taken and are living within the bodhisattva vow, you are collecting skies of merit. So, feel great joy, happiness.
You can liberate sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment by taking the bodhisattva vow, so rejoice, feel great joyfulness. And the same for those of you who have taken the wishing vow. You are also able to be of unbelievable benefit to sentient beings and cause them to achieve enlightenment, so rejoice in all that. Even those who have made the vow to practice the good heart more, to have more compassion and loving kindness toward others than before, that makes all the buddhas and bodhisattvas very happy and brings so much happiness to your family and to other sentient beings. When you remember to practice compassion and loving kindness it brings peace to everybody—to your family, to those you work with and to the world. It brings peace to the world. That’s most amazing. It’s the best offering to the buddhas and bodhisattvas, to all the holy beings. A good heart is what makes sentient beings most happy.
[Rinpoche gives the initiations, not included]
The Guru is inseparable from the Buddha
In Vajrasattva, vajra represents the definitive meaning, which is manifested into the interpretive meaning, represented by sattva. Vajra is the ultimate guru. The guru has two aspects: ultimate guru and conventional guru, or guru for the all-obscuring mind.
Even though “conventional guru” is often the term used, I don’t think it’s exact. Better is “guru for the all-obscuring mind.” This is the guru that appears to the all-obscuring or conventional truth. Actually, mentioning the name “ultimate guru” is very secret; it is the dharmakaya of all the buddhas, the transcendental wisdom of non-dual voidness. It’s the non-duality of method and wisdom, although not the path-time method and wisdom but the result that you achieve. That is vajra, the definite meaning. That is who Vajrasattva really is, the ultimate guru manifesting into all the other buddhas and into the mandalas and different deities. So, all the buddhas come from that, the ultimate guru.
Generally we take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, but in practices such as the extensive, most profound Guru Puja, Lama Chöpa, and certain other practices the guru comes first and then afterwards come the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. The reason why the guru comes first is not only because the guru is kinder than all the buddhas. Some people might think that but it’s not the only reason, it’s not the main reason why the guru comes first. The real meaning is because all the buddhas come from the absolute guru. All the buddhas—peaceful, wrathful, male, female, whatever—and their mandalas and so forth, are manifestations of the ultimate guru. That is a very good, very extensive way of understanding. It means a whole lot. It’s like sugar, the essence of things like ice cream or cakes, what makes them flavorsome, what makes them sweet. It’s not just the cream or flour, but the sugar that is the essence.
When your mind is thinking in this way it’s really fantastic. That’s the reality and that’s what we have to realize and always understand. Khedrub Sangye Yeshe said,
Before the guru exists, there is not even the name of what is called “Buddha.”
Not only Khedrub Sangye Yeshe, another great yogi has said much the same thing. This comes from their own experience, their own realizations. The Dharma comes from that, the Sangha comes from that. There’s an extensive teaching in the Guru Puja during the seven-limb practice section on prostration where this is explained. Also again, not only at the very beginning, the refuge, but also during the prostration, this is talked about in detail, showing its extremely profound and deep meaning. The guru embodies of all these things; everything come from the guru.
For example, Lama Atisha, who made Buddhism pure in Tibet, had one hundred and fifty-seven gurus. He was invited from India by the Dharma king of Tibet Lha Lama Yeshe Ö. At first he sent the translators Rinchen Zangpo and Legpai Sherab to Atisha with a lot of gold but they didn’t meet him. The king, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö, was captured by an irreligious king who demanded a ransom but when his nephew had almost all of it and the captor demanded more, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö told his nephew to take the gold to Atisha and ask him to come to Tibet. He decided to die in prison for the sentient beings in Tibet to actualize pure Buddhism, so he sent a message to Lama Atisha, “May I meet you in the next life.”
I forgot what I was talking about; it’s suddenly gone. I must have been thinking of Australia. Neil’s from Australia so I was thinking he must be thinking of Australia; he must be mentally visiting his home place.
In the extensive explanation one section shows how everything comes from the ultimate guru and another shows that everything is an embodiment of the guru. Lama Atisha had one hundred and fifty-seven gurus but however many gurus we have, two hundred or a thousand, they are all manifestations of this ultimate guru, who is manifesting for us in all these different ways to guide us, revealing the teachings to us, giving oral transmissions, initiations or whatever.
By saying that, I am not saying that I am a buddha. I’m not saying that at all. But by revealing the teachings and giving initiations and so forth, whatever the guru does that leads us to enlightenment, these have manifested from the ultimate guru. The prayer, Lama sang gye lama chö, De zhin lama ge dün te, “The Guru is Buddha, the Guru is Dharma, the Guru is Sangha also,” that prayer only makes sense when we look at it in this light.
