December 11, 2007

MEDITATION ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH

[Rinpoche and students chant prayers]

So, good afternoon.

Think, “The purpose of my life is to benefit sentient beings equaling the limitless sky. Therefore, I must achieve full enlightenment; therefore, I need to actualize the path. For that I need to purify the defilements, therefore I’m going to take the oral transmission of the Confession of a Bodhisattva's Downfalls to the Thirty-Five Buddhas.”

We’ll do the oral transmission of that and maybe also talk about some of the benefits of circumambulation, how these practices are an important support to the mind, helping the mind become transformed so we can achieve ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara and full enlightenment, and then be able to liberate the numberless sentient beings in the hell realm, the hungry ghost realm, the animal realm, the human realm, and the sura and asura realms, including the form and formless realms. There are numberless of them, so the main purpose or goal of our life, why we are living, is to free each sentient being in each realm from suffering and its causes, and bring them to enlightenment. That is why we spend so money on shelter, to have a house, to protect this body, and why we spend so much money on food and drinks and clothes, so much money on medicine when we are sick, and on many things. The reason we keep so busy in life, the whole purpose is to benefit others. Otherwise, our life has no meaning.

The only meaning is to benefit other sentient beings; we are living this life to benefit other sentient beings. Therefore, all the money we spend staying alive, all the time we spend working, that is all for other sentient beings. When the goal is for others, when that is our attitude in life, when our life is for others, then our whole life is made meaningful. The thought of bodhicitta, of benefiting other sentient beings, living our everyday life with that thought, gives meaning to everything. Otherwise, with the self-cherishing thought, all those other things are utterly meaningless. No matter how hard we work, no matter how many hardships we bear to study and work, it has no meaning. The motivation we have, whether we live our life with the self-cherishing thought or the thought of benefiting others, makes a huge difference; it’s like the difference between the earth and the sky, or between poopoo and gold!

Lama Tsongkhapa asked Manjushri what the quick way was to achieve enlightenment. He explained it was to practice purification and collect extensive merit—purifying the obstacles for attaining the path to enlightenment and collecting extensive merits—and making request to the guru with one-pointed devotion. Devotion means looking at the guru as a buddha, as explained in the sutra teachings of the Buddha when he was in the nirmanakaya aspect. He explained how to devote to the virtuous friend in that aspect and also in the deity aspect, as Vajradhara. First, we look at [the guru as a] buddha, using quotations and reasonings, and then, seeing them as a buddha, with that devotion we make a one-pointed request to be granted blessings to have attainments.

Then, the other thing is the actual body of the teachings, the mind training, meditating on the stages of the path to enlightenment, the lamrim. That’s the actual body.

I was going talk about using this quotation. So many people who like meditation are not sure what subject to meditate on. The subject of meditation is one question, as I mentioned last night. I think I made it clear that how to meditate is a huge question. If we make a mistake from the beginning, we totally waste our life. If our motivation is not correct from the beginning, if our motivation is not Dharma, we totally waste our life, and it also becomes negative karma. We meditate our whole life—we believe we are meditating—but we are just creating negative karma. While we are creating many other negative karmas in our daily life, meditating becomes another extra negative karma. As I mentioned yesterday, the subject of the meditation itself is another question, determining whether it makes life meaningful or not, useful or not.

Therefore, we need to be as intelligent as possible, learning as extensively as possible the heart of Buddhist philosophy, the lamrim, the heart of Buddhadharma, the heart of the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha, which are divided into the three baskets of teachings. The heart of all that is the lamrim, the graduated path of the three capable beings. It can also be called the three scopes. That translation has been around for a long time and it’s OK, but it’s not an exact translation from the Tibetan. It’s better to call it the graduated path of the three capable beings. Capable beings has a much more exact meaning than just the three scopes. Anyway, I’m not going to expand on that.

Hopefully, we can also do the oral transmission of The Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, the basis of the lamrim. Hopefully, but I’m not sure. Anyway, I’ll leave that until later, otherwise you won’t reach the stupa! Maybe you’ll go a little bit down to Kathmandu!

Anyway, there are so many people who meditate but not necessarily according to the path that the Buddha has revealed. The yogis, the pandits, who followed him analyzed, they checked, they experimented, just as scientists experiment, and they actualized the path as revealed by Omniscient One, who has himself actualized the whole path. So, this is not a path that nobody has practiced, that nobody has used to achieve liberation. It’s not that the Buddha said this is the path to liberation, but nobody has done that, so there is no proof.

What we practice must lead us somewhere, like a main road. These pandits checked up on what was revealed by the Buddha and put it into practice, and through that, they actualized the path. Up to now—and even in this present time—so many meditators have had attainments by correctly following what the Buddha explained. Lama Tsongkhapa and those pandits and yogis explained it is like that.

