Chapter 11. Friday, November 2: Final Medicine Buddha Session
The power of compassion
Good afternoon, everyone. I’m late because I was watching TV. Last time, Russia was fighting Afghanistan. Even though Russia is so big, with all its armies and airplanes, and Afghanistan is a very small country, with the Afghanis like ants hiding under stones, the Russians couldn’t defeat them. The Afghanis had a system for dealing with any Afghanis who were spying for the Russians. They would chain a few people together, then cut off their heads with a big axe. One of the executioners came with a heavy axe and was very proud of what he had done. I think he killed four thousand people. He was very thin, with a beard—just as usual.
You can’t say that every Muslim is a barbarian, because there will be buddhas and bodhisattvas among Muslims. In any religion there will be manifestations of buddhas and bodhisattvas. You can’t say that everyone with that traditional look is a barbarian, because Buddha manifests also as maras. It seems that some things, even though they seemed to be interfering with Buddha, were simply Buddha’s manifestations. Sometimes, to show sentient beings his capacity, Buddha would manifest in other forms, as evil beings, who would interfere with Buddha’s activities. To handle sentient beings Buddha had to play with them, just as older people act differently when they play with children; they do all sorts of things to make the children happy. I think the buddhas have to act in a similar way to handle sentient beings. The buddhas have to do all sorts of things because there are all kinds of sentient beings. Buddha has to play games with each sentient being. Buddha has to do all sorts of things in all sorts of manners to gradually bring each sentient being from happiness to happiness to enlightenment. The main goal is to bring sentient beings to enlightenment, but it has to happen step by step. The buddhas can’t just bring sentient beings directly to enlightenment; in the meantime they have to play kindergarten with the sentient beings, I think.
Anyway, Afghanistan is a very heavy country with very heavy people. The people in this country have no opportunity to hear Dharma or even a mantra. I was telling Roger and his nephew, Brandon, how fortunate we are compared to them. These people have so much heavy negative karma and no opportunity to purify it—not even for one day. One thing that could purify it is compassion. Even if you’re not Buddhist, even if you don’t have faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, if you have strong compassion, if you have a good heart, you can still purify your negative karma. If you have faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, of course, the easiest way to purify those heavy negative karmas would be by chanting mantras, such as the Medicine Buddha mantra, OM MANI PADME HUM and so forth. Mantras are like atomic bombs in purifying the mind. But if you don’t have faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha or in karma, the only opportunity to purify that you have left is through generating compassion, through having a good heart. There’s a chance to purify if you bear hardships to serve others with a good heart. For those people who don’t have faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and don’t understand reincarnation and so forth, there’s the good heart; there’s compassion. The only chance they have is if they have a good heart. When they generate compassion for somebody, they then have some opportunity to purify. Here I’m not talking about generating compassion for all sentient beings. They don’t understand “all sentient beings”; they just understand a human being or an animal who is suffering . The stronger the compassion they generate, the more negative karma they purify and the closer they become to enlightenment. Even if they have no faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, I would say that they become closer to enlightenment.
For example, some texts say that the first time Buddha generated bodhicitta was in a hell realm. I’m not sure that this is what everyone says, but this is according to some texts. Buddha, in a past life, had to pull a cart on the red-hot iron ground in a hot hell, along with another hell being. They were like two animals pulling a cart. Buddha felt it was unbearable suffering and was concerned that the other being also had to suffer so much, so he thought, “Why don’t I pull the cart by myself and allow him to be free?” As soon as he generated this compassion, a karmic guardian hit him on the head with a hammer, and his consciousness was transferred to Tushita or to the Thirty-three Realm. (I don’t remember which one it was.) The power of that special attitude wishing to take on himself the suffering of the other being who had to pull the cart immediately purified all his negative karma to be in the hell realm and suffer on the red-hot iron ground. Due to the power of compassion, all that negative karma was purified, and his consciousness was transferred from the hell realm to Tushita or the Thirty-three Realm.
Therefore, I would say that when you generate compassion for some being, whether a human being or an insect, the stronger the compassion you generate, the closer you become to enlightenment because you purify more negative karma, even if at that time you’re not a Buddhist and don’t have faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Of course, it will eventually, either in that life or in a future life, enable you to have faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
So, the only chance these Afghani people have is through generating compassion, and that’s unbelievably difficult because of wrong views. It seems that in Islam there are no teachings on how sentient beings are kind. It seems there’s no emphasis on not harming others or benefiting others. If people don’t think that way, it’s very difficult to bring peace through that religion. It’s sometimes said that in the beginning some religions were pure, but other people then introduced wrong views into the religion and it degenerated.
In their whole life such people have no opportunity, not even once, to purify their negative karma. Of course, if you don’t generate a single regret or do any confession, the negative karmas get multiplied hour by hour, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. Even a very small negative karma will then become very heavy. The lamrim explains what makes karma heavy. Even a small negative karma becomes very heavy if you do it repeatedly. If you don’t feel regret and make confession with the remedy of the four powers, there is no antidote to the negative karma. There is nothing to reduce, or weaken, the negative karma. Because of that, even a small negative karma can become very powerful.
Anyway, I was saying that we would find it unbearable if we were now born like those people in Afghanistan. We would find it unbearable to be in that situation, with that state of mind, totally ignorant of karma. But if someone has a good heart, the thought of benefiting others, that’s another matter, even if they don’t have faith in reincarnation and so forth.
Therefore, what we are doing here—taking this opportunity to do Medicine Buddha retreat, especially because Medicine Buddha practice is incredibly blessed and precious—is unbelievably, unbelievably fortunate. We have given ourselves the time and the freedom to do this retreat. Just by reciting each of the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas once at the beginning of every session, we purify many thousands of eons of negative karma. This is without talking about the session itself—just talking about the prostrations at the beginning. On top of reciting each name, we collect skies of merit with each prostration. If you do each prostration by thinking that you are prostrating to all the buddhas, you create numberless causes of enlightenment. By putting your palms together to all the buddhas and by lying down in prostration to all of them, you create numberless causes of enlightenment and, by the way, numberless causes of liberation from samsara and, by the way, numberless causes of the happiness of future lives. There is then no doubt that the success of this life comes by the way. All happiness simply comes by the way. So, it’s unbelievable.
This is without talking about meditating on the three principles of the path, based on guru devotion, which hooks all the blessings. By receiving blessings, you’re able to transform your mind, to change your mind for the better, and to achieve realizations, the ultimate one of which is omniscient mind. You are then able to liberate the numberless sentient beings from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment. Being able to do that is just amazing! Even thinking about liberating every single sentient being from their suffering and its causes and bringing them to full enlightenment is amazing.
