December 11, 2007

THE GREAT YOGIS SEE COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY

Except from an individual’s side, going down to the stupa to do circumambulation and make prayers has never been part of the program, but I think in the future it’s very good for it to be part of the program—to go down to the stupa and do practice and circumambulations and to sit down to do those important prayers and then make offerings.

It’s also good to go to Swayambhunath, to do circumambulation of the mountain. As I mentioned the other day, the Buddha put his holy feet on that very high mountain and predicted that in the future in Nepal—that must have been the time when all of the Kathmandu valley was a lake—that there would be a crystal stupa, the embodiment of the Buddha’s holy mind, that would not be made by hand, which would later appear from that lake. The Buddha had predicted that. That crystal stupa, the manifestation of the Buddha’s holy mind, the dharmakaya, is inside that mountain, covered by earth. It’s supposed to be there, so it’s kind of quite mystical.

You can go on top, where there are long steps, from the back. There’s a temple through a door there that contains the Prajnaparamita scriptures brought from naga country. I think that maybe they are brought out every year on the day of this celebration and people [receive] blessings. I’m not sure, but inside it’s very precious. There’s supposed to be an unbelievable tunnel that goes from there through the mountain. There are many stories of how only holy beings can go through, otherwise there are obstacles. You encounter many animals or something like that, which stop ordinary people from going through. Only great holy beings can go through.

Once when I went there, there was only an old Nepalese man sitting outside. He looked like a very nice person, very kind, very shiny; he looked quite special. He was the only person who had gone halfway through to the temple. He has now [been able to go] completely through. That’s what was said, anyway.

The place is quite mystical. Of course, it’s a holy place but how we see it is according to our karmic view. Seeing a place as holy depends on how much our mind is purified. How much our mind is purified, we see it as that much pure; how much our mind is obscured, we see it as that much impure. We see things according to our mind.

The great yogis who have pure minds see things like holy places totally differently. When the Seventh or Thirteenth Dalai Lama went to [Massed Vulture’s Mountain] in Rajgir in India, where the Buddha gave the teachings on the Perfection of Wisdom, the second turning of the Dharma wheel, he saw the whole mountain was covered with piles of Dharma texts. He was unable to climb the mountain because he saw a whole pile of Dharma texts. When we go, we just see a very ordinary place, a very tiny place, with old rocks, like something that is worn out, but in reality it is not like that.

Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche, who passed away quite a number of years ago, was a great bodhisattva, a great pandit. He was exactly like those ancient great pandits, Chandrakirti, Nagarjuna or Aryadeva. He was exactly like those great pandits of the past, how his face looked, a great scholar and bodhisattva, whose holy mind was enriched with the entire sutra and tantra teachings, all those hundreds of volumes of the Tengyur and hundreds of volumes of the Kangyur. He could quote from all those many hundreds of volumes. Rinpoche said that what we see as a very small place, where only a small number of people could fit is in reality a place where the Buddha is still Buddha teaching to many tens of thousands of bodhisattvas. The Buddha is still giving teachings there in that same place where we go. This is another view. Khunu Lama Rinpoche said that. How those bodhisattvas view things is totally different from how we common people see them.

A young lady, a dakini, came from Tibet to serve and protect His Holiness. That’s the main reason she came from Tibet. Whenever he travels in the West or anywhere, wherever she is, she protects him. Sometimes she travels with His Holiness, but her body is still in Dharamsala. Wherever she’s sleeping, maybe her body is there but her subtle body is with His Holiness, traveling in the airplane, like that. Once she was sleeping but there was some kind of quite intensive appearance. People wondered why, so she told them she was asked by Kurukulla—Kurukulla is a deity—to travel with His Holiness in the airplane for protection or something. That’s what she said. There are beings like this who are very advanced, totally free.

In her case, when she goes to holy places, there are stories of what the Buddha did there. [To us] there are just thorn bushes and rocks but what she sees is totally different, something totally different, amazing, mind-blowing, mind-blowing! Not nose blowing, mind-blowing! Nose blowing is not good, mind-blowing!