Even now, there are many meditators having realizations of the path, such as guru devotion, the three principal aspects of the path and the two stages of tantra. Even these days, there are many meditators who can prove that the path works, that it is true. There are so many pandits and yogis in the past, like stars in the nighttime, who have achieved enlightenment—and not only in the past. There are so many stories you can read about how they practiced and achieved enlightenment. We usually refer to the great yogis of the past, of ancient times, many hundreds of years ago, like Milarepa and Lama Tsongkhapa, but even at present there are many great masters, many great meditators, who are totally renounced, who practice exactly as explained in the texts. So, even nowadays there’s proof.

That means there is no hindrances if we practice correctly. Of course, if from our side we made mistakes, if we don’t practice correctly, realizations won’t happen. Even in the works of this life, if things are not done properly, we won’t succeed. If we don’t do it properly, even just trying to achieve the happiness of this life, it won’t happen. So it’s very simple. There’s no question about achieving liberation and enlightenment. We have to do it correctly as it has been explained. There’s no cheating from the side of Dharma. If we do it correctly, we can definitely attain realizations.

As I was saying, there are many people who like to meditate but, because they don’t know how to meditate, everything becomes negative karma. We can spend our whole life and nothing happens. Even if we have to spend our whole life having to bear so many hardships, still nothing happens. There is even the danger that our mind just becomes duller and duller. We lose our sharpness; we lose our wisdom. Unless we choose a wise subject, unless we know how to meditate, we can become dull and forgetful. So many difficulties will arise in our life.

We can also get lung, wind disease. Maybe those of you who are doing the course for the first time have never heard of lung, but lung is very famous. Maybe you haven’t come to know it yet! With lung, instead of progressing in the meditation, we get so much pain in the heart and we can’t concentrate. Life becomes very difficult. That is due to lack of knowledge and not practicing correctly. Many people are like that, actually wasting their time while believing they are meditating. They think they are doing something very positive, some worthwhile meditation, but it’s not like that in reality.

The conclusion is that now you are here doing the Kopan course, it’s not just a meditation course, it’s a lamrim course. You are unbelievably fortunate to have this opportunity to practice the heart of the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha. Leaving aside actually meditating on it, practicing it, just to have the opportunity to listen to the correct teachings of the path to the happiness of future lives and to liberation and enlightenment, that in itself is something amazing. It’s a miracle.

In the world, [very few people are Buddhists] and even among the Buddhists, not every Buddhist has the opportunity to hear the lamrim teachings. Even though Buddhists may have heard of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, that doesn’t mean they have this opportunity to hear the lamrim teachings. So you see, this is most amazing. Even though you might not realize it now, the more you learn and meditate, the more you will realize just how fortunate you are. You will realize later, as you continue to practice and discover, that you have got on the right track. It means some good karma created in the past has ripened, maybe created in Tibet or maybe in Africa, or somewhere!

Many people think that to meditate you just [sit on a cushion]. That’s enough. You don’t need to collect merits, you don’t need to do prostrations, you don’t need to do circumambulations. You don’t need to do all these various practices to purify the mind and to collect merit. But you need all that, especially the seven-limb practice, that creates the cause of enlightenment. The seven-limb practice has the limb of prostration, then the limb of offering, the limb of confession, the limb of rejoicing, the limb of persuading the holy mind to remain, the limb of requesting them to turn the Wheel of Dharma, and the limb of dedication. Doing this practice is the heart, the essence, to purify the defilements, the negative karmas, the obstacles for attainment, and to collect necessary conditions, the merit. And with rejoicing and dedicating, that makes the merits increase.

This is a kind of preliminary practice, a preparation, before meditating on the lamrim, the actual body of the practice. Then, after the actual body of the practice, at the end there is the dedication, the completion. So, a proper meditation practice has these three aspects: the preparation or preliminaries, the actual body and the completion. Any Dharma practice, any virtuous practice, should have these three.

For example, for a seed to grow, we need the right soil, water, warmth, and so forth—all these conditions. Then, the seed can produce a stem. Without all these conditions, the seed cannot produce a stem. In the same way, we can’t have realizations without creating the cause, without having the necessary conditions. Collecting extensive merit is like the fuel. Without fuel, vehicles like cars and airplanes cannot function. We also need purification practices to pacify the obstacles, the defilements, the negative karmas.

By looking at the guru as a buddha, by seeing a buddha, then by one-pointedly requesting the guru with devotion, that is the cause to receive the blessings of the guru, the cause to attain the realizations of the whole path of enlightenment. That is like putting water on the seed. Then, because we have buddha nature, the realizations come from within.

I have already explained the importance of circumambulations, but why do we need to do this and many other practices, such as prostrations and offering mandala? Why? Here, I’m giving a brief introduction. This is what Lama Tsongkhapa asked Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom, the embodiment of all the buddhas’ wisdom. Lama Tsongkhapa received almost all of his teachings on sutra and tantra from Manjushri. He received them like guru and disciple having communication, not from a meditative experience or a vision, not like that, but with actual direct contact, with the actual senses.

