December 6, 1999
AN EXTENSIVE BODHICITTA MOTIVATION FROM THE REFUGE PRAYER
[Rinpoche and students recite in Tibetan]
I explained these four lines [of the prayer, Taking Refuge and Generating Bodhicitta] on one of the previous days. The first two lines are taking refuge, practicing causal refuge and then we generate bodhicitta.
Then, we’ll do the same meditation. Within this, it becomes the practice of the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment. Even just within this prayer, it becomes practice of the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment.
So, first think of your own samsara.
Think of the defiled aggregates caused by karma and delusion. They are defiled, contaminated, because they are contaminated by the seed of disturbing thoughts. And because of that, there is this continuation. Because of that, delusions arise, motivating karma, which leaves an imprint, a seed, on the mental continuum and that again produces future samsara, the suffering aggregates in the next lives. It again produces the suffering body and the suffering mind in the next lives. That which is produced is compounded by this present samsara, the aggregates. So, remember this. There is the continuation of this circle, from here to the next life. That continuation circles to the next life.
Like that, it goes on and on without end. Unless you can break this continuation of samsara, circling from one life after another, it will be endless. The continuation is endless, so your suffering is endless. The suffering of samsara becomes endless.
Then, you must experience all the sufferings again and again. Now, you are experiencing human sufferings. Each time, when the continuation of these aggregates joins the next life, you experience all the sufferings of that realm again. Again and again.
Now, think of other sentient beings who are similarly suffering in samsara.
They must continuously experience the oceans of suffering of that samsaric realm, again and again, again and again, with all the karma and delusions, being under the control of this contaminated seed of disturbing thoughts.
These sentient beings have absolutely no freedom at all. They must continuously suffer in samsara.
Now, generate compassion, wishing to free them from all suffering and its causes, by yourself.
Now, think of how the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha have the qualities and powers to liberate you and all sentient beings from all the suffering of samsara and from all the gross and subtle defilements.
Now single-pointedly rely upon them.
[The students recite the first lines of the refuge prayer with Rinpoche]
“I go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and the Sangha until I achieve full enlightenment.”6
Practice causal refuge to actualize the result of refuge, that which is possessed by your own mind.
“By the merits of listening to the teachings and so forth, may I achieve full enlightenment in order to benefit all the transmigratory beings.”
This includes the merits collected by listening to the teaching. Not only that, it includes all the past, present and future merits, those you collected in the past, those you are collecting now and those you will collect in the future.
“May I achieve full enlightenment in order to benefit all the transmigratory beings.”
This means all the numberless sentient beings who are suffering in samsara, transmigrating from one realm to another. Now, remember the whole meaning of the Wheel of Life, how all the numberless sentient beings are experiencing that suffering that is signified by the painting of the Wheel of Life.
This is to bring about the ultimate benefit, not just temporary benefit, the temporal happiness, the happiness of this and future lives in samsara. Not only that, but the ultimate benefit, liberating them from all the sufferings and the cause of suffering, karma and delusions, even the subtle defilements, and bringing them to full enlightenment.
This means to benefit all transmigratory beings, to bring the numberless suffering sentient beings, including each and every hell being, and there are numberless hell beings, and all other sentient beings to enlightenment.
There are numberless hungry ghosts who are experiencing the most unimaginable suffering, so this means bringing each and every one of them to full enlightenment.
There are numberless suffering animals, so this means bringing each and every one to full enlightenment.
There are numberless suffering human beings, so this means bringing each and every one to full enlightenment.
There are numberless gods and demigods, so this means bringing each and every one to full enlightenment. By yourself. By yourself, alone.
To make this thought stronger, to have more feeling, to feel the sentient beings in your heart, think of their kindness and feel how unbearable it is that they are suffering.
Think of the numberless hell beings who are each the source of all your past, present and future happiness, of all the realizations including enlightenment.
Think, “I must free all those hell beings from all suffering and its causes and lead them to enlightenment by myself, alone.”
And then the numberless hungry ghosts, each one who is the source of all your past, present and future happiness, including all the realizations of the path to enlightenment, who are the most precious, kind ones in your life.
Think, “I must free all those hungry ghosts from all suffering and its causes and lead them to enlightenment by myself, alone.”
Think of the numberless animal beings, who are each the source of all your past, present and future happiness, including the realizations of the path to enlightenment, who are the kindest, most precious ones in your life.
Think, “I must free all those animals from all suffering and its causes and lead them to enlightenment by myself, alone.”
Think of the numberless human beings who are the source of all your past, present and future happiness, including all the realizations of the path to enlightenment, who are the most precious ones, the kindest ones in your life.
Think, “I must free all those human beings from all suffering and its causes and lead them to enlightenment by myself, alone.”
Think of all the gods who are each the source of all your past, present and future happiness, including the realizations of the path to enlightenment, who are the most precious, the kindest ones in your life.
Think, “I must free all those gods from all the suffering and its causes and lead them to full enlightenment by myself, alone.”
Think of the numberless demigods who are each the source of all your past, present and future happiness, including the realizations of the path to enlightenment, who are the most precious, the kindest ones in your life.
Think, “I must free all those demigods from all the suffering and its causes and lead them to enlightenment by myself, alone.”
Think of all the numberless intermediate state beings who are the source of all your past, present and future happiness, including the realizations of the path and enlightenment, who are the most precious, the kindest ones in your life.
Think, “I must free all those intermediate state beings from all the suffering and its causes and lead them to full enlightenment by myself, alone.”
Now, after this, think, “I, the meditator, the attainer of enlightenment. What exists is what is merely labeled by mind, therefore, that is totally nonexistent. What appears as real, as the real meditator, the real attainer of enlightenment, from its own side, as the real one, is totally absent; it is totally nonexistent. It is totally empty right there.”
