Lecture 29

December 7, 1980

GANDEN LHA GYÄMA: OFFERINGS TO THE MERIT FIELD

All happiness—all temporal happiness and ultimate happiness, all the perfections—comes from merit. The visualization you do with Ganden Lha Gyäma of the gurus, buddhas and bodhisattvas is called a merit field because it is the “field” where you plant merit, meaning by using this you can get whatever happiness you wish. Therefore, it is precious.

Even just making light offerings to the merit field has many benefits. The texts summarize them, abbreviating them into ten, for instance, receiving the “flesh eye,” the different types of clairvoyance such as being able to see very distant things, even seeing things through objects such mountains, without resistance. And if you want to develop Dharma wisdom quickly, knowing what to practice and what to avoid, you should make many light offerings to the merit field. It is said this will dispel the darkness of ignorance; even while you are still wandering in samsara, you will wander in places where there is light.

Then, you will have perfect enjoyments, receiving whatever you wish, as well as finding the body of a happy transmigratory being in future lives, and without effort being able to understand very profound, very extensive teachings, comprehending not just the words but the meaning as well. This is the benefit of offering even one light to the merit field.

There are similar benefits mentioned for the other offerings you can make to the merit field, such as offering incense, perfume, flowers, torma cakes and so forth. Each has ten benefits which are in general similar but which still have some differences.

Offering these things purifies the mind of miserliness, the mind of being attached to having unceasing enjoyment. I don’t remember which path it is, but on one of the five paths you gain complete control over this. At this time, you can visualize the whole of space filled with offerings, including things that belong to you and things that don’t belong to you—all the flowers in the fields, all the waters on this earth, the lakes, ponds, oceans, and the sun, moon and stars— you can make offerings of all these things in their general groups.

If you are doing a Highest Yoga Tantra practice and you transformed yourself into the deity of that practice at the beginning, you can visualize the whole of space filled with very beautiful offering goddesses that have emanated from your heart.

If you want to make the offerings more extensive still, you can visualize outer, inner and secret offerings, as described in the Guru Puja. You can make offerings in the elaborate way, according to the Highest Yoga Tantra practice.

GANDEN LHA GYÄMA: CONFESSION

Then, after this, the confession.

Whatever nonvirtues of body, speech, and mind,
And especially actions opposite to the three vows
That I have created from beginningless time,
From the bottom of my heart, I regret and fervently confess them all individually.

Making a confession like this purifies your unsubdued mind, your karma, eliminating the imprints of actions done with the three poisonous minds and the two obscurations. Then you achieve the ultimate result, the transcendental wisdom of the dharmakaya. This is similar to the ultimate result obtained from the limb of prostrations.

What you are confessing here is having done the complete opposite of what you have pledged in the three levels of vows you have taken: the pratimoksha, bodhisattva and tantric vows. In order to understand when you have transgressed those vows, you need to fully understand what they are. Lama Tsongkhapa warns us to know the definitions of all the vows and to be extremely careful to never let them degenerate but always keep them purely. Therefore this confession prayer is particularly to do with any vow of the three levels of vows that you have transgressed.

I think we’ll stop here.

Therefore think, “It is only the holy Dharma that liberates me from death, which is caused by karma and the unsubdued mind. The holy Dharma is the only method that allows me to cease death. Therefore I must practice the holy Dharma.” Like that, you should generate the strong thought to practice the Dharma.

To clarify that a little bit, another way of saying it is this. The cycle of death and rebirth is caused by the unsubdued mind and the karma it produces. Therefore this body, which is under the control of karma and the unsubdued mind, is born by being under their control. You are born without choice and, when you die, your death and rebirth are also without choice, being controlled by karma and the unsubdued mind.

The holy Dharma is the only method that can cause you to overcome this, to cease death and rebirth. Therefore you must practice the holy Dharma. You must subdue your mind. You must never give your unsubdued mind, the delusions, the opportunity to arise; you must never give it any freedom at all. That means the only thing you can do is practice the holy Dharma.

Even if you have a fear of death now, death hasn’t yet happened, so you still have the chance to practice the method; there is still the opportunity. If you do, when the time of death arrives and death happens, you will have no fear. 

Lecture 30

December 8, 1980 (morning)

THERE IS NO ULTIMATE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SELF AND OTHER

To attain happiness, you need to equalize yourself with others, and to eliminate the suffering of others you need to equalize yourself with others. We have already looked at why I and others are equal conventionally, but there are also three ultimate reasons why this is so: that “friend,” “enemy” and “stranger” are mere concepts; that they appear permanent whereas they are not; and that they are interdependent, like “here” and “there.”

The third reason is that your sense of “I” depends on the sense of “other.” As Nagarjuna said in Precious Garland,

When there is this, that arises,
Like short when there is long.⁴² 

What Nagarjuna is saying is that you consider wherever you are to be “this side” or “here” and you consider over there to be “that side” or “there.” But if you went over there then you would consider there to be “this side” or “here” and where you were originally to be “that side” or “there.” There is no inherent “here” or “there.” It depends on where you are; that is why it’s called “merely labeled.” They are just names you give to a place close to you and one far from you. Although there is nothing truly existing at all on this side or that side, that is how it appears to you and that is what you come to believe in.

This is the same with “I” and “others.” In exactly the same way, I can only exist depending on others and others can only exist depending on I. From your side, you are “I” and everybody else is “other,” but from somebody else’s side, they are “I” and you are “other.” There is not the slightest degree of true existence in either, but you see yourself as “I” and you believe it is truly existing, and you see other sentient beings as “other” and you believe they are also truly existing. The I is nothing more than what is labeled on the aggregates, which are the base to be labeled. And “other” is the same, just the label placed on the aggregates of another sentient being, the base to be labeled.

If there were a truly existing I, then there would also have to be a truly existing other. That would absurdly mean that this would never change. Just as in the case of “this side” and “that side” where that place would be fixed no matter where you stood—when you move from “here” to “there” you new position would still be “there” and your old one still “here”—this is true of “I” and “other.” Your “I” would be the only “I” forever, and other beings would be “others” forever, even to themselves. Because it was truly existing, it could never change depending on the viewpoint of the person who is labeling it. You believe your own sense of self to be a truly existing “I” and the otherness of others is also something that is truly existing, therefore they must also see themselves as “other.”

There seems to be something from the side of the object that is inherent, truly existing. This is how you apprehend an object and this is what you believe. Although the I is merely labeled on the aggregates, it feels like there is something there from its own side. The I seems to be there absolutely. But if there is an absolute I there must be an absolute other. That means that all sentient beings who are separate from you are others inherently, not just something you have labeled by thought and name.