HOW WE PERCEIVE THINGS DEPENDS ON THE LEVEL OF OUR MIND

How things appear to us, how we see things, is a production of our level of mind, our quality of mind. It depends on how obscured or how pure our mind is. When we look at a person or a place, a house, and when a hundred people look at it—it doesn’t have to be a hundred; it could be ten people—when we look at that house or that person, some people find it kind of interesting, nice, beautiful, but for some people it is not beautiful at all. For some people it is ugly, whether it’s a person’s body or a house. So, even ordinary objects appear differently to ordinary people. So, there’s no question about the view of a pure dakini with a pure mind.

This is besides talking about the ultimate view, how things that appear truly existent to us don’t exist in that way at all. Before we believe in something we must analyze it, not only in the case of emptiness, but even in many other things. First we must analyze before we believe in something, otherwise we get cheated, we get deceived.

In his Stanford University talk in San Francisco, His Holiness said we should not immediately cling to anything like a dog without examining it first. That’s very powerful advice. Whether true existence is there or not, before believing in it we must examine it. That’s the ultimate one, but there are many other things in our daily life that we must examine before we believe in them, otherwise we will get completely cheated. There are many things we need to examine such as before we start a relationship, and there are many other cases, many other conventional things that we must examine before we believe them, otherwise we can get totally cheated, we can get into trouble and suffer. So, His Holiness said we should not immediately cling to something without analyzing it, not like a dog with meat or bones, without first examining them. Anyway, this is just side talk.

This is our present view but when our mind becomes purer and purer, our view changes and we have a different view of the same object. Pretas don’t see this monastery, this temple, like we do. They see it as a very depressed place, a totally depressed place, a very unhappy place. There is no way they can see the holy objects. This is our world, this view, but for the pretas, the hungry ghosts, although they see the same place it is totally something else. 

Those who have a pure mind, of course, see this place as totally the mandala of the deity. Even the worldly gods have a better view than us; they see it as much more beautiful than we do. Of course, the purest mind is the Buddha’s holy mind where whatever appears is only pure, even poopoo! For us the smell is disgusting, but for the Buddha it’s a totally different phenomena; it’s nectar, totally. Even the great yogis, those who have achieved the clear light of meaning, who have achieved the path of unification of no more learning, even those not yet enlightened, can transform it into nectar. They don’t see it as disgusting, as impure.

So, you can see that everything is to do with the mind; everything comes from the mind. We have to remember that in our daily life different sentient beings have different views of the same object. At this time, we are born as a human being, so this is the view we have. It’s all according to our karma. Anything we see as beautiful or nice is the result of our good karma, the result of the positive thought, the positive mind. Anything that is ugly, anything filthy or dirty or ugly, anything undesirable, is the result of past negative karma, of the negative thought, the negative mind.

I think in the future we can make part of the program to circumambulate that mountain. People can get up at three or four o’clock in the morning to do circumambulation and prayers. Then, by breakfast time they can be back home and do their business or whatever. Many lay people can go back in the daytime, in the morning, and do their commitments while they are circumambulating for many hours. Some very old mothers circumambulate maybe twenty times in one day. They are unbelievably fortunate, even though they don’t have any Dharma education; they have never learned how to meditate. Not everybody, but many do not have the opportunity. However, they have so much faith and devotion, and the object they rely on is unmistaken. Even though they don’t have an understanding, the object they rely on, they hold on to, is the correct one. That makes a lot of difference in their life. There’s always a result because of that. They have guidance; they are assured of a good rebirth in their next life. and all the things. They are purifying their minds and collecting extensive merits to achieve enlightenment quickly.

We’re going to begin with some protector prayers tonight, for your own success in your Dharma practice, for your development. And then to fulfill His Holiness’s holy wishes and also for Lama Ösel Rinpoche to become a dynamic teacher in this world, to become like Lama Tsongkhapa and His Holiness the Dalai Lama and be able to benefit sentient beings and have a long life. And for all the projects. I’m not going to repeat them, but for all the projects to be successful, without any obstacles. And as well as that, for the monastery and nunnery here, for whatever projects there are to be successful and for the success of all the Sangha’s studies. 

