Lecture 26

December 4, 1980 (afternoon)

GANDEN LHA GYÄMA VISUALIZATION: LAMA TSONGKHAPA AND HIS DISCIPLES

With a pure bodhicitta motivation, think, “I’m going to listen to the commentary on the way to practice the guru yoga of the Hundred Deities of the Land of Joy.”

Visualize all three, the father and the two sons, the three powerful beings, like this. Both sons, Gyaltsab-je and Khedrub-je, have their right hand in the mudra of expounding the Dharma. Their left hand holds a scripture, with the mudra of meditation. They are adorned with three robes and beautified with a golden-colored pandit’s hat; their two legs are in the vajra posture.

On Lama Tsongkhapa’s right is Gyaltsab-je. His aspect is a little odd. The color of his holy body is slightly white, but with a bluish tinge, and he has round eyes, like balls.

It is said that if you are able to visualize him like this, it is auspicious for you to be able to comprehend all the teachings of the Buddha, to be able to receive them and practice the entire graduated path to enlightenment.

On Lama Tsongkhapa’s left is Khedrub-je, wrathful looking. The color of his holy body is similar to Lama Tsongkhapa’s, white with a reddish complexion. His eyes are a little bit wrathful, kind of a little bigger, bulging. If you remember His Holiness Ling Rinpoche, when Rinpoche looked at somebody he sometimes had wrathful eyes like that. Khedrub-je doesn’t sit completely straight, but his body is twisted a bit, like Tara.

This body posture is significant. It’s an attitude you see with Kadampa geshes, those with first class degrees. When they debated, their bodies and expressions were like that. People would challenge Lama Tsongkhapa’s stance on a subject, and Khedrub-je was the one who defended it, defeating them by debating and discussing the subject. It is said that there was nobody who could debate like he could, clarifying all the points of Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings in particular. So this posture of his holy body signifies how each of his words completely stops others’ wrong conceptions.

It is said that their holy bodies³³ are so beautified that no matter how much you look at them you can never be satiated. And their holy speech is adorned with the sixty qualities so that no matter how much you listen you can never hear enough; you just want to listen to more and more, never getting bored. Their holy minds are qualified with the twenty-one divisions of uncontaminated or undiluted transcendental wisdom, having the extensive, profound, depthless qualities.

Just remembering them has power to not just eliminate the sufferings of samsara but also to liberate you from the blissful state of peace, lower nirvana.

Each of their pores transforms into the various remarkable forms that best benefits sentient beings. Each of their pores shows the fields of buddhas, having unimaginable secret actions, actions that ordinary sentient beings cannot figure out. Their holy bodies are transformed in all the pure realms of the buddhas, they cover all the pure realms, which absorb back into their holy bodies. Then they are able to perform unimaginable secret actions, known only to the buddhas, actions that sentient beings cannot figure out. Their aspect is very pleasing to you.

ONLY OUR DELUSIONS STOP US SEEING THE BUDDHAS

When you visualize a buddha and do an invocation, you should not think that this is just a visualization and that there is actually no buddha there. You don’t have to think like that. Wherever you visualize the buddha, above your head, in your heart or in front of you, in that place there is the buddha.

There is nothing that is not the object of a buddha’s omniscient mind. There is not one single aspect of existence, without the break of a single instance, that is not the object of their omniscient mind. Their omniscient mind sees the whole of existence forever.

The term “the unified stage of Vajradhara” signifies there must be two things that have been unified. These two things weren’t unified before but are now. Here, it is the unification of the Buddha’s holy body and the Buddha’s holy mind, unified in the state of Vajradhara. Each and every single instance of existence is the object of the omniscient mind; it is covered by the omniscient mind, and wherever there is the omniscient mind, there is the holy body. The two are unified, inseparable. You can understand this by looking at how your very subtle mind manifests at the time of death. From that you can understand how deities manifest in tantric meditation.

This is clear in the story of Asanga, who meditated for twelve years in a cave, trying to see Maitreya Buddha without success. When he left the cave after all that time, he saw a wounded dog on the road and the most unbearable compassion arose for that dog. Seeing the wound covered in maggots, he thought to remove them, and he cut a piece of flesh off his leg to put them on so that they wouldn’t be harmed, but then he realized he could harm them by removing them with his fingers. So, instead of the fingers, he used the tip of his tongue to pick the maggots up and put them on the flesh. In that way, he completely renounced himself and, with unbearable compassion, cherished the wounded dog and the maggots instead.

He had closed his eyes to do this and then he realized that suddenly there was no more wounded dog. When he opened his eyes, he saw Maitreya Buddha. He cried out to Maitreya, “For twelve years I’ve been trying to see you but never could. What happened? Where have you been?” Maitreya Buddha replied, “I have been there in the cave all the time, but you couldn’t see me. Now that unimaginable compassion has arisen, it has purified your obscurations, and therefore now you are able to see me. Before, because of the obscurations, you couldn’t see me. I was there all the time. I can prove it to you.” Maitreya Buddha then showed Asanga the marks on his robe where Asanga had spat while he had meditated for those twelve years in the cave.

I think there are many times when our mind is heavily obscured by delusion and karma and many times we are like Asanga seeing only the wounded dog and can’t see what is there. We see what seems to us to be a crazy person, but it’s because we only have the karma to see that aspect. We don’t know. A buddha manifests in many aspects.

There is the story of the butcher who went to Lhasa. There is a famous Shakyamuni Buddha temple in Lhasa, the Jokhang, where people go to see the most famous, most precious statue of Shakyamuni Buddha in the sambhogakaya aspect with crown ornaments, not the usual nirmanakaya aspect. People travel for months and months, coming on foot, arriving every day from all over Tibet to see this statue. They come with many offerings, butter to offer for the butter lamps and things like that. Every day the temple is so crowded.

However, when this butcher went to see the statue, he couldn’t see anything in the temple. The things other people could see, he couldn’t; it appeared completely dark. He couldn’t even see the light offerings. He was so depressed about not seeing anything that he went to a lama, I think Chosang Rinpoche, to ask advice. The lama did a divination and told him that this was due to having very heavy karmic obscurations and he had to do prostrations to purify them. After he had done the prostrations, he returned to the Jokhang but he still couldn’t see the Shakyamuni Buddha statue. However, he could now see the light offerings around, the big golden butter lamps.