Let’s say you have a thousand gurus and there is one you have difficulties with. You become angry with him, have many negative thoughts about him, and get upset when you are around him. Without that one guru you have difficulties with, there would be no Buddha, there would be no Dharma and there would be no Sangha. There would not even be a buddha statue or any scriptures for you to read and have the opportunity to learn from. You have less negative thoughts about some gurus and more about others; it depends on how you think from your side.
Although you have all these negative emotions about this guru, at the same time another student sees the guru as very pure, as a buddha. Unlike you, that student doesn’t have the hallucination that projects negative thoughts about the guru. It’s good to understand that not everybody has the same view as you. It helps you to be inspired and to transform your attitude into one of pure guru devotion, seeing the guru as a buddha.
You need to make your own mind healthy, not full of disease, not full of sicknesses, not full of superstition and junk that make your mind like a garbage can. You must try to have a pure mind. When others see the guru as a buddha and are able to transform their mind, this will inspire you. If you only think of your own view, looking at the mistakes and believing that is true, then your mind becomes like a garbage can.
The entire Buddha, Dharma and Sangha that you take refuge in come from that ultimate guru. Even though you have thousands of gurus, this one particular guru comes from that. This is how precious the guru is. This shows the extensive kindness of the guru. Without this guru, there wouldn’t be any Buddha, any deities, any of the four levels of tantra, Kriya, Charya, Yoga and Anuttarayoga tantra. There wouldn’t be any of the sutras or any of the deities, such as the thousand buddhas or the Thirty-five Confession Buddhas who, by reciting their names just once, many eons of negative karma are purified. This wouldn’t happen. For example, by reciting Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s name, you can purify eons of negative karma. Normally forty thousand eons is mentioned in the texts but there are different texts that give different figures. A common one is eighty-four thousand eons and I saw in the Kangyur where a hundred million eons is mentioned.
Saying the Buddha’s name purifies one hundred million eons of negative karma. So, if you recite La ma tön pa chom dän dä … sha kya thub pa la chag tshäl lo4, this very first verse has Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s name and it is said in the Kangyur that a hundred million eons of negative karma are purified. Also, by reciting this you are able to meet tantra teachings, which are extremely rare, in future lives. Even if you meet the Mahayana teachings you won’t necessarily meet the tantra teachings, those by which you can achieve enlightenment in one lifetime or even in a brief lifetime of degenerate time. To meet those teachings is extremely rare. So there’s incredible benefit in reciting the Buddha’s name. When you see a statue of a buddha, for example, your mind becomes very happy and you chant La ma tön pa chom dän dä … sha kya thub pa la chag tshäl lo. Going a few steps with this happy mind while reciting this stops you from being reborn in the lower realms for so many eons. Therefore, reciting this very first one, La ma tön pa chom dän dä … sha kya thub pa la chag tshäl lo, has unbelievable benefits.
It would be impossible to do this without that particular guru you were angry with, who you found difficulties with due to your mistaken way of thinking. Without that guru there would be none of these buddhas and deities, not even the Thirty-five Buddhas or the Medicine Buddhas, where if you chant the seven Medicine Buddhas’ names all your wishes come true and all your prayers succeed. You can even purify every negative karma. It makes everything possible. It’s most amazing. Your life is made very easy, even up to achieving enlightenment for sentient beings, so there’s no question about other things such as achieving realizations. There wouldn’t be a Medicine Buddha at all without this guru. You wouldn’t have the unbelievable opportunity or fortune to receive all this. That’s the kindness of the guru in the extensive way.
Then the Dharma. There wouldn’t be any scriptures you could learn or see. There wouldn’t be any Sangha to see. All these come from that guru. Whether you have one thousand or a billion gurus or whether you only have one, it’s the same. This is what you have to meditate on and what you have to realize. With guru devotion, with the mind seeing the guru as pure, as enlightened, you receive all the blessings of the guru and from those blessings you receive all the realizations on the path to enlightenment. Cherishing this more than your own life and obeying the guru’s instructions and practicing them is what leads you to enlightenment in the quickest time. That’s the main thing.
