Kopan Course No. 42 (2009): eBook

By Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Kopan Monastery, Nepal (Archive #1793)

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave these teachings during the 42nd Kopan lamrim course in 2009. In this Kopan course, Rinpoche discusses our potential to bring benefit and happiness, including full enlightenment, to all sentient beings.

Visit our online store to order The Path to Ultimate Happiness ebook or download a PDF. You can also read it online. Lightly edited by Gordon McDougall and Sandra Smith.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching in Cham Tse Ling gompa, Hong Kong, April 2016. Photo: Lobsang Sherab.
Lecture Seventeen
The meaning of jetsun (during a tea offering)

One thing Chinese people like to chant is a mantra that’s in the Ksitigarbha sutra. That particular one has benefit if a country is being attacking or something; it protects the leader, giving them power and they won’t be bothered by others. Maybe the mantra is more to do with that; when other countries are attacking your country, it assures some kind of peace. The short mantra is what Chinese people commonly chant. We don’t know how this Chinese master chanted it. Actually it’s in the sutra; probably it’s the last mantra.

I’m going to read it again, OK. The purpose of having it in Tibetan is because if you chant it, that helps with the energy. When you do the chanting in English or Chinese, then it’s different.

First, the motivation.

“The purpose of my life is to free all sentient beings from all the suffering and its causes and to bring them to enlightenment by myself. Therefore, I must achieve enlightenment. Therefore, I’m going to make the tea offering.”

If you have received a great initiation, generate yourself as the deity first. You purify in emptiness, and then you generate as your own deity, the one you practice in everyday life. Then, the tea is purified in emptiness. If you have received a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation, then you can do the meditation, blessing the tea with the Highest Yoga Tantra method. If you haven’t received an initiation, just leave it.

Visualize a container the size of the world, and inside that the tea is transformed into oceans of nectar. Then, “jetsun tsa wai lama ….”

Je is when you have the first realization of Dharma, the renunciation of this life, the total detachment from this life; that’s the first level of je. The total detachment from this life is more special than any renunciation that the majority of ordinary people have. The next level of je is the total renunciation of all the future lives’ samsara. The next je is total liberation from the oceans of samsara. The next je is bodhicitta, one of the three principal aspects of the path. The next je is the dharmakaya, full enlightenment, total freedom from all gross and subtle defilements, which project dualistic appearance, truly-existent appearance, that make everything appear as real—the I, action, object, all the phenomena appear as real, in the sense of existing from their own side—and decorate this hallucination on every phenomena that is merely labeled by mind. That dharmakaya which is totally free from this dualistic view and the negative imprints, the subtle defilements, is the ultimate je. That’s the meaning of the first syllable, je.

The second syllable, tsun, means “pure.” The first level of tsun is being pure or free from attachment to this life; the second level is being free from attachment to all future lives’ samsara and the next level of ­ tsun is being free from the self-cherishing thought, attaining the wisdom realizing emptiness, one of three principal aspects of the paths, the causal vehicle. This tsun is being pure or free from ignorance, the root of samsara.

Relating to highest tantra, je is the realization, the completion of the generation stage, but for the lower tantras je means the two realizations of wisdom and method. In the lower tantras tsun can mean being pure, not having the impure appearances and the concepts.  In the highest tantra generation stage, it means the ordinary death, ordinary intermediate state and ordinary rebirth are purified. That ripens the mind for the path-time dharmakaya, the path-time sambhogakaya and the path-time nirmanakaya. When the twenty-four absorptions happen at the time of death, during meditation you’re able to do that, like experiencing the death. You stop the gross mind and actualize the subtle mind, and then use that to meditate on emptiness. That’s a very secret highest tantra subject, so you can’t really have that explained without having received a great initiation. The sambhogakaya means doing the practice of the illusory body. The path-time nirmanakaya means you enter back into the old body, the nirmanakaya, and do the activities. That’s how to do the practice. Ripening the path-time dharmakaya, sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya is planting the seed to achieve the result-time dharmakaya, sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya. That’s in the highest tantra generation stage.

Je here also means the extremely subtle mind, clear light, the simultaneously-born great bliss. That’s like an atomic bomb, with tsun helping the mind become totally pure. During that equipoise meditation you don’t have that dual view; tsun is like that. When the gross mind ceases, that’s tsun, pure. The great enlightenment, the cessation of the subtle defilements, is tsun.

So, je is all the realizations from guru devotion up to enlightenment and tsun is the cessation of all negative thoughts, from the ordinary mind’s mistakes toward the guru up to the cessation of the subtle dual view.

You can see now, jetsun refers to having perfected the qualities of realizations and the qualities of cessation. Je means being perfected in the qualities of realizations and tsun means being perfected in the qualities of cessation. That is another meaning. Without talking about all that, jetsun means the result-time dharmakaya. That’s the ultimate guru—the guru of the ultimate truth—and the guru of the truth for the all-obscuring mind.

Then, tsa wai lama, the root guru, who is the manifestation of the ultimate guru. I have been using the term “conventional guru” but I think “conventional” is not exact. In Tibetan don dam lama means “ultimate guru” and kün dzob lama means “guru for the all-obscuring mind.” That’s more exact. “Guru of the all-obscuring truth” or “guru which is the truth for the all-obscuring mind”—both these terms are more exact. When you say “conventional” it doesn’t become an exact translation of this. Anyway, with jetsun the ultimate guru then manifests in the root guru.

The root guru is the one who in the first place helped your mind, which was not Dharma, to become Dharma, to be transformed into Dharma. Another way of seeing the root guru is the one, among all your gurus, who benefits you the most. Lama Atisha had a hundred and fifty-seven gurus but the one who benefited him the most was Lama Serlingpa. It took him twelve months to go by boat from India to Sumatra, in Indonesia. This was a very long time ago, a thousand years ago. Even though Lama Atisha was already a completely learned great pandit he went to receive teachings on bodhicitta from Lama Serlingpa in Indonesia. I think he studied there for about twelve years, receiving the complete teachings on bodhicitta from Lama Serlingpa. Of all his gurus, the one who benefited him the most was Lama Serlingpa, so he is regarded as Lama Atisha’s root guru. Even though he had a hundred and fifty-seven gurus, Lama Serlingpa was his root guru. There was another one, Lama Dharmarakshita, so Lama Atisha had these two root gurus.

You mustn’t think that because there is a root guru, you cut off all the other gurus. It’s not like that. They’re all one. You have to have that kind of idea, that all the buddhas arise from the dharmakaya, which is the ultimate guru. The dharmakaya manifests into numberless buddhas, deities and the different aspects of the buddhas. From that Dharma, the Sangha comes, so that one manifests as all the gurus. So, it’s all connected; the root guru is connected with all the gurus. That means it’s all one being. The conclusion is that it is just one being. When you say, “root guru,” if you feel that it kind of abandons all the other gurus, it’s not like that.

“I offer these oceans of nectar, these oceans of great bliss, all this good, pure tea offering.”

This causes you to develop simultaneously-born, simultaneously-attained great bliss. While that’s happening, this is simultaneously accomplished, which means without effort. While the simultaneously-attained great bliss is increasing, make the offering. It doesn’t mean they don’t have great bliss; it’s not saying they don’t have simultaneously-attained great bliss, that only when you make the offering they experience this. It’s not like that. You do this meditation, then this simultaneously-attained great bliss increases within them. Visualizing in that way, you create the karma to experience simultaneously-attained great bliss, which is the dharmakaya.

Having actualized the generation stage, you are able to actualize the completion stage great bliss. From that, there’s the result dharmakaya, the simultaneously-attained great bliss to actualize the dharmakaya. To create the cause for you to experience that,  you visualize that it increases within them. But you shouldn’t think it increases only when you make the offering; otherwise they don’t have it. That’s wrong to think like that. You are doing the visualization here for their holy mind to remain in the experience of simultaneously-attained great bliss all the time. There’s nothing more; there’s no greater bliss for them to achieve at all.

Doing this meditation in this way, increasing the bliss, you are creating the cause to achieve this highest tantra simultaneously-born great bliss, the path that ceases the gross mind. Then, you are able to achieve the dharmakaya, the simultaneously-attained great bliss. Then, you are able to do perfect work for sentient beings. That’s the whole point. While this simultaneously-attained great bliss is happening, think, “Please bless me to achieve this, for my mind to be mixed, to become one with your holy mind.” That means your mind becomes one, and then becomes mixed with the holy mind. “Becoming one with your holy mind” means enlightenment, it means your mind becomes the dharmakaya. This has a very profound meaning.