Now, strongly concentrate on that.
As well as that, there is the action of attaining enlightenment. Think, “What exists is what is merely labeled by mind. Therefore, the action of attaining enlightenment that appears real from there is a total hallucination. It is totally nonexistent. It is totally empty, right there. From where it appears, it is totally empty right there.
“What is to be attained is enlightenment. What exists is what is merely labeled by the mind, so even the enlightenment that appears real from there, that is a total hallucination. It is totally nonexistent. It is totally empty right there.
“In emptiness there is no I, there is no attaining and there is no enlightenment. There is no action of attaining and there is no what is to be attained, enlightenment.”
The other thing is this. This is one way to meditate at the end of the meditation on emptiness or the merely labeled I. You can think at the end that the I, the action of attaining enlightenment and enlightenment itself, all these phenomena are merely labeled by the mind. You can just think this, say this and meditate on the meaning of this. That can also come at the end of the meditation on emptiness.
This is meditating on subtle dependent arising, the dependent arising according to the fourth of the four Buddhist philosophical schools, the Madhyamaka school, which has two, the second being the Prasangika school. This is the dependent arising according to that school.
This is subtle dependent arising. It is that which is not only labeled but merely labeled. That makes the dependent arising much more subtle. It refers to how these things exist in mere name, being merely labeled by mind.
At the end, when you meditate on this, on the meaning of subtle dependent arising, you are doing a meditation on emptiness because, when you think of that subtle dependent arising, it breaks the hallucination. It makes you recognize the hallucination as a hallucination. You are able to go through that. Not just stopping at the thought that things exist in mere name. Otherwise, you get stuck on the hallucination that is decorated over the phenomenon, the subject, the action of attaining, and the object to be attained, enlightenment, including the path.
By meditating on the meaning of subtle dependent arising, how all these are subtle dependent arisings, it gives you the understanding that they are empty. That what appears is the false view, which you see is false and you see is empty, that these phenomena are empty.
Now with the four lines of this prayer, renunciation is included in the refuge, then the bodhicitta meditation and emptiness are also there. The essence of lamrim meditations is there.
Now, listen to the teaching in order to benefit all the sentient beings. I thought to finish the part about prostrations, then we will stop there. I think it’s probably already time for dinner. Or maybe time for breakfast! Maybe this time we will have it the other way around, we’ll have dinner tomorrow morning and breakfast now!
So anyway, I thought at least I would finish the prostration part from the preliminary practices.
THE THIRTY-FIVE BUDDHAS AND THE FOUR POWERS
If you are going to do prostrations, either with Vajrasattva or the Thirty-five Confession Buddhas, the first thing is the motivation.
So, think like this, “The purpose of my life is not just to achieve happiness for myself, to only solve my own problems. The purpose of my life is to free the numberless other sentient beings from all the sufferings and to bring them happiness, especially the ultimate happiness, full enlightenment. For that, I need to achieve full enlightenment myself. For that, I need to actualize the steps of the path to enlightenment. And for that, I need to purify the defilements, the obstacles.”
To make the confession and purification perfect, it needs to be perfected with the four remedial powers. This power is the power of reliance or dependence. Bodhicitta has already been generated.
Then, when you recite the names of Buddhas, taking refuge in them, that is also the power of reliance. In this way, the negative karmas you have collected in relation to the sentient beings and in relation to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha get purified. Taking refuge is dependent on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and generating bodhicitta is dependent on sentient beings. There’s also refuge at the beginning of each of the Buddhas’ names.
Reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names is also taking refuge in them. From the four powers, this is the power of the remedy. It is the antidote, the remedy to negative karma. The Tibetan is nyän po kün tu chö pa’i tob, which means the “power of the remedy to always enjoy.” But that’s my own translation. I have never heard it from anybody else! It is a literal translation, word by word, but it needs to be checked and revised. To translate word by word from Tibetan rather than making some general translation adds great meaning. It is well-packed, like a package, if it’s translated exactly. Each word has great meaning. I guess, but I’m not sure.
So, this is the remedy for negative karma. What it does is it pacifies negative karma, and the benefit from that is happiness. By practicing this, you can enjoy happiness all the time; the benefit is this. The words might have that meaning, but I’m not sure. Some lamas may have explained it, but I don’t remember the meaning.
Then, there is practicing the power of regret. Again here, it is useful regret, beneficial regret. This way of regretting purifies the cause of the suffering; it purifies the negative karmas. The regret here becomes the medicine. It’s not painful. You are not creating any pain yourself. It is medicine to purify the cause of the problems, the sufferings.
This regret [is positive regret], just as meditating on impermanence and death, connected with karma and the suffering of the lower realms can bring a fear of death, but this is positive because it persuades you to practice Dharma, to do the study and listening, to do the meditation practice on the whole path to enlightenment. By doing that, you are able to achieve enlightenment and then enlighten all sentient beings. So, the fear that is generated by meditating on impermanence and death makes you enlightened. The benefit is that it makes you achieve all the realizations from the beginning to the end up to enlightenment. The fear generated by meditating on impermanence and death makes you fully qualified to be able to perfectly guide numberless other sentient beings. That’s the advantage you get. Therefore, it has benefits like the sky. This is what you get from this fear. It is not a foolish fear, causing you suffering, but a wise one. Similarly, this way of practicing regret is a wise one. It is freeing you, liberating you from the sufferings and its causes.
If you need to elaborate on the practice of regret from the four powers, regret is reflecting on the shortcomings of negative karma. It is facing what problems can happen by having committed them. It is reflecting on the suffering results that occur from having created those negative karmas. You reflect on that and feel sorry for that.