Then, for His Holiness’s holy wishes [to succeed], that the top leaders of mainland China are able to discover that His Holiness is the embodiment of all the buddhas’ compassion and to generate strong devotion and do exactly what His Holiness wishes. And that they invite His Holiness to China for all the billions of people to be able to see him and hear His Holiness’s teachings, His Holiness’s words. That they are able to see his face and everybody can enjoy the sun of the happiness of Dharma shining in China, giving them all freedom, as well as in Tibet. And also that His Holiness continuously leads them, guides them, and there is total freedom. 

And then, that there will be many bodhisattvas and buddhas in Tibet, more than before. That means that the Buddhadharma will be able to spread and stay a long time in this world through that, and will be able to spread in the ten directions. 

And for you, that everybody who came here this time, that you have not just come for this course and then you stop, after you leave here it’s finished—not like that—but that you are able to continue to practice and, on the basis of that, you are able to develop your mind toward enlightenment.

[Rinpoche and group chant the protector prayers in Tibetan]

ATISHA IS INVITED TO TIBET

I was waiting to do the lung of the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment by Lama Atisha. This is a complete lamrim; it is the root of all the lamrim. After the Buddhadharma spread in Tibet, after some time a lot of misunderstanding happened. People regarded sutra and tantra as contradictory, like hot and cold. If you practiced sutra you could not practice tantra; if you practiced tantra you could not practice sutra. There was a lot of misunderstandings about tantra, a lot of corruption, degeneration.

So, the king, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö, sent a gold offering to Lama Atisha in India to invite him to Tibet. He was so worried about all this confusion. Then, a minister told him about Lama Atisha at Nalanda University in India. Nalanda was the Buddhist university with three hundred great scholars who were highly attained, like Shantideva. The minister informed the king about Lama Atisha and suggested he invite him. As soon as the king heard Lama Atisha’s name, he got incredible devotion; tears poured from his eyes and his hair stood up on his skin. He put his palms together like this when he heard Lama Atisha’s name.

He sent a great amount of gold and a translator, maybe Nagtso Lotsawa, but he wasn’t able to invite Lama Atisha. At that time, there were no car roads, so it took many months to travel to India. It took a long, long time, with so many hardships, so he didn’t get to invite Lama Atisha. Maybe he didn’t even meet Lama Atisha, I’m not sure. 

Anyway, the king went again to look for gold to make offering to Lama Atisha to invite him to Tibet, to make the Buddhism there pure. Maybe somewhere near Nepal, I’m not sure where exactly, there was an irreligious king who captured Lha Lama Yeshe Ö, the Dharma king of Tibet, and put him into prison. His nephew, Jangchub Ö, went to offer the gold to the irreligious king to liberate the king from prison but the irreligious king told him he would only release him if the gold equaled the body of the king and when they measured by piling up the gold, the size of the head was still missing. 

When the Dharma king’s nephew, Jangchub Ö, went to prison and informed the king, the king said, “Don’t even give a handful of gold to the irreligious king. Take all the gold to India to offer to Lama Atisha to invite him to Tibet. It doesn’t matter; I will give up my life in prison for the sentient beings in Tibet, in order to spread the Dharma, to make Buddhism pure again.” He sent a message to Lama Atisha, “I may meet you in my next life.” 

Then, I think it must have been Nagtso Lotsawa or another translator who carried all the gold to India. Sometimes, when he didn’t know which road to take, Chenrezig manifested, sometimes as a child, sometimes as an old man, and guided him. As an old man, he said, “You Tibetan people talk a lot! Be quiet, otherwise if other people know of your mission it might become an obstacle to inviting Lama Atisha to Tibet.” 

He finally reached the Buddhist university, Nalanda, where there were many hundreds of pandits, highly attained beings. When he met Lama Atisha, he explained everything, all the problems that had happened in Tibet and how the king had given up his life in prison to spread the Dharma in Tibet. After Lama Atisha had listened to everything, he said he would check with Tara, the female enlightened being who is the manifestation of all the buddhas’ activities. Tara is very quick to grant help for sentient beings. Whatever activity Lama Atisha did, whatever decision he had to make, he first asked Tara.