Now I am going to chant this.

[Rinpoche chants the tea offering prayer, then drinks tea]

Jetsun is usually translated as “venerable.” You can see how with that all the meanings are totally lost. Is “venerable” only for monks and nuns? Can you call a Christian priest that? Isn’t there a priest who is not a monk? You can call them “venerable” too, can’t you? It’s a term for anybody you have respect for. It can be “venerable mosquito.” “This venerable mosquito’s bite is very painful,” or, “This venerable mosquito is drinking more blood.” That sort of thing.

[Rinpoche drinks more tea]

You can use this prayer for tea and also for offering food.

The benefits of reciting the offering cloud mantra

Now I will explain the benefits of reciting the Offering Cloud Mantra. It has nine benefits, blessing the offerings and multiplying them. It multiplies them like clouds in the sky, like covering the sky completely; the offerings are filling the sky. That’s what it means, multiplying the offerings like skies, numberless, to each buddha and bodhisattva. If you offer one light, one stick of incense, one piece of candy, one cup of tea or whatever, when you chant this mantra what the buddhas and bodhisattvas receive is skies of offerings. One light multiples into skies, one stick of incense multiplies into skies. If you are doing a water offering and you bless it with this mantra, it multiplies into skies of offerings. Each of the numberless buddhas and bodhisattva receives skies of offerings. Can you imagine?

If you don’t chant this mantra, you don’t get all that benefit—when you only offer one thing, the buddhas and bodhisattvas only receive that one thing, even if you say OM AH HUM. But if you chant this long mantra, each buddha receives skies of offerings. What you actually offer is just one thing but if you bless with this mantra, if you chant this mantra, it blesses the offering. If you don’t have time or you don’t have anything to offer but one bowl of water or one stick of incense, if you chant this, it increases like skies of offerings to each buddha and bodhisattva. Can you imagine? It’s the same with the gurus. That means you create numberless causes of enlightenment, numberless causes of liberation from samsara by the way, and numberless causes of the happiness of future lives by the way. Then, there’s no question about the success of this life; it happens without even thinking about it.

If you don’t chant this mantra, all that is gone; it’s lost. It’s like you’ve lost dollars filling the whole sky, the whole sky filled with hundreds of dollars. A thousand dollars is nothing, one dollar is nothing, but it’s like you can achieve the whole sky filled with gold, diamonds and wish-granting jewels. You could get that, but you didn’t do it. Do you understand?

The next of the nine benefits is that the minute you remember this mantra, it becomes an offering to the buddhas abiding in the ten directions. The ten directions means all four sides, the corners and up and down, so that means all the buddhas. How many buddhas abide in the ten directions? There is not just one, they equal the number of atoms of the sand grains of the Pacific Ocean. That’s the first benefit. Just with this first benefit you feel faint! Just remembering the mantra, the benefit that you get is amazing. Can you imagine? It’s most amazing.

The second benefit is that it is equivalent to having prostrated at the holy feet of all those buddhas abiding in ten directions, equaling the number of atoms of the sand grains of the Pacific Ocean. You have prostrated to the feet of that many buddhas. That’s the second benefit.

The third benefit is that it becomes an offering to the many buddhas; offerings of incense, garlands of flowers, ornaments, robes, umbrellas, banners, pointed flags, seat covers, clothes for the holy body and animals. “Offering animals” means animals that are enjoyable to look at; the term used is “eye-looking.” It says “eye-looking” but it means animals, for example, in Tibet there is a place where deer and other animals were offered.

Food and ornaments, all these things, are cleaned and become not just offerings but once offered you get the benefit of having offered all these things to the buddhas abiding in the ten directions. How many? That many times equaling the number of atoms of the sand grains of the Pacific Ocean. Amazing!

Then you become free from all the negative karmas. That is the fourth benefit. The fifth benefit is that you have all the root of the virtue. And the sixth is that you are able to see all the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

The seventh benefit is that they all give you breath. That means that they liberate whoever is in the lower realms enduring a lot of suffering. They liberate you from the lower realms, then you’re able to breath; you have freedom. When you look at being in samsara, of course, there is unbelievable suffering: the suffering of pain, the suffering of change—which means all the samsaric pleasures—and pervasive compounding suffering, which are the aggregates, the body and mind which are in the nature of suffering, and the contaminated seed of delusion. Then, delusion arises which creates karma, which in turn creates the cause of samsara again. That’s how you die and are reborn continuously from beginningless rebirths.

What I was saying was that with this benefit you are given breath, meaning you are free from that suffering and you achieve liberation. In that way they give breath to you. When you are liberated from samsara, they give breath to you. Also, when you are brought to enlightenment by them revealing the Mahayana path, they give breath to you. That’s the seventh benefit.

The eighth benefit is that you are protected from all nagas and harm-givers by nu jin or protectors. I don’t know exactly, but I think it means they protect you from harm. I think maybe Dzambhala is also called nu jin. It doesn’t mean they are harm-givers, but probably they give refuge to you, they free you from harm. Similarly, there are beings such as gods and demigods and garudas, the ones who fly in the sky, and the eight worldly gods. Then there is Dorje Chenpo, the great stomach. That is maybe some kind of worldly devas, I’m not sure, or it could mean they are snakes. I’m not sure whether this refers to just snakes or some devas, I have to check.  

The next benefit is called Vajra in the Hand, meaning Vajrapani’s hand and so forth. Vajrapani, the Owner of Secrets, and the four guardians will follow you and protect you, and they will guide you and hide you. To hide here means that if some harm is happening to you, if other people are causing harm, they will protect you and hide you. Although the eighth benefit is called “protecting” I think that it means protecting, guiding and hiding, all three in one.

The ninth benefit is that after you die you will be born in the blissful realm of the world, which means Amitabha Buddha’s pure land.

It says of these qualities, even without actually practicing, just remembering this Offering Cloud Mantra once, you will achieve all this. That’s what it says. Without actually working for this, you will be born in a pure land, just by remembering this mantra.  

I’ll do the lung of this mantra.

[Rinpoche recites short mandala offering, refuge and bodhicitta prayers]

“No matter how long it takes, no matter how difficult it is to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, I must achieve enlightenment. I must do it. Therefore, I’m going to take the oral transmission to be able to do the sur practice, and also the oral transmission of Buddha Ksitigarbha’s mantra and the oral transmission of the Offering Cloud Mantra, thus making my life unbelievably meaningful.”

Can you imagine? All this merit, all this unbelievable success, comes unbelievably easily, like that.

[Rinpoche begins the oral transmission]

Usually when I do the [Offering Cloud] mantra, it blesses any offering. If it’s food that’s already blessed, I offer the food as numberless oceans of nectar, that’s the first thing. The second one is all the offerings in the FPMT center gompas which are in the nature of great bliss. Then, in the Aptos house, all the extensive flowers outside and inside, and the many thousands of light offerings outside and inside, and all the many water offerings—big, big water bowl offerings—in the different rooms. There are also food offerings, tea offerings, and all the offerings at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land retreat place [the FPMT center in Washington State.] Also here in this room there are offerings and in the next room there are offerings, and then in the next room, there are many offerings there.

If you have offerings done at your own house, you have to include that, wherever you are. If there are offerings of flowers or whatever you normally set up, you have to remember that. Normally, when I do the mantra, I try to think of all that. Here, with these offerings, when you say “all the extensive offerings in the FPMT center gompas,” that may include all that, but I also think of all the offerings in these three rooms separately.

For the last few years I’ve been telling people, whether they’re outside or inside FPMT, when you do a sadhana, when you do the practice in daily life, you must think you can offer all these. Whether a student or not, it doesn’t matter; anybody can offer like this. For example, in the Aptos house sometimes there are lay people but mostly there are nuns and monks, usually nuns, who spend a few hours every day making offerings. That makes it very worthwhile. It gives everybody a chance to collect merit.

However many offerings there are, everybody who remembers these offerings in their daily practice gets a chance to create great merit. Depending on how many offerings there are, there are that many causes of enlightenment, that many causes of liberation from samsara. However many thousands of lights there are, there are that many thousands of causes of enlightenment and, by the way, liberation and, by the way, the happiness of future lives. However many water offerings there are, there are that many causes of enlightenment, that many causes of liberation, that many causes of the happiness of future lives, then no question about this life. Without even thinking about that, it just happens.