If your “I” doesn’t exist in this way, there is no way you can label other sentient beings’ aggregates as “other.” Without an inherently existing “other” there cannot be an inherently existing “I.” This holds for all phenomena. How things appear become just a different way of looking at them.

For instance, one person could be friend, enemy or stranger, depending on the viewpoint of who is observing them. To one person they are a friend; to another they are an enemy; and to a third they are a stranger. It’s the same person but seen differently depending on the different viewpoints of different people.

Similarly, you might see someone as ugly whereas someone else sees them as beautiful; you might dislike someone whereas someone else likes them very much, and maybe a third person only likes them a little. These are just different subjective ways of seeing.

Therefore, after considering the six reasons depending on the all-obscuring or conventional truth and the three reasons depending on the ultimate truth, your conclusion should be that you never accept some sentient beings and give up on others. You must make the determination never to do that. How could you? It’s unworthy to discriminate in any way, seeing some as close and others as distant, accepting some and giving them benefit and giving up on others and not giving them benefit or even harming them. There is no justification at all for this.

This discriminating thought is the root of attachment and anger, the root of the hundreds of harms and sufferings of this life and all future lives. It is like the prison guard that keeps you locked in the prison of samsara, never letting you become liberated. Like the butcher that leads the animals to the slaughter yard, it leads you to the lower realms. It is the executioner that leads you to the fires of the hells. It is a chronic disease that doesn’t allow you the slightest comfort, even during your sleep.

Therefore you must root out this evil thought, just as you must pull out a poisonous plant by the roots, throwing it far from your garden so it cannot poison all your other plants. You can’t just pull off the leaves and leave the roots intact. It must be completely taken out, root and all.

Practicing the thought that does not discriminate—that equalizes yourself and all sentient beings, working to obtain happiness for all sentient beings and to eliminate their suffering completely—will bring you great benefit, both temporarily and ultimately. To have this thought is highly meaningful.

Attaining bodhicitta through equalizing and exchanging the self with others is the principal path taken by all the past, present and future buddhas. This concern for others that all buddhas and bodhisattvas have is the heart of the holy mind.

Therefore you should think, “From my side, whatever sentient beings do to me, whether they help me or harm me, I must never give up on them. I must renounce all attachment and anger and all discriminating thoughts, holding some as close and some as distant. I must have the mind that works equally for all. Everything I do in thought and action must be to obtain happiness for sentient beings and eliminate their suffering. I must attempt this with all my heart.”

This is the additional advice of the lineage lamas of the lamrim teachings, advice that was scattered among the other teachings and which have been put together in the powerful teaching on equalizing your thoughts and actions so that everything you do is to bring other sentient beings happiness and eliminate their suffering. The more you think about these six conventional and three ultimate reasons why you and all other being are equal, the more powerful your determination will become to cultivate this equal attitude, and you will find more and more reasons to attain it.

I’ll stop here.

THE EIGHT MAHAYANA PRECEPTS

Keeping the eight Mahayana precepts is the cause of so much temporal happiness and samsaric perfections while you are in samsara as well as ultimate happiness, the complete attainment of buddhahood.

Think that by keeping the precepts you have created so much cause to be able to do extensive, effortless work for all the sentient beings. In that way, you are able to benefit all the sentient beings so much.

Through living in the precepts, you are abstaining from all nonvirtuous actions and, because of that, you are not the cause for other sentient beings to create negative karma. This is an example of how taking the precepts benefits both directly and indirectly.

And by taking the precepts you are making preparations to be able to do effortless, extensive work for all sentient beings. Feel great happiness that at this time you are taking the precepts so that you will become a bodhisattva and then a higher bodhisattva, able to do more and more work for sentient beings, to benefit sentient beings more and more, and then become a buddha. There is no need to talk about the extensive, effortless work you will be able to do for all sentient beings when you become a buddha. Even now you are doing the best preparation to bring direct and indirect benefit to all beings, therefore you should feel great happiness.

[Rinpoche gives the eight Mahayana precepts]

THE MUD OF THE UNSUBDUED MIND

It is difficult for somebody whose mind is disturbed, unsubdued, to generate bodhicitta. Bodhicitta is like the lotus that grows from the mud, whereas the mind of the unsubdued person is that mud. If your mind is always stirred up by delusions, it’s like when you stir fry vegetables. The unsubdued mind is made solid by delusions; it’s not soft. There are always delusions swirling around in the mind: anger, jealousy, attachment, all the poisonous minds. In such a state, any condition can trigger a negative emotion. One or two words you don’t like will cause anger to arise. Any small thing that upsets you becomes like kerosene poured onto a dry bush and your anger is the match. Suddenly the whole place becomes full of flames.

Anger can consume your body, completely possessing it from head to foot. Even if you are usually beautiful, your appearance becomes fearful when you are angry; nobody wants to be near you. It’s kind of scary.

Anger has a color. Depending on the person, sometimes it seems to be very dark, sometimes it makes you turn red—your ears turn red, your face turns red, your nose turns red. Your hair stands up and your body seems to become bigger, stronger, heavier, your muscles bulging. You walk with a heavy tread, your footsteps making a crashing sound on the floor. Eating, you crash your spoon on the plate, making a lot of noise. You slam the door violently when you close it, making a huge noise unless you have already broken it. Reading a book, you turn the pages violently, tearing them or making them wrinkle.

What was I talking about?

If you are that sort of person, somebody who gets impatient or angry easily, flaring up at just a couple of words somebody says or a slightly different way of looking, you can easily become consumed by that anger, like kerosene thrown over a bush. In your mind, the other person caused you to become angry; they are the enemy and they deserve to be harmed. You wish them harm.

When you look for the cause of anger, you see that for people who have strong anger or other disturbing thoughts such as pride, it comes from the selfish mind, from the self-cherishing thought. Because there is too much clinging to their own happiness, the slightest hindrance to that happiness, the slightest change in how somebody treats them, will make them impatient or angry. The slightest disturbance causes great unhappiness to arise, and from that, comes great anger.

Selfish people are like that. It stems from the selfish mind, and all the other problems come from that. Such a person is always disturbed; like mud in turbulent water, their thoughts are always stirred up by the unsubdued mind. With a mind like that, it is extremely difficult to generate bodhicitta.

A lotus grows from mud. It cannot grow from a place where there is no mud, such as from a pillow on the bed, or on a table. It needs the mud. But the inner lotus, bodhicitta, cannot grow while the thoughts are stirred up by the unsubdued mind. The greatest hindrance to generating bodhicitta is the self-cherishing thought. It cannot develop while there are thoughts like self-cherishing, anger and so forth, while the mind is unsubdued.