How many worms are there? If we’re talking about the number of worms on the earth, they’re uncountable. If we’re talking about the number of worms on one farm or in one field, there are so many. This is talking only about what we can see with the naked eye. When we use a microscope, we see that they are uncountable. Those worms are eaten by birds, by other animals in the ground and by one another. When we generate the attitude of bodhicitta, we are praying for every single one of those worms. How many worms are there in one field? In one country? In this world? In the other human continents? In the numberless universes? In the numberless universes, there are numberless sets of Mount Merus and numberless human continents (east, west, south and north), like in the mandala offering. Scientists don’t talk about Mount Meru, but they do talk about numberless universes. So, when we generate the attitude of bodhicitta, we say, “I will liberate all sentient beings, including the numberless worms and even the tiny ones that can be seen only through a microscope, and bring them to enlightenment by myself. I will bring them all to enlightenment.”
There are also numberless ants. Again, how many ants are there in one spot? There are an uncountable number—many more than the number of people in a city—so there’s no doubt about the number of ants living on one mountain. It makes the number of people in a city insignificant. Think of all the numberless ants in one country, on the whole earth and then in numberless universes. When we generate bodhicitta we are thinking to free all those numberless ants from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment. We think, “I am going to do it.” That thought is just amazing. It’s really incredible. When we recite the words, “I will bring all sentient beings to enlightenment,” it sounds simple. When we don’t think about the details, about each type of sentient being, each type of insect, which are numberless, it seems very easy. It sounds as if we are bringing sentient beings who are very far from us, somewhere between the clouds and the earth, to enlightenment.
The causes of abuse
The words you say in the bodhicitta prayer include your parents, your family and your enemy. It includes the person you call your enemy, the person who has abused you and toward whom you have built up hatred because of your projections. You put a negative label, “bad,” on that person and “abuse” on that person’s action. Your mind made up the label, believed in that label, and that is what then appears to you. So, your mind made it up. Your mind made up the label and you then allowed your mind to believe in that label. That then made you generate hatred in your heart. I will say here, as I’ve said in London and other places, that when you analyze the situation, you find that the abuse actually came from you. Why? Because it came from your mind. If your mind hadn’t labeled and you hadn’t believed in your label, you wouldn’t see yourself as having been abused. The abuse that you see came from your concept. Your mind imputed “abuse” and believed in what it had imputed. You made up the concept, “This is bad.” Your belief in that concept then made you generate hatred toward the person for years and years and years, for your whole life. It’s very difficult to make the hatred go away, to separate from it. It’s difficult to heal. Because you never change your concept, your problem never changes; your hatred never changes. The hatred is always there, because you never change your mind, your concept.
This explanation is talking about only this life, about how this problem of abuse came from your present life, from your mind making up the label “abuse” and believing in it. Here we’re not talking in terms of reincarnation and past karma.
Now, on top of that, there’s your past karma. There is a reason that this situation happened. The reason this happened existed before the situation, before the abusive relationship. The reason existed before you were born. Everything you experience in this life doesn’t have to come solely from past-life karma; you create some of the karmas in this life: last month, last year or in your early life. Sometimes you create the karma one day and experience the result the next day, or sometimes even the same day.
Before we were talking about how things come from your mind in this life and not about karma. The other reason, a very deep reason, is karma. This abuse is happening because you treated that person in a similar way in the past. So, it’s the result of past karma, of your doing the same thing to others.
So, what is the conclusion? The conclusion is that you have to purify your negative karma. One way to solve this problem is to change your mind, to change your concept, which means the practice of thought transformation. The other solution is to purify your karma. This is what you have to do from now on not to experience such a thing again.
Because of that abuse, you feel so much hatred and experience so much suffering and so many emotional problems that you feel as if you are the worst person in the world. You feel that you are the one who is suffering the most in the world. You don’t see anybody else suffering —only yourself. You think, “I am the only one suffering in the world.” This happens because of the influence of society. It has to do with the society, which believes that abuse is the most terrible thing . You then make yourself the most terrible person and the person who is experiencing the most suffering . Because you make the problem so huge, you don’t see the sufferings of other sentient beings, even other human beings. There are beings with suffering that is a billion times worse than yours, but you don’t see that. You see only your own suffering. Wherever you go, you see only your suffering, only your problem. Of course, you don’t see the sufferings of the hell beings or of the beings in the other lower realms, who experience the heaviest sufferings.
There are negative actions that society doesn’t think are heavy even though they are very heavy negative karma, and there are certain things that society thinks are terrible. It has partially to do with social beliefs, which you then follow.
The benefits of living in vows
The solution is to purify the past negative karma—what has already been done not just in this one life but during numberless past lives—and not to commit negative karma again. This depends on understanding the benefits of living an ethical life, of living in morality. I’m not sure whether these terms actually mean the same thing. I don’t think living an ethical life covers taking precepts and living in vows. Basically it means abstaining from the ten nonvirtuous actions. I guess that being ethical means abstaining from the very basic things like stealing and sexual misconduct, though I’m not sure about killing. I think the definition of an ethical life depends on the society. It would probably be agreed that abstaining from stealing is part of an ethical life and maybe abstaining from sexual misconduct, but I don’t know about killing. In Western society somebody who is virtuous wouldn’t kill people, but I’m not sure that abstaining from killing animals would be part of an ethical life as defined by Western society. I don’t think the definition of abstaining from killing is as extensive as it is in Buddhism.
Even though the definition of what an ethical life is varies, basically it means abstaining from the ten nonvirtues, from sexual misconduct and so forth, done with self-cherishing, ignorance, anger, desire or another impure mind. It is the motivation that makes an action negative karma.
The solution is to abstain from those negative actions and not commit them again. You have to understand the benefits of an ethical life; you have to understand the inner peace and happiness that come from it, as well as the stability of mind, without ups and downs. I think the root of the ups and downs of life, and especially depression, is definitely nonvirtuous action.
I have mentioned a few times that one or two years ago, I saw a sutra that talked about the benefits of living in the five lay precepts and the shortcomings of not living in them. There Buddha explained that when your mind suddenly becomes depressed, or unhappy, in the evening and you don’t know why, it’s the result of the past negative karma of sexual misconduct. It is one of the results, besides the ripened aspect result of rebirth in the lower realms and all the sufferings you experience there. After some time when, due to another good karma, you are born as a human being, you then experience problems, the other results of the past negative karma of sexual misconduct, in the human realm. One of the results is your mind suddenly becoming depressed in the evening. It doesn’t mention suddenly becoming depressed in the morning, but I think it’s the same. Many people say, “I was feeling OK, but when I woke up this morning my mind suddenly became very unhappy and I don’t know why.”