If you remember all that when you chant this mantra, if you think of all that, wow, it’s amazing. That one offering increases and becomes numberless offerings to each buddha and bodhisattva. One offering becomes numberless like the clouds in the sky, to each buddha and bodhisattva. Can you imagine? So, one offering becomes numberless causes of enlightenment, it becomes numberless causes of liberation from samsara, it becomes numberless causes of the happiness of future lives. Just by chanting this mantra, it becomes numberless causes of enlightenment, numberless causes of liberation, numberless causes of happiness. Can you imagine all these offerings and how chanting this mantra blesses all these? Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Can you imagine?

You can visualize your body as a wish-fulfilling gem, instead of blood and bone, like this. You can visualize your body as a gem that fulfills all wishes and then chant the mantra. Think like that. With this mantra, one offering to each buddha and bodhisattva becomes numberless.

The next prayer is the Extensive Power of Truth. You have to visualize, for example, the whole sky filled with offerings. As I mentioned before, visualize all the offerings at FPMT centers and gompas, in the Aptos house and in Washington and here. By thinking of all that, if you offer, then the buddhas and bodhisattvas receive that. Visualize the whole sky filled with offerings: water offerings, water for drinking and water for cleaning the feet, and then flowers, incense, light offerings, scented water offerings, food offerings and music offerings. There are five objects of desire, and there are the eight auspicious signs, the eight substances and the eight royalties. If you think of the whole sky filled with all these offerings, the buddhas actually receive however much you visualize. This is the words of truth, the Extensive Power of Truth.

With this second prayer, as many offerings as you visualize, the buddhas and bodhisattvas actually get them. The first one, the Offering Cloud Mantra, blesses the offerings when you chant the mantra, then each offering becomes like clouds in the sky, numberless, to each buddha and bodhisattva. So there’s a little bit of a difference. When you say the Extensive Power of Truth, then at that time it’s good to think the whole sky is filled with all these offerings.

The present book, not the old one, has the Extensive Power of Truth prayer. Maybe you can get a copy of that.

Now, the sur. No, the commentary. Doing sur is easy. That’s not difficult, so we’re just doing the sur commentary.

[Break in taping]

Now we’re going to do the sur.

You can understand why, although it’s not necessary to chant this mantra with every food offering, I like to chant it as much as possible, not only while offering food. During that time, when I do the mantra I offer everything: first of all, thinking the food becomes oceans of nectar covering the sky, as much as I can think. Then all the extensive offerings at the FPMT center gompas, then in the Aptos house or the ones I have arranged in the Washington house that the Sangha there have been offering. There are two houses, one for retreat and the Aptos house, but actually they basically have two purposes. One is a place for Sangha to live; it helps some Sangha to live and to practice. The other one is for extensive offerings. So, these two houses are for these two purposes. Although the aim of the Washington house is for retreat, there are also Sangha there doing extensive offerings. They need a place to live and it also makes their life meaningful by making the extensive offerings. It also helps the success of the whole organization when you dedicate for all the centers and all the projects. They make offerings and I also try to make offerings. Of course, sometimes I miss but I try.

Both houses fulfill these two purposes even though it costs a lot of money each year. I think it costs one hundred thousand dollars at least, minimum for sure, definitely no question, but I think it’s more than that with the expenses. So, one purpose is to give the Sangha a place to stay and to practice and make extensive offerings. That’s the main purpose. They make offerings and I make offerings; they also dedicate for the whole organization and for all those who have died, the students and everybody who has offered service to the organization, and students who rely upon me, whom I promised to pray for, those who have died and those who are living. Basically, it’s like that.

Actually, I’m thinking of Tara Melwani in Singapore. I asked her to make extensive offerings every day, so her maid does crystal water bowl offerings but only in the room where I was staying. I was also offering at another student’s house before. I was doing offerings there in the past but then somehow it didn’t happen in recent times. I think at one of the ABC dinners I didn’t mention the offerings in that student’s house, maybe he realized I’m not doing them anymore. Anyway, I asked him to make extensive offerings in the shrine room, so he’s made many, many water bowl offerings upstairs in crystal bowls. I’m not sure whether he is doing that now or not, but actually I’m thinking to have it like that even more!

In the past, I started this extensive arrangement in Taiwan. I led a Medicine Buddha retreat there and then I said we must have extensive offerings. So, the abbess and nuns went shopping and bought very expensive flowers such as orchids and very beautiful offerings. The nuns cleaned the bowls late at night. Then I came back and started upstairs. We had a Chenrezig gompa upstairs and two rooms; one of these was a dining room with a table and chairs. When I came back after the retreat they had transformed it with offerings. The lunch table was filled with very beautiful offerings. They built another one on the side which may be for light offerings.

Student: Do we have to do the offerings ourselves or can the maid do it?

Rinpoche: In Taiwan, one student had two maids and they were making water offerings at her house. One maid had some sickness and was making offerings and prayers to Medicine Buddha then somehow her sickness was gone, just by making water offerings to Medicine Buddha.

I think it’s very good for the maids to do it. Of course, generally, I should be doing it also. If not all, at least I should do a few, but somehow that didn’t happen. I think I got completely lazy. If you can do some, that’s very, very good, fantastic. They can do most of the offerings, but you can do some, or a few anyway. That’s very, very good.

After the offerings are set up, you recite this mantra, to bless and offer. That’s very important. If you don’t do that, then you don’t collect merit—the offerings are just arranged, like a display, but you don’t collect merit. But if you had thought to make the offering and even if the others did it, it’s very important for you to recite this mantra and actually offer. At the end, reciting the mantra and making the offering is essential. Otherwise, it’s possible that it just becomes décor. It can become just decoration, but not actually an offering. There is danger it might become like that.

If the maid thinks of making offering to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha or the holy objects there, then they get merit. Then if they dedicate for you, of course, that makes a difference. At least they can do that, but you must chant this mantra at the end and make the offering. If you have memorized this mantra, you can recite it even while you are driving a car, while you’re traveling, wherever you are. Since the maids are doing the offerings, you can recite that mantra wherever you are. You don’t have to be at home.

SUR COMMENTARY

OK, now we’re going to do the sur.

First of all, understand the benefits of sur. If you make sur, what it does is eliminate obstacles. It eliminates temporary obstacles. Whatever you are doing—whether you are on a retreat, doing a project or helping other sentient beings or whatever—whatever attainment you want, it eliminates any temporary obstacles to that. And when death happens you get born in Amitabha’s pure land, the blissful realm, and all your wishes according to Dharma are successful. That’s very, very important, extremely important. All your wishes according to Dharma are fulfilled. Then, ultimately you collect the two types of merit—the merit of wisdom and the merit of virtue. So, everything is there.

If you want to do sur at night time, it says the sur pot should be clean and unbroken; and the fire shouldn’t have smoke. If you’re using firewood there shouldn’t be any wood smoke. What it’s saying here is important. You are making the charity of the smell of food not of smoke. Only if it smells of food do they get the benefit.  

In Taiwan, they make a whole package for sur and sell it. I think probably everybody buys that. I don’t think they use the correct substances because you never get the smell of food from that. It looks like powdered plants and doesn’t have the smell of food. It should have a smell like when you burn tsampa. Do you know tsampa? When you put tsampa in the fire, for example, you can smell the food. There is some smoke coming out but there is the smell of food. That’s what’s needed for this particular practice. Actually, here you make offering to the Guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and all the six realms’ sentient beings—the hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, gods, demigods and intermediate state beings—but this is particularly for the smell-eaters, the intermediate state beings. This is food for the intermediate state beings; not the tsampa itself but the smell.

If the fire is made of wood, then let it burn first. There will be smoke but let it burn completely and when the smoke stops or there is very little smoke, put the tsampa on, then the smoke that comes will be the food. There should be the smell of food, not the smell of the wood smoke. Like for example, when you burn incense you smell the incense. So here, the sur should be the food. That’s very important.

Usually, as it’s described here, you make a small sack of tsampa, mix all the ingredients and then with a spoon sprinkle them on a small fire you have made. It doesn’t matter whether you have a big fire or a small one. I usually make a big fire and put lots on, so they can have it for many hours. I make it big.

With a fire like that, you can put the tsampa on the edge and it will burn continuously. The other way is to put a lot of tsampa and there should be a place where the smell of the food that is burning comes from. You put tsampa down first and then you can touch the fire to it with something that is burning and then the smoke comes and the smell of the food comes. I think the air needs to go through it from behind otherwise, if you completely cover the fire with tsampa, the fire might die. Or you can leave some fire at the edge, then put the tsampa in the middle.

Student:  If we do the sur offering at home, will all the smell-eaters and all the intermediate state beings come to our house?

