Chapter 13. Sunday, November 4: Final Medicine Buddha Session
Motivation for Thirty-five Buddhas practice
Think, “The numberless hell beings, from whom I receive all my past, present and future happiness and all realizations, including enlightenment, are the most precious and most kind ones in my life. I must free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment by myself alone.
“The numberless hungry ghosts, from whom I receive all my past, present and future happiness and all realizations, including enlightenment, are the most precious and most kind ones in my life. I must free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment by myself alone.
“The numberless animals, from whom I receive all my past, present and future happiness and all realizations, including enlightenment, are the most precious and most kind ones in my life. I must free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to full enlightenment by myself alone.
“The numberless human beings, from whom I receive all my past, present and future happiness and all realizations, including enlightenment, are the most precious and most kind ones in my life. I must free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment by myself alone.
“The numberless asuras and suras, from whom I receive all my past, present and future happiness and all realizations, including enlightenment, are the most precious and most kind ones in my life. I must free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to full enlightenment by myself alone.
“The numberless intermediate state beings, from whom I receive all my past, present and future happiness and all realizations, including enlightenment, are the most precious and most kind ones in my life. I must free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to full enlightenment by myself alone.
“Therefore, I must achieve enlightenment. Therefore, I must actualize the steps of the path to enlightenment; therefore, I must purify all my defilements, all my negative karmas and downfalls.
“If I were now in one of the hot hells, it would be unbearable. I couldn’t bear to be there for even a second—it would be like suffering for eons. I could be born there and experience that suffering any day, any moment—possibly even this moment. Why? Because I have created the causes of that, such as the ten nonvirtuous actions, during beginningless rebirths. And I have committed those negative actions even in this life, right up to this moment. On top of that, I have collected negative karmas by breaking the pratimoksha, bodhisattva and tantric vows. Those negative karmas are progressively heavier and heavier. I have also collected the heaviest negative karma in relation to the virtuous friend during my beginningless samsaric rebirths and also in this life up to now. I have collected numberless of these unimaginable negative karmas, which are the causes of rebirth in a hot hell.
“Not only is my death definite to happen, but it could happen any day, any moment. It could happen even this moment. Therefore, I must purify all my defilements, all my negative karmas, right now without even a second’s delay. I must purify all of them. Therefore, to bring temporary and ultimate happiness to the numberless sentient beings, I’m going to do prostrations with the practice of Confession of Downfalls by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names.”
General Confession
Woe is me!
Woe is me, again! I’m joking.
O great guru Vajradhara, all other buddhas and bodhisattvas who abide in the ten directions, and all the venerable Sangha, please pay attention to me.
I, who am named Thubten Zopa, circling in cyclic existence since beginningless time until the present, overpowered by mental afflictions such as attachment, aversion and ignorance, by means of body, speech and mind have created the ten negative actions.
When we do this practice of confession, we do it by sealing each negative karma with emptiness. When we mention each negative karma, we remember it and then seal it with emptiness. It becomes extremely powerful purification if we do this in addition to going through the negative karmas and generating strong regret that we’ve committed them, which makes the negative karma much thinner. If we then seal each negative karma with emptiness, with right view, it is like dropping an atomic bomb on each negative karma or like firing missiles at an enemy target, like the United States is now doing in Afghanistan. It is similar here. We bomb our negative karmas and our egos here in this gompa at LMB. We bomb our bin Laden, our ego. The most harmful terrorist is self-cherishing thought, and the other harmful one is ignorance. Here we are bombing this ignorance. Each time we remember emptiness we are bombing the king of terrorists, ignorance, which is more harmful than numberless bin Ladens.
...have created the ten negative actions.
There are two basic ways you can do that in relation to the ten nonvirtuous actions. You remember that since the ten nonvirtuous actions are dependent arisings, merely imputed by the mind, they are empty, empty of existing from their own side. This is not saying that the ten nonvirtuous actions are empty of the ten nonvirtuous actions. Since the ten nonvirtues are merely imputed by the mind, they are empty of the real ten nonvirtues existing from their own side. Look at them as totally empty, totally nonexistent. Not even an atom of the truly existent ten nonvirtuous actions collected during beginningless rebirths exist. They are totally empty. Since they’re merely imputed by the mind, they’re totally empty, totally nonexistent, even though they appear to be truly existent. [meditate]
I have engaged in the five actions of immediate retribution and the five close actions of immediate retribution.
Think of the five uninterrupted negative karmas and the five close ones you have collected during beginningless rebirths. Since they are merely imputed by the mind, they are totally nonexistent, totally empty of existing from their own side. [meditate]
I have transgressed the vows of individual liberation...
The Tibetan term so sor thar päi means liberation for self.
I have transgressed the bodhisattva vows and secret mantra.
All those negative karmas are merely imputed by the mind. Right now my mind merely imputed them. Therefore, those negative karmas are totally nonexistent, totally empty of existing from their own side. [meditate]
I have been disrespectful to my parents...
All those negative karmas collected during beginningless rebirths are merely imputed by the mind. Since my mind has merely imputed them right now, they are totally empty of existing from their own side. [meditate]
I have disrespected my own vajra master and my abbot...
All those negative karmas collected during beginningless rebirths are merely imputed by the mind. Therefore, all those negative karmas are totally empty of existing in the way they appear to me and the way I believe they exist. [meditate]
...and I have disrespected my vajra brothers and sisters and other spiritual friends living in the vows of pure behavior, or morality.
Because all those negative karmas collected during beginningless rebirths up to now are merely imputed by mind, they are totally empty. In reality they are totally empty of existing from their own side. [meditate]
I have committed actions harmful to the Three Jewels,...
Any of those actions I have done during my beginningless samsaric rebirths are merely imputed by mind; therefore, they are all totally nonexistent, totally empty of existing from their own side. [meditate]
...abandoned the holy Dharma,...
Abandoning the holy Dharma is very heavy negative karma. All this heavy negative karma of avoiding the holy Dharma collected during beginningless rebirths is merely labeled by mind; therefore, this heavy negative karma is completely nonexistent. It’s totally empty of existing from its own side. [meditate]
...criticized the arya Sangha,...
I think this might be referring to the general Sangha, not necessarily just to those who have achieved the arya paths, the path of seeing and the path of meditation. It may not be restricted to that. I don’t think it means that it is only the arya Sangha that you can’t criticize but you can criticize other Sangha. It means all the Sangha. It is because the karma is very heavy that it’s mentioned here.
Because the negative karma of having criticized Sangha created during beginningless rebirths is merely labeled by mind, it is totally nonexistent. It is totally empty of the real one appearing from there, in which we believe. [meditate]
...harmed sentient beings, and so on.
All the negative karmas of having harmed sentient beings collected during beginningless rebirths up to now are merely labeled by mind, so they are totally empty, totally nonexistent.
These and many other nonvirtuous negative actions I have done, have caused others to do,...
They are all totally empty.
...have rejoiced in others doing, and so forth.
All those negative karmas are totally empty.
In the presence of the great guru Vajradhara, all the buddhas and bodhisattvas who abide in the ten directions, and the venerable Sangha, I admit this entire collection of faults and transgressions that are obstacles to my own higher rebirth and liberation and are causes of cyclic existence and miserable lower rebirths. I will not conceal them, and I accept them as negative. I promise to refrain from doing these actions again in the future. By confessing and acknowledging them, I will attain and abide in happiness, while by not confessing and acknowledging them, true happiness will not come.
