Perfect Freedom:
The Great Value of Being Human
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
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Chapter Two: Renouncing Samsara
To generate renunciation of the entire samsara, we need
to stop our clinging to samsaric perfections. Generating
renunciation of this life means cutting off clinging to the
comforts of this life: food, clothing, reputation. This does
not mean we should not have good food, clothing or reputation,
but that we should stop clinging to the appearances of the
comforts of this life. We have to stop clinging and worldly
concern, from which all the confusion and problems of life
arise and which do not allow our everyday actions to become
holy Dharma.
Establishing renunciation of this life in our mind does
not mean wearing ragged clothes and eating poor food.
Beggars
and street dogs eat poor food, but this does not mean they
have renounced this life. You cannot judge renunciation
from the outside, only by understanding the inner mind.
You may
look renounced because you wear ragged clothes and eat
poor food, but your mind may be strongly craving a reputation.
You may be living a simple life in order to gain a reputation
as an ascetic meditator. Just as worldly people with no
intention
of practicing Dharma may dress in expensive clothes, eat
rich food and live in luxurious houses for the happiness
of this life, another person may eat poor food, wear ragged
clothes and live in a rundown house or a cave. If you do
not watch your mind, you cannot be sure whether you are
living a renounced life or not.
One recent lam rim lineage lama said:
One who has renounced this life does not return anger when
somebody is angry towards him. When somebody insults him,
he doesn't return their insult. When somebody beats him,
he doesn't beat them in return. The person who is able to
practice like this is renounced.
Many of you have met or seen one of the oldest ascetic meditators
in Dharamsala, Gen Jampa Wangdu, from whom I received the
oral transmission of the "taking the essence" pill
retreat. Many years ago Gen Jampa Wangdu lived a simple life,
wearing poor, badly colored robes. He told me: "The
reason I wear good robes now is that people complain when
I wear them. They say that I'm supposed to be an ascetic,
but I'm wearing such rich clothes that I can't be an ascetic.
They think I have plenty of money, so they don't come so
much to make offerings. This is very good for me."
Going completely against self-cherishing thought and worldly
concern, which wants a good reputation, is a real sign
of renunciation. When Gen Jampa Wangdu wears rich robes,
people
judge him by his external appearance and complain that
he is not acting like an ascetic monk; this completely
opposes
worldly concern and also self-cherishing. He wears rich
robes because he finds it very helpful to have people
talk about
him like this. Renunciation depends on the mind, not on
the external appearance. How to do the meditation session
Each time you do a session, before meditating on lam rim,
visualize the merit field, either elaborately or simply,
and offer a mandala. The merit field should not be referred
to as "the guru tree." This is an incorrect translation
and is meaningless, giving you nothing more than an idea
of a tree with gurus sitting in it. The Tibetan term tsog
shing means something quite different. The translator did
not understand the meaning of tsog shing, but simply translated
according to what is depicted in thangkas of the merit field.
If you translate the Tibetan term precisely, with understanding
of grammar and the meaning of the words, tsog is merit and
shing is field.
People survive and obtain their enjoyments through planting
seeds of corn, potatoes and rice in fields. If you are
not lazy but plant the field, through your own effort
you can
then obtain enjoyments. A field is recognized as very precious
and to be taken care of because you can use it to plant
crops. Similarly, by making offerings and doing prostrations
to
the merit field of guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, you
plant the seed of merit, or good karma, in order to receive
all
temporal and ultimate happiness and perfections. By planting
the seed of merit in this field, you are able to accomplish
the three great purposes: a perfect human body in order
to practice the holy Dharma in your next life, the cessation
of samsara and full enlightenment. All happiness, including
these three great purposes, comes from merit.
Receiving enjoyments - even a good harvest - depends on
accumulating merit. The guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha
are the field
in which you plant the seed of merit. You should actually
cherish this field as much more precious than any external
field. Lama Tsongkapa says in The Great Lam Rim Commentary:
Worldly people feel it a great loss if they don't plant
a field from which they have the opportunity to receive crops
once or twice a year. For planting the seed of merit in the
merit field of guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, there is
no such thing as a season; planting does not depend on the
season. Four times each day you can plant the seed of merit
in this holy field.
Lama Tsongkapa is saying that each day you can plant the
seed of merit to accomplish the three great purposes, and
any other happiness you wish. Four times each day, all the
time, you have the opportunity to plant the seed of merit
in the supreme holy field of guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
Lama Tsongkapa says that being careless and not taking the
opportunity to do this is a much greater loss than being
unable to plant crops in an ordinary field.
Not only four times a day, but every hour, every minute,
every second, you can plant the seed of merit, the cause
of happiness. With an ordinary field, you first plant something,
then have to wait until it ripens; you cannot plant again
while a crop is already there. Among all fields, the holy
field of merit is the supreme field. There is no interference
from the side of the object preventing you from accumulating
merit. The interference is only from your own side, if you
do not accumulate merit and create the cause of happiness
in your relationship with these holy objects.