Many people think that meditation alone is enough, just sitting on a cushion is enough, but that alone won’t do anything, unless we have done a lot of purification. If we have purified in our past lives and collected a lot of merit, that’s different, of course. In this life, the minute we hear a teaching [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] we get a realization, or the minute we read a Dharma text we get a realization. That’s because in the past we have already done so much purification and collected so much merit. Then, even if it’s not done in this life, it has already been done in our past lives. It still depends on collecting extensive merits and making purification.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GURU DEVOTION

The most important thing is this. What brings all the success is following the guru’s advice and correctly devoting to the guru with thought and action. Devoting with thought means looking at the guru as a buddha, seeing the guru as a buddha, and continuously having guru devotion. Correctly devoting with action, the main practice is obeying the guru’s advice, whatever advice is given, without disregarding even the smallest piece of advice. Trying to perfectly do whatever the guru advises seems to be the most important thing. Correctly devoting to the virtuous friend with thought and action, the main one is action.

The other thing is this. Because the guru is the most powerful holy object, we collect the most merit and purify the most defilements, not only each day, each hour, each minute, even each second, by following his advice or offering service. By doing that, many millions and billions of lifetimes, many eons of negative karma get purified—even just by offering service, because the guru is the most powerful object. Offering service is the most powerful purification. Each moment in our daily life so many eons of negative karma get purified. By pleasing the holy mind of the virtuous friend, that’s the quickest, most powerful way to purify all the defilements and have attainments; it is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment.

Sorry, I got carried away again!

There’s a story of a Drepung geshe—sorry I don’t know his name—who was a very close friend of His Holiness the Fifth Dalai Lama, or the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. Sorry, my memory is not so good. He asked His Holiness where he would be reborn in his next life. His Holiness replied that straight after he died, he would be born as a cow with beautiful horns. The geshe thought that was impossible because first you have to go through the intermediate stage, then you go into the womb of the cow and only then, when you come out, will you be reborn like that, so being immediately born as a cow with blue horns was impossible. Hearing that, His Holiness laughed and laughed and laughed. I think the geshe may have asked again, and His Holiness said that now he would be born a human being. The geshe said, “Just now you said I would be born as a cow, so how is it possible that I will now be born as human being?” His Holiness replied that it is because he was a holy being and the geshe had made him happy.

The geshe had spoken directly to His Holiness, challenging him, saying it was impossible! First you have to go through the intermediate stage and then it takes nine months in the womb, so to be born immediately as a cow with blue horns is impossible. Being so forthright had made His Holiness laugh so much. And because he was a special holy being, the geshe making him happy purified all that negative karma, so that he could now be born a human being. I’m just giving this as an example, just to get the idea.

With a powerful holy object, we can change some heavy negative karma immediately, in that second. [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] You get the idea here? That is due to the power of the guru or due to the kindness of the guru.

Even by offering service for a minute or a second is unbelievably powerful purification. So many eons of negative karma get purified. Then, we become closer to attaining the realizations of the path to liberation and closer to enlightenment. 

The third point is [making offerings]. If we don’t have any materials for the offerings in order to collect merit, that’s not the main point, it’s not important. If we have them, we can make offerings in order to collect merit, but the main thing is following the guru’s advice.

It’s important to practice guru devotion by looking at the guru as a buddha, seeing the guru as a buddha, because when we have that realization, when we have that stable mind in guru devotion, when we have that strong devotion, we have no problems. We have no difficulties following their advice, no matter what advice they give, and that brings incredible joy. Because we see all the benefits, because we have a pure mind of devotion, we see the advice as coming from a buddha, and we have total reliance on that. That brings incredible joy, bliss, instead of finding difficulties because of our self-cherishing thought, our ego, causing us to find it difficult to obey the advice. With a realization of stable devotion, it is an incredible joy to follow the guru’s advice, whatever is given. Then, it becomes so smooth to attain all the realizations without obstacles all the way up to enlightenment.

That was just one example of pleasing the guru. The geshe didn’t offer any big service; he just made the guru happy, and just by that, it totally changed his rebirth.

BOUDHANATH STUPA

So now, the Boudhanath Stupa. Generally, any Buddha statue or stupa is a manifestation of the holy body and holy mind. A stupa is the manifestation of the holy mind, the dharmakaya. Any text is an embodiment of the holy speech. I think sometimes we need some explanation of a Dharma point or something—this doesn’t only have to be me; it may also happen to you—and the same day or after a few days, we suddenly find that explanation in a text. That happens many times. I think this is the Buddha, manifesting in the text to guide us, to show us what we need to learn. I think there’s definitely something there like that. It is mentioned in the Arya Sanghata Sutra that the holy text is a manifestation of the Buddha. There’s a quotation. We have some difficulties in life and then we see the exact advice there, in a text we are reading. It comes at that time. [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] I think this is the Buddha manifesting in the form of a Dharma text, guiding us.