The I, the action of dedicating the merit, the merit that is dedicated, the aim to which it is dedicated, enlightenment, and those for whom it is dedicated, the sentient beings: look at everything as empty. With awareness of your own mind labeling, dedicate the practice.
“I dedicate any merit I’ve collected from having done prostrations, made offerings, confessed, rejoiced, persuaded and requested to achieving enlightenment for sentient beings.
“Jang chhub sem chhog rin po chhe...”
This is called a standing meditation session...
Taking refuge
Just as you yourself are experiencing the suffering of your own samsara, there are numberless other sentient beings experiencing the unimaginable suffering of samsara, the continuation of which has no beginning. When you think in this way, renunciation of your samsara is covered, as well as compassion for others. Think, “Therefore, to be free from all these oceans of samsaric suffering, I and all sentient beings go for refuge to guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.”
With renunciation of your own samsara, compassion for other sentient beings by reflecting on how they are suffering in samsara just like you, and faith that Buddha, Dharma and Sangha have the power to guide you, you then perform the action of going to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha for refuge.
You can visualize the elaborate refuge merit field. There is no milk ocean, just the throne with your own guru in the form of Shakyamuni Buddha in the center and the rest of the merit field (the four classes of tantric deities, the one thousand buddhas of the fortunate eon, bodhisattvas, arhats, dakas and dakinis, and Dharma protectors) on the layers of petals.
You can do that elaborate visualization or just visualize the one aspect, your root guru in the aspect of Buddha, which embodies all gurus, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. That one aspect embodies everything that you visualize in the elaborate merit field.
Whichever way you visualize the merit field, rely upon them with your whole heart. You have devotion to their qualities and faith in their power to free you and all the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering. With that devotion you rely upon them with your whole heart, then recite the prayer.
Meditating on emptiness
One idea I had is that I can talk while you are meditating on emptiness. You don’t need to rise up from emptiness...
Have you used different techniques or not?
Ven. René: I did once before—I started the Four-Point Analysis.
Rinpoche: As I mentioned in similar talks on two other nights, the moment you recognize the hallucination as a hallucination, all phenomena, which are empty by nature, become emptiness only.
Right after you look at the hallucination as a hallucination, it’s easy to see that what appears to you and what you believe are nonexistent. You immediately see what reality is: emptiness only. It’s then easy to meditate on how all phenomena, which are empty by nature, become emptiness only; it’s easy to come to that point in relation to all phenomena, including your own aggregates and even forms, sounds, smells, tastes and tangible objects.
However, when you don’t recognize that which is a hallucination as a hallucination, it’s then a little difficult to think of emptiness. When that recognition isn’t there, it’s difficult to meditate on emptiness. You become stuck. You can even come close to nihilism. As I mentioned the other night in relation to meditating on the emptiness of the offerings, if you think that the offerings are not there and then believe there are no offerings, that’s nihilism. If the way you meditate on emptiness is to meditate that the offerings are not there, it becomes like the example I gave the other night. Do you remember? I put my hand out of sight and then said, “Now it’s not there.” If your meditation on emptiness becomes like meditating on the absence of this hand, you are meditating on ordinary emptiness. I said that when you meditate on the emptiness of the offerings, when you bless the offerings, you first have to meditate on purifying them. However, your meditation on emptiness becomes the same as this example of the absent hand if it’s the same as when the offerings have been packed away, so that there is the absence of offerings. If meditating on the emptiness of the offerings means that you don’t see the offerings there, when the offerings are packed away and not there, you are also meditating on emptiness. It would then become that when you don’t see the offerings on the altar, you would be seeing the emptiness only, or tong pa nyi, of the offerings. This mistake would arise.
It would mean that when you don’t find money in your purse, you would then realize the emptiness of the money. Emptiness would become just the absence of the merely labeled money, which is a conventional truth. It would then be contradictor y because while you had money in your purse, you could never realize the emptiness of the money. In order to realize the emptiness of money, you would have to empty your purse.
Even if you can give a very extensive philosophical explanation of the view of the Prasangika school, I think that when it comes to meditation, it’s not easy. Even if you have extensive scriptural understanding and can explain the philosophy in great depth, when it actually comes to meditating, I think it’s not easy to do correct meditation.
The Four-Point Analysis, or analysis of the four vital points, starts with first recognizing the object to be refuted. What is the object to be refuted? What is it that you have to realize is empty, as it is empty in reality? Recently, when the US air force was bombing in Afghanistan, they missed their target and killed some civilians in a United Nations or Red Cross food depot. If you don’t recognize the enemy or the right spot where the enemy is, you will miss your target and there is a danger that you will harm or kill others. It is similar when you meditate on emptiness if you haven’t done the analysis of the first vital point, recognizing the gag cha, the object to be refuted. This is your enemy, your target. If, instead of hitting this target, you miss it and don’t recognize the object to be refuted, all the rest of your analysis will miss the target, and you won’t get to destroy the object of ignorance. All your reasoning and analysis, which is like an atomic bomb, will totally miss the target. It will go somewhere else, and the object of ignorance will still be left there. While the analyses are going on and on and on, you’ll be strongly apprehending and taking care of the target, that ignorance. At the end of all that extensive analysis, you will have achieved nothing. You won’t come to the correct conclusion, where you see that the object is empty, that it exists in mere name, merely imputed by the mind.
You should come to the understanding of subtle dependent arising according to the Prasangika Madhyamaka definition, which is extremely subtle. The I and every other phenomenon exist in mere name, merely imputed by mind; therefore, they’re empty. While they are empty, they are existing. While they are existing, they are empty. Emptiness and dependent arising are unified. That’s the correct conclusion. Whether you do the analysis by applying the king of logic, dependent arising—“it’s empty because it’s a dependent arising”—or by using the many other methods of logical reasoning explained in the Madhyamaka teachings, whether you apply just the essence, dependent arising, or extensive reasoning, at the end you should reach the extremely subtle dependent arising of the Prasangika view. You should come to that conclusion. It’s not that phenomena are totally nonexistent, which would be falling into nihilism; phenomena exist, but they are empty of existing from their own side. Your view of emptiness should be free of the two extremes, nihilism and eternalism, which means belief in inherent, or true, existence.
In Tibetan, you say nga cho chen den pa me de ten drel yin pai chir, which means the I does not have inherent, or true, existence. This is the same as saying that the I is empty, but when you are debating or reasoning, you say, “The I doesn’t have true existence.” Whichever way you express it, it is saying the same thing. It is not saying that I is empty of I, but that the I is empty of a truly existent I. That eliminates the extreme of eternalism. Then ten drel yin pai chir means it’s a dependent arising, which eliminates the extreme of nihilism, that it doesn’t exist. So, it helps to realize the Middle Way view of emptiness, devoid of the two extremes.
Form is empty
You realize that form is empty of truly existent form, as in the Heart Sutra, where it says “Form is empty. Emptiness is form.” Form is empty means that form is merely imputed by the mind. What is form? It’s nothing other than what is merely imputed by the mind; it is existing in mere name. Just concentrate on that. What is form? Form is just what is existing in mere name, merely imputed by the mind. Just think about that. [meditate]
What form is is extremely subtle, extremely fine. What is form? That which exists in mere name. It is extremely subtle, on the borderline between existing and not existing. The borderline between existing and not existing is extremely fine. Existence in mere name is so subtle that it’s easy to slip into nihilism.