Milarepa’s guru devotion
That’s what made Milarepa achieve enlightenment in one brief lifetime of degenerate times. When he was young, he and his mother were very badly treated by his uncle and auntie. They were very poor and had such great difficulties that they couldn’t stand it. His mother advised Milarepa to go away to learn black magic. When he had studied black magic with a lama he returned to the area where he lived and, on a mountain, dug a hole and meditated in it for seven days. Then he did black magic and logs fell down the mountain and his uncle and auntie’s house completely collapsed, killing all the people and animals. There was a wedding happening on the upper floor with about sixty people, dancing and drinking, and they were all killed.
Milarepa felt extremely sad he had done that and went to the lama who had taught him black magic. The lama advised him if he wanted to practice Dharma he should go to see Marpa. Even though Marpa was already an enlightened being, Heruka or Hevajra, he appeared as an ordinary being, ploughing the field. He and his wisdom mother were covered in dust from their work and on the outside looked just like an ordinary couple. That was how Milarepa saw Marpa the first time. He offered his body, speech and mind as well as place and food to his guru, Marpa, and asked Marpa to be his guru.
Marpa accepted and asked him to build a nine-story tower. The tower still exists in Tibet, in Lhokha. There were no porters, no other people helping, so Milarepa built it entirely by himself. After he had built the nine-story tower, Marpa told him to tear down every stone and put them all back where they came from. Then Marpa asked him to build the tower again and again tear it down. He did this three times. Milarepa’s back became hard, with bluish skin, burnt from the sun and bruised from carrying so many stones.
Even so, Milarepa didn’t receive teachings or initiations from Marpa for many years. Marpa refused to give them to Milarepa. Once, when Milarepa saw Marpa giving teachings to other students he approached him, but Marpa immediately scolded him and kicked him out. He sometimes even beat him. This was all part of the very special guru-disciple relationship, his special way of guiding his disciple. Nowadays if a teacher gives even a spank or a scold then the disciple sues! I don’t know about here but it’s like that in the United States, with the low economy and everybody looking for easy ways to make money.
After some time, because Marpa never gave Milarepa teachings, only hard work and scolding, Marpa’s wisdom mother took him to one of Marpa’s disciples, Lama Ngokpa, to learn meditation. Milarepa tried but after many months failed to have any realizations. Then Lama Ngokpa went to offer Milarepa back to Marpa, bringing an offering of one limping goat. Milarepa had failed to have realizations because it wasn’t his guru, Marpa’s wishes. He hadn’t followed his guru’s advice but the advice of the guru’s wisdom mother.
Then Marpa’s wisdom mother pushed Marpa to give Milarepa teachings and initiations. Sometime later Marpa decided to give him teachings and, because he was an enlightened being, he manifested a mandala in space and initiated Milarepa. Marpa was very skillful. In a very short time he purified Milarepa’s negative karma of killing those sixty people and all those animals and then gave him all the initiations and teachings. This was his method for Milarepa.
He then sent Milarepa to the mountains to meditate. Milarepa lived an ascetic life in different caves in the mountains, meditating on the Secret Mantra Vajrayana path, which is based on the lamrim, renunciation, bodhicitta and right view, which are all based on guru devotion, realizing the guru is Buddha. He exactly followed the advice of Marpa, just living on nettles. There was nothing else to eat, not even tsampa. Tibetans’ main food is tsampa, which is either ground flour or barley. All he did was boil nettles in water without salt, chili or anything. Doing that, he attained enlightenment in a short number of years.
Due to his attitude of bodhicitta Milarepa become known to the world, even in the West. But, of course, Milarepa is not the only one who has achieved enlightenment. There have been many others. Much later Lama Tsongkhapa’s disciple, Gyalwa Ensapa, achieved enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate times without many hardships. Milarepa had eight disciples who achieved enlightenment and Padmasambhava had twenty-five. All those who achieved enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate times made unbelievable sacrifices and cherished their guru more than their own life. Actually, Marpa wanted Milarepa to continue bearing more hardship so that he could become enlightened even quicker, but his wisdom mother persuaded him very strongly to give teachings and initiations earlier. I saw that mentioned in Marpa’s or Milarepa’s life story.
That’s just a side talk, giving an example of somebody who achieved enlightenment in the quickest possible time, in a brief lifetime of degenerate times, by doing incomparable practice with very stable devotion to Marpa, looking at him as Buddha, seeing Buddha.
I’ve already told you about Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s attendant Gelong Lekpai Karma, who looked after the Buddha for twenty-two years but saw him only as a liar for that entire time. Nothing happened. I think he had to be born in the lower realms for an unimaginable number of eons, even though from the Buddha’s side he was an enlightened being. Because Gelong Lekpai Karma did not practice guru devotion, he did not change his mind.