I’ve remembered one more story, because I mentioned that story with His Holiness. Geshe Rabten Rinpoche was the teacher who first taught the philosophical teaching to me at Buxa. When Geshe Rabten Rinpoche was in Dharamsala, whenever he heard some story that makes you laugh or something interesting, he would go down to offer it to His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche, his root guru. It’s quite a long walk down to lower Dharamsala from upper Dharamsala, but he would walk down, then offer a story to His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche to make him laugh, to make the holy mind happy.

Anyway, Boudhanath Stupa was built by a woman called Jadzima, who was looking after chickens. I think maybe one of her four sons looked after pigs or something, I don’t remember. She had this wish to build this stupa. She had this intention, so she requested the king of Nepal and he agreed. Normally, he would have denied her request because she was very poor, but somehow “Yes” just slipped out of the king’s mouth! All the minsters were surprised. That’s why the stupa is called Ja rung kha shor. Kha shor means “slipped out,” and ja rung means “it can be done.” I heard this story from my brother, Sangye, who said that whatever the Nepalese king said had to be done. If he said “Kill” then even if the person ran away his bodyguards would have to kill them, or if it was an animal they would have to shoot it.

Anyway, she wouldn’t normally have gotten permission, but this happened. She built the stupa up to the vase, and then she passed away. Then, her four sons completed the rest of the stupa. After they completed it, they all stood in front of it and each made a vow. The oldest one prayed for all the buddhas and bodhisattvas to descend and absorb into the stupa during that time. Therefore, the name of the stupa is All-Encompassing Wish-fulfilling Stupa. Anybody who prays to the stupa will get all their wishes fulfilled, whatever prayer they make.

As the four brothers were standing there, they each made a prayer. The oldest brother prayed, “May I be a Dharma king in Tibet, the Snow Land.” The next one prayed, “May I become the minister to help that brother spread the Dharma in Tibet.” Then, the next brother prayed, “May I become an abbot to preserve and spread the lineage of the vows.” And the fourth brother prayed, “When the others have become king and helped spread the Dharma, may I be a powerful yogi to pacify any obstacles.”

There are more stories, but the main one is about these four brothers. There’s a story about a cow which carried the stone, but the four brothers never prayed for the cow and it made the wrong prayer, “In Tibet, when they spread Dharma, I will destroy it.” At that time, there was a bird who knew the cow had made this wrong prayer, who then made the prayer to kill the irreligious king who destroyed Buddhadharma in Tibet. The bird made that prayer. 

Anyway, the main thing is the four brothers who made the prayers. The oldest brother who made the prayer to be a Dharma king in Tibet and spread Dharma, was born as Trisong Detsen, the Dharma king in Tibet, in his next life. The next one became a minister to support the king to spread the Dharma. I don’t remember his name. The third one became the abbot who spread the lineage of the vows in Tibet, Khenpo Bodhisattva [Shantarakshita]. They built the first monastery in central Tibet, which is called now Samye. However, whatever the people built during the day, the spirits would tear down at night. It happened like this for so many days, again and again.

The son who was the minister mentioned to the king that there was a powerful yogi in India called Padmasambhava, and they should invite him. When Padmasambhava arrived from India, he arose as a powerful deity—I don’t remember the name clearly—and hooked all those spirits. Three ran away, according to the karma of Tibetans, but he was able to subdue the other twelve. He made them take the commitment to become Dharma protectors. They are situated in Tibet around the Himalayan ridge mountains to protect the Dharma.

Apart from a small group of Tibetan Muslims, other religions have never spread in Tibet. An old missionary lady tried to spread Christianity in Tibet. She tried to go to the upper part of Tibet but was blocked, so she went all the way back to China and then returned to Tibet to spread Christianity, but she was still unable to do so. These protectors guard the Himalayan ridge mountains.

Padmasambhava purified the whole of Tibet and spread the Dharma. Because of that, Buddhism was able to be preserved in Tibet and last for a long time. In Tibet the whole thing, the whole interest was just the Dharma. There were no companies built by outside countries; there was no material development, nothing. Everybody’s whole purpose, everybody’s main interest was the Dharma—meditating in the caves or in a monastery or nunnery, studying—the Dharma was the only thing. There were very few distractions in life; besides the Dharma, nothing happened. So, Buddhism stayed very strong and many people, like stars at nighttime, attained the path and became bodhisattvas and buddhas, attaining enlightenment. So many mountains have caves like ants’ nests. Unbelievable. Now, so much has been destroyed, but there are still some caves left, like many holes in the mountains.