In another story, there was a lama who was giving the oral transmission, the lung, of the complete Kangyur, all hundred volumes. While everybody else there could see the lama reading from the texts and turning the pages, there was one person there whose karmic obscurations were so thick, he just saw huge piles of meat and the lama eating the meat.

Lama Tsongkhapa’s holy mind is omniscient, so he is always here. From his side he always sees us. We can’t see him only because of our karmic obscurations.

When you have actualized the great path of merit, what is called the concentration of continual Dharma, at that time you will be able to see the buddhas in their nirmanakaya aspect. There is the story of Kadampa Geshe Chayulwa³⁴ who served his guru, Geshe Chengawa with complete devotion. It is said that when he was offering mandala, even before he had put the middle ring out, if he heard Geshe Chengawa’s voice, he would stop immediately and go to offer service to him.

Every day he correctly offered service to his guru; every day he cleaned his guru’s room. One day, after he had cleaned the room, he put all the garbage into the folds of his robe and started to go down the stairs to throw it out. However, when he was on the third step, he attained the practice of guru yoga, all his obscurations were purified and there, on that step, he attained the concentration of continual Dharma. Then, immediately, right there on that spot, he saw an uncountable number of buddhas in the nirmanakaya aspect. Other people there couldn’t see anything, not even one buddha. This was because with Geshe Chayulwa’s perfect devotion, the perfect service he offered his guru, so many karmic obscurations were purified and the path was generated in his mind.

In the same way, when we attain the concentration of continual Dharma on the path of merit, we will be able to see uncountable buddhas in their nirmanakaya aspect. That does not mean the buddhas are not there until that time. You must remember the meaning of unification of the buddha’s holy body and holy mind. There is no existence not covered by the omniscient mind, and wherever there is the holy omniscient mind there is the holy body. Therefore, there is no place where there isn’t a buddha.

By remembering this, you can understand that while, due to your karmic obscurations, it just seems like an imagined image and you cannot actually see Lama Tsongkhapa, because Lama Tsongkhapa’s omniscient mind pervades everything, then Lama Tsongkhapa is there.

GANDEN LHA GYÄMA: THE FIRST LIMB, WISHING THE GURU TO HAVE A LONG LIFE

After visualizing like this, you accumulate merit with the seven-limb practice. This practice is extremely important; it is the essential method for purifying and accumulating merit. Whoever wishes to accumulate merit should do the seven-limb practice and the mandala offering, otherwise there is no way to achieve enlightenment. Each limb is like the wheels of a horse and carriage, carrying you to enlightenment. Each limb is an important cause for enlightenment.

The purpose of doing this visualization of the merit field and making the invocation to them is to accumulate merit and purify your negativities. Although the seven-limb practice usually starts with the limb of prostration, this practice, Ganden Lha Gyäma, the Blissful Realm of a Hundred Devas of Tushita, starts with requesting the root guru to have a long life. By requesting this from the merit field, you are purifying the negative karmas you have accumulated in relation to the guru, by disturbing the holy mind of the guru. These negative karmas that prevent you from seeing the guru either in this life or in future lives are purified with this limb. It also causes you to have a long life, to be able to practice the Dharma while you are in samsara and ultimately to achieve the vajra holy body of a buddha.

The reason this limb of requesting the guru to have a long life comes first is that it emphasizes just how important the guru is. Losing your relationship with the guru is like a pitiful, sick person being without a doctor. To be cured of their illness, they need to meet and not be separated from the doctor. For you to be cured of all suffering, to liberate yourself from true suffering and the true cause of suffering, and to attain the multitude of goodnesses and all the perfections, you must meet and not be separated from the guru. This is the very root; this is wholly dependent on the guru.

People are so reliant on electricity. It is the power source that enables you to live in a city and do the many activities you want to do. You can ride in an elevator, you can take a cable car or a tram and you can shop in brightly lit shopping centers. It enables you to have whatever enjoyment you want, giving you light and power for everything. All this comes from the electricity that runs through the wires and all these wires are connected to the main generator at the power station.

If for some reason the wires were not connected, there would be no electricity and no way you could do what you want. Whatever activity of enjoyment you hoped to do would be impossible. If the lights went out for a few days, the markets would stop and the stores would close. Maybe it would be like it happened in New York a few years ago, where the number of babies increased!³⁵

In the same way that all the electricity which powers a city and makes it work is totally dependent on the power station, the very root of your attainments is totally dependent on the guru. Seeing how vital it is to never be separated from the guru and to receive teachings from them is the inspiration for doing this practice of wishing the guru to have a long life. This is like the extremely sick patient never being separated from the doctor and receiving the correct medicine.

With this inspiration, make the requests to the guru and the merit field.

In the sky before me, on a lion throne, lotus and moon disk,
The perfect, pure lama smiles with delight.
Supreme field of the merit of mind’s devotion,
I beg you to abide for a hundred eons to increase the teachings.

First of all, your happiness and the happiness of all sentient beings depend on the teachings. Whether it’s temporal or ultimate happiness, it all depends on the holy teachings.

To even attain some degree of temporal happiness is dependent on having created the right cause, which means having done some virtuous action, and that depends on having an understanding of the Dharma. No sentient being can eliminate their suffering, their problems, and attain any temporal happiness without protecting their karma, which means renouncing nonvirtue and practicing virtue. They cannot do that without recognizing the correct causes.

If you want to benefit other sentient beings, if you want to lead them from suffering into happiness, you have to know the causes of suffering, what will make them fall into the lower realms, and you have to be skilled in explaining this to them, so they can see how to find another body of a happy transmigratory being. You have to understand yourself so you can explain subjects such as karma—how karma is definite, what the possessed results of karma are and so forth. Only then can you guide them from suffering and bring them to enlightenment. To do that, to plant the seeds of the realizations of the graduated path to enlightenment in their minds, you need to fully understand the teachings. It all depends on you actualizing the teachings yourself.

In order to do this perfectly, successfully, first you need to attain enlightenment yourself. That depends on completely realizing all the pure teachings without the slightest mistake—understanding the words and meanings and actualizing them, which is not easy. To be able to do that you need to rely on the guru, those who can perfectly reveal those teachings to you.

Therefore, according to your own karma, if the guru doesn’t live long, they will not be able to reveal the extensive teachings to you. That is one reason why it is so important to make the request to the merit field for the guru to have a long life.