Other unsubdued minds like anger are not as harmful as self-cherishing, which is the complete opposite of bodhicitta. The nature of bodhicitta is cherishing others; the nature of self-cherishing is cherishing ourselves, only wishing ourselves to be happy and devoid of suffering, the complete opposite. While bodhicitta always has the thought to benefit others—to not harm them but always help them—the nature of anger is to only harm them. So, self-cherishing and anger are the two greatest enemies to generating bodhicitta.

Therefore to make space in your mind to be able to generate bodhicitta, the practice you need to do in your everyday life is to always remember the shortcomings of self-cherishing, how it is the door to all your suffering. When you constantly remind yourself of its shortcomings through listening to teachings on that subject as much as you can, your self-cherishing will slowly diminish, becoming weaker and weaker and weaker.

As well, in your everyday life you should always remember the benefits of bodhicitta, of cherishing others. In that way your wish to develop bodhicitta will become stronger and stronger. You should work on these two opposing thoughts—developing the thought of cherishing others and diminishing and eliminating the self-cherishing thought.

When your wish to benefit others increases day by day, when you can make it as powerful as possible, the thought to give harm to others, anger, will naturally diminish, becoming weaker and weaker. You should work to make it as small as possible.

How can you practice these twin thoughts? On a daily level how can you practice so that the self-cherishing thought, the thought to give harm to others, becomes less and less? How can you subdue this thought that harms yourself and others and how can you increase the thought that cherishes others, that wishes to bring them happiness, peace, all the perfections? You need to understand that the object of your practice is other sentient beings, especially those around you in your daily life, those beings you need to deal with every day. These are the people you can really develop your mind on, practicing patience with them, renouncing your own concerns and cherishing them instead.

Perhaps beings such as worldly gods were objects of your anger in previous lives, but in this life you have no immediate connection with them. Because you don’t see or think of them, they are too abstract to really help you develop your bodhicitta. You are currently a human being and they are not the object of your anger at present because they are not around. Perhaps if you find that some harm you are experiencing comes from nagas or spirits, you might become angry with them, but the sentient beings you really need to use to develop your mind are those who are around now, who are currently bothering you. First, there are the human beings around you, and then there are the other creatures that you can see with your eyes who disturb you, who are the current objects of your anger.

The people you encounter every day—those you talk to, you listen to, you eat with, you live with—these are the ones you should particularly practice the holy Dharma on, the ones you should practice the good heart on. If, day by day, you work on developing your good heart with them, the practice of the good heart will get better, day by day, month by month. This leads to the opportunity to quickly generate the ultimate good heart, bodhicitta.

GANDEN LHA GYÄMA COMMENTARY: PROSTRATIONS

Please think, “In order to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all the mother sentient beings, I will listen to the commentary on the Ganden Lha Gyäma with a bodhicitta motivation.

We have reached the guru yoga practice in the Ganden Lha Gyäma. If you want to do prostrations, you can do them at this point.

You begin the prostrations with the mantra, OM NAMO MANJUSHRIYE/ NAMAH SUSHRIYE/ NAMA UTTAMA SHRIYE SVAHA. This has great benefits. It increases the benefits of the prostrations a thousand times. If you do this with the prostrations every day, you will quickly generate the right-seeing path, the third of the five paths, where you can no longer be harmed by others.

The essential point of prostrations is that they purify obscurations and negative karmas of body, speech and mind that have been accumulated since beginningless samsaric lifetimes, and they transform the body, speech and mind into the vajra holy body, vajra holy speech and vajra holy mind. Because this practice is Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga, it therefore relates to transforming your own body, speech and mind into Guru Lama Tsongkhapa’s vajra holy body, vajra holy speech and vajra holy mind. You transform your own three doors into the three vajras.

Making a prostration can mean just putting your palms together at your heart, doing a half prostration, or a full-length prostration, where you stretch your whole body out on the ground. There is also the prostration of the speech, which means saying prayers, such as reciting the holy names of the buddhas and prayers admiring the qualities of the merit field, those who are objects of prostration. When you recite the qualities of the merit field’s holy body, holy speech and holy mind, that is speech prostration, and when devotion arises, that is mind prostration.

When you make prostrations of the body, it’s not like physical exercise, like people do in America. There are so many benefits of making prostrations. It not only makes your present life’s body healthy—this body you only have for a few months or a few years—it not only relieves muscle pains and joint pains, there is also the ultimate benefit. If prostrations are done correctly, they completely purify true suffering and the true causes of suffering, where all the diseases of mind and body come from. Even the root cause of suffering is purified by correctly making prostrations.

The main benefit of prostrating to remember is this. As the Buddha explained in the Lankavatara Sutra, when you do a full-length prostration, with your hands fully extended, the number of atoms your body covers, from the surface of the ground right down to the center of the earth, that many atoms, you create that much merit to be born as a wheel-turning king a thousand times. Just one atom of ground covered creates the cause to be born as a wheel-turning king a thousand times so think of how many atoms of ground your body covers with a prostration, and then think of how that is not just the surface but all the way to the center of the earth. It is unimaginable.

Of course, the purpose of doing prostrations is not necessarily to be born as a wheel-turning king, but that is just to give an idea of how much merit you accumulate by making even one prostration. A wheel-turning king, such as the kings of the pure land like the king of Shambala, has incredible power; he controls one or two continents as well as the god realms. You need to have created unimaginable merit to be born a wheel-turning king. So you can see how when one prostration creates the merit to be born a wheel-turning king a thousand times for each atom of ground covered, that is utterly unimaginable.

This of course depends on how you dedicate your merit. Just as a horse will turn whichever way you pull the reins, however you dedicate the merit will determine the result. If you dedicate the merit to achieving enlightenment, that will be the result. You don’t necessarily have to become a wheel-turning king!

The texts talk about the general benefits of prostrating as well as the particular ones, such as the ten benefits. For instance, even while you are in samsara, you will have a beautiful body, like Guru Shakyamuni’s body that is a pure holy body, golden in color, and you will possess a very sweet voice. And you won’t have any fear or worry when you attend assemblies, such as when you have to give teachings to sentient beings. All humans and worldly gods will be very happy to see you or hear you.

Instead of being in the company of ignorant friends, you will always enjoy magnificent company, such as arhats and bodhisattvas. You will always accompany them. You will always have great enjoyments and always find the body of a happy transmigratory being and be able to achieve nirvana and enlightenment.

Generally, even while you are in samsara, you will attain whatever temporal result you wish for.