It is difficult to define the way that form exists neither inside the mind nor outside it. According to Lama Tsongkhapa, which is the Prasangika school’s explanation, form exists in mere name, being merely imputed by the mind. When you meditate on form according to the meaning of subtle dependent arising in the Prasangika school, which is that form is merely imputed by the mind, you see that form is neither truly existent nor totally nonexistent. Form exists in mere name, being merely imputed by the mind.
You can see that form doesn’t have true existence through your own experience when you meditate on the extremely subtle way form exists according to the Prasangika school’s view of subtle dependent arising. As I mentioned the other night, there is an extra thing projected by the negative imprint left on our mental continuum by the ignorance that apprehends true existence. We then hold that truly existent appearance to be true, to be the reality.
So, form is empty. Form doesn’t have the true existence that is projected onto, or covers, it. Ignorance apprehends true existence because of the truly existent appearance projected onto the merely labeled form. In the view of ignorance, a truly existent form appears and is apprehended. You can now see that that is a total hallucination. A real form appearing from there, which is another way of expressing it, is a total hallucination. That is totally nonexistent. Totally nonexistent.
Since this realization doesn’t harm the existence of the conventional truth form, you don’t fall into nihilism. You just realize that the truly existent form is totally nonexistent, empty. You don’t realize that form is empty of form, which would mean harming the dependent arising.
After you have realized form is empty or the I is empty, while you are seeing the form or the I, naturally, as a result, you never see it as you did before and you never believe it to exist in the way you believed it to exist before. You see something that you had never discovered before. There is form and there is I, but they are extremely subtle, something merely imputed by the mind. As a result you understand that they are merely imputed by the mind, which is realization of the conventional truth. Realizing that form or the I exists in mere name is a result of realizing that the covering of true existence on the merely labeled form or merely labeled I is totally nonexistent. That extra thing is totally nonexistent; not even an atom of it exists. You realize the form or I is totally empty of an inherently existent form or I. So, you realize form is empty. The form that you discover is a form that is totally empty of existing from its own side. That’s form. Emptiness is form. Form is empty eliminates eternalism. Emptiness is form eliminates nihilism.
When you meditate or analyze, you check the effect of realizing that form doesn’t have the slightest true existence, that form is empty. Realizing that form is empty of truly existent form, that realization of emptiness, leads to understanding of the conventional truth of form. It leads to the discovery that form exists; it exists in mere name. So, form is empty seems to perform two functions. It cuts eternalism, but also cuts nihilism, because it leads to the realization that form does exist, in mere name. And it is the same with realizing that the I is empty. It seems that even this one point of realizing the emptiness of the I, that I is empty of true existence, cuts two things: nihilism and eternalism.
Also, meditating on the meaning of the subtle dependent arising of the I harms the truly existent I, or eternalism. It destroys that. And there is no doubt that it destroys nihilism. You can analyze the matter, but it seems that even I is a dependent arising performs two functions.
What I was going to say is that in the Four-Point Analysis, the first point, recognizing the object to be refuted, determines how effective the rest of the logical reasoning will be in subduing your mind, in cutting the root of samsara. The extra explanation just happened.
I was going to explain another technique you can use, but maybe it would be better if we did it tomorrow. I guess that for somebody who has the actual realization, it’s easy to meditate on emptiness, but knowing different ways to meditate might be helpful for some people. Anyway, I’ve already talked quite a bit, so I think we’ll do it in one of the sessions tomorrow.
Motivation for mantra recitation
Think, “I’m going to recite every single mantra for the Buddha of Compassion, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to have stable life, and for all his holy wishes to succeed immediately by all obstacles being pacified. I’m also going to recite every mantra for all my other virtuous friends, as well as for all other holy beings, to have stable life and for all their holy wishes and works to benefit sentient beings and the teaching of Buddha to succeed immediately.
“There are numberless hell beings and I’m going to recite every single mantra to free every single hell being from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment by myself.
“There are numberless hungry ghosts and I’m going to recite every single mantra to free every single hungry ghost from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment by myself.
“There are numberless animals and I’m going to recite every single mantra to free every single animal from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment by myself.
“There are numberless human beings and I’m going to recite every single mantra to free every human being from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment by myself.
“There are numberless asuras and I’m going to recite every single mantra to free every single asura being from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment by myself.
“There are numberless suras and I’m going to recite every single mantra to free every single sura from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment by myself.
“There are numberless intermediate state beings and I’m going to recite every single mantra to free every single intermediate state being from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment by myself.”
The different ways of saying the words have different effects on the mind. When you say that you’re going to free everyone from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment, it looks as if you’re reciting the mantras for them. But when you say that you’re going to free everyone from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment by yourself, it looks as if you’re reciting the mantras more for your own success. Does it appear like that to you?
The way I said it might look as if you’re doing it for the success of your own activities. But I think because the activities are done to benefit others, it might be OK. Even though the way I said it this time might give you the feeling that you’re reciting the mantras more for yourself, for your own success, the work you want to succeed in is freeing others from suffering and bringing them to enlightenment, so that might be OK.
“I’m also reciting every single mantra for world peace, for all the wars, disease, famine, torture, poverty, sicknesses and dangers from fire, water, air or earth, such as earthquakes, that have been happening to be stopped and for sentient beings, from now on, to never ever have to experience any of these undesirable things again.
“I’m also reciting every single mantra for the success of the projects here at LMB, such as the temple with 100,000 Medicine Buddha statues, the 100,000 stupas, and the social service projects, and for the success of all the projects and activities of all the rest of the FPMT centers, as well as for the 500-foot Maitreya Buddha statue to be completed as quickly as possible by receiving everything that is needed.”
Do you have the names there?
[Ven. René reads the names for dedication.]
Are they living or sick?
Ven. René: They’re still alive.
Rinpoche: There’s also Kendall’s grandmother, and all the others who have died whose names have been given to me, those for whom I have promised to pray and those who rely upon me and everyone else who has died.
Ven. René: And Dan Howlett, from Kurukulla Center in Boston, who died two days ago.
Rinpoche: Please pray for them to immediately be liberated from the sufferings of the lower realms and to be born in a pure land where they can become enlightened or to receive a perfect human rebirth and quickly achieve enlightenment by meeting a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru and Mahayana teachings.
So, each mantra is also for them.
Divine pride and clear appearance
While you are reciting the mantra, meditate as explained in the text. While reciting the mantra, you have to visualize yourself as Medicine Buddha. As well as visualizing yourself as Medicine Buddha, you have the divine pride, “I am Medicine Buddha.” With the appearance of yourself in the aspect of Medicine Buddha’s holy body, you generate the divine pride, “I am Medicine Buddha.”
As you are reciting the mantra, at the same time you are holding divine pride, thinking, “I am Medicine Buddha.” But not a truly existent Medicine Buddha. “I, who am merely labeled, am Medicine Buddha, who is merely labeled.”
Or you can think, “I’m the result-time Medicine Buddha.” This is another way of saying it. You think that you actually now are the Medicine Buddha that you are going to become in the future. [meditate]
Now, along with that divine pride, “I am Medicine Buddha,” you have the clear appearance of yourself in the aspect of Medicine Buddha. You have to put these two things together.