The second reason is that this is the best way to accumulate merit. Developing realizations of the teachings requires accumulating extensive merit and purifying the unimaginable obscurations; creating the cause to spread the pure teachings in the minds of others requires accumulating extensive merit and purifying the unimaginable obscurations. The best way to do this is through offerings and so forth to the holy beings of the merit field and the very best object of merit is the guru. It is with the guru that you do the most extensive purification and accumulate the most extensive merit.

You can accumulate great merit from doing positive actions toward parents, Sangha, arhats, bodhisattvas and buddhas, because they are such powerful objects of merit for you, but the highest, the best field of merit and object to purify with is the guru.

The guru is like the captain of a ship who saves you from drowning in the ocean. Samsara is like a bottomless ocean, and the guru saves you from drowning in the sufferings of samsara, from drowning in the unimaginable suffering of the lower realms.

The guru is like the sun. Just as the sun dispels the darkness of night, the guru dispels the darkness of ignorance, the inner darkness that has been there from the beginningless past lives.

The guru is like the doctor, eliminating the chronic disease of delusion, the unsubdued mind, that has been there from the beginningless past lives.

The guru is like a parent or a great relative who always guides you with love, [protects you] from all the harms and gives you every benefit.

Meditating on these analogies is very effective. For instance, you can think about how a doctor can eliminate a chronic disease you have had for many years, something so scary that people avoid you. The doctor, however, because of their great kindness, is about to treat you and cure you. This is the special kindness of the doctor. When you have contemplated how the doctor can do this, you can see it is the same for the guru.

Say, because of this disease, you have been given up on by many doctors; everybody has decided you will die and there’s nothing they can do for you. However, from your side, you feel there is still hope. You have heard from others that there is one particular doctor who is supposed to be the most beneficial, the most expert and skillful, like the king of doctors. You go to them and plead, saying that from the depths of your heart, from the depths of your bones, until you have recovered you will completely rely on this doctor.

This is how it is in these degenerate times. All the other buddhas have given up on us, thinking that there is no way our minds can be subdued. We are guideless, unable to find anybody to help us subdue our minds. Only our guru has not given up on us, and so we place all our reliance on the guru, making the request for them to live long, for a hundred eons.

Lecture 27

December 5, 1980

PRECEPTS MOTIVATION: FRIEND AND ENEMY ARE NEITHER INTRINSIC NOR PERMANENT

There are various reasons why you should view friend, enemy and stranger as equal and work equally to eliminate the suffering and obtain the happiness of all beings, whether they are friend, enemy or stranger.

[As we saw before, there are six conventional reasons and three ultimate reasons we and other as equal. The three ultimate reasons are that “friend,” “enemy,” and “stranger” are merely concepts conceived by our deluded mind; that “friend,” “enemy,” and “stranger” appear permanent, but they are not; and that I and others are interdependent, like “here” and “there.”]
 
The first reason is that it is our deluded, illusory mind that labels these beings, labeling those who help us as “friend” and those who harm us as “enemy.” Having labeled them as such, we believe they exist as this, as the absolute friend and absolute enemy. If that were really the case, that there is an absolute, intrinsic friend and enemy, then even the buddhas and bodhisattvas would see them as such, but this is not so.

For a buddha, if somebody on one side of them is offering respect to them and putting sandalwood perfume on their hair, while on the other side somebody is angrily cutting their flesh into pieces with a sharp knife, from the buddha’s side there is no difference. They see both with equal love. The lack of any discrimination at all in a buddha’s view between friend, enemy and stranger shows that these are only concepts of the distorted mind, the illusory mind, the hallucinatory mind. In fact, they do not exist at all.

The second reason is that although we see friend, enemy and stranger as permanent, they are not at all. They are impermanent phenomena. To our view, the friend should not change, the enemy should not change. They should stay that way forever. But nothing stays unchanging in nature. Those we label friend and enemy don’t stay that way. Over our lives, father becomes son, mother becomes wife, enemy becomes friend. Nothing is definite in samsara.

This is exemplified by the story of the Buddha’s disciple, the arhat Shariputra who went one day to a family’s house on his alms round. When he looked in the door, he saw this. He saw the father who used to fish in the pond behind the house was now a fish that had been caught by the son and was being eaten by the family, while the mother who was attached to the house was now a dog, at the son’s feet, chewing the bones of her former husband. Meanwhile, the son was cradling his former hated enemy—now their child—in his arms and beating the dog, his mother, with a stick. When Shariputra saw this, he said, “Eating the father’s flesh, beating the mother, cuddling the enemy, samsaric existence is laughable.” That means he laughs at how in samsara everything is always changing.

Like this, all the people (and even animals) in your life that seem to you to be fixed, permanent, will sooner or later change, becoming something totally different. Therefore there is no point in clinging to this belief in friend and enemy, thinking, “This is my friend and will always by my friend,” and “This is my enemy and will always be my enemy.” There is no point in only helping the friend and renouncing the enemy.

You can then think back to the first reason, that “friend” and “enemy” are just concepts created by your hallucinated mind; that they do not exist at all. Therefore you should conclude that there is no point in discriminating, clinging to those labels “friend” and “enemy”, accepting and helping the friends and giving up on the enemies. There is no point at all.

You should think, “I will give equal benefit to all, endeavoring to eliminate the suffering of all the sentient beings, who are the field I receive all my three-time happiness and perfections from. To be able to do this, without the slightest mistake, I must first achieve state of omniscience. Without creating cause for that, it cannot be achieved. Therefore I’m going to take the Mahayana ordination.”

[Rinpoche gives the ordination]

HYMNS OF EXPERIENCE COMMENTARY: EXTRACTING THE ESSENCE

With at least a motivation of effortful bodhicitta, think “I must achieve enlightenment for the sake of all my mother sentient beings, therefore, I’m going to listen to the commentary on the graduated path to enlightenment.”

The subject is Lama Tsongkhapa’s Hymns of Experience, his experience of the gradual path to enlightenment. 