Rinpoche: You burn in the house?

Student: We do it in the garden.

Rinpoche: This is for those beings. There’s no need to be scared. It becomes charity for them. They are suffering.

I’ll tell you a story. There were Tibetan prisoners in Tibet, and in one day they only got three momos this size, so they were always very hungry. The Chinese people who were looking after the prison cooked meals for themselves. They made food, they fried food and the smell would come to the prisoners, who got incredible benefit in that way. It helped the prisoners so much because they were very hungry. They were allowed to go outside a little way, just around in the fields, where they looked for bones. If they found any very old dry bones, they chewed them and that helped them so much. The Chinese who were looking after the prison ate a lot of beans and when they did kaka, the prisoners opened up the kaka with a stick or something and looked for the beans which came out. They ate those beans from the kaka, they were so unbelievably hungry.

There’s one Tibetan man who had so much experience of how the smell of the food from the kitchen helped that since he left the prison he has been doing sur every day for many years. He experienced how it benefited so much; he knows this. The suffering of the intermediate state beings is hundreds of times greater than any human beings’ hunger, so they really need help. It is unbelievably beneficial for them to do this sur.

In the Arya Sanghata Sutra the Buddha said that if you make charity the size of a hair to a sentient being, you enjoy benefits such as incredible wealth for eighty thousand eons. You receive that much benefit from making charity even as small as the size of a hair. It’s amazing.

So, it’s very important to have fire without smoke. You must let the fire burn completely until the smoke stops. Once you’ve put the wood or charcoal or coal on, then add the kerosene or whatever to make it burn well, and then wait for ten minutes or so until the fuel is white on the outside and the inside is completely on fire. Then you put tsampa on top. Then, when there’s no smoke smell, only tsampa smell, it is very good.

The twenty-five substances to be mixed with the tsampa

It says the tsampa should be mixed with lots of butter, like eating pak. This is dry pak not wet pak. There are five grains, five medicines, five scented smells, five essences, five jewels, so there are five times five ingredients which I will explain. I will go through the five things you need to make it perfect.

This already exists; I’ve translated it a few times in English.

First, I will explain their benefits and what they are.

These five things are quite important not only for sur. If you have these, when you do a puja or a retreat you can put them in the torma that you offer. Normally, if you have them, when you do a puja you mix these substances in the torma which is externally how to make the torma offering to the deities perfect, for attainment, for success. Internally, it’s your own realization, but externally you make the torma perfect by having these substances mixed with it. With just a general torma offering to the deities, it brings unbelievable benefit for success. This is not only for sur practice but if you have it, when you do a tea offering to the Guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and the protectors you can also add this. You don’t need a lot, not even a spoonful. It’s the same as when you mix it with the torma, you don’t need a lot, just a little.

What are the five jewels? Gold, silver, coral, pearls and lapis lazuli, the blue stone. It’s blue but sometimes lapis lazuli has some white, like small flecks of gold. In Tibetan it’s called mu men. This stone is also for healing, and that’s why they use it for rings. Why these five jewels? Because these five jewels were offered in the past to the Buddha by the goddess Nalgyuma. There’s Dzambhala who is male and Nalgyuma who is female for giving wealth. So, the goddess Nalgyuma offered these five things to the Buddha and the Buddha blessed them into the substances of the auspiciousness, meaning everything became auspicious.

Next are the five medicines. What are the five medicines? The first is kandakari. You have to get this from a Tibetan medical center. You can get it in Dharamsala or Nepal. You can go to the Tibetan medical center in Nepal where there are different Tibetan doctors, private ones from the Tibetan government who make medicine, so you can get it from there. Get it before you go back to Singapore, it’s the best place.

The second one is le ti. The text says these first two were offered to the Buddha by a snow lion. The third one is shu thag kar po and then there’s the claw of a water lion, you know, a vajra claw. This was offered to the Buddha by the goddess of the forest and the Buddha blessed it, and the same with the snow lion. The fifth is wän log which was offered to the Buddha by Indra. It’s a medicinal plant and is also for wisdom. The substance goes into wisdom pills. You can get it in the Solu Khumbu mountains. If you dig it up, what you find in the ground resembles a hand with five fingers and it’s sticky, like glue. You can use it like glue to stick paper and things. I don’t know how the plant looks, but [the root] looks like a hand in the ground. That was offered by King Indra to Buddha and then Buddha blessed it into the auspicious substances. So, these are the five medicines.

Now, the five scented smells. The first is kabush or camphor, which is square and looks like sugar but it’s not sugar. It’s camphor, offered by Ochajuma, the Goddess Keeping the Light, to the Buddha, who blessed it as a substance of auspiciousness. And then sandalwood was offered by Dongtse Lhamo, the Goddess of Taking Care, to the Buddha who blessed it as a substance of auspiciousness.

The next is saffron, which was offered by the Princess of Scented Smell to the Buddha who blessed it as a substance of auspiciousness. Then, the Goddess of the Golden Pinnacle offered the Buddha akaru, incense wood, which grows in south India and is blessed by the Buddha. Finally, there is zadi [nutmeg] which is kind of red in color. It was offered by a cannibal to the Buddha who blessed it as a substance of auspiciousness. I don’t know what they call it in English. You’ll have to check it in a dictionary. Do you have a dictionary in your computer? Maybe you can find zadi in the computer’s dictionary.

So now the five essences. The first one is liti or sindhura powder. You can get it from Dharamsala or you can go down to the Vajrayogini or Heruka holy place, Kangra. You can get a lot of it in a shop there. It’s liti but I don’t know what it’s called in English. [Student: vermillion.] Is that always red? Because with sindhura, there’s red but there’s also orange. Anyway, liti is the essence of earth. I think it might be sindhura. Sometimes sindhura comes like the color of clay, not all the time. This one was offered by Brahma Namyang to Buddha who blessed it.

The second one is salt or gyatsa, which is the essence of water. This was offered by the naga king Gyatso, the naga King of the Ocean. I think gyatsa means Indian salt. I think it must be much stronger than normal salt. There is gyatsa and also lentsa, the two, and I think the idea might be something much stronger than normal salt, which is lentsa. That was offered by the naga King of the Ocean to the Buddha, who blessed it as a substance of auspiciousness.

Next is the essence of flowers offered by the business leader, Khagon, to the Buddha. What is that? It’s honey. Then there is the essence of the plants. I’m not sure what this is but it could be butter or milk. It was offered to the Buddha by the girl called Lagkyinga. My guess may be milk, and the essence of milk is butter. It was blessed by the Buddha as a substance of auspiciousness. The essence of fruit was offered by the monkey king Hanuman, the Hindu god. What is that? It’s brown sugar. You can get that in any shop in Nepal.

[Rinpoche checks in a dictionary with Ven. Sangpo]

Here it says zadi is a medicine with a strong taste, and after it’s melted in the mouth it generates heat within you. It allows you to digest fruit and eliminates nying lung, heart wind disease. That’s quite useful for people who have that type of lung, nying lung. Nutmeg is for this heart disease. It’s very good to know. Write that down in big letters!

Zadi also means a type of a jewel that has the power to make the consciousness be received in the womb, to ensure pregnancy and also to protect the child from spirit harm.

Now the five grains. What are they? Ne is barley, and there is wheat, beans, mustard seeds and the last one is mu ga. I’m not sure what mu ga is called in English.11

So, these twenty-five substances all go inside when you bless the vase for initiations or pujas. They also go inside a wealth vase. I mean, this is besides sur. This has great benefit. I also mentioned torma. If you can put them in the torma, offering to the protectors or deities, the torma externally becomes very powerful. So for retreat; torma for retreat.

What are the benefits of offering these? In a tantra text called Kiria Pungzang it says in order to eliminate the eons of sicknesses you put the five medicinal substances in the vase; in order to be able to live in pure morality you put the five scented smells in the vase. In order for your wishes to be fulfilled and to eliminate eons of weapons you put the five jewels in the vase. To become the essence of all, to become the heart of all and fulfill the needs and wishes of others you put the five essences in the vase. It is also said by Khedrub-je, one of Lama Tsongkhapa’s two heart disciples, the one on the left side with the wide-open eyes, that if you put the five medicinal substances in the vase and so forth, then it reduces sickness. There was also a very high lama in Amdo, who founded a large monastery, Labrang Tashi Kyil, who said that the five medicinal substances not only heal sicknesses, but you also generate bliss and happiness.