Buddha said in this sutra that suddenly becoming depressed in the evening is one of the results of sexual misconduct. It’s not the only result— it’s just one of the problems you experience in the human realm. Another result is the ripened aspect result, which you experience in the lower realms. Another result you experience in the human realm is creating the result similar to the cause, which means again engaging in sexual misconduct due to your previous habits. There is also the possessed result, which has to do with the environment. Even when you are born as a human being, you have to live in a dirty, smelly, unhealthy place. Even if we usually live in a very clean place, sometimes we have to pass through, even if only for a short time, muddy, filthy places that are filled with excrement and garbage. Even though we might experience such places for just a short time, other people have to live their whole lives in such places. Even though we don’t usually live in such places, at certain times we experience them as a result of our past sexual misconduct.
Creating the result similar to the cause means that when, due to another good karma, you are born as a human being, because of the previous imprint, or habit, you again engage in sexual misconduct. Because you haven’t purified the negative imprint, it is manifested out and you again engage in the same negative karma of sexual misconduct. That complete negative karma of sexual misconduct again produces another set of four suffering results: the ripened aspect result, experiencing the result similar to the cause, creating the result similar to the cause and the possessed result. After experiencing the ripened aspect result, due to another good karma, you are born as a human being and you again create the result similar to the cause, which means that you again engage in sexual misconduct. That complete negative karma again produces four suffering results. (A complete negative karma has four factors—base, thought, action and goal—complete.) So, from that one negative karma of sexual misconduct the resultant suffering goes on and on: from one negative karma of sexual misconduct comes another one, from that one comes another one, from that one comes another one....
Also, karma is expandable. You create the negative karma one time but you experience the resultant suffering again and again and again. You can experience it so many times in one life, and also in many hundreds or thousands of lifetimes. By creating one negative karma, you then experience the suffering results for so many lifetimes, because karma is expandable. You don’t experience the result just one time but in many lifetimes. It’s very important to remember that karma is expandable. It’s not that you experience the result one time and the karma is then finished. Because karma is expandable, you can experience the result in many lifetimes, even hundreds or thousands of lifetimes.
In Aryadeva’s Four Hundred Stanzas, it says that if you cheat one sentient being one time, you will then be cheated by others for a thousand lifetimes. Why? Because karma is expandable. There are four outlines of karma: karma is definite, which means that you definitely experience the result; karma is expandable; you don’t experience the result of karma if you haven’t created the cause; and the karma that you have created is never lost. Even if it takes billions of eons, in time you will definitely experience the result. However, it’s not like in Christianity, where if you go to hell, you are then there forever in the hell realm, with no opportunity to free yourself from hell. In Buddhism there’s so much flexibility and unbelievable freedom. Here it means that if you don’t purify the karma, you will still experience the suffering result of even a small negative karma even if it takes billions of eons. Even if it takes billions of billions of billions of eons to be experienced, it won’t get lost. But no matter how heavy the negative karma is, if you purify it, you won’t experience the result. This is how it is in Buddhism, and this is how it is in reality.
I think that Chöden Rinpoche recently went over the outlines of karma here or at Vajrapani Institute. It’s very important to think about how karma is expandable, because that then makes us take more responsibility in relation to karma and gives us more courage to abandon negative karma.
Here I am talking about committing one negative karma one time. From that one negative karma, the consequences go on and on from creating the result similar to the cause, from that negative imprint and habituation. The suffering result of that negative karma is endless and makes the suffering of samsara endless. If we follow our desire and don’t purify anything but leave everything up to karma, we make the suffering of samsara endless.
Now think about being on the verge of engaging in negative karma and stopping yourself just one time in your life. Since you experience the suffering result of one negative karma of sexual misconduct from life to life—the suffering of samsara from this one negative karma goes on and on and on, endlessly—if you stop yourself from engaging in that one negative karma, all those sufferings are completely stopped; you don’t have to experience them. They don’t happen because you didn’t create that one negative karma. Because you didn’t create the cause, you don’t have to experience all the consequences, all the sufferings that go on and on and on. Since the absence of all that suffering is peace and happiness, you give yourself so much peace and happiness from life to life.
Living in morality by taking a vow from holy objects or a virtuous friend and living in that vow results in four types of happiness. In regard to the ripened aspect result, instead of rebirth in the lower realms, you have the body of a happy migratory being, which means a deva or human body. When you are born as a human being in future lives, you are surrounded by people who are harmonious with and support you. Everybody’s wish accords with yours. Your husband, wife or partner is very supportive; their way of thinking exactly accords with yours. Their wishes are exactly the same as your wishes, as if you’re one person. Because everything is very harmonious, you experience so much peace and happiness. This is the result of living in the morality of abstaining from sexual misconduct. We see certain people like that: couples or families that are very happy and harmonious, that experience much peace and happiness. That is the result of having lived in the morality of abstaining from sexual misconduct in the past.
Also, in future lives you are again able to live in morality. The possessed result is that you always live in a beautiful, clean place where there are beautiful flowers and a clean, scented smell instead of a dirty smell. You have the karma to always enjoy such a place. This is the result, not just in one lifetime but in hundreds or thousands of lifetimes, from that one good karma of living, not even your whole life but just one day, in the precept of abstaining from sexual misconduct. In the five lay vows, the vows of individual liberation, it’s abstaining from sexual misconduct, but in the one-day Eight Mahayana Precepts it’s abstaining completely from any sexual activity. From living in that vow for one day, you can experience those resultant happinesses not just the one time and not just in the one life but in hundreds or thousands of lifetimes.
It is the same with each of the other negative karmas, and we should think in the same way with each good karma. We experience the results of living in morality one time for one day for hundreds or thousands of lifetimes.
There are two quotations, one from Moonlight Sutra and the other from King of Concentration Sutra, that are very encouraging, but I might have got them mixed up with other quotations. Once when Rilbur Rinpoche was staying at the Aptos house we did Vajrayogini self-initiation and I saw that Rinpoche kept these quotations as very precious in his prayer book.