While you’re reciting the mantra, focus on the aspect of Medicine Buddha’s holy body. [meditate]
The nature of the holy body is blue light, like a clear, very blue sky. Medicine Buddha has one face and two arms. The left hand, in the mudra of concentration, holds a begging bowl filled with the nectar that pacifies the chronic disease of delusion and the nectar of immortality, which destroys death. The right hand is on the knee in the mudra of giving sublime realization, with the palm facing outward. He holds an arura plant with fruit, the medicinal plant that heals both the sickness of mind, the delusions, and sickness of body, suffering. He destroys the cause of suffering as well as the resultant suffering.
With all the holy signs and exemplifications, Medicine Buddha is seated in the vajra posture. He has a loving smile, and his compassionate eyes look at sentient beings. He is adorned with robes. Beams radiate from his holy body, each beam liberating numberless sentient beings in every second.
One-pointedly focus on the deity’s holy body. [meditate]
Now, that mind focusing on the deity’s holy body understands that all these things are merely labeled by the mind: the I is merely labeled, existing in mere name; Medicine Buddha is merely labeled, existing in mere name; Medicine Buddha’s holy body is merely labeled, existing in mere name. [meditate]
Every part of the holy body is also merely labeled, merely imputed, by the mind. Each part is merely labeled this and that: this is Medicine Buddha’s holy body, this is the head, this is the hand, this is the leg, this is the begging bowl, this is the medicine, arura. They are all merely imputed by the mind. However, even though they are all merely labeled by the mind, all these merely labeled parts appear to be truly existent. So, all these truly existent parts are not true; all these are hallucinations.
Focus on the deity’s holy body. Your mind, your wisdom, which manifests as Medicine Buddha, focuses on Medicine Buddha’s holy body but at the same time understands that the aspect of the holy body doesn’t have true existence or that all the truly existent appearances appearing to your own mind are hallucinations, which means they are all empty, nonexistent.
While your wisdom focuses on the clear appearance of Medicine Buddha’s holy body, which is method, at the same time wisdom understands that it doesn’t have true existence. What appears to be truly existent is not true; it’s a hallucination. Your mind focuses on the clear aspect of the deity’s holy body and that mind also understands that it’s empty, that it’s totally nonexistent, that it doesn’t have true existence, that the truly existent appearance is a hallucination. The clear aspect of Medicine Buddha’s holy body is clarity, and the wisdom that understands the aspect of the holy body doesn’t have the true existence that it appears to have is profundity. One mind unifies clarity and profundity. The mind that is focusing on the deity’s holy body is method, and wisdom is at the same time understanding that the deity’s holy body doesn’t have even an atom of true existence and that what appears is a hallucination. One mind practices method and wisdom together. This is the perfect way to meditate on yourself as Medicine Buddha. While reciting the mantra, concentrate in this way, your one mind practicing method and wisdom together. This is the fundamental practice of what is called Vajrayana. This is Vajrayana. You are meditating on Vajrayana. [meditate]
Visualization during mantra recitation
The blessings and qualities of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions, in the form of numberless replicas of Medicine Buddha’s holy body, some as huge as mountains and others as small as atoms, come from all the directions like snowfall and absorb into you through your pores to your heart, where there are the mantras and the heart syllable HUM. Concentrate on this. This includes all the qualities of the buddhas’ holy body, holy speech and holy mind. While strongly concentrating on this, recite the mantra. [meditate]
Feel that you have received omniscient mind. You have received all the buddhas’ qualities, including the holy mind, omniscient mind. [meditate]
Think that numberless Medicine Buddhas have absorbed into you and focus on their various qualities. You have received not only clairvoyance, which enables you to help other sentient beings, but the ultimate complete understanding of omniscient mind. [meditate]
Now concentrate on receiving the quality of great compassion. Put the main emphasis on receiving the great compassion of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas. Your whole being is completely filled with great compassion for each and every sentient being without discrimination. [meditate]
Now particularly concentrate on the quality of power. You are receiving Medicine Buddha’s perfect power to benefit sentient beings. Think, “I have received this perfect power.” Focus particularly on this quality of the perfect power to benefit other sentient beings; think that you have received it within you. As you continuously absorb numberless Medicine Buddhas from all directions, all the buddhas’ qualities absorb within you in Medicine Buddha’s form. You have the power to work perfectly for others without making the slightest mistake, exactly in accord with each sentient being’s wishes, level of mind, karma and intelligence. [meditate]
Now send beams to sentient beings from the heart of yourself as Medicine Buddha, who is endowed with all these qualities. With great compassion, send beams to the numberless hell beings. As soon as the beams, like sunbeams, touch the numberless hell beings they immediately purify them of the two defilements and liberate them from all their sufferings. They all become Medicine Buddha. Every single hell being becomes Medicine Buddha. And all the hell realms become mandalas, the pure land of Medicine Buddha. [meditate]
Think, “How wonderful it is that I have enlightened all the hell beings as Medicine Buddha.”
Now send beams to the numberless hungry ghosts. As soon as the beams reach them, they are instantly purified of all their defilements. They are immediately liberated from all their sufferings, and they all become Medicine Buddha. They all become enlightened in the essence of Medicine Buddha. Visualize every single one of them as Medicine Buddha. [meditate]
Think, “How wonderful it is that I have enlightened all the hungry ghosts as Medicine Buddha.”
With great compassion, now send beams from your (Medicine Buddha’s) heart to every one of the numberless animals. They are instantly purified of all their defilements. They are immediately liberated from all their unimaginable animal suffering and all become enlightened in the essence of Medicine Buddha. [meditate]
Feel great happiness, “How wonderful it is that I have enlightened all the animals as Medicine Buddha.”
Now send numberless beams to all the numberless human beings. As soon as the beams touch them, they are instantly purified of their two defilements and liberated from the oceans of human sufferings and problems. Every one of them becomes Medicine Buddha. Visualize every single human being in the aspect of Medicine Buddha. [meditate]
Feel great happiness in your heart, “How wonderful it is that I have enlightened all these numberless human beings in Medicine Buddha’s enlightenment.”
Now send beams to the asuras, instantly purifying them of their two defilements and liberating them from all their unimaginable suffering. They all become Medicine Buddha. [meditate]
Think, “How wonderful it is that I have enlightened all of them in the essence of Medicine Buddha.” Feel great happiness.
Now send beams to all the numberless suras, instantly purifying the two defilements and liberating them from all their sufferings. Every one of them becomes Medicine Buddha. [meditate]
Think, “How wonderful it is that I have enlightened them in the essence of Medicine Buddha.” Feel great happiness.
Now send beams to all the intermediate state beings, instantly purifying the two defilements and freeing them from all their unbearable sufferings, all the frightening karmic appearances. They all become Medicine Buddha. [meditate]
Feel great happiness in your heart, thinking, “I have enlightened them in the essence of Medicine Buddha.” Look at all of them in the aspect of Medicine Buddha.
[The group recites the Sanskrit vowels and consonants, the mantra of dependent arising, absorption of the wisdom beings and dedications. Rinpoche then plays the cymbals, and the protector prayers are recited, followed by recitation of King of Prayers.]
Rinpoche: I think I must have left out part of the prayer, because I finished earlier than you.
Now we’ll recite the lamrim prayer for the spread of Dharma within one’s own mind and in the minds of other sentient beings.