When the mainland Chinese army took over Tibet and destroyed so much, quite a number of top learned ones were able to escape. Not all the monks, but some were able to escape Tibet. Then, due to His Holiness’s kindness, they were able to establish monasteries and continue the education here, which was passed on to young ones. And they became senior teachers and then too passed it on.

Now, Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism has spread all over the world, even to the West, where it has been dark, without the light of Dharma for thousands of years but has now been brought the light of Dharma. Every year, tens of thousands of people everywhere are able to meet the Buddhadharma and follow the path to enlightenment. They are able to make their life meaningful, finding answers in their life from the Buddhadharma, answers they could not find answer from Western culture or education. They are able to find much peace and happiness in life.

All these opportunities that so many people have, including us here at Kopan, is due to Buddhism having been preserved in Tibet for so many hundreds and hundreds of years, with so many beings actualizing [the path]. And all that is because of the mother who built the stupa and the four brothers who completed it and made prayers to it to spread the Dharma in Tibet. Because of the flourishing of Buddhadharma in Tibet, it has spread all over the world and so many people are now able to meet the Buddhadharma, including us. It’s all due to that stupa down there, the Boudhanath Stupa. That’s why I say that before leaving, before going back to the West, you must at least do even one circumambulation and make one prayer. We get unbelievable benefit from that stupa. 

It’s especially said that when you first come to Nepal and see the stupa, either from the airplane or anywhere, whatever prayer you make at that time will be successful. I met one nun from Brazil who knew this story and she made a strong prayer when she first saw the stupa to be able to build a nunnery in Brazil. Right after she left Nepal, everything came together and she was able to build a nunnery in Brazil. I don’t know whether it was in Rio de Janeiro or not, maybe Rio de Janeiro, where there’s this huge Christ on a cross. [The students try to correct Rinpoche’s pronunciation.] Anyway, because she knew the story before she came, she made a very strong prayer and then it happened. She told me this when she invited me to stay at her parents’ house. She was building the nunnery or maybe it was finished or something. Anyway, even normally, whenever you see the stupa, it’s very important to make a prayer. 

MORE BENEFITS OF OFFERING AND CIRCUMABULATING

Another benefit of making offerings is developing clairvoyance, remembering past lives, both ours and those of others, seeing other sentient beings’ past life connections, past life behaviors and so forth. Because we can see their past life behavior, all the behavior that was done in the past, with clairvoyance by knowing that, we can explain to them the Dharma that exactly fits their mind, that suits their element, what they like, what they wish. In that way, we are able to exactly teach the Dharma so that it helps. This benefit is knowing other’s mind through clairvoyance, being able to read others’ minds.

There are six kinds of clairvoyance. The other five are mundane forms of clairvoyance, but the sixth is having purified all the defilements, having ceased all the defilements. That is a quality that only the Buddha, the Omniscient One, has. Except this one, the other five forms of clairvoyance are common. They are not especially Buddhist; they happen in Hinduism as well.

Lama Atisha said that in order to help others, in order to work for other sentient beings, we must have clairvoyance. He was talking about shamatha, saying that by achieving shamatha we can achieve clairvoyance. If we have clairvoyance, we can reveal the Dharma, helping in a way that exactly fits the needs of the being. Otherwise, it hurts them if we say something contradictory to their wishes or their level of mind, or they don’t have the karma to benefit from the advice. There are many mistakes we can make without clairvoyance. 

The specific advice here is to make as many light offerings as possible to the merit field, to the guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. This is the specific benefit of offering light, but of course, the end result of any offering to the Buddha is liberation from samsara and enlightenment. That’s the same with any offering we make to the Buddha, to a statue, stupa or scripture of the Buddha.

The last two benefits refer to any type of offering, such as circumambulations and prostrations, but there are also specific benefits, for example, by offering incense we develop pure morality in this and future lives. The specific benefit of offering light is clairvoyance to develop Dharma wisdom. So, it’s very important among the offerings to attempt to make light offerings as much as possible, in order to have clairvoyance to develop Dharma wisdom. There are eight benefits in general and every offering has ten benefits. Many of these ten benefits are explained in sutra teachings by the Buddha.

By circumambulating a stupa, we will become a tathagata in the world, adorned with the holy signs and exemplifications. We will have a golden-colored holy body. It’s mentioned in the Chenrezig sutra that anyone who circumambulates the stupa of the Savior of the World—meaning the Buddha—in all the lifetimes when they engage in the activities of enlightenment, following the path to enlightenment, they will have memory, remembrance, wisdom, merit, and they will have no fear. By having circumambulated the stupa, in all our lifetimes we will receive offerings from devas, nagas, harm-givers and cannibals. Even those harmful beings will make offerings to us and worship us. We will abandon the eight freedoms… Sorry! Not eight freedoms, we will abandon the eight states that allow us no freedom to practice the Dharma, so it’s the same as before.