Keeping your palms together like this at the heart signifies the core practice of method and wisdom of the Theravadin path as well as the core practices of method and wisdom of the Mahayana path. Relating to the Vajrayana or Secret Mantra, one palm represents wisdom, clear light, and the other represents method, the illusory body. Joining them together represents the unification of the paths of training and achieving the final path, the path of no more learning. Therefore it also signifies the result you will achieve, the dharmakaya and rupakaya. The space between the two palms signifies the dharmakaya and the palms themselves represent the rupakaya.

Keeping the two thumbs inside signifies offering jewels. If you just put your palms together without placing the thumbs inside, that is not the Buddhist mudra of prostration.

When you prostrate, you place the two hands at the crown, throat and heart, which purifies the negative karmas of body, speech and mind and causes you to achieve the vajra holy body, vajra holy speech and vajra holy mind. It creates the cause to attain all the qualities of the merit field, especially the nirmanakaya aspect, in order to work for other sentient beings. It also creates the cause for the holy signs of a buddha such as the ushnisha and the curled central hair between the eyebrows.

While you are doing the prostrations, it is very good, if you can, to remember the significance of this and relate it to the whole path, from guru devotion up to enlightenment. It is very effective for the mind.

If you can remember as I explained it now, when you put your two palms together, visualize beams of light flowing from the merit field into you and all your numberless previous lives’ bodies in human form that you have visualized surrounding you. They also absorb into all the sentient beings, purifying all the obscurations, the negative karmas of body, speech and mind, collected from beginningless samsara lifetimes.

Then, as you stand up the second time, replicas of Lama Tsongkhapa and his two spiritual sons absorb into you, into all your past lives’ bodies and into all the sentient beings surrounding you, and the body, speech and mind of you and all others become oneness with their holy body, holy speech and holy mind.

This is the main visualization when you do prostrations to any merit field. It’s the same when you are reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ prayer for prostrations. Even if you don’t physically make prostrations, you can do the same visualization—the nectar beams coming and purifying yourself, all past lives’ bodies and sentient beings, and then, after each holy name that you recite, a replica of each buddha absorbing into you. With each name, you do the purification and the absorption like this.

GANDEN LHA GYÄMA: OFFERING

The next limb is offerings.

Beautiful drinking water, various arranged flowers,
Fragrant incense, light, scented water, and so forth;
Actually performed and mentally transformed oceans of clouds of offerings
I offer to you, the supreme field of merit.

In the past we have often translated tsog zhing as “guru tree” or “assembly tree” rather than its correct translation of “merit field.” Even though you visualize it as a tree, a wish-granting tree where the merit field sits, the term “merit field” has great meaning.

The field of merit is called a “field” because it is like a field where you plant crops. Just as you obtain the food you live on from a field sown with crops, you obtain your merit from the Guru Triple Gem. Therefore, the merit field is extremely important. Just as you can’t survive without food collected from the field, there is no way to obtain any happiness without relying on the merit field. All your three-times’ happiness—past, present and future—is received from the Guru Triple Gem when you plant the crop of virtue.

HYMNS OF EXPERIENCE: REMEMBERING DEATH

It is not sufficient just to have a liking for the holy Dharma; if you wish for your three doors to become the Dharma, you must practice it, without the mind becoming weak. You might have read many Dharma texts and decided there are many good points in it, many truths; you might see how it clearly shows the nature of suffering and the path that leads to overcoming suffering. However, that alone is not sufficient. You must practice the holy Dharma.

It’s like lying on your bed or sitting on a chair, dreaming of how much you like ice cream, thinking of how delicious it is, but not doing anything about it. If you just lie on your bed, there is no way you can taste the ice cream. If you want it, you have to go to the refrigerator and open the door. Even if the refrigerator is full of ice cream, you won’t get the slightest taste of it unless you do that. If it’s still in the shop you have to go there; if you don’t have the money, you have to work for it.

This is similar to saying that the Dharma is very good, very effective, but not actually practicing it. As long as you don’t make continuous effort to practice the Dharma you will reach nowhere.

In Hymns of Experience Lama Tsongkhapa gave this advice.

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.⁴³ 

If you live with the belief that you won’t die today, even that you might not die today, that is a mistaken conception. You are looking at your life in exactly the wrong way, because with that kind of attitude you won’t make any preparations for your future life. All you consider are this life’s concerns. Then, you will easily become attached to the affairs of this life, to reputation, possessions, comfort, the surroundings and so forth. And then, in order to obtain these things, you commit many negative karmas.

Being attached to worldly things, the unsubdued mind arises and deluded thoughts abound: anger, pride, jealousy and so forth. Then, instead of accumulating virtue and making preparations for the happiness of future lives, you accumulate nonvirtue and ensure that you will experience the suffering of the lower realms after you die. And even while you are alive, you have to experience so many problems, with your mind full of strong confusion.

While life goes on in this way, you suddenly come face to face with death. At that time, because you have accumulated so much negative karma from your past nonvirtuous actions of this life and previous lives, you are terrified. As your death approaches, terrifying karmic visions appear, a sign that you are about to be born in the lower realms. According to the karma you have accumulated during your life and in previous lives, you experience fearful karmic visions, even before your breath stops and while you are still able to speak. Seeing all kinds of terrible things, you scream out in horror.

A disciple of one of the Kadampa geshes had caused disunity in his monastery during his lifetime and before his death he didn’t confess it or purify it. So at the time of death he experienced the karmic vision of being trapped, with the whole monastery weighing down on his body as it was consumed by fire. It was a karmic vision but for him it was real.

There was also a Tibetan person in Dharamsala who had killed many sheep when he was in Tibet. As he was dying he was screaming in terror, having a karmic vision of being completely surrounded by sheep who were attacking him. His friends around him couldn’t see anything but he was terrified. There are many stories like this of karmic visions happening at death related to the karma done during that lifetime, where the person is overwhelmed by terror, thrashing their limbs about, darting their eyes this way and that, tears pouring down their faces. Due to negativities done in that life they cannot hope to have a peaceful death; they must face a terrible death with so much suffering.

Even if you think you are not going to die and don’t make any preparations for your death; even if you think you won’t die today and plan only for the happiness of this life and not for future lives, death will still come. Therefore Lama Tsongkhapa advised that you must act as if you are going to die today. If you are aware of how imminent death is, then you will live your life very carefully. He gave this example. Say you hear that your enemy is coming in a very short time—say seven days, but Lama Tsongkhapa didn’t say that—and when they arrive they will definitely kill you. During that time you will be incredibly aware of how little time you have, and you will be very careful with everything you do.