This first one is from the King of Concentration Sutra. With a calm mind, offering food, drink, umbrellas, flags, garlands of light and service to ten million times one hundred million buddhas.... I’ll explain here the Tibetan terms for the numbers. I’ve translated these terms a few times but the translation doesn’t stay in my mind. Ten times one hundred million, or a billion, is called a ther bum, and ten ther bum, or ten billion, is called a great ther bum. Now, ten great ther bum, or one hundred billion, is one trag trig. Of course, the numbers don’t stop there; they go on.49
So, with a calm mind, offering food, drink, umbrellas, flags, garlands of light and service to ten million times one hundred million buddhas, for how many eons? For eons ten million times the number of sand grains of the Pacific Ocean. Here this is not just the sand grains of one river, the River Ganga, but the sand grains of the Pacific Ocean, the largest ocean in the world. In the teachings, and also recently when Chöden Rinpoche was giving lamrim teachings, when talking about how heavy the karma of avoiding the holy Dharma is, Rinpoche said that that negative karma is much heavier than having destroyed all the stupas of Buddha built in this world. At that time Rinpoche mentioned that the term River Ganga doesn’t mean the river that comes from Mount Kailash and flows through Varanasi, India, and which Hindus believe can purify negative karma, or sin, by washing in it. They bring dead people to the river to wash their body, believing that their sin is then gone. That river is called the Ganga, but I think I recently saw in one of Rilbur Rinpoche’s texts that the expression also means the Pacific Ocean. The sand grains of the Pacific Ocean make it the largest number.
Compared to continuously making offerings to that many buddhas for that many eons, somebody keeping one precept for one day and night when the holy Dharma has degenerated, when the teaching of the One Gone to Bliss (which means Buddha) has stopped, is far greater. For example, we take the Eight Mahayana Precepts from dawn one day until dawn the next day, which makes it one day, or twenty-four hours. The merit from keeping just one precept, one vow, for one day is far greater than that from making so many offerings to ten million times one hundred million buddhas not just for one day, one year or even one hundred years, but for eons equal to ten million times the number of sand grains of the Pacific Ocean. All those merits are amazing, but they become insignificant when compared to the merit from taking one precept and keeping it for one day.
Buddha explained this in the sutra King of Concentration. Rilbur Rinpoche keeps this quotation in his prayer book and Rinpoche said that he reads it from time to time.
There is also a quotation from my root guru, His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche, in his teaching about the benefits of the Eight Mahayana Precepts.50
When the holy Dharma has degenerated and the teaching of the One Gone to Bliss has stopped, the merit of somebody keeping one precept day and night (which means for one full day) is far greater than that of somebody making offerings to ten million Victorious Ones (which means buddhas) for an inconceivable number of eons.
This quotation is from another sutra, but it’s talking in a similar way.
In the past, when it was not a degenerate time and Buddha’s teaching was flourishing in this world, it was much easier to practice and to keep vows than now, when the Buddha’s teaching is setting like the sun. Since there are so many obstacles now, keeping one precept for one day creates far greater merit.
Therefore, again, we are unbelievably fortunate here that every day, we are not just doing retreat but Medicine Buddha retreat, which is unbelievably powerful, and we are taking not just one precept but eight precepts. We can’t even imagine the amount of merit we’re collecting—we’re unbelievably fortunate. We have to recognize what we are doing and realize its benefits. Otherwise, you will think of only your problems and nothing else. You will make yourself dark, thinking, “I am this and that.” We can collect all these merits then offer them to the world. Can you imagine? We not only collect all these merits but offer them to all sentient beings and for the teachings to be developed and spread. It’s amazing! This the best social service. I normally explain that living in precepts, in vows, is the best contribution to world peace, even though you’re not someone famous in the world for having won the Nobel peace prize.
Usually people consider social service to be paid or voluntary work to help children or old people, such as cleaning in a hospital and so forth. It usually involves being seen in public helping people. But if you think very broadly, like the sky, and very long-term.... Of course, you can do both.
As I normally say, if someone is living in the one vow of abstaining from killing, all the rest of the numberless sentient beings, people and animals, don’t receive the harm of being killed from that person. So, the absence of that harm of being killed is peace and happiness. The numberless human beings and animals not receiving harm from that one person who is living in the vow of abstaining from killing are receiving peace and happiness. Absence of that harm is peace and happiness that all those numberless sentient beings receive from that person.
You can see that one person living in the vow of not killing is really the most practical thing, because it covers all living beings. Since you live in a vow not to kill any living being, all those numberless other beings receive peace and happiness from you. Without doing that, when you actually physically go to work as a volunteer, you take care of only a few people or a few animals. But here, if you live in the vow of not killing, even a lay vow, numberless other beings don’t receive harm from you and they receive peace and happiness from you.
Now, if you take the five lay precepts, others receive so much less harm from you. Since those numberless other beings don’t receive all that harm from you, they receive so much peace and happiness from you. And they are numberless, not just a few people or a few animals. You can see how practical this is.
Another point is the positive effect on an area, a country and the world from someone living in vows, as in the story, which many of you know, of the four harmonious brothers. In a kingdom in India there had been famine and a lot of difficulties, but later the rains came at the right time and there was plenty of food and much prosperity. The king thought he was responsible for it and the ministers thought that they were. Since everybody thought that they had done it, in the end nobody was sure who had done it.
One minister then suggested that they ask a sage living in the forest, who had clairvoyance, who was responsible. The sage said, “It’s none of you. It’s happened because of the four harmonious brothers, who respect each other, with the junior ones respecting the senior ones.” In the forest there lived four animals: an elephant, a monkey, a rabbit and a bird. The elephant promised to spread the five lay vows to others; the monkey lived in the five vows and also spread the practice to other monkeys so that they lived in the five lay vows; and the same thing happened with the rabbit and the bird. Because of their living in the five vows, because of their practice of morality, these four brother animals were harmonious and respected each other, and their practice of morality then affected the whole country, which changed and became prosperous.
I think the bird was a past life of Shakyamuni Buddha and the rabbit might have been Ananda, Buddha’s attendant. I don’t remember the names of the other two. Anyway, their living in vows affected the economy of the country.
It is a great blessing for an area and a country when there are Sangha, ordained people, living there, especially if they’re living in pure vows. The more Sangha there are, the more it affects the economic development of the country. There are many stories of this happening in the past.
When the monks do their confession practice, a piece of wood called a gandi is beaten to invite the monks for the vinaya practice of confession. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo explains that even the sound of the gandi being beaten benefits the area and the country. I have seen for myself that it’s very powerful. One time when I was in Sera Monastery, as soon as the monk beat the wood, it began to rain. The clouds were already there, but as soon as the wood was beaten, the rain suddenly came. That’s what I noticed, and it might be quite common. It means that because of the vinaya practice, the devas and landlords in the area are very happy. Because they’re connected with the weather, a sign that they’re happy about the practice is that rain suddenly comes. It’s something of small significance but it helps generally to bring prosperity.