Then, it pleases the Light of the World—again meaning the Buddha. And we are able to offer service again and again to the Buddha. We will hear teachings on emptiness, on selflessness, and we won’t be ignorant in the Dharma. We will quickly achieve devotion. We will be learned in exactly understanding the meaning of the Dharma, of the path. Anyone who circumambulates the holy stupa of the Savior of the World, even if we expressed the benefits for ten million eons, it wouldn’t be finished. I think there are so many other benefits, but I think that’s enough for now.

THE BENEFITS OF PROSTRATING

Putting our palms together in prostration has eight benefits, although different texts explain ten benefits. However, this is just to get some idea of the benefits of prostrations. As you may have heard, we collect unimaginable merit. For each atom of the ground that our body covers, we create the cause to be born as a wheel-turning king a thousand lifetimes. There cannot be two wheel-turning kings in this world, only one. The Buddha who showed the twelve deeds can only be one, not two at the same time in the same world, and there cannot be two wheel-turning kings at the same time. A wheel-turning king is incomparable with other kings. 

When a wheel-turning king comes into this world, they have power and influence, allowing everybody in this world, every human, to abide in virtue. The wheel-turning king influences everybody to live in the ten virtues and abstain from ten nonvirtues. We know that is not easy! So, that power is one benefit.

To be born as a wheel-turning king we need to collect inconceivable merits. Therefore, if there’s one atom of our body that covers the ground when we do prostrations to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, we create the karma to be born as a wheel-turning king for a thousand lifetimes. Because Kopan mountain is higher, when we prostrate from here, on this floor in the gompa, because the atoms go to the center of the earth, it makes a huge difference. There is a huge difference between prostrating down below the mountain and prostrating here, an unbelievable huge difference.

However many atoms our body covers by prostrating, we create the karma to be born as a wheel-turning king for the thousands of lifetimes equaling the number of atoms our body covers. Even our small toes—not our legs, I’m talking about toes, big toes and small toes—when we do a prostration, even just the small toes, the atoms covered from here down to the center of the world is unconceivable. If we have long nails, of course, from here down to the bottom of the earth! An unbelievable number of atoms are covered. And no question if we have long hair and long fingernails. This is a benefit of having long hair while prostrating! The atoms covered by that long hair means so many more thousands of lifetimes as a wheel-turning king. Of course, at other times long hair gives us a lot of work. A lot of time goes into shaping the hair. But if we prostrate, the longer our hair, the more merit we create because of what it covers. Can you imagine the uncountable number of atoms from here to the center of the world that it covers, and we have created the cause to be born a wheel-turning king for the thousands of lifetimes equaling that many atoms our hair covers It’s just amazing.

I think this is something you must understand well because this is an incredible advantage. It gives us inspiration to do prostrations. To be born as one wheel-turning king we have to collect inconceivable merit. We have to think of that. But that doesn’t mean we have to be born as a wheel-turning king! The Buddha is giving us an idea how much merit we collect, but it depends on where we dedicate the merit. The minute we prostrate to the Buddha, that immediately [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] becomes the cause of enlightenment, the cause of liberation and the happiness of future lives, all that.

Lama Tsongkhapa explained a special technique to make one prostration create the most extensive merit. When you do a prostration, even though you have only one body in reality, you visualize your body numberless times lying down from the four directions, the four corners, as you prostrate to the holy object, the statue, stupa, scripture, or whatever. As Lama Tsongkhapa explained, if you visualize another body and prostrate, you collect the same merit as two actual bodies prostrating. Therefore, I normally advise, maybe if you visualize Thousand-Arm Chenrezig, it’s very easy to cover the whole ground from the four directions, the corners. You can do that visualization right after you put your forehead on the ground. However many bodies you are able to visualize, you create unbelievable, unbelievable merit. That’s Lama Tsongkhapa’s technique.

That can be done as soon as your forehead touches the ground or when you put your two palms together on your forehead. When you do many prostrations quickly, maybe it is difficult but at the beginning, when you go slowly, you can think you are prostrating to all the ten-direction Buddhas, Dharma and Sangha, who are the guru.

I’ve already explained the eight benefits but there are also ten benefits the minute you put two palms together, which are different from the ones I explained. For example, the eight benefits that I explained are actually numberless—three times numberless—because you prostrate toward the numberless Buddha, Dharma and Sangha of ten directions, who are in essence the guru. Because there are numberless of the three, the eight benefits are numberless. Prostrating to all the ten-direction statues, stupas and scriptures, which are in the essence of the guru, you receive the eight benefits numberless times. When you put your hands here, at the crown, at the throat and at the heart, it’s the same. You have already collected countless benefits even before doing the actual prostrations.

Circumambulations are also the cause of liberation and enlightenment. Then, when you lie down, think that you are prostrating to all the ten-directions’ Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, statues, stupas and scriptures, who are in essence the guru. At the beginning, when you have time, when you do that again you create the numberless causes to achieve every samsaric happiness, liberation from samsara and enlightenment. In fact, numberless times three, because there are numberless Buddhas, Dharma and Sangha, as well as numberless statues, stupas and scriptures, which are in essence the guru. When you think of the guru, each merit becomes the most extensive, the highest.