At this time, you have found a body qualified with the eight freedoms and ten richness, which is much more precious than wish-granting jewels equal in number to the atoms of this earth. With this body, you can take the essence of this life, making it most meaningful, day and night. Lama Tsongkhapa said,

This life of leisure is even more precious than a wish-granting jewel; 
That I have found such an existence is only this once; 
So hard to find yet like a flash of lightning it is easy to vanish; 
Contemplating this situation it’s vital to realize that all mundane pursuits

Are like the empty grain husks floating in the winds 
And that we must extract the essence of human existence. 
I, a yogi, have practiced in this manner; 
You, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.³⁶ 

Whatever great works you want to do, whatever great meaning you wish in your life, you can do it with this precious human body. You can take the essence all the time, day and night. However, while you have this incredible opportunity, instead of making the most of it, instead of taking its essence, if you waste it, if you go from day to day and week to week without being able to take the essence of this life, then your whole life becomes completely empty. And when your life is finished, you have nothing but an empty, meaningless life.

You need to understand how important it is to take the essence and, instead of living a wasted life, live a life practicing the holy Dharma, trying to generate realizations on the path and trying to do extensive work for sentient beings. 

Each minute of your life, each hour, each day, each month that you fail to make meaningful is a waste of this precious human life; it is time consumed by the evil thought of the eight worldly dharmas, the eight worldly concerns. Whatever action of body, speech and mind—the three doors—that you don’t make a Dharma action is an action controlled by worldly concern, clinging to the happiness of this life. Such actions are not only most harmful, because they are possessed by the evil thought of the eight worldly dharmas, they are causes to be reborn in the lower realms.

Understanding this, you can see how vital it is to use this precious human life that is only found once, and make it meaningful all the time, without wasting even a minute, let alone an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year. You must do whatever you can to cut off the thought of the eight worldly dharmas. There should be no place in your mind for them.

The fundamental advice of the Kadampa geshes is that if you are going to take the essence of this life, however much of your life is left, you must make it equal to your Dharma practice. It must not be that your life is longer and your Dharma practice is shorter. That means that however long you have until you die, that amount of life and that amount of Dharma practice should be the same; your life becomes equal to your Dharma practice.

There is a practice done by the Kadampa geshes called the Ten Innermost Jewels of the Kadampas. If you want your life and your Dharma practice to be equal, you should follow this practice. When you read the biographies of the Kadampa geshes, you will see that they lived like this. If you make these innermost jewels like a precept, then everything you will do will be Dharma. Eating breakfast, eating dinner, living in your house, living on your bed, sleeping, will all be living in these ten innermost jewels. Whatever you do, you will never separate from them. Then, when your life and your Dharma practice are equal, there will be no confusion and there will be great peace all the time. The ten innermost jewels are: 

1. entrust the depths of the attitude to the Dharma 
2. entrust the depths of the Dharma to the beggar 
3. entrust the depths of the beggar to death
4. entrust the depths of death to the cave
5. the uncaptured vajra
6. the shameless vajra 
7. the transcendent wisdom vajra 
8. expulsion from the rank of human beings
9. achieve the rank of the dog 
10. achieve the rank of the divine beings

Like the Kadampa geshes, you should rely on the innermost holy Dharma, that relies on the beggar, that depends on death, that depends on the dry cave. Maybe that should be the beach! For Westerners maybe the cave should be transformed into a beach. When you have an idea of these innermost jewels, you have a definite goal. 

Then there are the three vajras. Being expelled from the ranks of humans. That doesn’t mean all human beings; it doesn’t include the Kadampa geshes or those who are living in pure Dharma. It means being expelled from those who seek only the happiness of this life; being out of line with worldly beings like this.

Then there is achieving the rank of a dog and achieving the rank of a deva. In that way, you can attain the highest state, enlightenment. By renouncing this life and practicing only the holy Dharma, you are able to achieve the highest state, the state of omniscience, in one brief lifetime. 

Last year or the year before, I explained the Kadampa geshes’ Ten Innermost Jewels, so this time I’m not planning to talk on it. For those of you who wish to understand it and practice it, there are many books. You can read them and check whether this practice is beneficial for you.

REALIZING IMPERMANENCE AND DEATH, ALL ACTIONS BECOME DHARMA

The very essence of all the Kadampa geshes’ advice, the Ten Innermost Jewels, is to remember impermanence and death. Reflecting on impermanence and death is the weapon to cut off the evil thought of the eight worldly dharmas. It makes your life most meaningful at the beginning of your Dharma practice. In the middle it gives you the determination to continue, and even at the end, it is needed to achieve omniscience. The more you reflect on impermanence and death, the less the evil thought of the eight worldly dharmas will arise. If you are able to remember impermanence and death constantly in your everyday life, however much you can do that, to that degree your actions will become the Dharma.

Previously, you would have said that you had no time to practice the holy Dharma whereas there always seemed to be plenty of time to work for the happiness of this life. Now, remembering impermanence and death, it’s reversed. You have no time for the work of this life and plenty of time to practice the Dharma. And this is before you have even realized impermanence and death. After you have generated the realizations of impermanence and death, then there will be no time at all to work for this life, to create nonvirtue. All your time will be spent in practicing the Dharma, so it will be the complete opposite to how it is now. No longer overwhelmed by the eight worldly dharmas, your mind becomes the Dharma and you have perfect freedom to only commit virtuous actions.

As Lama Tsongkhapa said, when this happens, you constantly take the essence of this precious human life qualified by the eight freedoms and ten richnesses, day and night, without wasting a second. Here, Lama Tsongkhapa advised you to reflect on impermanence and death, which is the best remedy for the evil thought of the eight worldly dharmas. When you do this, any action you do with your three doors effortlessly becomes the Dharma. Every action—eating, working, sleeping, listening, reflecting, meditating—everything becomes the Dharma.

MILAREPA TRANSCENDED THE FEAR OF DEATH

The great yogi, Milarepa, said,

I fled to the mountains through fear of death,
And once there, I realized the absolute true nature of the mind.
Now, even if death comes to me, I won’t be afraid.

This came out of his own experience. You should use this as an example if you, too, want to not waste this precious human body qualified with the eight freedoms and ten richnesses. Then, like Milarepa, your life and your Dharma practice will become equal.

Milarepa’s meaning here is that at first, when he reflected on impermanence and death, he was afraid. Because of that fear, he escaped to the mountain. That can have two meanings. One is the external mountain—literally giving up his worldly life and escaping into the mountains in order to practice the teachings he received from the holy speech of his guru on how to realize the nature of the spontaneous mind, that which is empty in nature. That fear of impermanence and death gave him great perseverance to be able to bear the hardships he faced in the mountains as he tried to realize what he had been taught.