I normally say that if you’re an ordained person living in your vows, even if you do nothing but eat, sleep and go to the toilet, there is incredible benefit to other sentient beings. Of course, if someone is Sangha, because the number of vows is many more, you can see how other sentient beings don’t receive harm from that person, directly or indirectly, and how much peace and happiness other sentient beings receive from them. You can understand the positive effect, or benefit, to the country. It makes the devas, nagas and all those other beings happy. That is one explanation. There are two explanations as to how it benefits other sentient beings. It is a most practical thing and brings extensive benefit.
Abstaining from that many negative karmas and stopping giving that many harms to other sentient beings by living in that number of vows bring incredible benefit to others. The purer the life you live, the less negative karma you create. Because of that you have the possibility of having good concentration. (Now I am explaining more deeply the social service for sentient beings.) The basis of success in shamatha, or calm abiding, is pure morality. The purer your morality, the more success you have with calm abiding. You achieve perfect concentration when you attain the ninth level, where you experience extremely refined, rapturous states of body and mind. You finalize calm abiding after that realization.
The purer your morality, the more success you have in achieving perfect concentration. It is only by having the higher training of concentration that you then have a chance to have great insight, which involves deriving extremely refined bliss by doing analysis on emptiness unified with shamatha. So, only after attaining shamatha do you gain the realization of great insight. When you build a house, you first prepare the ground, and attaining shamatha is like preparing the ground. On the basis of this you can then enter the arya path by achieving the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, which directly ceases the defilements. You achieve the path of seeing and then the path of meditation.
With these two paths, if it’s the Lesser Vehicle path, you cease the disturbing-thought defilements; and if it’s the bodhisattva’s path, you also cease the subtle defilements and your mind then becomes omniscient. During your time as a bodhisattva, of course, you work more and more deeply for sentient beings, especially when you are an arya being . The more qualities you have, the deeper your benefit to sentient beings. When you then become a buddha, you spontaneously, effortlessly, have the motivation to benefit others. It’s natural, like the sun rising. When the one sun rises, its beams cover the whole world and dispel darkness everywhere. As a buddha you continuously, naturally, work for sentient beings until every sentient being becomes enlightened. Not only do you free beings from the sufferings of the lower realms but from the entire samsaric suffering. You then cease even their subtle defilements and bring them to enlightenment.
You can now see how living in pure vows becomes the foundation for all those realizations, so that you’re able to benefit other sentient beings more and more deeply and, ultimately, you’re able to enlighten numberless sentient beings.
If you think deeply in that way of the benefits of living in vows, you see how everything is built up on that foundation. All the realizations, up to enlightenment, are built up on that basis, as well as your working for sentient beings after enlightenment. There are all these benefits of living in vows, of living in morality, whether as a lay person living in lay vows or as an ordained person living in ordination.
You can now see how much benefit there is for sentient beings from someone living in their vows, even if they don’t do any work, any study or anything else apart from the three functions of eating, sleeping and going to the toilet. You can see how practical it is. Even if they’re living in the mountains like an animal in hiding so that nobody sees them, you can see the benefit that sentient beings get from them. The benefit happens even if the person spends their whole life hiding in the mountains in Afghanistan, where bin Laden is, or on Mount Kailash.
I’m just trying to emphasize the unbelievable benefit for sentient beings. Even if a person living in vows doesn’t see anybody or do anything, their service to other sentient beings is very extensive. Service to others doesn’t happen only when you mix with people and do something physically for them. Of course, if you can do both, that’s great. Of course, in your life you do what you can to serve other sentient beings. But what I am saying is that you should also understand this deeper benefit. Even if that person lives their whole life on Mount Kailash or Mount Everest and sees nobody during their whole life, if they are living in their vows or ordination, there is incredible benefit to sentient beings. That’s all I’m trying to say.
I don’t remember how I came to this point. How did it start? Oh, that’s right. It started because I came late because I was watching television.
Anyway, the conclusion is that we are very fortunate. It’s unbelievable. Especially that besides doing Medicine Buddha retreat, we have the chance to take the Mahayana precepts.
[Rinpoche chants in Tibetan while Ven. René leads the praise to Four-arm Mahakala in English, followed by chanting of a Palden Lhamo prayer in Tibetan. Ven. René then leads recitation in English of King of Prayers while Rinpoche recites it in Tibetan.]
[Rinpoche recites the Yamantaka inner offering in Tibetan, then something falls down.]
The whole world fell down! I went to get the cymbals, so I’m blaming the cymbals.
[The group chants the protector prayers in Tibetan accompanied by cymbals.]
Dedications
We’ll recite the lamrim prayer to spread Dharma.
[The group chants Final Lamrim Prayer in Tibetan, followed by the long-life prayer for His Holiness the Dalai Lama.]
“Due to these merits may all other virtuous friends have stable lives, and may all their holy wishes succeed immediately.
“Päl dän la mäi ku tshe tän pa dang....
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, from now on in all my future lifetimes may I be able to offer skies of benefit to all sentient beings and to the teaching of Buddha, like Medicine Buddha and Lama Tsongkhapa, by having the same qualities within me as Medicine Buddha and Lama Tsongkhapa have. From now on, in every second may I be able to benefit as they do.
“I give all my past, present and future merits and all the resultant happiness to all the sentient beings: to every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every human being, every asura being, every sura being and every intermediate state being. I also give the merit to the arhats and the bodhisattvas to help them to complete the realizations of the path. And I also offer it to the gurus and to the buddhas for the success of their activities of working for sentient beings.”
By doing this we have collected limitless skies of merit. “Due to this merit, may whatever sufferings sentient beings have ripen upon me, and may whatever happiness and merit I have ripen upon all sentient beings.
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, which are merely labeled by mind, may the I, who is also labeled by mind, achieve His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s, Medicine Buddha’s, enlightenment, which is also merely labeled by mind, and lead all the sentient beings, who are also merely labeled by mind, to that enlightenment, which is also merely labeled by mind, by myself alone, who is also merely labeled by mind.
“May Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching be spread in my own mind and in the minds of all the students and benefactors and those who sacrifice their lives to this organization to benefit other sentient beings, and in the minds of those whose names have been given to me, those who rely upon me and those for whom I have promised to pray, living or dead. May we all completely actualize Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching in this very lifetime and then spread it in all the directions, and may it flourish. May I be able to cause this to happen.”
[The group recites the multiplying mantras.]