When he questioned Tara about whether his life would be beneficial if he went to Tibet, Tara said, “Your life will be highly beneficial in Tibet, but your life will be shortened by seven years.” Lama Atisha replied that he didn’t care, that even if his life was shortened, he didn’t care if his life was going to be beneficial in Tibet, that he would go to Tibet to spread the Dharma.

If all the other Sangha, the Indian people, knew that Lama Atisha was going to Tibet, they wouldn’t let him because he was also needed very much in India. So, using skillful means, Lama Atisha gave the aspect of going on pilgrimage to Nepal, and from there he went to Tibet.

When he was received by the king’s nephew, Jangchub Ö, and all the entourage, Jangchub Ö requested Lama Atisha to teach, explaining, “We Tibetans are very ignorant, so please give us very basic teaching, just refuge and karma.” Lama Atisha was very pleased because he didn’t ask for very high teachings or emptiness or the initiations or things like that. That pleased Lama Atisha very much.

After hearing all the problems that happened in Tibet, all the misunderstandings, all the contradictory arguments about sutra and tantra, Lama Atisha wrote this Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. After that, all the wrong concepts were completely cut, such as how one person cannot practice both sutra and tantra, how they are contradictory and so forth. He eliminated those wrong views and made Buddhism totally pure in Tibet by composing the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. 

THE ORAL TRANSMISSION OF THE LAMP FOR THE PATH

The Buddha has revealed three levels of teaching: the Lesser Vehicle or Hinayana teachings, the Mahayana Paramitayana sutra teachings and the Mahayana tantra teachings, the Vajrayana. Lama Atisha integrated all the 84,000 teachings of Buddha, all the three levels of teachings, into the graduated path for one person to practice, integrating the Lesser Vehicle, the Mahayana Paramitayana and the Mahayana Vajrayana teachings for one person’s graduated practice to achieve enlightenment, with nothing contradictory. Lama Atisha made it very clear how to go to enlightenment. It’s like dinner has already been served on the table, ready for us to eat. We just need to sit down and eat it! Lama Atisha wrote this Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, which makes it very easy. By studying it, we know how to go to enlightenment without any confusion; we are able to integrate all the teachings with this one person’s graduated practice to achieve enlightenment.

The title “lamrim” didn’t exist before. The subject is so vast, but the particular title “lamrim” didn’t exist before Lama Atisha wrote the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. The title happened after this. Lama Tsongkhapa composed the most extensive commentaries on this. There are two, a long version and a middle version. There is also a short version called A Hymn of Experience. Whose experience? Lama Tsongkhapa’s. It’s a short lamrim but it’s very profound. It’s sometimes very good to read, to do a direct meditation on it.

There are many other lamas who wrote lamrim teachings. The Fifth Dalai Lama, with Sacred Words of Manjushri or something, then the incarnations of the Panchen Lama, Gyalwa Ensapa, Panchen Palden Yeshe⁸ and Panchen Losang Chögyan,⁹ who came after Gyalwa Ensapa. Those incarnations, those great enlightened beings, wrote commentaries of the lamrim, the Swift Path and the Happy Path. There are many lamrim teachings like this, written by highly enlightened beings like Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo, who wrote Liberation in the Palm in Your Hand.

It’s very good to hear the root text because it leaves a positive imprint on the mind of the whole path to enlightenment. As I mentioned before, the advantage of receiving a lung is that you receive the blessing. From Lama Atisha there is a continual blessing, which is what you receive. I have received the lineage, so then you receive the lineage of this teaching, which has continued unbroken from Lama Atisha. I have received it from Holiness the Dalai Lama and from many lamas, from many gurus, such as His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche. I have received the transmission; it’s just that the practice is missing.

When you meditate on the lamrim, when you study it, when you teach others, with this Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment there’s more benefit. It has a more positive effect. It is more beneficial when you teach this to other sentient beings. And also, after you have received the oral transmission of not only the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment but any teaching, when you read it once, you get the benefit of having read it a hundred times. That’s what Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche said. After having received the lung, if you read it once, you get the same benefit as having read it a hundred times. 