The five scented smells cause you to achieve pure morality so you don’t get reborn in the lower realms. The five jewels cause you to receive whatever you desire—everything—and pacify wars, disharmony and fighting. The five grains cause wealth and enjoyment to increase and pacify famine and so forth. Then, the five essences cause the potential for the essence of samsara and nirvana to increase, not only the essence of samsara but also the essence of having gone beyond samsara, which means the realizations of liberation from samsara and its causes, and also enlightenment.

So, these twenty-five substances have these benefits. They also fulfill the wishes, desires and hopes of other sentient beings. Each five has these benefits. This has been fully explained in tantra.

So, about mu ga, one of the five grains. We didn’t find it in these dictionaries. Maybe I can check here, in the nyung nä text. Let me check what it says. There, it is rice, I think.

And here, if you can’t get coral then you can also use conch-shell, so there’s a choice: coral or shell. I guess you could put both.

In the teachings it says mu ga but we couldn’t find what mu ga is from the dictionary. Mu ga not mu ka. If you say mu ka that means other people harm you by talking to you. In the nyung nä text it says rice, but another text says mu ka, so I’m not sure what it is. I guess you can put rice.

You can ask a doctor at the medical center about the “claws of the water lion.” That’s what one text says, where it talks about what to put into the vase and the torma, but in the nyung nä text it says bubbles of the ocean. I don’t know whether it’s a sentient being or not.

In America there is a very famous ocean near Shiné Land [Land of Calm Abiding Retreat Center]. What it’s called?

Student: Great Ocean Road.

Rinpoche: Great Ocean mood? Before you go to Shiné Land you drive alongside the ocean. It’s a very famous spot that people go to see. Where the ocean is I have seen lots of huge bubbles, not hot springs, but huge bubbles at the side of the ocean. That’s the first time I have seen this, though whether it’s sentient beings or not, I’m not sure. Anyway, the nyung nä text says, “bubbles of the ocean.” You could ask them what that means. If you get this and keep it for many days, maybe it becomes harder and harder.

There are some differences between the texts, so whatever you can find you can use. So, they are the twenty-five substances explained in the nyung nä text that you put in the vase. For a nyung nä you need the vase. Or you can put them into the torma. That’s about it.

mantras and prayers for sur practice

I’ve explained the benefits, so I guess that’s it now. The first time you do it, you put these twenty-five substances in the tsampa that has been already mixed, then every time after that you add a little bit.

Having made the substances of the sur, you then sprinkle the water. What you can do is, if you have received a Chenrezig great initiation, visualize yourself as Four-arm Chenrezig, after you have purified with the wisdom understanding emptiness.

When you sprinkle the water, recite OM VAJRA AMRITA KUNDALI HANA HANA HUM PHAT, or you can recite the Most Secret Hayagriva mantra or the Secret Hayagriva mantra, which is OM PADMANTAKRIT HUM PHAT. Then you sprinkle the water. Keep the water in a bottle with a lid so insects can’t get inside. Then, using a plant or something, sprinkle water and say OM PADMANTAKRIT HUM PHAT. As I said, if you have received a great Chenrezig initiation visualize yourself as Chenrezig. Otherwise, if you haven’t received a great Chenrezig initiation, you can’t do that. From your heart as Chenrezig comes the wrathful deity, Padmantakrita, Hayagriva. Either one or many come out, dispelling the interferers who are abiding in the sur to beyond the oceans. Those who interfere with doing the sur never come back. You still sprinkle the water and maybe a drop of water becomes Hayagriva and dispels the interferers.

Then do the refuge prayer and generate the bodhicitta motivation by thinking of its meaning. The first two lines—“I go for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sublime Assembly” (meaning the Sangha) “until enlightenment is achieved.” The first part is the causal refuge and the second part —“Until  enlightenment is achieved” is the resultant refuge. So, you achieve Dharma, your mind becomes Dharma and then you become the Sangha. By completing the Dharma, you cease all the defilements and complete all the realizations and then you become a buddha. That’s the resultant refuge. Then you’re able to do perfect work for sentient beings.

After that, you generate bodhicitta. Think, “The purpose of my life is to benefit other sentient beings, from whom I have received all my numberless past, present and future happinesses—all the happiness. Those sentient beings have been suffering from beginningless rebirths. I must liberate them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment by myself alone, therefore I must achieve enlightenment, and therefore I am going to practice sur.”

If you’re going to do sur to heal some people who are sick include that here, saying, “May such-and-such a person (or people) who are sick, as well as all others who are sick in the world, be helped by this sur practice; may it become a puja for them.” Mention the people you know and then all the rest.

If you are doing it for the center then think that you are going to do sur for the success of this center and the center’s students, as well as for the success of all the rest of the FPMT projects. There are many Dharma activities we have to do to benefit sentient beings, many very important things to accomplish for sentient beings, so you can think of that when you do sur. Besides all the FPMT centers, first think of all the things that you have to do yourself, and next include the Maitreya Project and all the projects of the FPMT—for them to succeed immediately.

Then, do refuge and bodhicitta three times.

Having visualized yourself as Chenrezig, light comes from the syllable HRIH at your heart, invoking the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, all the guests of the object of compassion—the text says “for whom I have karmic debts.” This is an important word in Tibetan, leng cha, meaning “for whom I have karmic debts.” For example, in the house suddenly many, many ants come, eating your food and all your things. Why? Why are they there when you live many stories up, in a high-rise building? Still, the ants come up there and fill the kitchen, eating bread, fruit and honey, whatever, because you had karmic debts you owe them from the past. In the past you received something from them, so you owe them karmic debts. That’s why they are there eating your food.

It’s the same if you have a farm and rabbits or whatever animals are eating your crops. Why doesn’t this happen to somebody else’s field? Why is it only yours? It’s because you have karmic debts in the past, you owe them. You received something from them and so you have karmic debts to them. That’s why they’re there; that’s why they’re eating your crops. This is an example. So, you visualize every single guest, every object of compassion, that you owe karmic debts to, you invoke them and invite them to sit on the seat they desire.

Then recite OM VAJRA AMRITA KUNDALI HANA HANA HUM PHAT. Actually, this is the mantra to dispel interferers. It’s mentioned here for the sur and maybe not the Hayagriva mantra. There’s a wrathful deity called Amrita, which is in the mantra OM VAJRA AMRITA KUNDALI HANA HANA HUM PHAT.

Then with the sur, you meditate that the sur is purified in emptiness, and recite OM SVABHAVA SHUDDHA SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SHUDDHO HUM. This is a very important subject.

SVABHAVA is “nature.” Nature, not from the point of view of ignorance, not that one. Not from the point of view of ignorance, thinking everything is truly existent—thinking the I is real, the action is real, form, sound, smell, taste, attachment, everything is real; hell is real, enlightenment is real, samsara is real, liberation is real, everything is real in the sense of existing from its own side, not merely labeled by the mind. That is what ignorance thinks is reality, what ignorance holds to be the truth, reality. Here, it’s not talking about that nature.

Here, this nature is the nature of the phenomena, the nature of the I, which is emptiness; the nature of the action, which is emptiness; the nature of the object, which is emptiness; the nature of hell is emptiness; the nature of enlightenment is emptiness—the nature of everything is emptiness. Emptiness. That’s not what ignorance thinks is nature. What ignorance thinks is nature is totally false. This nature, SVABHAVA—the nature of the I, action, everything—is emptiness. This is the wisdom seeing the nature of all phenomena, the wisdom realizing emptiness. So SVABHAVA is nature.

SHUDDHA means “pure.” This is one way to understand the I. There are two types of emptiness: the emptiness or the selflessness of the person and the emptiness or selflessness of phenomena. Here it shows the selflessness of the person.

SVABHAVA SHUDDHA shows that the nature of the I is empty. SVABHAVA is nature and SHUDDHA is tak pa, meaning “pure.” So, the nature of the I is totally empty; it does not exist from its own side.

SARVA DHARMA means “all phenomena” including the aggregates. Here, it shows the selflessness of phenomena, particularly the aggregates on which the I is labeled.

The second one, SVABHAVA SHUDDHO, means all the phenomena are pure in nature. So, the nature of the aggregates on which the I is labeled is emptiness. SVABHAVA means “nature” and SHUDDHO means “pure.” Here, the nature of the aggregates is empty, pure. Pure means empty. The nature of the aggregates is emptiness.