Using abuse to develop compassion
Before, I extended the talk from karma. After that, I was trying to specify that we need to purify the past karma and then abstain from creating the negative karma again. That’s one solution. It applies not only to this problem of abuse but to any other problem in life, including addiction to alcohol and relationship problems.
The other solution is to accept that this is your karma. As bodhisattva Shantideva said, “In the past I gave this harm to other sentient beings; therefore, I deserve to receive this harm.”51
It’s very, very good to accept the situation as your own karma.
On top of that, you then use that situation of abuse or whatever else to develop compassion for that person. You use the situation to develop loving kindness, compassion and bodhicitta. In this way, you are actually using that situation and that person for you yourself to achieve enlightenment. I wouldn’t say that you are taking advantage of that person, but you are using them to develop a very special, very strong compassion within you because that person is suffering so much. They are totally under the control of karma and delusions, such as desire and so forth. They are totally overwhelmed by karma and delusion, with no freedom at all, and suffering so much. There is so much to meditate on in relation to how this person is suffering. You can meditate on the whole lamrim, on the twelve links, on the three, four or six types of samsaric suffering. You can see the whole package of samsaric suffering there.
For you it’s an incredibly quick way to develop compassion and bodhicitta. If you are smart, you actually use that person to quickly achieve enlightenment yourself, and you then enlighten the numberless sentient beings. You should especially meditate on the special kindness of that person, because it helps you to generate compassion and patience. It’s a different kindness from somebody giving you chocolate or ice cream.
Because I started from there, I thought that I must conclude that part of the talk.
So, I think that’s all. Thank you so much. Good night.
Chapter 12. Saturday, November 3: Final Medicine Buddha Session
Benefits of Medicine Buddha practice
I thought to mention a little about the benefits of Medicine Buddha and other holy objects.
I think that the whole Medicine Buddha Sutra has been translated into Chinese from the original Sanskrit of the Kangyur, Buddha’s teachings. The sutra part of the Kangyur has been completely translated into Chinese and there are perhaps even a few more texts in Chinese than in Tibetan.
The Medicine Buddha Sutra that we have here already exists in Chinese. I think many Chinese people have read the whole sutra, which describes all the extensive benefits. There are different texts, and I think that what I have here has been compiled from the sutra and from other texts.
If we practice the seven limbs—prostration, making offerings, confession, rejoicing, requesting to turn the Dharma wheel, requesting not to pass away into the sorrowless state and dedicating the merits to achieve enlightenment—in relation to Medicine Buddha, we collect the same amount of merit as having practiced the seven limbs in relation to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas. We get the same amount of merit as having done the seven-limb practice in relation to every single one of the numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas. That might be one reason that in the intermediate and long versions of the Medicine Buddha puja the seven-limb practice and requests are done with each of the Medicine Buddhas. Instead of doing the seven-limb practice just one time to all of them, you do it very precisely to each of them. I don’t do it every time but I often try to do each limb seven times. (I’m not talking about Padmasambhava’s simple meditation for healing, but about the other one, where you visualize the Medicine Buddhas on your crown, like in the thangka, though I’m not sure about the colors of the Medicine Buddhas in the thangka.) When you do the seven limbs seven times in relation to each Medicine Buddha, as you do during the sadhana, you collect unbelievably extensive merit. It’s really powerful.
The physician of the devas, Kyegu Dakpo, requested Buddha to explain everything about the Medicine Buddha, including the benefits of the practice. This sutra is Buddha’s explanation.
Buddha said, “Physician Kyegu Dakpo, listen to me. One hundred phag-tsä to the east from here is the Bedurya, or Lapis Lazuli, pure land. There abides the Buddha, Medicinal King, who has accomplished extensive prayers. Due to having generated the good heart, this buddha is very compassionate and extremely powerful.”
According to the Abhidharmakosha, five hundred arm-spans is one gyang-tag, and five hundred gyang-tag is one phag-tsä [Skt: yojana]. I heard that there are different ways of measuring, one according to Kalachakra and the other according to the Abhidharmakosha, but maybe there are also others.52
Buddha then explains to Kyegu Dakpo, the physician:
“If, to this buddha, you prostrate, make offering, confess negative karmas, rejoice in merits, request to turn the Dharma wheel, request to have stable life and not pass into the sorrowless state, and dedicate the merits for enlightenment, through this seven-limb practice you will have collected the same virtue as having done the seven-limb practice in relation to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas.”
There are numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas and by doing the seven-limb practice one time in relation to Medicine Buddha, you get the unbelievable merit of having done the seven-limb practice in relation to all those buddhas and bodhisattvas.
Buddha then says:
“You have offered respect and service to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas.”
If you make offering to Medicine Buddha, you have made offering to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas. The reference for that is this major teaching, this sutra from Buddha.
Also, another text, Mengyu Rinchen Bumpa, says:
Reciting Medicine Buddha’s name and mantra one time becomes having recited the names and mantras of all the tathagatas of the past, present and future.
So, if you recite Medicine Buddha’s name and then recite the Medicine Buddha mantra, it’s the same as having recited all the names and mantras of all the buddhas of the three times.
Remembering, seeing, hearing, touching or meditating on Medicine Buddha includes remembering, seeing, hearing, touching or meditating on all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, all the Triple Gem. Therefore, the Medicine Buddha’s holy name is “All-Encompassing of Those Gone to Bliss.”
The Medicine Buddha mantra is all-encompassing of Those Gone to Bliss. In other words, the Medicine Buddha mantra is the mantra of all the buddhas.
You will achieve all your wishes, temporary and ultimate, and all success. It will destroy all of the ten nonvirtuous actions. All negative karmas will be purified. When your death happens, you will immediately go to the pure land and then achieve enlightenment. Therefore, do not have any doubts about the benefits of this practice.
In the Encompassing Only That Sutra, there’s a story about how powerful Medicine Buddha practice is for purification. The head of one family, who was called Having Bird Wings, had collected much negative karma, including the five uninterrupted negative karmas (having killed one’s father, one’s mother or an arhat, caused blood to flow from the Buddha and caused disunity among the Sangha). Why are these negative karmas called uninterrupted? Other negative karmas are not as powerful as these karmas. Even if you create those other negative karmas in this life, you can have the interruption of another life before experiencing their result—for example, maybe another good karma ripens so that you are reborn in a deva or human realm. Because these negative karmas are not so powerful, you don’t have to experience the lower realm suffering that is their result right after this life; you can experience it after a few lifetimes or after many lifetimes. But the negative karmas of having killed one’s father, one’s mother or an arhat, caused blood to flow from the Buddha and caused disunity among the Sangha are so powerful that without the interruption of another life, right after death you are immediately reborn in the eighth hot hell, Unbearable Suffering. I’m not sure whether you have to experience all eight hot hells or just the last one, Unbearable Suffering, which has the heaviest suffering of samsara, of the lower realms and of the hell realms.