When he realized the emptiness of phenomena, clinging to this life and clinging to the sense of an inherent self vanished. He was able to completely cut them off. With every impure concept gone, then, even if death happened, he would have no fear.

Previously, the great yogi Milarepa was overwhelmed by samsara, under the control of the cycle of death and rebirth, like we all are. If you don’t try to remember impermanence and death while you are in good health and not too old, while you are still able to practice the Dharma, when will you? Not remembering impermanence and death, there will certainly be great fear when the time of death arrives, whereas if you can remember it, your mind will be completely relaxed. Death will definitely happen. It might be this year, this month or today, but when it does, you will be relaxed, without fear or doubts. Even though you might not have been able to practice the Dharma purely, you will still have no fear of being born in the lower realms. There is no danger of that.

It is completely useless to be overwhelmed by fear and worry at the time of your death. This happens when you haven’t made preparations. You need to prepare ahead of time, during your lifetime, preparing for a happy future life. Rather than thinking that now that there is no time to practice the Dharma and spending all your time on working for this life, which will mean you are totally unprepared for death, you need to prepare now. Without it, you will be terrified when death comes, screaming, crying, your tears flowing out. You will be terrified that you are leaving your loved ones, your possessions, everything. You will be full of regret that you have wasted your life, thinking you could have spent your life in a much better way, trying to cut the worldly concerns, trying to subdue the mind. But, if you only have these thoughts at the time of death, that is utterly useless.

When the signs of death begin, you will see how your whole life has been completely empty, how you have done nothing meaningful at all. You will look for any ways you benefited others but you will be unable to find even one single instance. Tormented with regret and with the assurance that what will come will be awful, you will be terrified. This is how worldly people die. This is a completely useless, wrong way to die.

Milarepa said that by remembering impermanence and death he overcame the mara of laziness and whatever he did became Dharma. We too should follow the example of Milarepa and always remember impermanence and death.

Lecture 28

December 6, 1980 (morning)

THERE IS NOTHING GREATER THAN WORKING FOR OTHERS

Please listen to the teachings by generating a pure motivation, at least effortful bodhicitta. Just saying the word “bodhicitta” is very meaningful and thinking about its meaning is very effective for the mind. It means the mind that wishes to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of other sentient beings. That is so much more important than trying to work for this life, trying to obtain happiness in this life.

It means renouncing working for this life and putting all your effort into working for others, spending all your time trying to achieve enlightenment for others, not working at all just for the happiness of this life. Trying to attain enlightenment for the sake of all others is far more important than working for this life; it is even far more important than trying to achieve the blissful state of peace, nirvana.

Others are uncountable, infinite. That is why, even among all the Dharma work, this is the most important. There is nothing more important than attaining enlightenment in order to be able to reveal the infallible method to others, showing them perfectly how to obtain temporal and ultimate happiness, using whatever method suits the disposition, the personality, of each sentient being. Therefore think, “For the sake of all sentient beings, I will practice the holy Dharma and attain peerless enlightenment.”

This is the most beneficial thing you can do in your life. It is beneficial for all sentient beings and it is beneficial for you. So, think, “Even if I have to give up my life for many hundreds of eons, by practicing the Dharma, no matter what hardship I might encounter, I will never renounce the work to attain enlightenment for the sake of all my kind mother sentient beings. Just as a river constantly flows, I will constantly attempt to attain enlightenment.”

If you can generate great will like this, then the hindrances to your Dharma practice will diminish. Hindrances caused by delusions, the unsubdued mind, will not overwhelm you. Neither the outer hindrances nor the inner ones—the outer maras or the inner ones—can defeat you. Have the determination that, whatever happens, you will never stop until you have completed the path to enlightenment.

With such determination and will, think, “No matter what happens, I must achieve enlightenment for benefit of all my beloved, kind mother sentient beings. Therefore I am going to listen to the commentary on the graduated path to enlightenment.”

Please listen to the teachings with a motivation like this, also listening in the right manner.

GANDEN LHA GYÄMA COMMENTARY: CONTEMPLATING THE SEVEN-LIMB PRAYER

The subject is the Lama Tsongkhapa guru yoga practice of the Hundred Deities of the Joyful Realm of Tushita.

When you make a request for the long life of the guru, if you understand the seven-limb practice from this Ganden Lha Gyäma, it is similar for any other prayer or sadhana, even if the merit field is different. Because it is the best, quickest method to accumulate extensive merit, it’s extremely important to understand the benefits of practicing it.

There is a Kadampa saying,

A practice without the accumulation of merit is like a seed without wetness.
A practice without the accumulation of merit is nothing more than the drawing of a flame, not the flame itself.

I think what this means is that a painting of a flame on the wall cannot function as a flame; it can’t give light to dispel the darkness. Similarly, if you don’t practice accumulating merit, you can’t effectively eliminate the darkness of ignorance. Meditating without accumulating merit is like a very dry seed that is without any moisture, the condition it needs to make it sprout and become a plant and bear fruit.

Therefore, it is completely wrong to think that the limb of accumulating merit in the seven-limb practice and the mandala offering is just some traditional thing without worth, just some ritual or custom that has nothing to do with real life. It is wrong to think that you don’t need to do this, that the only necessary thing to do is the meditation alone. Just as it is very difficult for a dried-out seed to sprout and become a plant, it is very difficult for your mind to be subdued just through meditation without any accumulation of merit. No matter how long you meditate for, no correct experience comes in the mind.

Of course, there might be experiences that happen due to your meditation, but they will not be the correct pure experiences, the ones that will advance you on the graduated path to enlightenment. You might meditate for thirty or forty years, but still nothing will happen in the mind; it will still be the same or even worse. You might become more stubborn, more thick-skulled.

So, it’s very important when you are doing the seven limbs alone to take your time over it if possible, and remember which limb relates to which remedy of which delusion. Doing it very slowly while contemplating is very effective for the mind; it forces your mind to become very happy. When you are happy doing the seven limbs, you won’t be bored, and remembering the benefits purifies your delusions. In that way, the practice becomes very enjoyable. Unless you think of the meaning and the benefits, it will probably seem quite boring.

That’s why I do the seven-limb practice and the mandala offering very slowly. Rather than just saying the words, it’s more effective if you think of the meaning, if you think what each meditation contains. Saying the words alone does not become the practice of the seven limbs. If you chant it nicely, it might become an offering, but without meditating on the meaning, just saying words alone, it doesn’t become a seven-limb practice. It’s just like a parrot reciting the words.