SARVA DHARMA means all the phenomena, so this contains the selflessness of the aggregates. SHUDDHO means pure because it is unstained by true existence, it is empty of true existence. You can think the nature of every single phenomena is pure because unstained by true existence,

There’s a highest tantra way to think of SHUDDHO HAM but although some of you haven’t received a highest tantra initiation, it might be OK to mention with the lower tantras, that this is your wisdom seeing emptiness, non-dual with emptiness. That’s how you need to meditate. The highest tantra way to meditate is quite secret, so I can’t mention it now. In highest tantra the way to meditate on this is your wisdom seeing the emptiness of the self and the emptiness of the aggregates and all the phenomena are non-dual with emptiness. While you are meditating on that you just label the merely-imputed I, HAM.

There is another meaning of OM SVABHAVA SHUDDHA SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SHUDDHO HUM.

SVABHAVA SHUDDHA means the emptiness of the mind that perceives the object. The mind which perceives the object is empty.

SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SHUDDHO means the nature of all the objects of mind is empty. That’s one way of meditating on the meaning of this.

By realizing emptiness, with the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, you cease the delusions, the defilements—the gross defilements and even the subtle defilements. Then what happens?

OM is made of three sounds, AH, U and MA. OM means you purify your ordinary body, speech and mind, and they become Chenrezig’s vajra holy body, vajra holy speech and vajra holy mind. This is what you’re going to achieve in the future.

Then there is TONG PA NYI DU GYUR. With the sur, how does the sur appear to you? Merely labeled or not merely labeled by the mind? Of course, merely labeled by the mind is only for a buddha. We sentient beings don’t have the appearance of being merely labeled by the mind. We only have the appearance of not being merely labeled by mind; we only have that hallucination, that appearance. So, when you look at the sur, how does it appear to you? The sur appears to you not merely labeled by mind, as a real sur existing from its own side. That is totally false; that is the object to be refuted. That becomes totally non-existent, totally empty right there.

While it’s empty, BHRUM appears. You can think that your wisdom seeing emptiness appears as BHRUM. This BHRUM becomes a very extensive, very expansive jeweled container. In this there’s OM AH HUM, which melts into light, becoming the perfect smell, that has the five desirable objects. Then, the entire earth and space becomes completely filled with the sur. The perfect smell that has the five desirable qualities totally fills the whole of the earth and space. Then you say OM AH HUM three times and then NAMA SARVA TATHAGATA AVALOKITE OM SAMBHARA SAMBHARA HUM seven times.

This mantra is unbelievable. By chanting this mantra the smell-eaters get skies of enjoyment, skies of smell enjoyment, this perfect smell of the five desire enjoyments. The mantra has unbelievable power, so it’s very precious. The Buddha is so kind, so compassionate to us, creating this mantra that makes it very easy for sentient beings to fulfill their wishes, to get skies of enjoyment by this mantra.

This same mantra is also used when you make water or food charity to the pretas. This is the most amazing mantra. I’ve forgotten its name.

Then, there is the torma offering for the smell-eaters, with OM GÄNDE KAME GUNA PUJA IDAM KHA KHA KHAHI KHAHI. You do this seven times.

I guess this is lower tantra rather than highest tantra, so there is OM ARGHAM with the nyung nä mudra, keeping the thumbs down like this. Then with PADYAM, cleaning the feet so you place each finger like this. And PUSHPE, sprinkling flowers, is like this. With DHUPE, the fingers meet each other like this. [Rinpoche explains the mudras for ALOKE, GANDHE, NAIVEDYA and SHAPTA.] But the highest tantra is ARGHAM, PUSHPE, DHUPE, ALOKE, GANDHE, NAIVEDYA. With these offerings—drinking water, water for cleaning the feet, flowers, incense, light, scented water, food and music—you can think the whole sky is filled with all those offerings. The mudras are the same as with the nyung nä and any of the lower tantras mudras.

Next, prostration while reciting the four tathagatas’ names, with your hands like this.12 Does it say that here? You must write this down. When you recite the buddhas’ names, you must do this. Can you read the names of the four buddhas here?

I prostrate to the Tathagata Many Jewels
I prostrate to the Tathagata Holy Beautiful Form.
I prostrate to the Tathagata Very Gentle Body.
I prostrate to the Tathagata Victorious One, Free of All Fears.

This is very, very important. You have to actually visualize who you are prostrating to: Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, the founder of the present Buddhadharma; Chenrezig, the embodiment of all the buddhas’ compassion; Manjushri, the embodiment of all the buddhas’ wisdom; and Vajrapani, the embodiment of all the buddhas’ power. You are prostrating to these four. You could do it like this; first to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, next to Chenrezig, then to Manjushri and next to Vajrapani.

DE ZHIN SHEG PA RIN CHEN MANG LA CHAG TSHÄL LO. What benefits come from reciting this? You should think that the benefit is that it purifies all the six types of sentient beings—the hell beings, the hungry ghosts, the animals, the human beings, the gods and demigods. They are purified of all their miserliness and so forth; they are purified of all their bad karma due to miserliness and so forth. It pacifies all their suffering of poverty. This means all the six realms and especially the smell-eaters, the intermediate state beings. Then, they are all fully satisfied by the enjoyments. After you say, “pacified all the sufferings of poverty,” you say, “they are all fully satisfied by the enjoyment of the qualities of desire.” You think that, and that’s what happens.

As you are reciting DE ZHIN SHEG PA ZUG DZÄ DAM PA LA CHAG TSHÄL LO, during this time you have to put your hands in the prostration mudra. Then, it pacifies all the sentient beings—their ugly bodies and all their sufferings—and they all receive a perfect good body, adorned with the thirty-two holy signs and eighty exemplifications.

The next one is DE ZHIN SHEG PA KU JAM LÄ LA CHAG TSHÄL LO. What benefit do they get by reciting that? What happens is that all the sentient beings’ sicknesses of the body are completely healed, they receive the supreme taste and all their obscurations are purified. The six realms’ sentient beings and the smell-eaters all achieve bodhicitta.

Reciting DE ZHIN SHEG PA GYÄL WA THUG JIG PA THAM CHÄ DANG DRÄL WA LA CHAG TSHÄL LO eliminates three things for all the sentient beings. What are those three things? All the sentient beings that are controlled by others, for example, even the pretas, are able to find any spit that somebody has done. If a good monk spits and chants the mantra, the pretas can find the spit. Otherwise, if you don’t chant the mantra they can’t find the spit. Because they can’t find even a drop of water or even the mark of water on the ground for hundreds of thousands of years, they suffer most unbelievable hunger and thirst. What human beings suffer is nothing; what the pretas suffer is most unbelievable. They can’t find a drop of water or even the mark of water on the ground for hundreds of thousands of years.

There is a story of a monk who put spit on the ground and then chanted the mantra so the pretas could see it. This mantra has come from the Buddha so by chanting it they can see the spit. But then, even though they can see it, it’s like a football match where everybody goes like this. Can you imagine? There are thousands, millions of pretas looking for food, unable to find even a spoonful in hundreds of thousands of years. So when somebody chants the mantra and they can see it, still they have to get it.

Animals are also like that. For example, if you throw some food in the ocean, in the water, whichever animal is the most powerful will get the food. Therefore, animals are controlled by others. This is also the same in the human world—whoever is most powerful gets what they want. The weak are controlled by the more powerful ones.

The other benefits of reciting the mantra are that all fears and sufferings are pacified. Being controlled by others and having all the fears and all the sufferings—these things are pacified;  these things are purified.

I’ll tell you a story about this. It’s incredible. The first time I went to New Mexico, we hadn’t yet reached the farmland where I was supposed to do a retreat, and the lady who was driving the car was filling it with petrol. Then a rabbit crossed the road from one side to the other and then a dog crossed the road, following the rabbit. I didn’t know what to do because I thought the dog was going to eat the rabbit. Then I remembered this mantra. I didn’t know what to do, but I remembered this last buddha’s name and I chanted it a few times and then the dog returned looking very disappointed. He didn’t seem to have enjoyed himself at all!

Once, at Geshe Sopa’s center in Madison, Wisconsin, there was an ant that had captured a fly. You can’t really rescue it with your finger, but I said, if it is true that reciting the name of this buddha has this benefit, then it should happen. So, I chanted the name and the ant suddenly let go of the fly it was holding. I didn’t touch the ant, but it suddenly let the fly go. I chanted the name thinking if it was true it should happen, and the ant suddenly let the fly go. Amazing. This wasn’t the whole mantra, just the name of the fourth buddha.