[The group chants Final Lamrim Prayer in Tibetan, followed by the dedication prayers for the spread of Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, the long-life prayer for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other dedication prayers in Tibetan; then the multiplying mantras.]
Good night.
Meditations during mantra recitation
I just wanted to give you an idea of the visualizations during the mantra recitation. With each visualization you can recite one, two or three malas. You can divide the visualizations between different sessions or do everything in every session. It’s to make the visualization more precise, more effective, during the mantras.
If your mind is too distracted and can’t concentrate on these meditations, you can read a lamrim meditation book and recite the mantra. I heard that His Holiness told Rilbur Rinpoche that he reads a Dharma text then recites the mantra, reads the text, recites the mantra. Since the mantra goes automatically, you can read a Dharma text. That’s how it normally is for us. Of course, His Holiness is beyond all this, but for us it at least keeps our mind in virtue when we read Dharma texts. What we are thinking about is virtue; it involves the path. Since it keeps our mind in virtue, we don’t waste our life.
Especially when your mind is very distracted, rather than waste your time in distraction, read Dharma. If you don’t know the lamrim meditations by heart, read the texts, with your mouth just reciting the mantra. For example, if you are doing Vajrasattva meditation-recitation, you can visualize Vajrasattva on your crown emitting nectar, which purifies you. When you finish one mala, again remember Vajrasattva and the nectar continuously flowing and purifying you, then read a lamrim meditation text or meditate on lamrim. That will then inspire you and keep your mind in virtue. Each time you complete a mala, you again remember Vajrasattva and the nectars flowing and purifying you, then again read the text.
Of course, besides what I mentioned before, there are some tantric meditations based on lamrim, on bodhicitta and emptiness. While reciting the mantra, you can meditate on bodhicitta, on renunciation, on different aspects of the sufferings of samsara or be mindful of emptiness. With one-pointed concentration you can practice mindfulness of the hallucination, keeping continuous awareness of the hallucination, looking at the hallucination as a hallucination. Or you can practice mindfulness of the object to be refuted or of dependent arising. You can also meditate on guru devotion while you are reciting the mantra. Using the quotations and lines of reasoning from lamrim, you can generate guru devotion, then do strong stabilizing meditation on that. Or you can do the tonglen, taking and giving practice, to generate bodhicitta. It’s a very powerful meditation.
If you want to do more elaborate meditation on Action Tantra practices, there are also the four limbs that you practice in the path not having sign.54 There are different concentrations you can do that are more specifically related to Action Tantra. It’s in the Chenrezig practice, and I think you can apply them to other Action Tantras.
The meaning of retreat
The basic definition of retreat is keeping the mind in renunciation, retreating away from this life and attachment to samsara. There is also keeping the mind in bodhicitta, retreating away from self-cherishing thought. There is also keeping the mind in awareness of dependent arising or emptiness, retreating away from the ignorance that holds the concept of true existence. Looking at things as dependent arisings brings the idea of emptiness, that things are empty. You can also look at things as hallucinations, as they are hallucinations. Again it gives you the idea that they are empty. These are the best ways to do retreat, the best ways to make retreat effective. You can also keep your mind in guru devotion, retreating away from the thought of faults in the virtuous friend, of seeing the virtuous friend as ordinary. These are the meditations that really bring a messy mind into good shape. These are the ones that transform the mind. The main retreat involves developing guru devotion and the three principles of the path.
On the basis of that, you then practice tantra. You practice pure appearance, seeing yourself as the deity, the place as the mandala and other people as deities. This is called the yoga of three utilizations, or transformations. The basic practice of tantra is to see whatever form appears as the deity and the place as the mandala, which is in essence the deity, anyway. The mandala is visualized as a kind of house but it’s actually your mind, the dharmakaya, the deity’s holy mind. No matter what form you visualize, whether a being or a house, that is the essence. Whatever sound you hear is mantra and whatever thought arises is dharmakaya. That is also another useful technique you can use when strong desire, anger or any other negative emotional thought arises. You can look at that thought as dharmakaya. Whatever appears to you, you look at it as the holy mind of the deity, the dharmakaya. That is one of the thought transformation techniques. When you look at the thought as dharmakaya, as the deity’s holy mind, the attachment, anger, jealousy or other negative emotional thought disappears.
Besides the sitting meditation practice, use whatever activities you do in the break-times—eating, sleeping, sitting—for tantric practice. Practice the yoga of eating, the yoga of sleeping and so forth. This makes even your break-times very rich. These break-time activities are a powerful means of purifying negative karma and collecting extensive merit in such a short time, even within a minute, a second. It becomes a quick path to enlightenment. Of course, these practices are done on the basis of lamrim, especially bodhicitta. If the emptiness part isn’t happening, put your main effort into bodhicitta. Do everything on the basis of the thought of benefiting others.
The very minimum retreat is to keep your mind in virtue. Retreat isn’t just about putting your body inside a room or cave somewhere and then locking the door so that you don’t see anybody—not even the birds or flies or worms. I’m joking. Retreat doesn’t mean just locking yourself up so that you don’t see or hear anybody. Retreat means keeping your mind in virtue. That’s a very important definition of retreat: keeping the mind in virtue. If that doesn’t happen, if you don’t keep your mind in virtue, then it’s not retreat. This means that you can be in retreat even if you’re having a party or disco dancing or playing basketball. Anyway, I’m joking. Wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, if you’re able to continuously keep your mind in virtue, that’s retreat. Keeping your mind in virtue, in Dharma, is the very bottom line. Beyond that, there’s no retreat. Anything beyond that is retreat in nonvirtue. If your mind is not in Dharma, you’re keeping your mind in nonvirtue and retreating from virtue, from Dharma. That’s retreat to achieve samsara, to achieve the lower realms. We have been doing that retreat during beginningless samsaric lifetimes up to now. That’s why we’re still stuck in samsara and still have the same problems.
This is the meaning of retreat that we have to understand not only during this time but also at other times when we do retreat, whether a lamrim or deity retreat. Those people who have done a lot of retreat and received teachings and commentaries already know that. For those who haven’t received much instruction, hopefully I’ll be able to explain different points from time to time during this retreat. Sometimes I’ll be explaining about the nose and sometimes about the ears. I’m joking!
I think that’s all for tonight, so good night. Thank you very much.
Chapter 14. Monday, November 5: Final Medicine Buddha Session
[Rinpoche plays the cymbals, then chants protector prayers with the group.]
Palden Lhamo
There was a request for some explanation about Palden Lhamo but I don’t know much about Palden Lhamo. You can say it’s a wrathful manifestation of Tara or of Sarasvati, the goddess of wisdom. Sarasvati is a common deity that is also worshipped by Hindus. There are a few deities that both Hindus and Buddhists worship; ones that Buddhists may take refuge in. I guess that Sarasvati is another manifestation of Tara, but one that grants wisdom, especially for writing. In Nepal school children and university students go to a particular Sarasvati temple in Swayambhunath to pray. So, Palden Lhamo is related to Sarasvati.