If you have never heard the Dharma before—I’m not talking about in previous lives but in this life—this might be a new subject for you, something you’ve never heard before. It might seem very strange, but it’s something you need to explore, understand and realize. You need to discover it. In the West people like to explore, going into the mountains and the deserts, under the ocean or even to the moon, to discover new things. They spend years learning about tiny insects or they take boats out and spend years studying sharks and dolphins.
Therefore, I think exploring Buddhism is amazing; exploring Buddhism is very deep. Each day, each hour, each hour, each minute you are exploring Buddhism, gaining experience through listening and meditating, is just amazing. Even each minute is amazing; it makes your life most meaningful, most productive. The result is liberation from samsara, in which you have been suffering from beginningless rebirths, and finally enlightenment, in order to liberate the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. That’s the ultimate benefit to each and every sentient being. Nobody’s left out. Numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless gods and demigods receive extensive benefit from you. Just imagine one single insect, like an ant. Even in one nest there are thousands and thousands of ants, and all over the world there are countless nests. By exploring Buddhism you are bringing temporary happiness to each and every single ant as well as ultimate happiness, freedom from suffering, and full enlightenment.
This isn’t even talking about all the numberless other species of insects or all the animals or birds or fish. Think of the different species of fish in all the oceans of the world and their numbers. One shoal of sardines is unimaginable in number, and there are numberless shoals in the oceans. Sardines have very interesting karma. When they are attacked by a shark, because of their fear, they come together making the shoal much smaller and more compact and making it much easier for the shark. With one bite the shark can take so many in its mouth. All these sardines and all the fish in all the oceans can be enlightened by you.
You can enlighten all the numberless earthworms, those little creatures that come out when there has been rain. I remember one time I had asked His Holiness Sakya Trizin, the head of the Sakya sect, to give a series of more than a hundred initiations that had been lost in the Gelug tradition. Where we were doing them, I went for a walk each morning with an old friend, Pari Rinpoche, who was helping me because of my diabetes. On the road there were always many red worms, many killed or half-squashed by the cars. We blew on the worms and chanted mantras over them and then took them off the road and put them back on the ground, whether they were dead or alive. We tried to do that as much as we could, and we went on different roads to find more. In certain places there were so many.
There was an old man collecting the worms in a plastic bag, maybe for food. I offered him money for them, but he said he could get even more money from another organization, so anyway I finally paid him something like sixty rupees and we bought the worms. Then we chanted mantras and blessed them with water we had already blessed. I thought as we were doing it that these worms came out onto the road with no idea of the danger.
There was one thing I missed out when I was talking about Milarepa’s guru devotion. Even if in your view the guru is very selfish, very impatient and very angry, with many mistakes, without much understanding of the Dharma and so forth—this is in your view of course—if you have already established a guru-disciple connection, a Dharma connection, from your own side you should devote to him just as Milarepa was devoted to Marpa, seeing him as Maitreya, Manjushri or Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. Having established that Dharma connection, by devoting to him and respecting him as if he were Maitreya, Manjushri, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, Tara or another buddha, you are creating the karma that in future lives you will meet that guru in the aspect of Maitreya, Manjushri or Tara, exactly like that. I was going to mention that before but it didn’t happen. This understanding is very important.
With Vajrasattva, vajra refers to the definitive meaning, the ultimate guru, the dharmakaya and sattva refers to the forms that the ultimate guru takes, the rupakaya. So many deities’ names are like this, such as Dorje Jigje and the Cittamani of Tara Cittamani. It refers to the very essence and the aspect that it takes. If you can understand in this way who Vajrasattva is, it has a very deep meaning, something you feel in your heart rather than as something outside.
When the arhats and arya bodhisattvas have wisdom directly perceiving emptiness and are in equipoise meditation, the dualistic appearance is not completely destroyed, it is temporary absorbed. When you become enlightened, with bodhicitta, and you complete the merits of method and wisdom and cease the subtle defilements, then the dualistic appearance is cut forever. Buddhas abide in equipoise meditation nondual with emptiness forever. That’s the vajra of Vajrasattva, the ultimate guru.
At the same time as their holy mind continuously abides in equipoise meditation, immovable from emptiness forever, the holy body manifests in numberless forms, pure and impure—pure for those beings with a pure mind and impure for those with an impure mind. It manifests as the nirmanakaya and sambhogakaya to benefit all the numberless sentient beings, to guide them from happiness to happiness to enlightenment. While their holy mind is in equipoise meditation, forever free from the dual view, at the same time they manifest in various forms and guide numberless sentient beings. So, a buddha’s omniscience, his holy mind, at the same time directly sees the ultimate truth of the self, the ultimate truth of yourself, and the truth for the all-obscuring mind. Directly seeing both together, the whole of phenomena, is the special quality of a buddha.