Even if you knew your normal lifespan would be a hundred years, death is still uncertain; you would still have no idea when it might happen. Within those hundred years, or the number of years you have left from that, death could happen next year, or next month, or next week, or tomorrow. It could happen this minute. You have no idea. It will certainly happen within what’s left of that hundred-year lifespan. When it happens is completely uncertain.

Lama Tsongkhapa said that if you can determine when you wake up that today is the day you are going to die, that is excellent. If you do die today, that is excellent because you will have spent the day preparing for your next life. During those hours you had left, you have spent every moment in preparation by practicing the Dharma diligently. And if you determine you will die today and you don’t die, that is also excellent, because you have spent your day aware of death and because of that you will have also made so many preparations for your next life by practicing the Dharma diligently. You don’t have to feel disappointed you didn’t die even though you had planned for it; you should feel so happy you have used your time so constructively. Actually Lama Tsongkhapa didn’t say that last bit. I added that, but he sort of implied it.

It’s like you are staying here at the moment, but in a couple of days you will be flying back to the States. In that case, you wouldn’t put a lot of effort into your life here—how much flea powder you should buy, how many buckets you need—all you would be thinking about would be getting back home.

With the thought of impermanence and death, you have little concern for dealing with the problems of this life but you are always aware that you will soon be in another life and so you must make the best preparations for that. You’re only spending a night or two here, so you have already packed your things. Where you will spend your future life becomes a lot more important than where you are now.

The Kadampa geshes say that unless you remember impermanence and death right after you wake up, then whatever you do during the rest of the day does not become the Dharma. If you do remember impermanence and death in the morning, then all your actions become the Dharma. It’s the first meditation you should do in the morning. And if you remember impermanence and death at noon, then the rest of the day becomes Dharma. This advice comes from the experience of the great meditators who have meditated on impermanence and death.

Lama Tsongkhapa said that the most important thing to think is that, because the time of death is indefinite, every morning when you get up, you should determine that today you are going to die. Then, during the day, if your mind slips back into thoughts about worldly concern, you should remind yourself, generating the thought again and again that you will die today. In that way, even if there is something really complicated going on and there is much confusion, it will become small. It will seem so insignificant.

Sometimes you get an idea that the affairs of this life are essenceless, that they hold no importance for you. If something should happen or not, it doesn’t really matter; it doesn’t make much difference to you. Mostly, though, people see the affairs of this life as the most important thing—obtaining happiness in this life is the only goal—whereas the future life is unimportant. You need to reverse that and learn to see that obtaining the happiness of future lives is the most important work you can do, whereas working for this life is unimportant.

Even worldly people put the comfort and happiness of the future years ahead of today’s happiness and will work incredibly hard, wearing themselves out and facing many difficulties in order to be happy in their future years. They are so busy earning money for the future they are careless about the present, thinking that today’s comfort is unimportant. If it happens, it happens; if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t matter. That is the attitude you need, not for a comfortable future in this life but for the happiness of future lives. You need to change your mind and let go of being concerned only with the happiness of this life, now or in a few years’ time.

When you are concerned for the happiness of future lives rather than this one, you are on the graduated path of the lower capable being. However, Lama Tsongkhapa cautioned that you must still stabilize this thought through remembering impermanence and death. If not, the thought of future lives will degenerate.

HYMNS OF EXPERIENCE: THE IMPORTANCE OF REFUGE

In the next verses of Hymns of Experience, Lama Tsongkhapa said,

There is no certainty that after death we may not be born in the lower realms;
The protection from such terror lies in the Three Jewels alone;
So we must make firm the practice of going for refuge
And ensure that its precepts are never undermined.

This in turn depends on contemplating well the white and black karma
And their effects, and on perfect observance of the ethical norms.
I, a yogi, have practiced in this manner;
You, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.

If death were to happen now, right this minute, could you be certain you wouldn’t be reborn in the lower realms? This is a question you should ask yourself. I think for most of us there wouldn’t be any certainty at all. Here, Lama Tsongkhapa explains that unless you are completely sure, you need to find some security against it happening; you need a refuge, a method to save yourself from the lower realms.

Then the question arises, “Who can I take refuge in?” Who has the power to save you from the fear of the lower realms? When you investigate, you will see that only the Triple Gem has that power. Lama Tsongkhapa’s fatherly advice is that by taking extremely strong refuge in the Triple Gem you will have no fear of rebirth in the lower realms. Refuge is something you always need. It’s not just something you do for a day, a month or a year. It’s not like something you do but then over time it fades away, like a car disappearing from view over the horizon. You need to practice refuge without degeneration, all the time, making sure it is never undermined. 

I think Geshe-la has already explained refuge to you, about how the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha guide you, and about the specific and general precepts that go with taking refuge, so I don’t have to go over that again. I won’t need to explain it when we give the refuge ordination.
 
The general advice for the refuge precepts is listed as six:

• take refuge three times in the morning and three times at night 
• offer the first portion of food or drink
• guide others with compassion
• listen to teachings as much as possible
• always rely on the holy beings with all your heart
• never give up your refuge

By remembering again and again the different qualities of the Triple Gem, you should take refuge again and again with that thought. By remembering the benefits of refuge, you should recite the refuge prayer three times during the day and three times at night. Whether you say the words or not, you must take refuge in your mind three times during the day and three times at night.

Then, the second thing is by remembering Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s kindness, before you eat or drink anything, you should offer it, visualizing Shakyamuni Buddha at your heart. That’s what the texts say, but I believe it is also possible to visualize him in front of you or on your crown. Do it whichever way suits you, but you must first remember that Guru Shakyamuni Buddha is the embodiment of all the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and then making offerings with the thought of remembering his kindness.

The third precept is to guide other sentient beings into refuge with compassion in order to save them from the lower realms. And the fourth is to listen to the teachings as much as possible.

The fifth one is to always rely on the Triple Gem. By relying on them, whatever work you do will have less hindrances and be more successful.

Finally, you must never give up the Triple Gem, even if it costs your life, nor should you even make a joke about giving up your refuge. There is the story of a monk who was threatened by somebody who said he would kill the monk unless he gave up his ordination. I’m not sure whether it was his ordination or refuge, but anyway the monk refused, renouncing his life rather than his refuge. Even though he was killed, he was born in the deva realm; he was saved from rebirth in the realms of the suffering transmigratory beings.

So, those are the six general refuge precepts. They are all methods to ensure that you benefit yourself, that you obtain happiness for yourself.