Tara is the female buddha who is the embodiment of all the buddhas’ holy actions. She is green in color, and this has two meanings. One meaning is related to Amoghasiddhi, the buddha of accomplishment. The green color also signifies wind. When you paint, the color of wind is green. I can’t fully remember the details, and I don’t think I understand it clearly, but according to tantra, samsara is the production of the impure wind-mind. The wind referred to here is the vehicle of the mind, not external wind. The wind and mind are one in essence but perform different functions. The one that is clear and perceives objects is labeled “mind” and the one that has movement is called “wind.” Those two are one in essence, but they’re given different labels because of their different functions. From the impure wind, there’s samsara; and from the pure one, you receive enlightenment: Buddha’s vajra holy body, vajra holy speech and vajra holy mind. This is just my guess, but maybe it’s something like that.
His Holiness usually explains that green is related to the color of wind, but the rest of what I said is just my assumption. I don’t remember exactly what His Holiness explained.
Tara is practiced for success in achieving temporary and ultimate happiness for sentient beings, and Tara manifested in this wrathful form of Palden Lhamo as a protector. It is said in the text that Palden Lhamo is a wrathful aspect of Sarasvati, but I think Sarasvati is also another name for Tara. I think Sarasvati is one of the 108 names of Tara. In that case it can be said that Palden Lhamo is a wrathful Tara, or Tara in a protector aspect. That aspect of a protector deity is needed to protect from outer and inner obstacles to quick success in actualizing the teachings of Buddha and particularly those of Lama Tsongkhapa within our own mind and to spreading them in the minds of other sentient beings. Protectors pacify obstacles and obtain what is needed.
Why are there different protectors? Because sentient beings have different karmas. Even one sentient being may need different protectors at different times. It’s basically due to karma that there are different protectors and different aspects of buddhas. Why isn’t there just one buddha? Why are there so many different aspects of deities? For the same reason. Sentient beings need them for different purposes, according to their karma, their mentality.
Basically, relying upon protectors on the basis of living in morality, or in the teachings, obliges the protectors to help or to protect you. Your practicing the three principles of the path, especially bodhicitta, on the basis of guru devotion, obliges them to pacify obstacles and to help you to obtain what you need. It is on this basis that you make requests to them. In essence, they help you to protect your own mind. Not protecting the mind creates samsara; the oceans of samsaric suffering come from not protecting the mind. Being careless about your own mind and allowing it to be controlled by delusion create the oceans of samsaric suffering, which you have been experiencing without beginning and which you will also experience without end if you don’t protect your mind. If you protect your mind, you will get everything that you want: temporary happiness and ultimate happiness, including enlightenment.
Remembrance, which is like a rope, and awareness, or conscientiousness, which is like a hook, protect your mind. It’s said that if you have both of them, you will obtain any virtue that you wish, including enlightenment. This is from a stanza in A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, but I don’t remember it word for word.55
Also, in A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life it says, “What is the need of so many conducts, except the conduct of protecting the mind.”56
There are so many disciplines, or rules, that are labeled spiritual, but they often have to do with external changes, such as ways of dressing. If you are learning Buddhism and become a Buddhist, you dress like a Tibetan. If you are following the Hindu religion, you dress in Hindu saris. However, what is the need for so many rules of conduct, except for the conduct of protecting the mind? Shantideva is saying that if the mind is not protected, nothing happens; there is no development. Even if you lock your body up in a room or a cave, if you don’t protect your mind, it simply becomes a prison.
This verse can be understood in many different ways. Even if you have taken vows, or precepts, if you don’t protect your mind they become like a burden. If the practice of protecting the mind is not there, the vows you have taken become a burden, a prison. Living in ordination becomes like living in a prison for you if the practice of protecting the mind is not there. You feel that all those rules are suffocating you; you feel as if you are living in a prison. The mind then becomes wild, like a mad elephant.
It’s different once the practice of protecting the mind is there, once you meditate strongly on the shortcomings of delusions and the objects of delusions—in other words, on the shortcomings of samsara, on how samsara is suffering in nature—and on the skies of benefits from living in vows. Not only do you achieve good rebirth in future lives, all the temporary happiness of this life and future lives, with freedom from all the relationship and other emotional problems that lead people to commit suicide or engage in many negative karmas, liberation from the oceans of samsaric suffering and its cause, delusion and karma, and full enlightenment, but also you are able to work perfectly for other sentient beings, bringing each and every single one of the numberless sentient beings to enlightenment. By seeing all these skies of benefit, you then protect your own mind very happily, very joyfully. Living in the spiritual disciplines that protect your mind, such as vows and so forth, then comes from your heart. You do it with a very happy mind. You don’t feel obliged to do it; you don’t see it as a burden but like going to the land of wish-granting jewels and picking up one of the jewels. You do it very happily.
So, the protectors help in that practice of protecting the mind.
The very first thing to request the protectors is that all the holy wishes of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and our other virtuous friends succeed.
We also request for the success of all the projects of every FPMT center, including all the projects here at LMB, such as building the temple with 100,000 Medicine Buddha statues, building 100,000 stupas and all the social service projects. We also request that the 500-foot Maitreya Buddha statue be actualized as quickly as possible, by receiving all the funding without even a second’s delay.
Also request for success in actualizing within your own mind in this very lifetime Lama Tsongkhapa’s complete stainless teachings, which unify sutra and tantra. Also request for the spread and flourishing of Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching in this world and for you yourself to offer that service to sentient beings and to Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching.
[Rinpoche leads chanting of the Palden Lhamo prayer and other prayers.]
Benefits of Medicine Buddha practice
Maybe tonight we’ll have a little bit of teaching on the Hari Krishnas. No, I think the Muslims. Since it’s becoming more important, tonight I think we’ll have a teaching on the Koran. That’s like the Bible, right?
Tantra of the Thousand Goddesses—not the Koran—contains further benefits of practicing Medicine Buddha. There it says that in a country called Pema Chen (Having Lotus), many sentient beings were tormented by disease, dangers from weapons and famines. So, the head of a family, a woman called Having the Light of the Sun went to Shakyamuni Buddha. She made prostrations to the Buddha, then prostrated to the Dharma, prostrated to the Sangha and prostrated to the deva who protects sentient beings from sickness. (The Tibetan term lha doesn’t necessarily mean a worldly deva; it can also mean a buddha. Lha is a general term that can refer to a being beyond samsara as well as to a worldly deva. It can also mean a spirit that you are worshipping. So, lha is a general term used for a being that is not a human being. Here, since I’m not sure whether it strictly means a buddha, I’ve just used the term deva.)
She prostrated to the deva who protects sentient beings from sickness, including the cause and result, and also protects them from the suffering of the lower realms.
She then made the following request to Buddha: “Please pay full attention, enlightened Destroyer Gone Beyond. Please protect me and all sentient beings from even the temporary harms from disease, the dangers of weapons (this now includes atomic bombs and other modern weapons) and famine. Ultimately, protect us from the evil-gone realms.”
This is what she requested. Like in the Heart Sutra, Buddha then entered into the concentration called “the Medicinal King eliminating the three poisons, sickness and all poverty.” As soon as Buddha’s holy mind became absorbed in that concentration, blue light was emitted into the ten directions from Buddha’s zupu. The zupu is the white hair curled to the right, a cubit in length, between Buddha’s eyebrows. His Holiness Song Rinpoche and Geshe Sopa Rinpoche said that this hair is like rubber: if you pull it out, it springs back into place when you let it go and stays curled.