If you visualize Chenrezig, visualize [bodies] lying down in all the four directions after you put your forehead on the floor. You can do that meditation while you’re standing. As I mentioned, doing even one prostration with all these meditations brings the most unimaginable merit.

I’ll mention this and then we’ll stop. Then, we’ll have to run down!

The general benefit of prostrations is that you achieve a perfect body, one that is very attractive with a very enchanting voice, like the singers who draw many millions of people in the world. If you have these qualities, you can draw in all those people and bring them all into the Dharma, into the path to liberation and enlightenment. Everybody listens to your speech. Everybody praises you. You not only have so much power, controlling power, you have so much happiness, so much enjoyment. That just naturally comes. Whatever you wish for just comes. You will be reborn in a higher realm, the deva or human realm. And you are able to quickly achieve the sorrowless state. 

These benefits come from a great lama, Buton Rinpoche. This is from his teaching, but there are different explanations in other texts. It doesn’t mean you only achieve liberation; it means full enlightenment, but that means there is also liberation. The last benefit is enlightenment.

WHEN YOU GO TO THE BOUDHANATH STUPA

It seems there’s still time to go down. So, before you go, generate a motivation of bodhicitta from here, not there, just from here before you go. Think, “The purpose of my life is to benefit sentient beings and to free them from all the suffering and its causes, bringing them to enlightenment. Therefore, I must achieve enlightenment; therefore, I need to actualize the path; therefore, I need to purify defilements. Therefore, I’m going to circumambulate and do prostrations.”

You can think of [your own] happiness, but in the very end, you must come back to sentient beings. You must think of the happiness of all sentient beings. You need to purify all the defilements, all the negative karma, and you must collect extensive merits for the happiness of the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras and intermediate stage beings. In the end, you must think of sentient beings, otherwise you can’t have a realization of bodhicitta. When you talk about suffering and karma, you can become more concerned for your own welfare, to protect yourself from the hell realm. Sometimes the motivation becomes just that.

Therefore, it is very important that even if you think about impermanence and the suffering of the lower realms, in the end you must do this to bring happiness to all the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings. Then, your motivation is directed to others; it’s connected to others. Otherwise, it becomes selfish, just to protect yourself from the lower realms. It becomes like that; you stop there.

When you go around, you first chant the mantras for multiplying merit. If somebody can quickly copy them, somebody who has a copy can lead and everybody else can recite.

The holy name mantra is,

CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ RIN CHHEN GYÄL TSHÄN LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO

Recite that seven times. Do you have it? No?

Then there’s this mantra.

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE RATNA KETU RAJAYA / TATHAGATAYA / ARHATE SAMYAK SAMBUDDHAYA / TADYATHA / OM RATNE RATNE MAHA RATNE RATNA VIJAYE SVAHA

You also repeat this seven times.

Somebody might have that. You don’t? [Inaudible reply from Ven. Kaye] It’s on the door? That’s good. So, when you go down, you can copy it. We didn’t get to print it. Sorry, that was my mistake.

If you recite this mantra seven times when you start to circumambulate, each circumambulation becomes ten million times. It’s a way to increase the merit. Because the Buddha is so compassionate to us sentient beings, because the Buddha has achieved the ten powers—the power of prayer and so forth—with those qualities of the Buddha, this mantra has the power to increase our merit ten million times. So, one prostration becomes ten million times.

After that, you can chant the Vajrasattva mantra. Don’t just go around the stupa with a closed mouth or talking and gossiping. You must use your speech to collect merit. Your body is circumambulating so it is collecting merit, while the speech circumambulation is reciting the homage to the Buddha. You can recite the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas, if you know them by heart. Or if somebody knows them, they can lead and you can recite together. I think you can do the same with the Vajrasattva mantra. Or you can recite OM MANI PADME HUM, but don’t go round with a closed mouth. You’ll waste so much of your life. Even though the body is collecting merit, you are wasting your speech. You can do such unbelievable purification with your speech by reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas. Just reciting one name, many eons of negative karma get purified.

For example, if you recite DE ZHIN SHEG PA ME TOG PÄL LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO (I prostrate to the Glorious Flower) once, it purifies one hundred thousand eons. Not minutes, not years, but eons, one hundred thousand eons of negative karma get purified.

I want to tell you this. Cancer, AIDS, relationship problems, depression, loneliness—all these diseases that have no cure, all these things come from negative karma. If you have cancer and a doctor or healer comes and heals your cancer, how would you feel? You would feel so happy. You would have got this extra life; you can live now. You would feel so happy and you would think that the doctor or healer was so precious, so kind. But that is just cancer; that is just one sickness; that is just this life. It’s not talking about never getting cancer in a future life. The healer hasn’t healed cancer forever, just in this life, but that makes you so happy.