Then Lama Tsongkhapa explained that, by taking refuge in the Buddha, you should practice the essential advice of the Buddha, which is that even if you are unable to offer benefit to others, you must at least not harm them. This is the practice of protecting your karma, of only creating white or positive karma by doing virtuous actions and never creating black or negative karma by doing nonvirtuous actions.

If you do the opposite and create only black actions rather than white ones, there is no way you can ever be happy. These precepts are like medicine you have been prescribed. The doctor has clearly shown you what will help, what you should take, and what is poison that you should not take because it will harm you. If you ignore the medicine and take the poison, going against the advice, there is no way the doctor can help you. Similarly, you must “reflect well on the white and black karma and their effects.”

You should try to understand the teachings on karma as the Buddha explained and generate faith in them, then practice correctly to not create new negative karma and purify whatever negative karma is on your mindstream.

Because there is no certainty that you won’t be born in the lower realms after you die, as Lama Tsongkhapa said, you must seek refuge from that. It’s definite that it is only the Triple Gem that can save you from this. This is his advice about what to do to prepare for death. As he said, “I, a yogi, have practiced in this manner; you, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.”

The best thing to do to prevent an unfortunate rebirth is, at the time of death, to take refuge in Shakyamuni Buddha or whatever different aspect of the enlightened mind you are familiar with, whatever aspect of the buddha mind you usually meditate on. If it’s Chenrezig then you take refuge in Chenrezig; if it’s Tara or Manjushri then you take refuge in them. Take refuge in whatever deity you already practice.

You must also remember your guru, that one you made Dharma contact with, the one you have received initiations, teachings and commentaries from. You might have many gurus, but it is good to focus on your main one and remember him or her. It is said in the tantra teachings that if you can remember your guru for even a second as you are dying, you will attain enlightenment earlier. Even if you led an evil life, having created incredible amounts of heavy negative karma, such as having killed many people in your early life, if you can be skillful, careful, at the time of death and remember the guru, you will be reborn in a pure land and attain enlightenment there. It is said you will attain enlightenment much earlier than somebody who doesn’t practice like that.

[Dedication prayers]

Lecture 31

December 8, 1980 (afternoon)

HYMNS OF EXPERIENCE COMMENTARY: PURIFICATION AND THE FOUR OPPONENT POWERS

Again, generate a pure bodhicitta motivation, thinking, “I must achieve enlightenment for the benefit of my kind mother sentient beings. Therefore, I’m going to listen to the commentary on the graduated path to enlightenment.”

In Hymns of Experience Lama Tsongkhapa said,

Until we’ve obtained the most qualified form to pursue the excellent path
We will fail to make great strides in our journey,
So we must strive in all the conditions without exception of such a form;
Thus these three doors of ours so sullied with evil karma and downfalls,

Since it is especially essential to purify their karmic defilements,
We must ensure to cherish the constant application all four powers.
I, a yogi, have practiced in this manner;
You, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.

You need a perfect body to achieve the supreme path, and for that you need to create the causes for that body. Therefore it is extremely important to purify whatever stains there are on your three doors of body, speech and mind by applying the four opponent forces.

That perfect body is the one qualified with the eight freedoms and ten richnesses. With such a body you can complete the supreme path, the path to enlightenment, which contains the sutra path and the tantra path, making it possible to attain the unified stage of Vajradhara in one brief lifetime in this body. Or, like Lama Tsongkhapa, who showed the aspect of becoming enlightened in the intermediate state. If not, you can become enlightened within two or three lifetimes.

In that, men and women are exactly equal. Nowadays a woman can be a police officer, just like a man. She can stand by the side of the road directing traffic, just like a man, or work in an office. If a man can be a solider, a woman should be able to be a soldier. Then, just as a man has the power to kill other human beings, a woman also has that power.

In that way, you can say that women have liberation at last, but that’s not real liberation; that’s not real women’s liberation. When a woman or man is free from confusion, that is liberation! When they are free from samsara, that is real, ultimate liberation.

Whatever worldly people say about liberation, screaming about women’s liberation, marching up and down, it doesn’t matter. What matters is taking care of your mind, never wasting your time, always making every moment highly meaningful by developing a good heart. That is the way to find relief from confusion.

As you continue practicing the holy Dharma, year by year, your experience of the path will become greater and greater. Then, at the time of your death, you can look after yourself, you can take care of yourself. That is what is called “self-supporting.” You need to become self-supporting before you die; then you are really taking care of yourself. Then, you can take the path you wish at the time of your death and you can give yourself liberation. Like this, the graduated sutra and tantra paths will gradually increase in your mind.

Even if you cannot achieve enlightenment, the unified state of Vajradhara, in this brief lifetime, you will be able to do so within seven lifetimes, or within sixteen, or three. If you are able to do that, that is the greatest liberation.

There are different explanations according to Theravadin and the Mahayana about how the body is transformed into an enlightened body, but according to Vajrayana, enlightenment is possible because men and women in this southern continent are born from the womb and the body consists of six elements, coming from the mother’s seed and the father’s sperm. Because both men and women have these six elements, supported by the pure practice of sutra and tantra, in this body they can both attain enlightenment, the unified state of Vajradhara. Men can achieve enlightenment like this and women can achieve enlightenment like this. Both are able to complete the path of the Secret Mantra with the support of sutra and tantra.

I have no time to explain what that means, but it is explained in some of the higher tantras, like in the mother tantras. From your side, whether you are a man or a woman, unless you take care of yourself, you cannot guide yourself. If you don’t try as much as possible to practice the holy Dharma with a good heart, if you don’t try to generate bodhicitta in this life, if you don’t try to gain realizations in future lives and generate the path that liberates you from samsara, you will have to experience problems endlessly, as a man, as a woman, whatever it is.

As much as you possibly can, you need to plant the seeds in this life to generate realizations in future lives. That is the only way to be free from being trapped endlessly in samsaric suffering. From beginningless lifetimes until now, every problem you have had to experience, and all the problems you hear about that happen in the world, all come from not giving yourself freedom. So, it is vital now that you don’t cheat yourself.

It says that you need to create the cause of the perfect human body, to find the perfect body able to practice the sublime path, one that does not fall short of any of the eight freedoms and ten richnesses. If there were one of those eighteen qualities missing, you would need to find what the cause of that quality is and do whatever you can to create it. But you have found a perfect human body because you have created the perfect causes in your previous lives without missing one, and so in this life you have the perfect conditions to actualize the supreme path. Therefore, you must utilize this precious opportunity.