I’m not sure how many years ago it was that I went to Deer Park to do a course for the first time (though it wasn’t the first such course).57 His Holiness Song Rinpoche and various other teachers were there. His Holiness Song Rinpoche gave a Jorchö commentary, I think, and then a Vajrayogini commentary. After that Denma Lochö Rinpoche gave a commentary to Guru Puja. Geshe Rabten Rinpoche was also invited and taught one of the Madhyamaka subjects, I think. Lama Yeshe was supposed to come, but he was traveling around. I was there and so were Geshe Sopa Rinpoche and Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey.
In the gompa there was a very nice statue of the young Buddha, from Delhi. It’s the same kind of statue that many of the FPMT centers now have in their gompas. I thought it would be easy to make this statue into Medicine Buddha, because apart from having to change the arms it’s otherwise basically the same. I asked about it in Delhi, where the statue is made. I have been to that place a few times. There are two places in Delhi that make statues. I didn’t go to the other place because it seemed to me that their art wasn’t of good quality, or that’s what I heard. We used that life-size Buddha statue to make the seven Medicine Buddhas for Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala. Tushita has a very small gompa and since I have suggested many statues for them to have, they now have to extend the gompa. There are seven Medicine Buddhas on one side, a Thousand-Arm Chenrezig on another side, and there’s supposed to be a Tara, I think. They also have a large bronze Lama Tsongkhapa statue, maybe one story high, though it’s not as large as the Lama Tsongkhapa statue at Kopan. There was some difficulty fitting it in, but the head fits very well where there was a chimney before. Lama Tsongkhapa’s head is down below, but the hat goes through the chimney. Somehow it fits perfectly. It came out very good to get that statue from Delhi and not from Nepal, which would have been much more expensive.
Tushita is an old house, perhaps more than a hundred years old, but it’s a very blessed holy place. Lama’s and my root guru, His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche, the actual living Heruka, lived there in that house for seven years.
I remember coming one time from Buxa to Dharamsala to see His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche in that house. You entered through a kind of dark passage. Even though Rinpoche lived there for seven years, Rinpoche didn’t fix anything. I asked Rinpoche’s attendant about it. I’m sure they had a toilet but everything else was left as it was before. Nothing new was built in those seven years.
I also went there when Zina, our first student, who was Russian, was ordained there. We requested His Holiness the Dalai Lama to ordain her, but His Holiness couldn’t do it so Trijang Rinpoche ordained her.
I don’t remember which year it was, but Rinpoche later moved down to lower Dharamsala because it was warmer. Tushita was then vacant and became like a haunted house, with rats and mice. Maybe someone was organizing courses for the mice from Dharamsala.
I don’t remember exactly, but I think a major sponsor for both these places was Jon Landaw. Lama thought to buy Tushita for doing retreats, and I think Jon Landaw was the main sponsor during that time. I don’t know whether there were any other people involved. It then became a retreat center. Some years ago there were six ascetic monks who were doing retreat around there.
Anyway, at Geshe Sopa’s place, I was painting these life-size Buddha statues, and, due to my ignorance, I made this zupu hair blue. Geshe-la then said, “No, no, it’s white. The color of this hair is white.” Geshe-la correcting me made a strong imprint and since that time I’ve been aware that the zupu, the central hair between the two eyebrows, is white.
Now, coming back from that side talk to the point: When Having the Light of the Sun made the request, Buddha’s holy mind became absorbed in that concentration and blue light was immediately emitted into the ten directions from the Buddha’s zupu. When the blue light hit the sentient beings, it eliminated their diseases and spirit harms. The blue beams then again absorbed back into the Buddha’s forehead.
Buddha then said to the woman, “Listen. In the eastern direction in a great realm called Lapis Lazuli, there is a buddha who equals all the buddhas. This buddha’s holy mind of omniscient transcendental wisdom, power and holy actions equal those of all the buddhas. This buddha has oceans of capability, mountains of power and skies of prayers (which means extensive prayers). It is of the nature of compassionate and omniscient saving (which means the wisdom and compassion that save sentient beings from suffering). It has the thought and action benefiting all others and it has the qualities of cessation and realization.”
This means that all the qualities that the buddhas have are embodied in Medicine Buddha. Medicine Buddha’s qualities equal those of all the buddhas.
“If, with devotion, you recite the holy name, recite the mantra, make offerings, make requests and so forth or even hear the holy name, see a statue of the holy body or merely remember it, there is no doubt that it will completely destroy the multitudes of disharmonious hosts.”
If something is harmonious with your mind, it’s positive; if something is disharmonious with your wishes, it’s negative, like an enemy. This is like the millions of maras who tried to attack Buddha when Buddha was about to achieve enlightenment. Just hearing the holy name of Medicine Buddha, seeing the holy body of a Medicine Buddha statue or merely remembering it completely destroys the huge groups of evil beings who want to harm you.
“Just hearing the holy name, seeing a holy statue or merely remembering it gives you all power over the harmonious side.”
Buddha then said, “The Founder, Destroyer, Qualified Gone As It Is who destroys the enemy is the fully enlightened Guru of Medicine, King of the Victorious Ones, Lapis Lazuli Light, who is the father of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas. You never become satiated from looking at the holy body of the arya Victorious One, leader of all the Tathagatas, essence encompassing Those Gone to Bliss.”
After some time you get bored with looking at an ordinary body. At the beginning there’s excitement, but then after some time you get bored and see it as unappealing or ugly. It’s not like that with Medicine Buddha’s holy body. No matter how much you look at it, you are never satiated.
“Medicine Buddha’s holy speech is very pure and his holy mind has the five types of clairvoyance.”
There is the clairvoyance able to read others’ minds; the clairvoyance able to see karmas and where a being is going to reincarnate after this life; and uncontaminated clairvoyance, which means having ceased delusions. Of course, omniscient mind is the ultimate one but it could also refer to the clairvoyance of arya beings on the eighth and ninth bhumis and of arhats. I don’t remember every single one of the five.58
“Medicine Buddha turns only the Mahayana Dharma wheel. The light of the holy body illuminates the three realms.”
Buddha then said, “Simply remembering Medicine Buddha has the power to destroy the sicknesses of cause and effect and to destroy samsara and the lower realms. It can destroy dangers from disease, weapons, famine and so forth. This is the savior and guru for sentient beings who are sick. This is the doctor who helps them to live. Any connection made with this buddha abiding with its entourage there in that great realm called Lapis Lazuli is very meaningful.
“Remembering these qualities and having faith in this buddha as a foundation, express your wishes to this buddha. All the buddhas are embodied in this buddha, and for sentient beings this buddha made oceans of prayers: limitless, numberless and inconceivable. Therefore, this buddha is more extraordinary than other buddhas. This is the Victorious One encompassing All Those Gone to Bliss.”
There are other quotations about the benefits of Medicine Buddha in Sutra Requested by Bodhisattva Palden Pemo—not Thubten Pemo. I don’t think we need all the details, but in this sutra Buddha said, “Anyone who sees, hears, touches, remembers or meditates on or recites the mantra and holy name of the physician, Stainless Star (I think this was Medicine Buddha’s name when he was a bodhisattva doing all these prayers), will never see any inauspicious signs, bad omens, inauspicious phenomena or bad dreams. They will never experience dangers from the four elements or from wild vicious animals. They will also never experience dangers from war, from being attacked by the multitudes of others’ army or from thieves. They won’t be harmed by disease and spirit harm and will be liberated from samsara and the lower realms.”