If you have eaten poison, either in food or without food, and if you can recognize this is poison, which means understanding the harm it can do, when you recognize this, having regret, feeling sorry you have taken it, comes as a result. The stronger the regret you feel for having taken the poison, the more you want to do something about it immediately, without waiting for even a minute or a second. You can’t wait. You try to find the best method to be free from the poison and you take the right medicine or whatever is needed to get rid of this poison as quickly as possible.
Therefore, regret here is useful. If you didn’t have regret after eating the poison, you wouldn’t look for a method to get rid of the poison. Then what happens is that you get sick and die. Like that. Just as being regretful for taking poison, here you generate regret for having created negative karma.
You generate regret for creating negative karma by thinking of its shortcomings, of all the problems that occur now and in the future; all the sufferings, all the obstacles to achieving liberation and enlightenment and then being able to enlighten all sentient beings, to cause extensive benefit to others. By thinking of all the sufferings this negative action will bring, particularly all the sufferings that you will have to go through from life to life, regret arises, making you want to immediately purify. You can’t stand having these negative karmas collected on your mental continuum. Seeing this persuades you to immediately to get rid of it by purifying. Only then will you have no obstacles for realizations and all the happiness now and future.
To elaborate further on practicing the power of regret, first you need to think of the definition of negative karma, as I have mentioned quite a few times, what negative karma means. If you don’t understand the definition clearly, your understanding of negative karma will only extend to some actions such as killing a person or stealing or some other actions like that. Your understanding of negative karma will be very limited. Then, the other negative karmas on your mental continuum won’t be purified. Therefore, first you must think what negative karma is. The definition is any action that will result only in suffering, motivated by ignorance, anger or especially the attachment clinging to this life. Think like that.
Then with this definition, you will see that almost every action you do in one day is negative karma because it’s done with the attachment to this life. Almost everything is done with that nonvirtuous thought. Like that, in a week, a month, a year, from birth until now—and not only in this life but from beginningless rebirths—you have collected so many negative karmas. The basic examples of negative karma are the ten nonvirtuous actions, some of which you do repeatedly, every day. You do them many times in a day, many times in a week, a month, a year, and you have been doing them from beginningless past lives.
Then, if you have taken vows, the pratimoksha vows, the bodhisattva and tantric vows, you have broken them all. On top of that, you have incurred the very, very heavy negative karma in our relationship with the guru, the one you have received your Dharma connection from. You have given harm to their holy body, broken their advice, displeased them, made them unhappy, disturbed their holy mind and developed nondevotional thoughts like heresy and anger toward them. Why are these actions very heavy negative karma? Because the object you have collected this negative karma with is the most powerful object among all the powerful objects, therefore the karma that you create, generally, whether it’s negative or positive karma, is the most powerful karma.
You need to think of all this to get the whole view of negative karma, everything. You need to consider whether those things have happened not just in this life but in your past lives, whether you have created all those negative karmas. And you need to be aware of the harm they bring from life to life, in all the coming future lives, harm to you and harm to other sentient beings.
Then, after that, you should think, “If I were in a hell realm now, what would it be like?” And you should think about how you would be completely, totally overwhelmed by the heaviest suffering of the hell realm, such as heat or cold, and how you would have no opportunity to practice the Dharma. Suffering in the hell realm for even a minute is like suffering for eons because it’s so unbearable. Not only is death definite, but death can happen at any moment. Death can happen even now. You could be in the lower realms, in this hell realm, even now. It’s like that. You could be there.
Therefore, the conclusion is this. “I must purify all this negative karma right now. I must purify all the downfalls right now, without delay of even a second. Therefore, I’m going to do prostrations, by practicing the Confession of Downfalls or by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names.”
Here again you remember sentient beings. You can either say, “For the happiness of numberless sentient beings,” or “To free the numberless sentient beings from all the sufferings and defilements.” You can say like that. So again, by bringing other sentient beings into your practice of purification, you are not only focused on yourself, the purpose is for others. The reason you are purifying is for others, for the numberless other sentient being. To get that idea, even though you have already generated bodhicitta, you bring sentient being up here again at the end.
To make your regret stronger, you expand your thinking by reflecting on the different parts of negative karma, first on negative karma in general, then on all the different groups. It depends on your state of mind. If you need to make something very strong, you can reflect on all that.
KHUNU LAMA RINPOCHE
Now, [to start the prostration, you stand] with the two feet together and the hands [with palms together]. You don’t prostate with empty hands. [This is what was advised by] Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen Rinpoche, a great bodhisattva, a great pandit, who was a guru of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the many high lamas. They studied Tibetan poetry or other subjects from this great bodhisattva and His Holiness the Dalai Lama received teachings from him, including commentaries on Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara, the Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life.
I also received it from him once or twice when he was living upstairs in a Gelugpa monastery in Bodhgaya with the many other incarnate lamas. Khunu Lama Rinpoche seemed kind of pleased with me because I went to see him so many times to receive blessings and to ask Dharma questions. I requested the commentary because Rinpoche was not only very busy with his own practice but also, after His Holiness the Dalai Lama took teachings from him, he became famous.
Before that, Rinpoche was a kind of sadhu, like an Indian sadhu, living in Varanasi near the river Ganga, where the Indian people bring many dead bodies to burn. And they go there to wash their bodies in the water, in the dirty, holy water! Before [he became famous], Rinpoche used to live around there with the sadhus, although inside he was a great bodhisattva whose holy mind was like a vast Buddhist library. Not only Buddhist philosophy, he was also expert in the many other different types of Hinduism. His holy mind could quote from any text, from any of the hundreds of volumes of sutra and tantra texts of the Buddha and the commentaries by the pandits. He could quote anything. And he was a very highly attained being, living an ascetic life, just living with the sadhus. I’m not sure, maybe living like that they helped him. At that time the Tibetan people had no idea [who he was].