If you don’t make use of this opportunity that has come about only after so many hundreds of lifetimes of hard work and prayer, of making offerings to the Triple Gem, of making so much charity to sentient beings and observing pure morality, if you can’t even utilize this chance you have, there is nothing more foolish, nothing more ignorant. As Shantideva said,

After having found this freedom,
If I do not train my mind in virtue,
There is nothing more deceptive,
There is no greater folly than this.⁴⁴ 

There is no greater loss that this; there is no way you can cheat yourself more than this. Whatever attainment you cannot complete in this lifetime, you must strive to complete in the next. Like that, from life to life, you can progress through all the stages, from guru devotion all the way to enlightenment. But with any other body there is no way to so this. Even if you can attain another human body you will not be able to practice the holy Dharma, the supreme path to enlightenment. Therefore, now that you have this perfect human body with all the qualities, one that will enable you to complete the supreme path, you must use it to attain enlightenment. You must use this body to make preparations to find another perfect human body in your next life and in all your future lives.

It is extremely important to understand what blocks your ability to do this. What stops you generating bodhicitta? What stops you understanding and realizing emptiness? What disturbs you and interferes with you quickly generating renunciation? Why do you find it difficult to understand the teachings? In short, you must understand what interferes with your development on the graduated path to enlightenment.

It is the negative karmic imprints on your mindstream, the obscurations that cloud your mind. Because of them, no matter how much you try to meditate, nothing happens in the mind. You are incapable of getting anywhere near any attainment; you cannot approach the path. This is due to having very thick karmic obscurations.

That is why Lama Tsongkhapa strongly emphasized how important it is to purify your karmic defilements, the delusions that cloud your mind. The various negative karmas you have accumulated from beginningless lifetimes are incredibly powerful, and without finding remedies powerful enough to counter these, there is no way you can hope for another perfect human body in the future. At the moment of your death, whichever karma is the most powerful—positive or negative—will determine your next rebirth, so if your negative karma is more powerful, you can only expect to be born in the realm of the suffering transmigratory beings.

Lama Tsongkhapa explained that the most powerful way to purify the karmic obscurations that stain the three doors of our body, speech and mind is by the four opponent powers. It is not sufficient to do a purification practice using these powers for a day; it’s not sufficient to do it for a month or three months. Even three years is not sufficient. Lama Tsongkhapa said that you must do it all the time. That’s not in this translation, but it’s there in the Tibetan and it has unbelievable meaning; it contains so much.

It is extremely important to purify the three doors that have been stained by the negative karma, the downfalls of the vows. You must cherish the constant practice of the four powers, following them completely, constantly. You must live in the four powers. The word “follow” makes sense because this is something you always do. You need practice to be able to do this and it is extremely important. Cherishing the four powers means you need to keep this practice in your heart constantly.

For example, if you kill a louse and you don’t use this practice to purify your negative action, it doubles the next day and then doubles after that and after eighteen days the karmic result of that deed is huge. It’s like planting potatoes on a mountain. You plant half a potato, one that has eyes and has the potential to grow, and then when you dig it up there are ten potatoes there if the conditions are there. From one you get many. Or you plant one grain of rice and you get a whole field of rice in return. Like that, after killing one louse and not purifying, after eighteen days it’s the same as having killed 132,000 lice. It multiplies that much if nothing is done to purify it. That’s why, when Lama Tsongkhapa tells you to practice this all the time, it has great meaning.

Unless you do a purifying practice like the Thirty-five Buddhas confession prayer or the Vajrasattva practice at night to purify whatever negative action you have done in the day, it become double the next day. When you do a practice like that with the four opponent powers, it stops that happening. Any negative action you have done is purified and cannot multiply the next day. Therefore, this is something you must do every day.

You should do this three times during the day: in the morning, in the afternoon and at night, at the end of the day. If you can’t do that you must at least do the practice of confession with the four powers at the end of the day, before going to bed.

If you can do that, you can not only purify the negative karma accumulated that day and stop it from multiplying the next day, the negative karma you have accumulated from beginningless rebirths becomes thinner; it can never increase, so that is a great advantage. Even if you don’t manage to do any other practices, if you can continue this practice every day until your death, you will be able to feel very happy when you die, so this practice is incredibly meaningful.

No matter how busy your life is, you must at least make sure this practice is done every night. You must follow Lama Tsongkhapa’s advice to cherish the constant application of the four powers. It is an extremely useful way to save yourself from the lower realms and quickly generate the realizations of the path to enlightenment.

One of the four opponent powers is the power of the remedy. There are many different ways you can practice that, such as reading scriptures like Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life¸ the Heart Sutra and the other teachings of the Prajnaparamita sutras, or the teachings on emptiness. You can also make buddha statues or tsa tsas. I think Lama Tsongkhapa did that, but I can’t remember.

I think Lama Tsongkhapa practiced in the daytime, after breakfast or morning tea, making charity to the hungry ghosts by making pills with tsampa, barley flour, mixed with curd and white food. The first thing he did when he got up was do an extensive self-initiation in Yamantaka, even before breakfast, and when he had finished that he did many Kriya Tantra practices.

Then, before twelve, he did many purifying practices, such as making big statue molds of buddhas and making statues of them out of mud. You can also do this in the water, with a block making a print on the water and counting each number. Although the image doesn’t stay on the water, you not only purify in this manner but the image of the buddha in the water also blesses the water and purifies the creatures that are in the water. You can do that or do a deity practice.

At sunset Lama Tsongkhapa made offerings to the protectors and then at around midnight he did a complete Chakrasamvara self-initiation. In between all this, he gave teachings, wrote scriptures and commentaries and received many learned geshes who came to discuss the subtle points of sutra and tantra that they didn’t understand. All these different practices, giving Dharma teachings, reading scriptures like the Kangyur and Tengyur—these were just some of the things that Lama Tsongkhapa did in one day.

And while doing all these various activities, his mind was continually in the yoga practice of tantra, the well-stabilized yoga of the gradual path, the concentration on the mandala of the deity. We can’t even get a clear visualization of the deity for a minute! Even in the daytime, when he was working or having a meal, his holy mind spontaneously saw everything as illusory, as empty of true existence.

If you recite the prayer of the Confession of a Bodhisattva’s Downfalls to the Thirty-five Buddhas, the prayer itself contains the four opponent powers. As long as you say the prayer and your mind follows the meaning of what the prayer says, then you are practicing the four opponent powers. When your mind follows the meaning of the prayer, you are living in the complete four powers, you are always being reminded to practice the four powers. 

When you recite the Heart Sutra or do a Vajrasattva practice, even though the words don’t mention the four powers, you are still purifying. When you do the Vajrasattva mantra with the four powers to stop negative karma increasing, you should do the long one twenty-one times or the short one, OM VAJRASATTVA HUM, twenty-eight times.