The benefits of Vajrasattva practice
The benefits of reciting the Vajrasattva mantra are unbelievable. You need to practice Vajrasattva more than you need money. Of course, for worldly people the most important thing is money. I guess that’s true for most people. Now here, Vajrasattva is more important; there’s no comparison with the importance of money.
Here, during the course, we are trying to practice mindfulness as much as possible, not just during meditation or when listening to the teachings but at other times as well—eating and walking and so forth. This doesn’t usually happen at other times, when we are leading our normal, daily life.
Early in the morning when we get dressed the motivation is just for this life, for the happiness of being well-dressed, so the motivation is nonvirtue. Washing is again simply for the happiness of this life; there’s no thought of the happiness of other sentient beings or of purifying the defilements of other sentient beings. We don’t do that meditation while washing; we just wash for our own happiness. So, again the action of washing becomes nonvirtue, negative karma. We have the same motivation while we are having breakfast, for this life to be happy—not even future lives’ happiness but just this life. With that attachment, the action of eating breakfast becomes nonvirtue. However much we drink, however much we eat, everything becomes negative karma. Like that, whatever we eat or drink during the day—for breakfast, lunch and dinner —becomes like that. Because the motivation is nonvirtuous everything becomes nonvirtue, negative karma.
Walking or driving a car, doing our job, whatever activities we do, if we check the motivation it’s just for this life’s happiness. There’s no motivation to obtain future lives’ happiness or liberation from samsara; there’s no motivation to achieve enlightenment, no thought of the happiness of others. Our only motivation is the happiness of this life. Again that becomes nonvirtue. Whatever we do with this motivation becomes nonvirtue. Everything becomes negative karma. Working at home it’s the same. And what’s the motivation of the last action of the day, going to sleep? There’s no bodhicitta mind to benefit all sentient beings, there’s no thought to achieve enlightenment for them, there’s no thought of even achieving liberation for ourselves. There isn’t even the thought of future lives’ happiness, no wish for long-term happiness, just some comfort for ourselves and for this life. So, however many hours we sleep we create that many hours’ nonvirtue. The longer we sleep the more nonvirtue we create. In that way, our entire twenty-four hours becomes only nonvirtue, only creating negative karma. Generally speaking it’s like that.
As I have already mentioned, on top of that every single one of those negative karmas increases day by day, every week, every month, every year, for the whole of this life, not to mention those accumulated in beginningless previous lives. Without purifying our negative karma, it becomes double the next day and then it multiplies day by day, four times, then eight, then sixteen, increasing until it becomes huge. Can you imagine how that one single negative karma will have increased after one year? And after two years or more? Even one small negative karma becomes like a mountain and then, after some time, it becomes the size of this earth. By the time of death one negative karma the size of an atom multiplies to become the size of this earth. Can you imagine how many negative karmas we collect in one day or one week? How many we have collected from the time we were born or from all the previous lives, from beginningless rebirths? Can you imagine all those negative karmas we have not purified and we have not finished experiencing?
That’s why I say that Vajrasattva becomes more important than money, more important than a job. Can you imagine how important the practice of Vajrasattva is? Even if we broke the root pratimoksha vows and the root tantric vows, even that very heavy negative karma can be purified by reciting one hundred thousand Vajrasattva mantras. As I mentioned before, a wise person might have heavy negative karma but they can make it small by purification, whereas a foolish person might only have a small amount of negative karma but it becomes huge because they fail to purify, they don’t know the Vajrasattva practice with the four opponent powers. They don’t understand negative karma can be purified. Therefore, we should become the wise person, not the foolish one.
That’s why we have taken this jenang, this permission to practice. Now, think that this place is not an ordinary place. If possible think of it as a pure land, as a celestial mansion, in the appearance of transcendental wisdom. Where there’s a torma, think of it as Vajrasattva and the Lama who is giving the initiation as the actual Vajrasattva. Then, above the Lama there are all the lineage lamas of the direct and indirect gurus from whom the initiation has been received. I have received this initiation from Lama Yeshe, who is kinder than all the three-time buddhas, as well as from His Holiness Zong Rinpoche.
Notes
2 Ch. 4, v. 18. [Return to text]
3 LC88 [Return to text]
4 “Praise to Shakyamuni Buddha,” Essential Buddhist Prayers Vol. 1, An FPMT Prayer Book. [Return to text]