One day, he went to the Gelug monastery to ask for a place to sleep. But because the monastery didn’t know him, they didn’t give him a room. He maybe just stayed outside. The monastery had a balcony outside, so he stayed there.
Then, I think, somehow, His Holiness the Dalai Lama took teachings from him as well as His Holiness’ gurus, His Holiness Ling Rinpoche and His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche. The monasteries in Lhasa—Sera Mey, Sera Je, Ganden Shartse, Ganden Jangtse, Drepung Loseling, Gomo and so on—each of these monasteries had many thousands of monks. Sera, for example, was supposed to have seven thousand monks living there but actually I think there were more. All of those monks were disciples of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s gurus, Ling Rinpoche and Trijang Rinpoche. They studied poetry from Khunu Lama Rinpoche, as well as special writing. Anyway, His Holiness the Dalai Lama took the Bodhicaryavatara commentary, not at that time and of course not on the balcony, not staying on the balcony. He took it in the room of the monastery.
After that, Khunu Lama Rinpoche became very famous. Every day people lined up to see him, as if on pilgrimage, in order to receive blessings. Rinpoche accepted to give the Bodhicaryavatara teachings, giving the lung, the oral transmission. Then, when he reached the wisdom chapter, he gave a commentary. That is considered the hardest part. The subject of emptiness is regarded as extremely hard to understand. So, Rinpoche very kindly gave a commentary on that and for the rest of the book he gave a lung.
But as soon as Rinpoche started the commentary on the wisdom chapter, I fell asleep! As soon as Rinpoche started the commentary on that, the most important subject, my sleeping came! I think that was my obstacle to my liberation, to my nirvana. Because I didn’t have enough merit, sleeping came as soon as Rinpoche started. I think it took two days. And then Rinpoche said that I should translate Bodhicaryavatara into English, but I would have to study both the text and English very well in order to translate. It still hasn’t been done! I do have the wish, maybe not so much the root text, but maybe something like a bit of a commentary or something. I do have the wish if there’s enough merit to do it.
Rinpoche said that it didn’t matter whether other people had translated it. I think, at that time, there was maybe only one translation, from a Sikkimese person [called Kazi Dawa Samdup]. That was so many years ago. All the translations that are available now didn’t exist at that time.
I’ve lost my thought. I’m not sure why I’m talking about Khunu Lama Rinpoche, what the connection is. [Student prompts] Alay, thanks. It came from this story.
THE MEANING OF THE PROSTRATION MUDRA
Khunu Lama Rinpoche explained how to do the prostration mudra. Rinpoche said this one is called the “namaste.” That’s right! Rinpoche said it is the namaste when he explained how to do it. Of course, the teachings on how to do prostrations are also in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand.
So this, [the left and right palms together with the thumbs tucked in,] signifies offering a wish-fulfilling jewel. You keep [the thumbs] tucked inside like that. The left palm signifies the path of the wisdom—the path of wisdom in the Hinayana as well as in the Mahayana Paramitayana and in the Mahayana Vajrayana, the tantric path. It signifies the whole path of wisdom. Then, the right palm signifies the path of the method. Again, this includes the method side in Hinayana, the Mahayana Paramitayana and the Mahayana Vajrayana, the whole path of method to achieve enlightenment. So, these two palms placed together signify the whole path to enlightenment; the left palm showing the whole path of wisdom and the right palm showing the whole method path to achieve enlightenment.
Putting them together means you are practicing method and wisdom cooperatively. Just practicing one alone, either method or wisdom, without the other, you cannot achieve liberation or enlightenment. Just practicing method alone, you cannot achieve liberation or enlightenment; just practicing wisdom alone, you cannot achieve liberation or enlightenment. You have to practice those two cooperatively to achieve liberation or enlightenment.
Especially in the highest tantra, one mind practices both method and wisdom, whereas in the sutra system, different minds practice wisdom and method. But in tantra one mind practices method and wisdom together. That’s what allows you to achieve enlightenment much quicker, in one lifetime, even in a brief lifetime of degenerated time.
This empty [space between the palms] signifies the dharmakaya and the two palms together signify the rupakaya. These are your goal, the two kayas to be achieved. So, these two hands like this signify the whole of Buddhism: the base of the two truths, conventional and ultimate truth; the path of method and wisdom; and the goal of the rupakaya and dharmakaya. So, when you prostrate with your two hands like this, it signifies the entire thing, the base, path and goal. The whole of existence is included in the two truths, in conventional and ultimate truth. Then, there are the two paths of method and wisdom that lead to the rupakaya and dharmakaya, which is the goal.
Now, [touch your hands to your crown, forehead, throat and heart. Touching them to the crown] creates the cause to achieve the ushnisha, the pinnacle on the head of a buddha’s holy body. At the forehead creates the cause to achieve the curl of hair at the forehead, which is a special feature of a buddha. It is a white hair curled from left to the right, which is supposed to extend to a great length if you pull out, and if you let it go, it goes back and stays curled!
If you’re going to paint this feature on a buddha it is white. I made a mistake. Many years ago, we invited His Holiness Zong Rinpoche to the first Dharma celebration. He was the ex-abbot of Ganden Shartse monastery, an extremely learned, great Tibetan pandit as well as the purest being. He had completed not only the entire lamrim path but even the highest tantra path, so there is no question about the deity. He was the purest being and very good-hearted. We invited His Holiness Zong Rinpoche to the West, particularly to the FPMT centers in the West, mainly to spread the Mahayana Vajrayana, to give initiations and commentaries and so forth.