This person, Having Bird Wings, collected all five uninterrupted negative karmas in that one life, as well as the five actions that are close, or similar, to the uninterrupted negative karmas.53 It is mentioned that if you step on the shadow of your guru’s holy body, while it’s not one of these five actions, it is similar to them. The same applies to sitting or stepping on the guru’s seat without the guru’s permission. It is also disrespectful to ride the guru’s horse without his permission. I think it might be the same with the shadow of a stupa. Of course, when you walk around a stupa, many times there’s no choice—there’s no other way to walk. Also, when you’re offering service, there may be no other way to walk except by going over the shadow of the guru or a stupa. The main point is mentally to have respect; if there’s disrespect mentally, it then becomes heavy negative karma. While you are going around a stupa, you think that you are going underneath the shadow of the stupa. This way, mentally, there’s respect. It is similar if you have to walk on the guru’s shadow.
I’ve just remembered something that happened one time in Delhi. Due to Lama Yeshe’s kindness in setting up the Dharma Celebration, each year Tushita Mahayana Meditation Centre invites His Holiness the Dalai Lama to give teachings. The main focus is the Indian people. Buddhism came from India to Tibet, where the Tibetan lamas and Tibetan people preserved it, and now it is time to return it to the Indian people. That was why Lama started the meditation center in Delhi. Lama also checked with his root guru, His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche, who is also my root guru. Trijang Rinpoche did a divination and said that at the beginning it would be difficult but in the long run the center would be very beneficial.
I think we’ve missed having His Holiness teach only one or two years. Once was because the director was Indian and quite new (not new to the center but new to the job) and didn’t take the job seriously. Otherwise, we have received His Holiness every year.
One year His Holiness himself chose to give a Chenrezig great initiation, but normally we choose a title for the talk then check it with His Holiness. Two or three years ago, when there were a lot of problems in India, we came up with a title that was, while not exactly political, connected to the current Indian situation. That time many people from foreign embassies and also Indian high officials, including even the head of the army, came, because of the advertisement. It was very good.
Before that talk His Holiness asked me, “What is the subject?” When the director of the center, Dr. Renuka Singh, who teaches at a Delhi university, presented the title, His Holiness said, “Oh, I don’t know.” His Holiness then actually spoke on that topic. For quite a number of years His Holiness has talked more in relation to the present global situation, which has been extremely beneficial because the teaching applies to thousands of people, including most of the Indians and also the people from other countries, including usually many officials. They are really very impressed, and because they can relate to the talk, they enjoy it very much. They then talk about it for long time, about what a good time they had. The Delhi center offering this service of arranging for His Holiness to teach is a quick way to spread Dharma and to serve many sentient beings by bringing them to enlightenment.
During recent years His Holiness has become well known and respected in the West, especially in the United States. Of course, India then naturally has to do the same thing and respect His Holiness. It is due to Lama’s kindness that Tushita Mahayana Meditation Centre in Delhi has that special karma. Even though at other times teachings and meditations are normally happening, it is through the Dharma Celebration that the center can offer the most extensive benefit to sentient beings.
The main point that I was going to mention is that a few years ago, when I was receiving His Holiness with incense, as we were coming through the door to go to the teaching site, His Holiness’s shadow was on the steps. As I was trying to go around the shadow. His Holiness asked, “What’s happening? What are you doing? What are you doing?”
Anyway, to return to the story: Having Bird Wings collected all five of the uninterrupted negative karmas and even the five close ones. He also collected the fourteen tantric root falls. He created so much heavy negative karma. When the time came for this karma to ripen, though he didn’t see any form he heard a voice say, “You, Having Bird Wings, have collected such heavy negative karma that the earth will crack, and you will then be born in the hell realm, Unbearable Suffering.” (That’s the eighth hot hell, the very bottom one.) When he heard this he became unbelievably frightened. Then again he heard a voice from space say, “If you recite the mantra and holy name of the Medicinal King, which encompass all Those Gone to Bliss, all your negative karmas collected during beginningless rebirths will be purified. It will close the door to your reincarnating in the hell realm. And in this life you will achieve no birth.” (I guess it means that he would actualize the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, the arya path, and by ceasing his delusions through that, he would then overcome death and have no further rebirth.)
Remembering the qualities of Medicine Buddha, Having Bird Wings then recited Medicine Buddha’s name and mantra. After seven days a fully ordained monk in the form of a physician appeared in front of him and told him, “Hold the corner of my robe. We’re going to see the wonderful medicinal city.” Having Bird Wings immediately held the corner of the monk’s robe and was taken to the pure land. (What actually happened was that Having Bird Wings saw Medicine Buddha in the form of a fully ordained monk, who then took him to the pure land in that body, and there he became enlightened.)
Also, in the tantra called Ser Dom Upa, Buddha explained to his attendant Ananda:
If you recite one time the name and mantra of the Medicinal King, encompassing all Those Gone to Bliss, you purify 80,000 eons of negative karma; if you recite it ten times, you purify 800,000 eons of negative karma; if you recite it twenty times, you purify 8,000,000 eons of negative karma; if you recite it one hundred times, you purify the negative karma from unimaginable samsaric lifetimes. Anybody who even hears or remembers the name and mantra purifies the five uninterrupted negative karmas.
This applies to any being, even an animal. It doesn’t depend on whether or not someone has faith or is Buddhist. This is why it’s very good to recite Medicine Buddha’s name and mantra to any animal that we see.
I think I mentioned during the introduction to the initiation that Buddha told Ananda that even an animal who hears Medicine Buddha’s name and mantra will never ever be reborn in the lower realms. When we are near cats, dogs or any other animals in our daily life, we should recite the Medicine Buddha mantra so that they can hear it. It’s an extremely beneficial service. Even if we explained Dharma to an animal for billions of eons, there is no way they could understand what we were saying. Because they have taken an animal body and don’t have a human body, this is the only way we can help them. If they had a human body, when we talked to them they could understand simple Dharma explanations or at least the Dharma words would stay in their mind. But because they don’t have a human body and have taken an animal body at this time, it completely blocks their understanding the meaning of Dharma. So, all that’s left is to chant the name and mantra of this powerful buddha, which has unbelievable benefit. If we chant the Medicine Buddha mantra in their ear or chant it and blow on their body, it purifies their negative karma. It’s an excellent thing to do to help them, to liberate them from the sufferings of the lower realms. And because it leaves a positive imprint on their mind, sooner or later they will gain a higher rebirth, meet the Dharma, actualize the path, cease their defilements and achieve enlightenment. That’s how, by chanting mantras for animals, we liberate them from samsara and bring them to enlightenment.