The Hymns of Experience says, 

So it’s vital to seek true renunciation of disenchantment with existence
And to recognize which factors chain us in the cycle of existence.
I, a yogi, have practiced in this manner;
You, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.⁴⁵ 

This is the general practice of the middle scope. Then the practice of the higher scope.

Generating the mind is the central axle of the supreme vehicle path;
It’s the foundation and the support of all expansive deeds;
To all instances of two accumulations it is like the elixir of gold;
It’s the treasury of merits containing myriad collections of virtues;

Recognizing these truths the heroic bodhisattvas
Uphold the precious supreme mind as the heart of their practice.
I, a yogi, have practiced in this manner;
You, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.⁴⁶ 

People use the terms “lower scope,” “middle scope” and “higher scope” but somehow, if you retranslate it into Tibetan it’s very funny. It doesn’t come out. The Sanskrit actually means “being of a lower capacity” and so forth.

Giving is the wish-granting jewel that satisfies the wishes of all beings;
It’s the best weapon to cut the constricting knots of miserliness;
It’s an undaunted deed of the bodhisattva giving birth to courage;
It’s the basis to proclaim one’s fame throughout all ten directions;

Knowing this the learned ones seek the excellent path
Of giving away entirely their body, wealth and virtues.
I, a yogi, have practiced in this manner;
You, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.

Morality is the water that washes off the stains of ill deeds;
It’s the cooling moonlight dispelling the burning agony of afflictions;
In the midst of people it is most majestic like the Mt Meru;
It draws together all beings without any display of force;

Knowing this the sublime ones guard as if they would their eyes,
The perfect disciplines which they have chosen to adopt.
I, a yogi, have practiced in this manner;
You, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.

Forbearance is the supreme ornament for those who have power;
It’s the greatest fortitude against the agonies of afflictions;
Against its enemy the snake of hate it is a garuda cruising in the sky;
Against the weapon of harsh words it’s the strongest armor;

Knowing this we should habituate ourselves with
The armor of excellent forbearance by all possible means.
I, a yogi, have practice in this manner;
You, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.

If the armor of unflinching perseverance is worn,
Knowledge of scripture and realization increases like waxing moon;
All conducts become fused with good purpose;
And whatever initiatives we may begin succeeds as hoped for;

Knowing this the bodhisattvas apply great waves of effort,
Which help to dispel all forms of laziness.
I, a yogi, have practiced in this manner;
You, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.

Concentration is the king that reigns over the mind;
When left it is as unwavering as the king of mountains;
When set forth it engages with all objects of virtue;
It induces the great bliss of a serviceable body and mind;

Knowing this the great accomplished yogis
Constantly apply meditations destroying the enemy of distraction.
I, a yogi, have practiced in this manner;
You, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.

Wisdom is the eye that sees the profound suchness;
It’s the path eradicating cyclic existence from its very root;
It’s a treasury of higher qualities that are praised in all scriptures;
It’s known as the supreme lamp dispelling the darkness of delusion;

Knowing this the learned ones who aspire for liberation.
Endeavor with multiple efforts to cultivate this path.
I, a yogi, have practiced in this manner;
You, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.

In a mere one-pointed concentration I fail to see
The potency to cut the root of cyclic existence;
Yet with wisdom devoid of the path of tranquil abiding,
No matter how much one may probe, the afflictions will not be overcome.

So this wisdom decisively penetrating the true mode of being,
The learned ones saddle it astride the horse of unwavering calm abiding;
And with the sharp weapon of reasoning of the Middle Way free of extremes,
They dismantle all locus of objectification of the mind grasping at extremes;

With such expansive wisdom that probes with precision,
The learned ones enhance the wisdom realizing the suchness.
I, a yogi, have practiced in this manner;
You, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.⁴⁷ 

This is Lama Tsongkhapa showing his understanding, his experiences. Tantra is not just a small thing, not just reciting mantra alone, not just playing cymbals. You should study. There are many extensive scriptures of tantra that you should study, showing you how to attain the generation stage and the completion stage without mistake.

What need is there say that through one-pointed cultivation
Absorption is realized? Through discriminative awareness
Probing with precision as well one can abide unwavering
And utterly stable upon the true mode of being.

Wondrous are those who see this
And strive for the union of abiding and insight.
I, a yogi, have practiced in this manner;
You, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.

The space-like emptiness of meditative equipoise,
And the illusion-like emptiness of the subsequent realizations,
Praised are those who cultivate them and bind together
The method and wisdom and travel beyond the bodhisattva deeds.

It’s the way of the fortunate ones
To realize this and not to be content with partial paths;
I, a yogi, have practiced in this manner;
You, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.

Thus having cultivated as they are the common paths
Essential for the two supreme paths of causal and resultant great vehicles,
I have entered the great ocean of tantras
By relying upon the leadership of the learned navigators;

And through application of the quintessential instructions,
I have made meaningful human existence that I have obtained.
I, a yogi, have practiced in this manner;
You, who aspire for liberation, too should do likewise.

In order to make familiar to my own mind,
And to help benefit fortunate others as well,
I’ve explained here in words easy to understand
In its entirety the path that pleases the conquerors.

“Through this virtue may all beings be never divorced
From the perfectly pure excellent path” thus I pray;
I, a yogi, have made aspirations in this manner;
You, who aspire for liberation, too should pray likewise.⁴⁸ 

This translation is very good. Only a few words are missing, otherwise it’s a very good translation. 

The seven-point cause and effect technique for attaining bodhicitta was explained in quite a lot of detail at the beginning of the course. This is the second time the details are explained. Then there’s equalizing and exchanging yourself for others, the bodhicitta thought training technique, where, after the shortcomings of the self-cherishing thought and the benefits of cherishing others are explained, there is the tonglen practice. I’m hoping to explain a little bit about that tomorrow, as a preliminary before taking the bodhisattva vows.

I think the bodhisattva vows have already been explained—what the different vows are—so I don’t need to say anything about them.

[End of course transcription]

---

Notes 

⁴² V. 40, quoted in Hopkins, Jeffrey, Meditation on Emptiness, p. 673, Wisdom Publications. [Return to text]

⁴³ Vv. 13 and 14. [Return to text]

⁴⁴ Ch. 4, v. 2. [Return to text]

⁴⁵ V. 20. [Return to text]

⁴⁶ Vv. 21 and 22. [Return to text]

⁴⁷ Vv. 24–37. [Return to text]

⁴⁸ Vv. 38–47. [Return to text]