Geshe Sopa Rinpoche invited Zong Rinpoche to his center. Geshe Rabten Rinpoche was also there. Lama Yeshe came for just a very short time at the end. Denma Lochö Rinpoche also came at one time. So, it was kind of like a celebration, a special occasion.
At that time, a life-sized Buddha statue like many of our centers have arrived from Delhi. I was painting the mouth and the eyes. When I had to paint the curl at the forehead I painted it blue or green, I think, and Geshe Sopa explained that it should be white. That mistake has stayed in my mind. Anyway, normally other people also paint it like that. So, I think that was mistaken; it should have been white. Of course, instead of painting it, you can put diamonds or things like that to create more merit. But as far as painting, it should be white.
So anyway, to have this special quality of Buddha’s holy body, you need to create unbelievable, unbelievable merit. I remember the number of this is mentioned in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand by Pabongka Rinpoche.
Placing the hands at these two places [the crown and the forehead] purifies all the negative karmas, the defilements, collected with the body and creates the cause to achieve all the qualities of a buddha’s holy body. Then, [placing the palms at the throat] purifies all the negative karmas, the defilements, collected with the speech and creates the cause to achieve all the qualities of a buddha’s holy speech. And [at the heart] it purifies all the negative karmas, the defilements, collected with the mind and creates the cause to achieve all the qualities of a buddha’s holy mind. That means, with this action, you create all the infinite qualities of a buddha’s holy body, holy speech and holy mind.
Now, the meditation. But I think this is a little bit one of my own trips! Anyway, you may not find the basic thing, prostrating, in the texts, but I just want to elaborate on this. It simply means prostrating to the Guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. That’s it. Nothing else!
PROSTRATING
When you prostrate, if there are no holy objects to actually prostrate to, you can visualize the Thirty-five Buddhas. Because you’re going to recite the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names you can do that. However, even if you’re going to visualize the Thirty-five Buddha for prostrations, the very important thing is to do prostrations with guru yoga. What makes you collect the most extensive merit is prostrating to the guru, who is the most powerful object among all the powerful objects, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Even with the Thirty-five Buddhas, you should think, “They are my root guru manifested to save me from the oceans of samsaric suffering, particular the sufferings of the lower realms, and to bring me to enlightenment, by purifying the defilements.”
With such a guru yoga mind, you recite the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names. As I mentioned, reciting those names has unbelievable power, like an atomic bomb, to purify your negative karma. So many eons of negative karma are purified by even reciting each name just once.
One way is to visualize the numberless buddhas of the ten directions and, thinking of the guru, do the prostrations while reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas. It can be like that. Another simple way is to just [visualize] your root guru, who is the essence of all the Guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and then do the prostrations. If you have no particular altar, this is how you can visualize. When you think it’s all the guru, all the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, all the Thirty-five Buddhas are there, already contained.
If there is an altar, either in your room or in the temple or somewhere, if there are many hundreds and thousands of images, such as in one small picture of the merit field, then prostrate to the guru manifested in all these holy objects. Then think, from your own side, that these are the embodiment of your guru. Then, you are prostrating toward all the ten-direction Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, which are the guru. You are prostrating to all the ten-direction statues, stupas, scriptures, to all the holy objects, which are all the guru.
If there is space, you should always take the opportunity to do a long prostration. If there’s no space—if you might break tables or things and create chaos—[you can do a short prostration]. Anyway, if there’s space, you should always take the opportunity to do a long prostration. The reason will come later.
[Part of the recording is missing, possibly…] [When you go down on the ground, it should not be] like a tree falling down, making a lot of noise! You should stretch your hands as much as possible.
Now, this part is very important. There are two meditations here. That means you may have to lie down for two hours! You might need a sleeping bag! Anyway, when you lie down, think, “I am prostrating to all the ten-direction Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and all the holy objects. That means all the statues, stupas, scriptures and thangkas starting from here, which are all my guru.” From your side think they are your guru. By doing this visualization, when you lie down, whether you are prostrating in your room or in a hotel or wherever, you prostrate to every single holy object, to the numberless buddhas in the ten directions. You prostrate to every single holy being, to all the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. And to every single statue, every single stupa, every single scripture. If you prostrate from your room, you prostrate to every single holy object, like all the holy objects there are in Tibet. Even if you are not in Tibet, you prostrate in your room to all the holy objects in Tibet, as well as Burma.7
I haven’t been to Burma, but it seems it is very, very inspiring. Even though it is a dictatorship, the people have incredible freedom to practice Dharma. There are temples everywhere, in every village. Wherever you go, there are temples and stupas, and there are monks everywhere. That’s what I heard. Buddhism is so strong there, much stronger than in Sri Lanka or Thailand. I think there are a lot of monks and meditators. So, even though the leader is a dictator, the people have incredible freedom to practice the Dharma and collect merit. He’s a different kind of dictator, one who allows Buddhism to be very strong. I guess that’s different from communist China, where they don’t allow people to propagate the Dharma.
So anyway, by meditating like this, when you lie down, you prostrate to any holy object that is in anybody’s house, how many pictures or statues of the Buddha in anybody’s house, in any country. From your room, you prostrate to all those. There are people who make many, many tsa tsas, many hundreds of thousands. Others produce many statues of the Buddha, many holy objects. Wherever you are prostrating, from there, you prostrate to every single holy object there is. If somebody somewhere had made a hundred thousand or three hundred thousand tsa tsas, holy objects, when you prostrate you get the incredible benefit from all those number of tsa tsas that person made, each one creating the cause of enlightenment. If that person made four hundred thousand or seven hundred thousand tsa tsas, with your prostrations you create four hundred thousand or seven hundred thousand causes of enlightenment, as well as that many causes of liberation and that many causes of a good rebirth for many hundreds of thousands of lifetimes. Then, there is no question of the benefit in this life, which just comes by the way.