If you are really determined to transform your mind into the Dharma, to free it from the control of attachment to samsaric perfections, to secure it on the path to full enlightenment and not just to attain the blissful state of peace, lower nirvana, you must rid yourself of the self-cherishing thought. To do that, to gain a pure experience of the realizations of the graduated path to enlightenment, you must purify the delusions that block you and accumulate extensive merit. You should never think these practices are insignificant and that you can ignore them and go straight to some very high practice, thinking you can achieve the tenth ground of a bodhisattva without all the practices that precede it. You shouldn’t think that because enlightenment is what you want, any practice below that is not worth considering. Thinking that only the practice of a great yogi about to achieve the unified state of no more learning is worth doing is very deluded thinking. Every step on the path to enlightenment is vital, and so you should put great effort into practices such as refuge, the seven limbs and the mandala offering—all the preliminary practices—and do them very carefully.

GANDEN LHA GYÄMA COMMENTARY: THE LIMB OF PROSTRATION

As you say the prayer requesting the long life of the guru, visualize holding the throne in your hands, whatever you can visualize. The throne is raised up by the eight snow lions and has a double vajra. Visualize it as similar to the one within the merit field, like the visualization done during the prostrations. You can think that there are numberless bodies of yourself, transformed, and each of them makes offerings of the throne.

Relating to this particular visualization of Lama Tsongkhapa and his two disciples, the throne then absorbs into the father and sons. Think that this is your own guru in the form of these three. Think that they have accepted your request.

As is explained in the teachings by the lineage lamas of the lamrim, there are two ways this happens: accepting your request in a rupakaya way and in a dharmakaya way. With the rupakaya way of accepting, because you have pleased the holy mind, the merit field accepts it and they verbally say yes, with smiling faces. With the dharmakaya way, there is nothing visible; the holy mind accepts it in silence.

The second limb is the limb of prostration.

Your holy mind understands the full extent of objects to be known.
Your eloquent speech is the ear-ornament of the fortunate ones.
Your holy body is glowing and glorious with fame.
To you, who is meaningful to see, hear, and remember, I prostrate.

THE QUALITIES OF LAMA TSONGKHAPA’S BODY, SPEECH AND MIND

Here you are admiring the qualities of Lama Tsongkhapa’s holy mind. With a buddha’s omniscient mind, it’s not just that they can see and understand many existent objects. Lama Tsongkhapa, with his omniscient mind, can see each and every all-obscuring truth and each and every absolute truth, and can see these simultaneously. For instance, when Lama Tsongkhapa sees chocolate, he spontaneously and simultaneously sees the chocolate’s absolute truth and its all-obscuring truth, the chocolate itself. This is something even very advanced arya bodhisattvas cannot do. While absorbed in the meditative equipoise on the absolute nature of reality, they cannot see the all-obscuring truth at the same time. While concentrating one-pointedly on absolute nature, they cannot do work for sentient beings, revealing the teachings and so forth, like putting water in water. This is something only buddhas can do.

Lama Tsongkhapa’s holy mind, while spontaneously concentrating on absolute nature, can also see the conventional truth, the all-obscuring truth, at the same time, as well as being able to do various works for sentient beings with the holy body and the holy speech. This is something not even a tenth bhumi bodhisattva can do. Even though they might be just seconds from attaining enlightenment, this is still beyond them.

When the text says, “Your holy mind understands the full extent of objects to be known,” it shows that Lama Tsongkhapa is fully enlightened, because this is something only a buddha can do.

The next line says, “Your eloquent speech is the ear-ornament of the fortunate ones.”

As I mentioned before, Lama Tsongkhapa’s sutra and tantra teachings are pure, like refined gold. Just like refined gold, they can be examined in three ways and still seen as faultless. Because they reveal the infallible path, whoever hears them are the fortunate ones.

Here, the text calls them the “ear-ornament of the fortunate ones.” Just as worldly people use diamonds or whatever precious jewels they have for earrings, to show off to others and feel proud, these pure teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa are like precious jewels for the ears of those fortunate enough to be able to hear them. They are the best ornament of a Dharma practitioner. To be able to hear the pure teachings, you are among the most fortunate of all. Therefore, you should rejoice; you should feel great joy that you are able to hear and study these teachings that show the infallible path, the path that definitely leads to whatever goal you wish, liberation or enlightenment—if, of course, from your side, you practice.

The number of people in the world who can hear any of the various Dharma teachings is very small, and the number who can hear the Mahayana teachings is much smaller than that. Even smaller is the number able to hear the teachings of the Vajrayana, the tantric vehicle. Even for those who can hear the infallible path, most will not hear it in its entirety. There might be teachings on one meditation practice, one aspect of sutra or tantra, but it is not complete. Even if it’s about meditation, it might just be ordinary mindfulness, just one-pointed concentration. While it is correct and beneficial, it is not the complete, infallible path.

In this world, there are so many more people unable to hear and accept even that. They find it generally very easy to accept and follow wrong views, but very difficult to accept infallible teachings that teach on correct views, such as the worldly beings’ right view of karma and the ultimate reality, the right view of emptiness, the view that allows you to realize the ultimate truth and eliminate the sense of a truly existing self, and eliminate the fundamental ignorance, the root of suffering. This is because they don’t have enough fortune to hear and accept such things.

Instead, they hear many incorrect teachings—teachings that say you don’t have to keep any precepts, teachings that refute karma, saying there is no need to watch your actions, avoiding some and developing others. Out of such deluded views, their minds just become even more unsubdued. Not knowing that some actions lead to suffering and should be avoided and some lead to happiness and should be cultivated, they do just the opposite, and when they hear teachings on the correct view, which emphasize the opposite of how they think, they are unable to accept them. In that way, their life is continually in confusion. Even after fifty years, it’s still the same thing; they are still living in the same confusion.

On the other hand, the texts say that we are the fortunate ones because we have been able to hear not just the correct teachings but Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, the “ear-ornament of the fortunate ones,” the pure and infallible teachings where there is nothing missing, incorporating both sutra and tantra. We are truly highly fortunate. For that reason we are called “insiders.” We are those fortunate beings who are “inside” these infallible teachings.