Buddha then told his attendant Ananda, “If you have doubts about the benefits of this mantra and the holy name, it means that you are in the lineage of the Lesser Vehicle, which means your merit is very low.”
Buddha then said, “Ananda, only an extremely small number of people see, hear, touch, remember or do the meditation-recitation of the mantra and holy name of the Medicine Buddha. Why is it an extremely small number? Because it’s profound, extremely profound. Therefore, it is very difficult to find.”
Buddha is saying that there are benefits like the limitless sky from reciting the name and mantra of Medicine Buddha and from seeing, touching or even remembering the holy body of a statue and so forth and that the number who are able to do so is extremely small. Why? Because you need so much merit to be able to have that opportunity to see Medicine Buddha, or even a statue of Medicine Buddha, to hear the holy name, recite the mantra, remember Medicine Buddha and so forth. It’s not easy to see a holy statue of Medicine Buddha or to have the opportunity to even hear—let alone recite or meditate on—Medicine Buddha’s name and mantra. Buddha mentioned this to Ananda but Buddha is actually telling us. Here we are actually doing retreat on Medicine Buddha—not just visualizing Medicine Buddha but generating ourselves as Medicine Buddha.
Here I want to tell you a story about a monk who asked Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo what statue or thangka he should have made to ensure his good rebirth. You can check astrologically your future rebirth, whether you’re going to be reborn in the lower realms or in a higher realm. Astrology can also advise to make a statue or painting of a buddha or to do something else. “If you do this you will then be reborn in the western world and be very wealthy, blah, blah, blah.” That’s one of the common ones, but being born in the western world isn’t the only positive answer. “You’ll be born as a tantric practitioner or you will become a vajra master, blah, blah, blah.” So, you’re told to make a Vajrapani, Padmasambhava or some other statue or a thangka. There is an astrological method that you can use to check your future rebirth. You go to see a lama or you check astrologically. Before you die you can make a statue or perform some virtuous activity that stops your reincarnating in the lower realms and causes you to have a good rebirth. It’s very common, even in Solu Khumbu, for people to do such things before they die. After a person’s death, family members also go to ask lamas for a mo or astrology to find out where the family member who has died has been reborn. In astrology, it usually comes out that if you don’t do something, you will be reborn as a monkey, a dog, a kangaroo or a crocodile. I’m joking a little. The answer is often that you’ll be born as a preta, a hell being or an animal, but if you make a statue or painting of such-and-such a buddha, you will then have a good rebirth as a human being in such-and-such a situation.
So, this monk asked Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo what statue or thangka he should have made for his good rebirth. I think Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo mentioned Mitrugpa. In his answers to questions from people who had broken or degenerated vows and engaged in many negative karmas, Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo’s answers quite often emphasized reciting the mantra and also making statues and tsa tsas of Mitrugpa. I’m not sure whether he said this to this monk, but the main thing Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo said was: “Do your sadhanas every day, because you are then generating yourself into buddha every day. You are making yourself buddha every day.” When you practice your sadhanas every day, you generate the deity and the mandala. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo said, “You arise in the deity’s holy body, and this way you collect many hundreds of thousands (or maybe millions) of times more merit than by making an external statue or thangka of a buddha.”
This is one issue I thought to bring up. Each sadhana that you do each day involves generating yourself as a deity and generating the deity’s mandala. So, if you have many sadhanas to do, each time you do this, of course, you collect many hundreds of thousands of times more merit than by making external holy objects.
Nowadays more interest or inspiration to make holy objects is slowly coming. Otherwise, if neither the sadhana is done nor external holy objects made, there is nothing. If you don’t do sadhanas, where you generate yourself as the deity and collect inconceivable merit, because they’re too long and don’t collect merit even by making external paintings or statues of buddha, there is nothing. But in the West nowadays, I think, compared to the past, there is more interest or more faith in having holy objects. I’m talking about just among Dharma students.
It is the same here doing retreat—I mean at least in the three sessions of Medicine Buddha practice where you generate yourself as Medicine Buddha. As Pabongka explained, you collect many hundreds of thousands or millions of times the amount of merit. And for those who are practicing Guru Puja in the morning, that also involves generating the deity and mandala. That’s just talking about the retreat sessions, without mentioning the other practices you do.
The next quotation from this sutra is a little long, so maybe I’ll stop here for tonight.
We’ll quickly do King of Prayers.
[The group recites King of Prayers in English.]
Dedications
Ven. René: Let’s dedicate the ocean of merits we have created during the day by taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts, by practicing the sadhana of Medicine Buddha and by listening to the holy teaching of our spiritual friend. We also dedicate this ocean of merit to the following people, who are experiencing suffering.
[Ven. René reads the list of names for dedication.]
[There is a long pause.]
Rinpoche: Dedication? Jang chhub sem chhog rin po chhe...?
[The group recites jang chhub sem chhog rin po chhe..., gang ri ra wäi khor wä zhing kham dir..., päl dän la mäi ku tshe tän pa dang..., and then Prayer for the Flourishing of Lama Tsongkhapa’s Teachings in English.]
Rinpoche: I missed out my favorite dedication last night!
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others—the buddhas, bodhisattvas and all the rest of the sentient beings—which appear as truly existent ones, independent ones, real ones appearing from there and in which we believe, but which are the object to be refuted, total hallucinations and totally nonexistent, may the I, who appears a truly existent one, an independent one, a real one appearing from there and in which we believe, but which is a total hallucination and totally nonexistent, achieve His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s, Medicine Buddha’s, enlightenment, which again appears to be a truly existent one, an independent one, a real one appearing from there and in which we believe, but which is the object to be refuted, which is a total hallucination and totally nonexistent (His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s, Medicine Buddha’s, enlightenment exists, but the way it appears to us and the way we believe it to exist is as a truly existent one, an independent one, a real one appearing from there, and that part is totally nonexistent, totally empty), and then lead all the sentient beings, who again appear to be truly existent ones, independent ones, real ones appearing from there and in which we believe, and again this is the object to be refuted and a total hallucination, which means they are all totally nonexistent, to Medicine Buddha’s enlightenment, which is also totally nonexistent from its own side, by myself alone, who also appears to be a truly existent one, an independent one, a real one appearing from there and in which we believe, but which is the object to be refuted and a total hallucination, which means it is totally empty, totally nonexistent.”
We’ll recite the multiplying mantras to multiply the merits one hundred thousand times.
[The group recites the multiplying mantras.]
Reciting this last buddha’s name multiplies each merit one hundred thousand times and also has the particular benefit of causing the success of whatever prayers we do.
[The group recites the final multiplying mantra.]
If the last prayer is chanted in Tibetan, I can then say “wooooooo...” at the beginning. If I do it in English, “woooooo...” doesn’t come. I’m joking!
Good night. Thank you very much.
Notes
54 The four limbs of Action Tantra are self-base, other base, mind and sounds. [Return to text]
55 However, if the elephant of my mind is firmly bound
On all sides by the rope of mindfulness,
All fears will cease to exist
And all virtues will come into my hand. (Ch. 5, v. 3.)
[Return to text]
56 This being so,
I shall hold and guard my mind well.
Without the discipline of guarding the mind,
What use are many other disciplines? (Ch. 5, v. 18.)
[Return to text]
57 It was 1978. [Return to text]
58 The five types of clairvoyance are divine eye, divine ear, knowledge of others’ minds, memory of former lives and knowledge of the extinction of contaminations. [Return to text]