Anyway, to understand it in short, prostrating like this, you are prostrating to the numberless Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, the numberless statues, stupas, scriptures and thangkas. With this meditation you create numberless causes of enlightenment. You have to understand this. With one prostration you create numberless causes of enlightenment, and the same thing with all the rest. So, with one prostration, you collect incredible merit, good karma, good luck, like the sky.
You can visualize this even while you are standing up. You don’t have to do it only when you are lying down. You might be physically standing up, but you can visualize lying down. This meditation is what Lama Tsongkhapa explained in the Lamrim Chenmo, The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment.
Visualize you have numberless bodies, covering the entire ground. During the prostration, even if your body is very small, very short, like mine, you can visualize it like a ridge of mountains, covering the whole ground and doing the prostration to the holy object.
It’s easy if you visualize yourself transformed into a deity, like the Thousand-arm Chenrezig, especially if you have received a great Chenrezig initiation, the one that normally takes two days’ preparation. If you have received this, you can visualize yourself as the Thousand-arm Chenrezig. Then it’s very easy because Chenrezig is very tall. So, you visualize numberless of your bodies in the form of Thousand-arm Chenrezig, extremely tall, covering the whole ground in all four directions, lying down doing prostrations.
Even if you don’t finish touching your head to the ground, even while you are still standing up you can do that visualization. It is mentioned in the sutra teachings, in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, when you are doing prostrations, if you can visualize one other body also prostrating—and here it’s not saying yourself visualized as the deity, just another ordinary human body—you collect the same amount of merit as your actual body doing prostrations. So that’s why you should visualize as many bodies as possible doing prostrations. As many as you can visualize—thousands, billions, however many—with every body visualized you collect the same extensive amount of merit as your actual body doing the prostration. That’s why this is so important. Visualizing numberless bodies is the technique to make the prostrations collect extensive merit.
And then also, as I explained just before, prostrating to all the ten-direction Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, to all the statues, stupas, scriptures, to every single holy object, and especially by thinking of each of them as the guru, your prostration collects the most extensive merit. Each of the numberless holy objects you think of as the guru. Then you collect the most unbelievable, most extensive, inconsiderable numbers of merit.
And when you prostrate you should stretch your body out as much as possible. This is because when you prostate each atom of the ground that your body covers creates the cause for you to be born as a wheel-turning king for a thousand lifetimes. Why a wheel-turning king? This particular name is mentioned because to be born as a wheel-turning king, you must collect the most unimaginable, inconsiderable merit. To become the king of one country needs so much merit, but here, a wheel-turning king is a king with the most power and wealth in everything. There is no other king to compete with this king in the whole world. There is a wheel-turning king in the god realm and a wheel-turning king in the human realm. Wheel-turning kings happen in the first eon after the world has evolved, when the lifespan of human beings is unimaginable, maybe eighty thousand years. Now our lifespan is decreasing but by collecting merit, it will increase again to eighty thousand years.
Anyway, during those first eons, when human beings lived for an unimaginable number of years, this is when the wheel-turning kings happened. You need incredible physic powers and so forth, and so much merit to be born once as a wheel-turning king. But with this one atom of ground you cover, you create the cause to be born as a wheel-turning king for a thousand lifetimes.
But now, when you do a prostration, how many atoms of the ground does your body cover? It is not just one. The texts say that this means the number of atoms from here, from this floor, down to the bottom of the earth. When you stretch your body, how many atoms does that cover? That many number of atoms your body covers, you create the merit to be born as wheel-turning king for a thousand lifetimes.
With one prostration to the Buddha, the merit you collect is beyond the concept of us ordinary people. Therefore, when you prostrate, stretch out your hands as much as possible. It’s very important. The longer your nails are the better! This is one advantage of having long hair and long nails! Then, if you have a tail … I’m joking! Although I didn’t see it, I think my mother had a child who had a small tail. That’s why I mentioned the tail. Anyway, one advantage of having long nails and long hair is, when you do prostrations, you cover more ground. How much ground the hair covers, how much ground the nails cover, you can create a considerable cause of enlightenment because so many atoms are covered from the ground down to the bottom of the world. Also, at other times when you get angry, long hair and nails are good. You can pull your hair and scratch your face! No, I’m joking! Other people can pull your long hair!
Talking about a wheel-turning king is just to give you an idea about the amount of merit you can collect. It doesn’t mean that by doing prostrations you will only get born as a wheel-turning king. Nothing else, no enlightenment, no liberation, just a wheel-turning king. It doesn’t mean that!
Also the feet. If you keep your feet like this, you lose uncountable numbers of cause of enlightenment! If you stretch out your feet like this, you should make your feet flat on the ground. Especially if people are tall and have long feet do this, they lose more opportunities for the causes of enlightenment. So, you need to get the feet flat so they cover the greatest amount of space, with more atoms from here down to the bottom. Then, you create many more causes of enlightenment, of liberation, of a good rebirth in your next life, because you are doing prostrations to the Buddha. You are not just exercising. It doesn’t mean that you get this benefit just by lying down, it means when you prostrate to the Buddha. Thinking of the Buddha and prostrating brings that experience, but not just any time you lie down, on the beach or anywhere.
Now, you can understand why Lama Tsongkhapa explained that, when you prostrate, you should visualize as many bodies as possible doing the prostration. All these bodies cover the ground and each atom covered creates that inconceivable merit. You get the same merit from those visualized bodies prostrating as with your actual body.