These teachings are the best ornaments, the ones that beautify your body, speech and mind. By practicing what Lama Tsongkhapa explained in these teachings, you can transform your body, speech and mind into the vajra holy body, vajra holy speech and vajra holy mind of a buddha.

The way Lama Tsongkhapa expounded the pure teachings, they become the ear ornament for all bodhisattvas, from the new bodhisattvas who have just attained bodhicitta, up to the bodhisattvas on the tenth bhumi, those who are just about to attain enlightenment. It’s not that Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings are just for ordinary bodhisattvas; what he expounded is what bodhisattvas have to practice from the beginning all the way to enlightenment.

The “fortunate ones” the text refers to here are the bodhisattvas, those who have generated bodhicitta, but you too are incredibly fortunate, having been able to hear his teachings. Therefore everything you do in this life should be to try to join this fortunate group, the bodhisattvas. Lama Tsongkhapa’s holy speech perfectly fits any being of any level of intelligence who is a suitable object to be subdued. Any being no matter what level of intelligence—lower, middle or higher—will benefit from his teachings.

Lama Tsongkhapa’s holy mind, being omniscient, has overcome all obscurations. Even bodhisattvas on the tenth bhumi have very subtle obscurations and have the four unknowing minds,³⁷ unable to perceive things that only buddhas can perceive. For instance, you will remember the story that Lama Lhundrup told you about Maudgalyayana, one of the Buddha’s two main attendants, who, despite having incredible psychic powers, wasn’t able to see karma created eons before. He still had subtle delusions that blocked omniscience.

Lama Tsongkhapa has overcome these four unknowing minds; he has eliminated all subtle delusions. You can admire Lama Tsongkhapa in the same way you admire Yamantaka. Just as Yamantaka is a wrathful aspect of Manjushri, Lama Tsongkhapa is an embodiment of Manjushri. Lama Tsongkhapa is actually Manjushri, who is the embodiment of all the buddhas’ understanding, so, by admiring first his holy mind, you receive the blessings of the holy mind. Lama Tsongkhapa, who is inseparable from Manjushri, enters your mind and, by receiving the blessings of his holy mind, your Dharma wisdom increases. Being able to thoroughly understand the teachings, you are able to thoroughly explain them, and so that is the blessing of your speech.

First of all, by thoroughly understanding the qualities of Lama Tsongkhapa’s holy mind, you receive the blessings of his mind. Then, because of that, your wisdom grows, and you are more able to skillfully and correctly explain them without any resistance, without any doubt, which is the blessing of your speech.

As all these qualities enter your body, you become like the great pandits, learned in the Dharma, and you are able to explain the teachings without doubts or fears, without any difficulties at all. In that way you can do work for other beings. Therefore, for those reasons, you prostrate to Lama Tsongkhapa, which is the last line of the verse, “To you, who is meaningful to see, hear, and remember, I prostrate.”

Remembering the qualities of Lama Tsongkhapa like this is highly meaningful because it leaves very powerful positive imprints on your mind, creating the cause for you to become like Lama Tsongkhapa.

HYMNS OF EXPERIENCE COMMENTARY: IMPERMANENCE AND DEATH

Lama Tsongkhapa explained how it is highly meaningful to remember impermanence and death.

This life of leisure is even more precious than a wish-granting jewel; 
That I have found such an existence is only this once; 
So hard to find yet like a flash of lightning it is easy to vanish; 
Contemplating this situation it’s vital to realize that all mundane pursuits

Are like the empty grain husks floating in the winds 
And that we must extract the essence of human existence. 
I, a yogi, have practiced in this manner; 
You, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.³⁸  

You need to generate the strong thought of remembering death, not just talking from the mouth, but feeling it from the depth of your heart, feeling that you could die tomorrow, or even today. When you conjoin that with whatever Dharma understanding you have, it becomes obvious that there is no point in becoming attached to things. The things you currently have—your family, friends, possessions—you won’t be with them much longer, so why cling to them? In that way, the thought that clings to the happiness of this life is transformed.

With this thought of impermanence and death, you automatically want to prepare for death by taking the essence of this precious human body. There is no point in working solely for this life; the happiness of future lives becomes much more important. If you could really feel that death will definitely happen today—if you could feel completely certain of that—the wish to prepare for future lives would spontaneously arise.

If you could really bring into your heart this thought of impermanence, then you would clearly see how all the effort you put into obtaining the worldly dharmas—material possessions, comfort, fame, reputation—is meaningless, how such a life is utterly without essence, like the husk of a seed once the seed has been threshed. To put all that time and effort into obtaining the worldly dharmas is to completely cheat yourself.

Understanding that, it becomes very easy to transform your actions, no longer creating negative karma by doing negative things, and instead only doing positive actions and creating positive karma. You are able to take refuge and therefore continually create virtue by protecting your morality, practicing charity and such things. You will respect your karma in that way.

You will see that your body, your possessions, your reputation—all these things—are essenceless, and you will see what has essence. By remembering impermanence and death strongly, from the heart, you will be able to practice the holy Dharma and truly take the essence of this precious life. Then, you can even take the essence from your essenceless possessions.

By taking the holy essence, you are able to reach the highest holy state, the state of omniscience and then you are able to lead all other sentient beings into that same state. You can accomplish the greatest meaning. There is no greater meaning than this. That is what Lama Tsongkhapa is saying.

The body and the possessions of this life are essenceless. They are like a water bubble, a mirage or a flower. A flower might look beautiful to begin with but it soon decays—second by second it is decaying. On the first day it looks very nice but by the next day it looks terrible, completely undesirable. Without choice, the petals that were joined together separate and fall. Similarly, our body and our possessions can’t last; they decay second by second. That is why they are in the nature of suffering.

However, even though they are essenceless, if you generate the pure thought of impermanence and death, you are able to take the essence from this essenceless body and these essenceless material possessions.

Even this is enough, without mentioning all the other benefits of remembering impermanence and death. Remembering impermanence and death is the door to all perfections, both temporal and ultimate. The purpose of being born as a human being is to practice the holy Dharma, to develop a good heart and to be of extensive benefit for other sentient beings.

You have heard of the three levels of capable beings—that is the meaning of the term “capable being.” As Lama Atisha mentioned in the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, the person who has aversion to this life and practices the ten virtues and renounces nonvirtue in order to attain the perfections of future lives is a practitioner on the graduated path of the lower capable being.