As well as the holy merit field, there is also the field
of sentient beings in which you can plant the seed of merit.
You can also create the cause of happiness in dependence
upon the field of sentient beings. Just as you receive crops
by planting seed in a field, by planting the seed of merit
in the holy merit field and the field of sentient beings,
you receive all temporal and ultimate happiness.
You can visualize either the elaborate
merit field, as in Lama Chöpa, or simply Guru Shakyamuni
Buddha as the embodiment of all objects of refuge. This one
aspect of Buddha
embodies all gurus, all Buddhas, all Dharma and all Sangha.
This is called the "Jewel Tradition of the All-Encompassing
Aspect." You can also visualize Thousand-Armed or Four-Armed
Chenrezig, whichever aspect you prefer. Visualize whichever
merit field you wish.
Before doing the lam rim meditation, offer a mandala. Following
the mandala prayer, offer the whole world and all the other
planets, aware of all the precious sense objects that are
in this and other worlds. Even scientists say there are many
universes. You should especially offer to the merit field
all the objects to which you cling very much: your body,
possessions and friends. Fill space with the highest quality
offerings you can think of - all the sense objects, the planets
and so on. By reading and studying the commentaries, you
can learn the exact details of the meditations that accord
with the mandala offering prayer.
The mandala offering is a method to accumulate extensive
merit in a short time. Having intellectual knowledge of the
teachings of the path and training your mind in that alone
do not help. That is like putting a dry seed on a rock without
the necessary conditions of heat, water, minerals and soil
- the seed cannot grow. Training your mind in intellectual
understanding of the teachings alone does not affect your
mind. In order for the teachings of the path to enlightenment
to affect your mind, transforming it into the path, you need
to purify obstacles and accumulate the cause, which means
merit, to generate the realizations in your mind. The mandala
offering is one of the most important means to accumulate
extensive merit in a short time.
The essential technique is to offer as many best quality
mandalas as possible, with visualization according to the
prayer. You accumulate more merit by clearly visualizing
many offerings. As clearly as you can, think of offering
many golden mountains or universes. Right in that moment
you accumulate the extensive merit of actually offering that
many golden mountains or universes. Even though you do not
have even one atom of gold, you accumulate unbelievable merit:
the cause to develop your mind and generate the path to enlightenment.
There are scriptural references for how you receive the incredible
merit of actually offering universes and gold. This meditation
technique of visualizing the mandala offering according to
the prayer has incredible advantages.
When you finish offering the short mandala, make a strong
request to the merit field for all the interferences and
obstacles to generating the whole path - from wrong conceptions
towards the guru up to subtle dual view - to be pacified.
All these obstacles need to be purified. If you are training
your mind in the graduated path of the small scope, you need
to purify the particular obstacles to realization of the
small scope. Also request the merit field to be able to generate
all the realizations from guru devotion up to enlightenment,
particularly the realizations of the graduated path of the
small scope.
White nectar beams are emitted from the merit field, purifying
all your obscurations and those of all other sentient beings.
Having purified all the interfering obscurations, you then
generate all the realizations - particularly those of perfect
human rebirth, its usefulness and the difficulty of receiving
it again; impermanence and death; and karma. Think that the
realizations from beginning to end, from guru devotion up
to enlightenment, and especially the realizations of the
graduated path of the small scope are generated within your
mind and within the minds of all sentient beings.
If your sessions are short, motivate like this in the beginning: "From
beginningless rebirths, I and all sentient beings have been
experiencing samsaric suffering because we lack the realizations
of the graduated path of the small scope: perfect human rebirth,
its usefulness, and so on. I must achieve enlightenment for
the benefit of all sentient beings, therefore I am going
to meditate on the lam rim. Please grant all the lam rim
realizations, particularly those of the graduated path of
the small scope, in my mind and in the minds of all sentient
beings." To achieve the realization of renunciation of this life,
you should train your mind in the graduated path of the small
scope, which is the general foundation for the realizations
of the graduated paths of the intermediate and great scopes,
including the graduated path of tantra. On the basis of correct
devotion to the virtuous friend in thought and action, as
explained by Guru Shakyamuni Buddha in the sutra and tantra
teachings, you train your mind in the beginning of the lam
rim, the eight freedoms and ten richnesses of this perfect
human rebirth.
I thought to speak a little more on the graduated path
of the small scope, as it might help you to continue
your Dharma
practice. I am hoping it might stop the mind that is feeling
discouraged and hopeless from becoming more and more depressed
by the thought that nothing is happening, that there is
no progress. Sometimes you may feel so depressed that
you cannot
do anything, not even eat. I am hoping that doing these
basic meditations might encourage you to continue to
practice,
and to practice more purely.
To generate renunciation of this life, you should turn
your mind to the fundamental lam rim meditations, starting
with
perfect human rebirth. You should understand how precious
this human body qualified with eight freedoms and ten
richnesses is. Continue to Next Section |