The same sort of thing also happened at the Aptos house. I think it’s hard to say; maybe it has to do with the karma of the insect. It happened with that dog and then twice with insects, so I think maybe it was through the karma of those animals, I’m not sure. When you can’t help with your hands, when there is fighting or something, with one being controlling another but you can’t really help, then you can chant this buddha’s name, doing a mala or something really strongly, with very strong devotion, with very strong refuge, and it might help. You should try.

As far as the explanation of the commentary, that’s the main thing and the rest is easy to understand; it’s just the prayer. After the four buddhas’ names you can read in English.

[A student reads the Extensive Offering Verses in English, with Rinpoche offering suggestions and corrections occasionally.]

It says here, kon chog sum, the Three Rare Sublime Ones. That means the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Of course, you can understand it as the Three Jewels, but the very precise translation of the Tibetan is Three Rare Sublime Ones. There’s nothing about jewels; these are the three rare sublime ones. Kon is rare and sum is sublime. So, if you are going to translate it word by word like that, that is how you should do it.

There are not many sentient beings who take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha; they are the smallest number, whereas those who don’t take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are plentiful. There are numberless taking refuge in unqualified objects but those taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are very few. Such beings are extremely rare to find.

“Sublime” means sublime from the ordinary. So, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are sublime from the ordinary beings. Among all the founders of the many religions the Buddha is sublime. The Buddha is the highest among all the founders. And the same with the Sangha. By living in the 253 vows for monks and 364 vows for nuns, they are sublime.  They are sublime compared to the followers of Hinduism and many other religions, who have fewer vows. Sangha are sublime through having many qualities.

Student: “To the entirety of regional deities and landlords ....”

Rinpoche: To the assemblies of country devas, not deities. If you say “deity” there, they will become those who have achieved enlightenment, whereas with “country devas” it’s not necessary.

Student: “… Especially, to all the intermediate state beings of those who were / Killed or committed suicide and have died between yesterday and today.” ]

Rinpoche: No, no, “… who have left the previous body and have yet to find the next body ….”

Student: “… these intermediate stage beings who having abandoned the previous life form and not yet having found the next life form ….”

Rinpoche: Abandoned may not be the correct translation. “Those who have left the previous body and have not yet found the later body.”

Student: “After having satisfied the guests with the rain of wish-fulfilling offerings, may all my obstacles be pacified. May I have a happy long life without sickness and ….” From here we personalize it. For me, it’s “May I always be blessed with extensive academic success.” That’s for myself.

Rinpoche: I know, you can recite what is said there, then you can add your own thing.

Another student: Mine is, “May my financial material wealth increase so that I can benefit all sentient beings.”

Rinpoche: That’s what it says here, “A long life with no sicknesses and an increase in wealth.” After “May all my obstacles be pacified,” then “increased long life, no sicknesses and wealth.” That’s how it should be said. Then you can say whatever you want. For example, if you are doing it for the center and all the students there or if you’re doing it for the whole organization, it’s up to you how you say it, for yourself and for the whole organization. You can expand from here.

[Student continues reading until, “Please accomplish as I sincerely wish all my desired goals.”]

Rinpoche: No, “Please accomplish exactly according to my wishes.” This is related to yourself and however many others you want to include. You can elaborate.

[Student continues reading until, “At the time of my death, may I be free from pain and suffering and upon taking rebirth ….”]

Rinpoche: “Also myself, when the time of death happens ….”

Student: But Rinpoche, here it says “my death.” “At the time of my death.”

Rinpoche: The previous one is talking about what others do, the happiness and this and this. Here, you are talking about “I myself also.” It should be “I myself also.” This is how it is in Tibetan. Before, you were talking about intermediate state beings being free from suffering and so forth, remembering the guru’s instructions to be born in a pure land and for karmic debts to be purified and to have happiness; all the sentient beings, all the migratory beings and then the country devas and landlords, to always help them without distraction. So then, in Tibetan, “I myself also,” because before you were talking about others, that’s why it’s “I myself also.”

[Student continues until, “Free from pain and suffering.”]

Rinpoche: Free from what?

Student: Pain and suffering.

Rinpoche: The translation is not quite right. At the time of death, the time before you die, what you go through is unbelievable, kind of like torture, in a way.

Student: Torment?

Rinpoche:  Torment’s a better word. Because of the karmic appearance, before you get reborn in the lower realms, there are some kinds of signs, the very terrifying karmic appearances. For example, although you are not yet born in the lower realm it’s almost like that. There are unbelievably terrifying scenes.

For example, in Dharamsala, one of my teachers, Gen Jampa Wangdu, the one who had great success and attained realizations, told me that he was living in this one cave and because he had achieved shamatha, he could see somebody who was suffering so much. Not many of you have been to Dharamsala, right?

There’s an old palace where His Holiness Dalai Lama stayed before, then you go up to Tushita. There was a Tibetan family down by the road and there was a businessman who was dying. In the room where he was, not one single goat could enter, but he was unbelievably terrified, screaming, saying he saw goats coming and attacking him. But neither his family nor anybody else could see any goats inside. This was his sign that he was going to be born in the lower realms, so he experienced that.

The meditator, Gen Jampa Wangdu, went inside the room and talked to the man who was screaming. Then he asked his family or friends, “Did he kill any animals in Tibet when he was young?” It seems he had killed many sheep when he was young in Tibet. I guess this was how he had lived his life, killing many, many sheep, and so as he was dying, there were signs, these karmic appearances, to be reborn in lower realms. He had not yet been reborn in the lower realms but it was happening in the signs, with so many goats attacking him, but neither his family nor anybody else could see even a single goat there. When they die, many people have signs like that, showing they will be reborn in the lower realms.

Before some great practitioners die they have some heavy experience but at the actual time of death they get better. For one or two days they get better, then at the actual time of death, it is very good; they go to a pure land. But beforehand, they have to experience some very heavy karma from a past life in that life. Somebody who is very heavily sick before death can have a positive death. There’s a negative result and then a positive result. The positive result is that there’s something very heavy from their past life that they have to experience. Then at the time of death—for two days, three days or one day—they are completely OK. This is a very good sign that they will go to a pure land.

Dying in meditation is very, very good. You experience some heavy karma from your past life; you experience it and then it’s finished. That’s a good sign. If that’s not experienced, then you can’t go to pure land. I heard it happened like that with some lamas.

The other one is you experience all these very heavy signs, and while you are experiencing this, you die. Then you will be reborn in the lower realms. For example, there was a very well-known man in Kathmandu, a great benefactor of Serkong Dorje Chang’s monastery in Swayambhunath. He was a great benefactor of the monastery, but he became famous and wealthy by selling statues. Every year he invited the monks to do one hundred thousand Twenty-one Tara praises at his house.

When he was dying he was unable to drink, he found it difficult to drink even a drop of water in the hospital. Then when he returned home and had to go upstairs, it took an hour to climb each step, his body was so heavy. That’s what I heard. When he got to his bed he saw ants coming through the windows and doors, attacking him, but his family could not see one ant in the room. That was his karma. He was experiencing karma, the signs that he was going to be born in the lower realms. It was unbelievably difficult.

So anyway, the best term is “torment and suffering,” to be free from torment and suffering.

[Student continues the prayer]

Here, you recite this mantra. There are two mantras. This one is of the bodhisattva eliminating obscurations. What mantra do you have there? Do you have one mantra there?

So, now here, listen. This is very important. If you recite this mantra, the mantra of the bodhisattva eliminating obscurations, then when you are going to die, you won’t experience torture, you’re won’t experience torment. That’s the benefit. The mantra’s not there in the text but I added it. When you die you won’t experience all these karmic torments, this incredible, unbelievable fear. So it’s very good to recite this mantra a few times, seven times, each day. It might come in your heart! There’s another mantra. There are two.

OM SARVA NIVARANA VISKAMBINI HUM HUM PHAT

The second HUM is longer.

Student: Rinpoche, is this called the mantra of the bodhisattva Sarva-nivarana-viskambini  eliminating all defilements?

Rinpoche: Eliminating defilements. Yeah, obscurations.

You just recite it a few times, seven times or something like that. If you do that, then the heavy karmic torture and karmic torments at the time of death won’t happen. You’ll have a very happy death, a very peaceful, good one. Once you get into the habit of reciting the mantra, it’s good.

After that, you teach Dharma to the smell-eaters and to other sentient beings but particularly to the smell-eaters. First, you make food and all this to make them happy and satisfied, and then you teach Dharma to them. You have to say, “teaching Dharma to them.” “Teaching to Dharma to sentient beings, particularly the smell-eaters.” You’d better write that down.

Before the multiplying mantras, there’s this. Before you give them the teaching, recite this.