Now here, when you purify negative karma, you purify not just the karma to get cancer. Cancer is just a small part of samsaric suffering. There are so many other sufferings that come from negative karma, so if you purify negative karma, it helps all other sufferings. There will be no need to experience any of those sicknesses or any of the many other problems. You won’t have to experience them in this life and you won’t have to experience them in future lives. Because suffering comes from negative karma, you will no longer have to experience it because its cause, negative karma, is purified.

What unbelievable joy it is that, by purifying negative karma you don’t have to experience all those sufferings now or in future lives. Because their cause is purified, you don’t experience the result. What unbelievable joy that is. If somebody cured your AIDS or cancer, it would make you so happy, but what about this? By chanting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas, so many eons of negative karma are purified. For some names it’s six thousand eons, or four or five thousand eons—maybe the shortest one is two thousand eons—that much negative karma gets purified, which is the cause of so many various sufferings, not only sicknesses. What a great joy that is. It’s only because we don’t have karma or don’t have faith, which comes from karma, that we don’t have so much feeling for this practice; that we don’t appreciate it so much.

Actually, Vajrasattva or the Thirty-five Buddhas are like wish-fulfilling jewels, fulfilling all our happiness, purifying all the undesirable sufferings and granting all the realizations. So, these practices are really the most precious thing in our life. If you use an example like this, you can get some idea of how this is so unbelievably precious. You’ll think not doing them is a total waste of your life. You will not be able to stand not doing these practices; you’ll want to do them every second. You have this incredible opportunity to purify every second; it is the easiest way. You won’t be able to stand not reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas or the Vajrasattva mantra. 

Therefore, don’t circumambulate with a closed mouth! You must chant one of these mantras. It’s quite easy to close your mouth as you go around, but you lose so much merit.

There is the body circumambulation and the speech circumambulation and the other one is the mind circumambulation, which is keeping the mind in faith, by understanding the benefits I explained of circumambulating the stupa with devotion to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. You can recite the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas with faith in them; you can recite Vajrasattva with faith in the power of mantra. That’s mental circumambulation.

So, even if you are only doing one circumambulation, that is for all the six realms’ sentient beings. The stupa is all the gurus, Buddhas, Dharma and Sangha; it’s all the ten-directions’ Buddhas, Dharma and Sangha, all the ten-directions’ stupa, statues and scriptures—everything. Remember this when you go around at the beginning, but it’s also good to remember it from time to time. In this way, when you circumambulate the stupa, you circumambulate every single holy object—every single tsa tsa, statue or painting of the Buddha everywhere, in the shops, holy places, even in Tibet, anywhere. Anywhere there are holy objects—in any shop, in any individual person’s house, in any monastery—you have circumambulated every single holy object that exists. Because there are numberless statues, stupas and scriptures, like before, circumambulating each one means there are numberless causes of enlightenment, numberless causes of liberation, numberless causes of the happiness of future lives. It’s numberless like this, times three. And by also thinking of the guru, you create the highest merit.

With this meditation, as you circumambulate, visualize beams emitting from the stupa, purifying you and all the six realms’ sentient beings. If you are circumambulating six or seven times, you can meditate in this way. With the first circumambulation, do it for all the hell beings, and at the end give all your merits to all sentient beings, and especially the hell beings, thinking that they all achieve the whole path and become enlightened. Then, do the next one for the hungry ghosts and for all sentient beings. At the end, give away all your merits up to enlightenment to all sentient beings and especially the hungry ghosts, thinking that they all become enlightened. Then, do a round particularly for the animals, and at the end give away all your merits up to enlightenment, all the result happiness, to sentient beings and especially the animals. Then, like that, you can do the same for human beings, suras, asuras and finally intermediate stage beings.

After that you can do circumambulations for the long life of the gurus, offering the merits. Then, after that you can do it for the teachings of the Buddha to exist a long time in this world, offering the merits for that. You can also do it for the benefactors who serve the Sangha, for the holy beings to spread and preserve the Dharma. They also need benefactors, so you can do one circumambulation for them. If you have more time, you can do it like that.

You can do three circumambulations or more, whatever time you have. Then, do the lamrim prayer, making strong prayers to have all those realizations. Here, I’m just giving you an idea. It doesn’t mean you have to do everything today, but at the end you should recite the King of Prayers, then what Lama Yeshe always recited, the very powerful Lama Tsongkhapa prayer. Every stanza is so important. It’s very, very good to pray down there for this to happen. Then, dedicating the merits, of course, by sealing with emptiness, to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings. And then the long-life prayer for His Holiness.

That’s about it. My BBC channel is finished! OK, thank you so much.

[Rinpoche recites prayers in Tibetan]