This tantra says that even hearing or remembering Medicine Buddha’s mantra purifies the five uninterrupted negative karmas. Even seeing or touching a Medicine Buddha statue or the Medicine Buddha mantra purifies negative karma, such as the ten nonvirtuous actions. It also says that even seeing, touching or remembering the holy body of a statue of Medicine Buddha completely purifies kor, the pollution that comes from taking food and other things that people have offered with devotion to the Sangha community. Since those things belong to the Sangha, taking them brings pollution. If you use something that belongs to the Sangha without permission, the pollution obscures your mind; it interferes with realization. Here pollution isn’t referring to external pollution in the Western sense; this is mental pollution. It doesn’t become pollution for buddhas or arya beings. Whether or not it becomes pollution depends on the person. It’s different if you’re a Sangha member who has studied very hard, offered service in the monastery or lived in pure morality; otherwise, using the Sangha’s enjoyments obscures the mind and then makes it difficult to have realizations. That’s the function of kor. So, the stains of kor are purified by seeing, touching or remembering Medicine Buddha’s holy body or a statue of Medicine Buddha.
The heavy negative karma of causing disunity among the Sangha is also purified, as well as the heavy negative karma of trying to stop somebody from making offering to the Sangha. In Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, when Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo talks about refuge practice in the commentary to Jorchö, he mentions various negative karmas collected in relation to the Sangha that you have to purify. One of them is trying to block other people from making offering to the Sangha. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo gives the example of somebody planning to offer butter to make Tibetan tea, and you, as manager of the monastery, say, “Oh, this is too much for the Sangha—they don’t need it.” If you stop someone from offering even one slice of butter, you create the heavy negative karma of stopping offerings to the Sangha. So, those negative karmas are purified by reciting the Medicine Buddha mantra. Criticizing Sangha, another heavy negative karma, is also purified. In short, all the negative karmas collected in relation to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are purified.
By making offering to Medicine Buddha, you purify even the negative karmas of having harmed the guru’s holy body, gone against his advice and disturbed his holy mind, as well as the pollution from using the guru’s belongings.
Buddha explained all this to Ananda, his attendant. Buddha also explained:
This buddha is equal to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas. His life, holy activities, duration of his teachings and power of his blessings are equal. This buddha’s compassion and prayers working for sentient beings are equal to other buddhas. This buddha is the embodiment of all the gurus, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. He encompasses Those Gone to Bliss. He is the embodiment of the Triple Gem, the mind-seal deities, the dakinis and the Dharma protectors; he is the embodiment of all the objects of refuge. This one Victorious One encompasses all. Therefore, there is no doubt that if, with strong devotion, you make prostrations, offerings or requests to Medicine Buddha, or even hear the name or see a holy object of this buddha, or merely remember him, you will be saved from the sufferings of the lower realms.
We’ll do just that much tonight. I thought during this time to talk a little, here and there, on some of the benefits of Medicine Buddha practice; and to talk also in relation to the practice of the sadhana. I’m not sure what will come.
What’s left?
Ven. René: The long-life prayer and King of Prayers.
Rinpoche: No, not the long-life prayer—King of Prayers. King of Prayers makes everybody have a long life.
Multiplying mantras
[The group recites the multiplying mantras.]
There have been some changes in this last buddha’s name—just one or two words. Here in this text it has CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SNAG GYÄ NGO WA DANG MÖN LAM DU PÄ GYÄL PO LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO. We have been reciting ...NGO WA DANG MÖN LAM THAM CHÄ RAB TU DU PÄ GYÄL PO LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO. I don’t remember whether I have seen “THAM CHÄ RAB TU” in another text, but it’s not here in this one.
If you recite this buddha’s name one time, whatever dedications and prayers you do succeed. (With a dedication, you collect merit then dedicate that merit to some goal; with a prayer, you’re not dedicating merit but simply requesting for something to happen.) It also increases whatever practices you do by a factor of ten million times one hundred thousand, or jewa bum, in Tibetan. Jewa is ten million and bum is one hundred thousand.
[Rinpoche recites the final multiplying mantra.]
Due to the blessings of the eminent buddhas and bodhisattvas, my special attitude and unbetraying dependent arising, may my pure prayers succeed immediately.
So, good night and have very sweet dreams. You can have a dream in the dream.
Three parts of the sutra have been translated from Chinese into English. There are two sutras there in Tibetan and I’m sure there must be a translation of them. But when you read these sutras, you might need to let go of some things—women’s liberation, for example. I’m just warning you...
Notes
49 See the chart of “Tibetan numbers” on the LYWA website. [Return to text]
50 See The Benefits of Protecting the Eight Mahayana Precepts: Restoring Broken Vows and Purifying Negative Karma, pp. 2–3 in The Direct and Unmistaken Method. “In Victorious Concentration Sutra, Buddha says that if with a calm mind one makes offerings of umbrellas, victory banners, light and jewel ornaments to a hundred billion buddhas for eons equal to the number of sand grains in the Ganges River, a great deal of merit is acquired. However, if, during these degenerate times when the holy Dharma, the teaching of the One Gone to Bliss, has almost ceased, one keeps just one precept for a day and a night, the merit acquired is far greater than that of giving all those offerings to an uncountable number of buddhas over such a long period.” [Return to text]
51 Previously, I must have caused similar harm
To other sentient beings.
Therefore, it is right for this harm to be returned
To me, who caused injury to others. (Ch. 6, v. 42.)
[Return to text]
52 See p. 396, Teachings from the Vajrasattva Retreat, where Rinpoche also discusses these measurements. The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, Vol. 2, p. 38, n. 518, quotes the Abhidharmakosha: “Twenty-four inches equal one cubit; four cubits equal one bow-span; five hundred bow-spans equal one “range of hearing” [gyang-tag]; eight “ranges of hearing” are said to equal one yojana.” [Return to text]
53 The five actions are committing incest with one’s mother who is an arhat; killing a bodhisattva who is destined to become a buddha in that life; killing a Hinayana arya other than one abiding in the result of arhatship; stealing the possessions of the Sangha; and destroying a stupa or monastery out of hatred. [Return to text]