A star, a defective vision, a butter lamp,
An illusion, a drop of dew, or a bubble,
A dream, a flash of lightning, a cloud—
See conditioned things as such!

That’s the Dharma teaching to give the smell-eaters, the sentient beings and the smell-eaters. You have to write down this Dharma teaching for sentient beings and especially the smell-eaters.

This is also very good to recite. “By planting hot seeds like chili, what grows, the result, is something hot; by planting a sweet seed, what grows, the result, is a sweet fruit. The result of benefiting others is happiness; the result of harming others is suffering. It means if you benefit others, you receive the result of happiness. If you harm others, you receive the result of suffering. Look at your own body as an example and don’t harm others.”

Normally, after this I add this one. “By having generated bodhicitta, letting go of the I and cherishing other sentient beings, I shall do only extensive benefit for sentient beings.”

After that it says, and this should be in small letters, “By having explained the Dharma and satisfying them with miscellaneous charity, I have liberated their mind, their mental continuum, and all the smell-eaters and whoever came can now return to their own place.”

Then, do the dedication like this. “Due to the power of my attitude, the power of charity of the tathagatas and the power of the sphere of existence, by making offerings to the arya beings may this benefit the sentient beings. Due to the power of the blessings of the eminent buddhas and bodhisattvas, the power of infallible dependent arising and the power of my pure, special attitude, may all my pure prayers and wishes succeed and be actualized immediately.”  

That’s after having finished reciting the Medicine Buddha mantra, the last part, the prayers for the success of what you have done. The Medicine Buddha is the second buddha, whose particular function is to actualize all our prayers.

“Due to the power of my attitude and due to the power of charity of the tathagatas and the power of the sphere of existence, making offerings to the arya beings and benefiting sentient beings, may all I have thought, all that is worthwhile, be received without any obstacle, without any resistance.”

Now, another dedication. “Due to these merits may I achieve the state of omniscience and subdue the enemy of mistakes.” That means the delusions. “May I liberate transmigratory beings from the oceans of samsara.” How do you say this? The waves? It’s not the ocean going very slowly, very peacefully, more like this—the turbulent waves of old age, sickness and death.

OK? That’s one thing. The next one is: “May there be happiness and goodness in the daytime and happiness and goodness at night. Even at noon may there be happiness and goodness.”

You can say, “May there be the auspiciousness of the Three Rare Sublime Ones all day, day and night forever, for others to be happy and good.”

These prayers are very commonly recited dedications.

oral transmission of Ksitigarbha practice

Now I’m going to do the lung of Ksitigarbha, the lung of CHHIM BHO CHHIM BHO. Where’s the Ksitigarbha book? 

Buddha Ksitigarbha is another unbelievably powerful practice for success, I think especially when there’s an earthquake but also when there is any danger of fire, water, earth or wind. If there are any of those dangers, it’s very good to recite this Buddha Ksitigarbha mantra. It’s extremely powerful. You make offerings to Buddha Ksitigarbha and then make the prayer. It’s one hundred million times more powerful for success than praying to other bodhisattvas. If you read the Ksitigarbha sutra, it brings unimaginable benefit for sentient beings.

The long mantra is:

CHHIM BHO CHHIM BHO CHIM CHHIM BHO / AKASHA CHHIM BHO / VAKARA CHHIM BHO / AMAVARA CHHIM BHO / VARA CHHIM BHO / VACHIRA CHHIM BHO / AROGA CHHIM BHO / DHARMA CHHIM BHO / SATEVA CHHIM BHO / SATENI HALA CHHIM BHO / VIVA ROKA SHAVA CHHIM BHO / UPA SHAMA CHHIM BHO / NAYANA CHHIM BHO / PRAJNA SAMA MONE RATNA CHHIM BHO / KSHANA CHHIM BHO / VISHEMA VARIYA CHHIM BHO / SHASI TALA MAVA CHHIM BHO / VI AH DRASO TAMA HELE / DAMA VE YAME VE / CHAKRASE / CHAKRA VASILE / KSHILE PHILE KARAVA / VARA VARITE / HASERE PRARAVE / PARECHARA BHANADHANE / ARADANE / PHANARA / CHA CHA CHA CHA / HILE MILE AKHATA THAGEKHE / THAGAKHI LO / THHARE THHARE MILE MADHE / NANTE KULE MILE / ANG KU CHITABHE / ARAI GYIRE VARA GYIRE / KUTA SHAMAMALE / TONGYE TONGYE / TONGULE / HURU HURU HURU / KULO STO MILE / MERITO / MERITE / BHANADHATA / HARA KHAMA REMA / HURU HURU

We’ll stop there. Maybe you can chant one long mantra together.

[Students recite the mantra]

That’s better than the reciting I did. Very good. I think you can make a tape of what you chanted. There is also a picture of the Tibetan-style Buddha Ksitigarbha holding a wish-fulfilling vase with wish-granting jewels, fulfilling the wishes of all sentient beings. You can get a picture and the tape, then you can give them to many people.

Student: We have actually already done it for the Malaysians.

Rinpoche: How many people?

Student: Five hundred. They are ready for twenty thousand people.

Rinpoche: So, you can make a picture, whichever you like, and the tape, and you can all chant together. It’s very nice. Give it to many people.

Dedications

Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three times’ merits collected by others, may bodhicitta be actualized in my heart, in the hearts of all my family members and in the hearts of all the sentient beings without delay of even a second.

[Rinpoche chants]

Due to the three times’ merits collected by me, collected by all sentient beings, may bodhicitta be actualized in the hearts of all the leaders of the world, especially the leaders of mainland China and also the leaders of Nepal—especially, as you can see, there are so many problems in Nepal—and in all the countries that have so much suffering.

[Rinpoche chants]

Due to the three times’ merits collected by me, the three times’ merit collected by others, may bodhicitta be actualized in the hearts all the different people who follow different religions, so that the world becomes filled with perfect peace and happiness. May everybody live their life only benefiting each other, with no harm, and may whatever they do become only the cause of enlightenment and the cause of happiness for all the sentient beings.

[Rinpoche chants]

Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three times’ merits collected by all sentient beings and buddhas, may all the father and mother sentient beings have happiness, may the three lower realms become empty forever, may the bodhisattvas’ prayers succeed immediately, and may I be able to cause all this to happen by myself alone.

Then the next one is: whatever sufferings sentient beings have, may it ripen upon me; whatever happiness I have, may it ripen on all the sentient beings.

Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three times’ merit collected by others, may all the family members, students and all the benefactors, all the people who have offered service to this organization in the past, are offering service now, and who will offer service in the future, and those who rely upon me, whom I promised to pray for, whose names were given to me, in all the lifetimes may they never be separated from being guided by Lama Tsongkhapa, the Mahayana direct guru, and in all their lifetimes may they never be separated from the pure path admired by all the buddhas.

[Rinpoche chants]

Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three times’ merits collected by others, all the sentient beings that exist but do not exist from their own side, that are totally empty, may the I who exists but does not exist from its own side, that is totally empty, achieve Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, that exists but does not exist from its own side, that is totally empty, lead all sentient beings, who exist but do not exist from their own side, who are totally empty, to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, that exists but does not exist from its own side, that is totally empty, by myself alone, who exists but does not exist from its own side, who is totally empty. May Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings spread in all directions and flourish forever in this world by being completely actualized in the hearts of all the students and all the supporters, whoever serves the organization, and all those who rely upon me—whom I promised to pray for, whose name is given to me—in all their hearts and in the hearts of everybody in this world.

[Rinpoche chants]

May all the merits increase a hundred thousand times.

[Chanting of multiplying mantras]

May all the prayers that you do succeed.

[Rinpoche chants]

OK. Thank you very much.


NOTES

11 Although most lists of these 25 agree on most substances, there are some differences. Compare with Robert Beer’s list in Handbook of Tibetan Symbols, (p. 200) which says basically this. Five medicinal substances (representing body), five fragrant substances (speech), five essences (mind), five grains (activities) and five precious substances (qualities).The five fragrant substances usually consist of sandalwood, aloe-wood, juniper, camphor and ushira root. The five essences are sesame seed (essence of earth), salt (water) ghee (cattle), molasses (plants) and honey (flowers). The five grains are mustard seed (activity of purifying) rice (enriching), pulses (subjugating), barley (strengthening) and sesame seed (destroying). The five precious substances are gold, pearls, crystal, coral and turquoise or lapis lazuli. [Return to text]

12 Fold hands in front of your heart, recite the buddhas’ names, and regard them respectfully.  [Return to text]