With these two visualizations, as I’ve explained, that is how making prostrations collects the most extensive merit, how it creates the cause to achieve enlightenment in the quickest time. It depends on the skill of the meditator.
It is also normally explained in the teachings that when you prostrate, you should stand up straight, not have your body bent. Then, you’ve probably heard this already, when you put your hand on the ground, you shouldn’t spread out the fingers on the ground like that. That is disrespectful to the holy object, the merit field and becomes the negative karma to be born as a duck or a chicken, an animal that has web feet. And if you put your hand on the ground like that, bunched up, that too is disrespectful of the holy object and you create the karma to be born as an animal with hooves, like a yak. So, your hands should be in a respectful attitude when you go down on the ground.
The Chinese way of doing prostrations, doing them very slowly, is also very respectful. I don’t think there is any contradiction. There is nothing wrong with the Chinese way of doing it like this, very nicely. The main thing is to have respect in the presence of a powerful object. As I mentioned before, if there’s space you should do long prostrations.
WAYS OF DOING THE THIRTY-FIVE BUDDHAS PRACTICE
There are two ways of reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas prayer. First, you can begin with OM NAMO MANJUSHRIYE NAMO SUSHRIYE NAMO UTTAMA SHRIYE SVAHA, which increases the merit of each prostration a thousand times. If you recite this Buddha’s name mantra, the merit created with each the prostration increases ten million, a hundred thousand times. So, it increases much more with this Buddha’s name and the mantra. And this is the same when you use this Buddha’s name and mantra when you circumambulate a stupa or temple, any holy object. If you recite this name and mantra while circumambulating them, the merit increases that many times.
If you are going to do a hundred or fifteen prostrations, or something like that, you can repeat the name over and over, and then, as you stand up and go down again, you change the name when you touch your head on the ground. So, like that, you can repeat one buddha’s name many times while doing a prostration. This way, you repeat the buddha’s name during one prostration until you put your forehead on the ground, repeating it ten, fifteen, twenty or thirty times depending on how quickly you can recite. Because reciting the name once has the power to purify 80,000 eons of negative karma, by repeating it many times during one prostration, purifying 80,000 eons of negative karma happens many times. That’s the advantage, rather than doing it slowly and saying the name very slowly. If you do it slowly, you can only say the name once or twice, maybe three times. This way is much more skillful. You collect unbelievable purification and so much merit.
Then, when you finish the last name of the Thirty-five Buddhas, there are other ceremonies you can add. If you recite the names of the seven Medicine Buddhas, that helps all your wishes be fulfilled. It’s not only for healing, it brings success for whatever you normally pray for. It makes your life much easier, and you succeed in whatever wishes you have. This is by reciting the Medicine Buddha’s name mantra but you don’t need to recite the mantra, just the names. If you can recite the Medicine Buddhas’ names, you can do that.
Otherwise, you can go back and start from refuge, to the beginning of the practice of the Thirty-five Buddhas and [recite each name once as you prostrate] and then repeat it again. When you have finished the third repetition, you have completed the hundred thousand prostrations. Not a hundred thousand! [Rinpoche probably means 108 but doesn’t say this.] It takes about fifteen minutes because of the refuge. This is one way of doing it.
The other way is to not count the prostration but count the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names. You go straight, you just keep on reciting. Then, when you finish the last one, if you are going to do a certain number of Thirty-five Buddhas’ names, you keep on reciting. If you want to recite the names twenty-five times or thirty-five times in the morning [you count until you have achieved this]. Normally, if it is possible, do the Thirty-five Buddhas in the morning, that’s very good. Then, in the evening, before going to bed, if you can do a purification practice, maybe you can begin with the Thirty-five Buddhas, reciting each Buddha’s name just once straight through. Because there is so much power, then you can do the Vajrasattva, either with prostrations or just sitting. I sit. With Vajrasattva you count the mantras, you don’t count prostrations twenty-one times. You just count the last word, SVAHA.
As I mentioned before, if you are doing three sets like that, repeating the names that many times, then doing prostration like that for three sets—or you are doing three hundred times—the other thing is, after you finish the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names, think that you have completely purified. Even if you are unable to think that after each prostration, at least when you finish all the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names, think you have completely purified and nectar beams are emitted from all the merit field. That’s supposed to happen when you begin the prostrations, that nectar beams are emitted from the merit field, constantly purifying you. When you finish the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names, generate the strong thought that everything is purified. Your mental continuum is totally pure. Not a single negative karma remains; there is no cause to be born in the lower realms.
If you are doing the three sets like this, whichever way you do it, with the first set you purify your own negative karma; you are basically focused on purifying negative karma. Then, the next set of prostrations is to cause the happiness of all sentient beings. You can do those prostrations with that attitude, emphasizing that. Then, you can do the third set of prostrations with the idea that the gurus are guiding you, saving you from the lower realms, from the oceans of samsaric sufferings, and bringing you to enlightenment by purifying your negative karma and causing you to collect extensive merits.
So, when you begin the third set, you begin with this idea, that the guru is guiding you, liberating you from suffering and bringing you to enlightenment. Or, if you are doing [three sets of] a hundred prostrations, you can do the first hundred or second hundred or the third hundred with that way of thinking.
I think I’ll stop here. In everyday life, even if you don’t have a place or the opportunity to do prostrations, what you can do is put your palms together like this and recite. Maybe you can’t physically prostrate, either because you are sick or because of old age you cannot lie down in prostration. During the nyung nä, the Compassion Buddha’s retreat, some people, due to their physical condition, can’t do prostrations, so I tell them to put their palms together and recite the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas while visualizing numberless of their body doing prostrations. In that way, they still collect such unbelievable merit by visualizing numberless bodies. Even in an airplane or car or whatever, while traveling, where there’s no opportunity or no place to do prostrations, you can still recite the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas and put your palms together like this while visualizing numberless emanations of your body doing prostrations to the Guru Puja merit field or you can visualize the gurus. By thinking in that way, you are prostrating.