The person who has aversion to the whole of samsara—who has left behind all samsaric perfections—and who seeks to achieve the true cessation of suffering and the attainment of nirvana by practicing the three higher trainings of morality, concentration and right view, is a practitioner of the graduated path of the middle capable being.

A practitioner of the graduated path of the higher capable being is one who has renounced the self-cherishing thought and generated bodhicitta, and who is practicing the six paramitas, the six perfections.

If you don’t have even one of these goals, if you don’t do any of the practices to bring about any of these goals, if you only work for the happiness of this life, then you are not recognized as a capable being, no matter how much worldly people might think of you as smart or intelligent. You might be skilled in business or able to defeat others in battle, you may have a good job and make lots of money, with a beautiful apartment and many possessions—everything that worldly people see as positive—but without one of these goals you are out of the line of one of these three capable beings. You might be considered capable, but it is not this type of capable; you are not a lower, middle or higher capable being.

It is only at this time that you have the chance to become a capable being; only now do you have that special freedom. Lama Tsongkhapa said that most of the time we live in one of the realms of the suffering transmigratory beings. Even if you manage to occasionally come up to a realm of the happy transmigratory being, it is only ever for the very shortest time. And mostly, when you attain such a state, you still have no freedom to practice the Dharma.

And even if you have somehow managed to find a precious body where you can practice the Dharma, and furthermore you have the wish to practice the Dharma, you are still unable to practice it completely and purely. The whole mistake in your thinking, the thing that blocks you from practicing the Dharma completely and purely, is the thought, “I won’t die.” Lama Tsongkhapa said,

The thought that you will not die is the source of all deterioration, and the remedy for this is the mindfulness of death, the source of all that is excellent.³⁹ 

Lama Tsongkhapa called this mistaken attitude the door of all the degenerations, meaning you are not only unable to practice the Dharma completely and purely, but it also leads to all the problems you face in your everyday life. They all come from believing you won’t die, taking the side of undying, being friendly with undying. Therefore, the remedy for this is to remember death. If the mind taking the side of undying is the door to all the degenerations, the remedy of remembering death is the door to all perfections.

Lama Tsongkhapa said it is wrong to consider the meditation on impermanence and death as just a beginner’s meditation, that it is not for those who have profound Dharma subjects to meditate on; it’s not for those who meditate on emptiness or bodhicitta, who practice the Vajrayana, the Six Yogas of Naropa, or Mahamudra. You shouldn’t think meditation on impermanence and death is not for such people; that it’s just for those ignorant beginners. Even if you consider impermanence and death as a meditation subject, you shouldn’t think it’s not worth meditating on it much, and just spend a little bit of time at the beginning. Lama Tsongkhapa said you shouldn’t think like that! You should understand how important it is to remember impermanence and death. It’s important at the beginning, it’s important in the middle and it’s important at the end. That is Lama Tsongkhapa’s advice.

There are different ways about thinking about death. What is the correct way? It shouldn’t be fear that you will be separated from your friends and relatives and your possessions, the things you have strong attachment for. Of this Lama Tsongkhapa said,

For those who have not practiced the path at all, the fear of death manifests itself as the worry that they will be separated from their relatives and so forth. This fear is caused by their strong attachment.⁴⁰ 

That is not the kind of fear that should arise when you contemplate death. Most people don’t fear death because they think they are not going to die; therefore they will never be separated from their possessions, surroundings, friends, relatives and so forth. But if they ever do think of death, then that fear they get is because of thinking of that separation.

When you think of death in this way, of course you are terrified. But consider all the bodies you have taken since beginningless rebirths. They have all been under the control of karma and delusion, the unsubdued mind. None have been beyond death. Death is definite. Therefore, even if you are terrified of death, there is nothing you can do to prevent it; you cannot cease the cycle of death and rebirth while under the control of karma and delusion.

Not until you reach the definite perfection of nirvana will this cycle be ceased. For that, you need to work for the happiness of future lives. Without having done the work to assure rebirth as a happy transmigratory being, you will never cease the cause to be reborn in the lower realms. So, you need to create the causes for another perfect human rebirth and then progress to the definite perfections of nirvana and enlightenment.

I think they are called “definite perfections”—the literal translation is “definite goodness”—because even finding the body of a happy transmigratory being, as a human or a god, is never definite. You might achieve such a state, but there is no guarantee you will not later be reborn in the lower realms. However, once you have achieved liberation or enlightenment, it is definite you will never have to experience the suffering of samsara again.

Until you have completed the work for attaining another higher realm, there will certainly be fear when you think about death. On the other hand, when you contemplate impermanence and death in the correct way, there will be fear, but it will be wise fear, a kind of cautious fear. It’s like the caution you have when you are driving along a dangerous road, or when you see a drunken driver coming toward you. Knowing the potential danger that is there, you are very cautious. You pay utmost attention to ensure your safety, maybe deciding to take another road because that one is just too dangerous. It is the fear of what might happen, the danger you see ahead, that makes you careful and makes you seek a method for avoiding the danger.

Lama Tsongkhapa said that when you contemplate death correctly, and you can see the danger you are facing, you will do whatever is needed to avoid it. He said,

If you consider your fear about this, it is within your power not to be frightened at the moment of death because there are things you can do to secure your future welfare.⁴¹ 

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Notes

³³ From now on, it is unclear whether Rinpoche is referring to all three or just Lama Tsongkhapa. [Return to text]

³⁴ 1075–1138, also known as Zhonnu Ö; a Kadampa geshe renowned for his impeccable devotion to Geshe Tölungpa and Geshe Chengawa (1038–1103). See The Heart of the Path, pp. 109–110. [Return to text]

³⁵ Rinpoche is referring to the two-day New York blackout that occurred in July 1977, when the crime rate and the birth rate soared. [Return to text]

³⁶ Vv. 13 and 14. [Return to text]

³⁷ The four types of very subtle ignorance that arhats and higher bodhisattvas still have that a buddha does not, due to the subtle imprints of delusions not yet fully eliminated. They are: the inability to see the secret actions of a buddha, the inability to see the subtle karma of sentient beings, the inability to see things that happened a very long time ago and the inability to see very long distances. [Return to text]

³⁸ Vv. 13 and 14. [Return to text]

³⁹ Lamrim Chenmo, vol. 1, p. 147. [Return to text]

⁴⁰ ibid. [Return to text]

41 Lamrim Chenmo, vol. 1, p. 148. [Return to text]