It’s the same with any of the Prajnaparamita teachings. So, it’s unbelievably powerful. One thing is that it leaves a positive imprint on the mind. Even for animals, not only human beings, to hear it leaves a positive imprint that sooner or later will ripen. Even for animals, first you get a higher rebirth in your next life, and then you are able to meet the Buddhadharma again. And when you do, you are able to understand it unbelievably easily. You are able to understand the words and meanings, and then, through practice, you are able to attain the realizations and cease the defilements and so reach enlightenment.

So, listening to each word of a teaching, a commentary or an oral transmission brings you to enlightenment. I’m talking here about an oral transmission. Every sentient being who hears it, even dogs and cats, each word brings them to enlightenment. You must know that. Even if it is so difficult to understand the philosophical teachings, just to listen has that great benefit. You will attain a good rebirth in the next life and the next lives, and it will be unbelievably easy to understand the words and meanings, and then be able to practice and have realizations.

Anyway, I thought that before we left we should do this oral transmission because it is the root of all the other lamrim teachings. I’ve been waiting for all those days, but it didn’t happen!

This is how to go about enlightenment. Lama Atisha explained it in three categories: the graduated path of the lower capable being, the middle capable being and the higher capable being. The graduated path of the lower capable being is the person who has renounced the attachment clinging to this life’s happiness, only seeking the happiness of this life. They have left this behind. The goal is mainly the happiness of future lives. The method to achieve this is by taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and protecting their karma. So, the graduated path of the lower capable being is renouncing the attachment to this life’s happiness by taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and living in the morality of abandoning the ten nonvirtues and living in the ten virtues.

The graduated path of the middle capable being is renouncing the whole of samsara, realizing how the whole of samsara, from the hell realm up to the formless realm, is only in nature of suffering, like being in the very center of a fire, or like being inside a septic tank with all the kaka, with all those smells. Or it’s like being in a nest of poisonous snakes. It is totally disgusting. You can’t find even one single attraction in samsara. Like that, you renounce the whole of samsara and seek liberation. To achieve that, the method is practicing higher trainings: the higher training of morality, the higher training of concentration and the higher training of wisdom.

Then, the graduated path of the higher capable being means you leave behind seeking happiness only for yourself, the self-cherishing thought. You renounce that. You seek enlightenment for sentient beings, and for that you practice the six paramitas.

These are the three capable beings. An ordinary capable being is somebody who doesn’t have the aim to achieve even a higher rebirth, let alone liberation from samsara or enlightenment, not even rebirth as a deva or another human rebirth, not even the happiness of future lives. Not at all. They only seek the happiness of this life alone. That is an ordinary capable being. That is not a real capable being because even ants are so good at seeking happiness for this life. They are so smart; they have so much politics. They are so good at finding food. They can even climb many stories to get into high-rise buildings to get into the kitchen for the honey! And tigers living in Africa are so quiet, living in the dust, but they are perfectly focused. When they pounce, it’s amazing. Depending on the type of animal, they attack some from the side, some from behind, taking their legs so they fall over. Then when they are taken, the other tigers and the cubs come to eat. They have their own politics! They are very smart in achieving the happiness of this life. I sometimes think what ants can do is maybe not easy even for human beings to do.

Recently I saw on TV, there’s an insect who, after eating some leaves, is able to produce honey from the bottom of their body, like a bubble. Because the ants eat the honey from the bottom of the tiny insect, that insect is very important for the ants. The mother of this insect who lays many babies carries them on the head, like something very precious. And I think the ants bring the insect leaves to eat, so they get honey. It’s amazing.

These are just ordinary capable beings, not real capable beings. No matter how smart they are, no matter how much education they have, no matter what degree they have, their attitude is just seeking the happiness of this life, only their own and not others. That’s an ordinary capable being. It’s not special, even though they might have a high education and many things that common people consider to be special.

So, please pay attention. Think you are listening to this teaching only for the benefit of all sentient beings, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all your kind mother sentient beings.

[Rinpoche gives the oral transmission of Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment in Tibetan]

So, the oral transmission is done.

So, now the Vajrasattva jenang, the permission to practice.

Notes

⁸ The sixth Panchen Lama (1738–1780). [Return to text]

⁹ The fourth Panchen Lama, also known as Losang Chökyi Gyältsen (1570–1662). [Return to text]