DEDICATION
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, by the buddhas, bodhisattvas and all sentient beings, may the bodhicitta that is the source of all the happiness and success for me and for all sentient beings be actualized within my mind and in the minds of my family members, of all the students and benefactors of this organization, as well as all sentient beings, without delay of even a second. May that which is generated be increased.”
[Rinpoche and students chant prayers]
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by the buddhas, bodhisattvas and all the sentient beings, may the Buddha of Compassion, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and all the other holy beings, my virtuous friends, have a long and stable life and may all their holy wishes succeed immediately.”
[Rinpoche chants prayers]
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by the buddhas, bodhisattvas and all the sentient beings, may my family members as well as the students and benefactors and all the sentient beings never be separated from but always meet the perfect, qualified Mahayana virtuous friend in all the lifetimes. Not only that, may we be able to see them as an enlightened being, from our side and from the side of each sentient being. Not only that, may we be able to only do actions most pleasing to the holy mind of the virtuous friend, and on top of that, may I and each sentient being be able to complete the holy wishes of the virtuous friend in all our lifetimes from now on.
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by the buddhas, bodhisattvas and all sentient beings, may I be able to benefit all sentient beings like the sky, like Lama Tsongkhapa, by having the same qualities within me as Lama Tsongkhapa has, from now on and all my future lifetimes.
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by the buddhas, bodhisattvas and all the sentient beings, that exist but are totally nonexistent from their own side, may the I, who exists but is totally nonexistent from its own side, empty, achieve Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists but is totally nonexistent from its own side, and lead all the sentient beings, who exist but who are totally nonexistent from their own side, to that enlightenment, which exists but which is totally nonexistent from its own side, by myself alone, who exists but who is totally nonexistent from its own side.
“I dedicate all my merits to follow the extensive holy deeds of the bodhisattvas Manjugosha, Samantabhadra, Ksitigarbha and so forth, and dedicate the merits that three-time buddhas and bodhisattvas admire the most. In that way I dedicate all my merits.”
“May the complete teaching of Lama Tsongkhapa, the sutra and tantra teachings, which are stainless, be completely actualized within my mental continuum, as well as within the mental continuum of my family members, of all the students and benefactors of this organization, and those who do service to others through this organization, to have success for life, all the directors of all the centers and so forth, all those sacrificing their life for others through this organization, to be able to completely actualize the whole path of Lama Tsongkhapa, the extensive path of unified sutra and tantra in this very lifetime. And may the Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings spread in all the directions and may they flourish. May I be able to cause all this to happen, and may there be no wars, famine, disease, dangers from fire or water, recession and so forth. May nobody ever experience any of these things. And may everyone have perfect peace and happiness and live their life only with bodhicitta, only benefiting each other, never causing any harm.”
[Rinpoche chants prayers]
After dinner, if there is time, maybe it is good to recite the King of Prayers, the bodhisattvas’ extensive prayer, to dedicate all the merits collected in this course. Even though before each initiation there will be teachings, if you are not taking the initiations you can be there for the teachings. If you have not taken initiations, you can read it at that time. There will be three initiations, the long-life initiation then the great initiation of the Thousand-arm Compassion Buddha. One is the preparation, one is the actual initiation, and then there is the Vajrasattva retreat. There will be some teachings before that.
However, maybe it’s good to do an extensive dedication tonight. There are different prayers that we did during the three-month Vajrasattva retreat at the Land of Medicine Buddha.8 Over three nights, each night there was a different extensive dedication. That’s very inspiring. If you dedicate all the past merit and especially any merit collected in this course, the way the bodhisattvas dedicate, that’s the most extensive dedication for sentient beings.
Even if you don’t know how to dedicate, if you want to do that, that’s the best dedication. Then the shortest one, what you did before, to be able to follow the buddhas and bodhisattvas’ extensive deeds, which means the extensive benefit for sentient beings. It’s not talking about extensive deeds for the bodhisattvas themselves, to get lots of chocolate or lots of biscuits or lots of ice cream or lots of money. It’s not that. It’s extensive benefit for the numberless sentient beings. That is the way that the three-time buddhas and bodhisattvas—the past, present and future buddhas and bodhisattvas—admire the most. If you don’t know how else to dedicate, you can dedicate like this. Then you are dedicating in the best way.
Those of you who paid attention well during the teachings have planted a lot of positive imprints on the mind. Then, there are those of you who spaced out, who have been physically here but the mind has been traveling to very far countries or at home having parties or something. Anyway, for you maybe there have been less imprints on the mind. However, I guess everybody took the eight Mahayana precepts, and attended the sessions and the practices as much as possible. Even if you didn’t pay attention to the teachings that well, there may be other things you have done well.
Therefore, what I want to say is thank you very, very much! That’s the main thing. I am extremely happy seeing all the people that I have talked to. I have great admiration for you! I rejoice to see that attitude, that determination to really want to practice Dharma. So, I’m very happy for that. That’s all!
Notes
6 Revised translation: I take refuge until I am enlightened / In the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly. [Return to text]
7 Myanmar. [Return to text]
8 An FPMT retreat center in California USA, where Rinpoche led a three-month Vajrasattva retreat, February to April 1999. See Teachings from the Vajrasattva Retreat for the edited transcript of Rinpoche’s teachings. [Return to text]
