December 8, 2005

TARA INITIATION MOTIVATION: ABOUT ALL THE DHARMA PROJECTS

I’m going to begin with the Four-arm Mahakala, some protector prayers that are done according to the tradition.

[Rinpoche and students chant in Tibetan]

I should just mention on the requests to the Dharma protectors, the very first request is the most important one, that His Holiness Dalai Lama’s holy wishes succeed. That’s the first. Why the first? If that happens, then all our wishes are individually fulfilled. If His Holiness’ wishes are fulfilled, that helps everybody in the world, in the East and the West, everybody. When we pray to protectors, the first request should be that. And the next I would like to say is for the projects in the organization, in the FPMT, and particularly that the five-hundred-foot Maitreya Buddha statue, that it is actualized as quickly as possible, and not only to be actualized but to be most beneficial to sentient beings. Whatever size we build it, even a one-inch statue of the Buddha or five hundred feet or a thousand feet or a thousand stories! Anyway, I’m just talking words! It doesn’t mean that I will do it. Maybe in my next life. The most important thing is to be most beneficial for sentient beings, to cause all sentient beings to collect extensive merit, to purify all their defilements and in particular to actualize loving kindness, compassion and bodhicitta in everyone’s heart. In this way, the whole world will be filled with perfect peace and happiness, everybody will live their life only benefiting each other, with great joy, without any harm, and whatever they do will become the cause of enlightenment. That is the highest success.

Then, that all other projects continue, such as offering service to the monasteries, to the Sangha who are preserving and spreading the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha, which is the source of all the sentient beings’ peace and happiness. It is where all the happiness comes from, not only for the sentient beings of this world but for all sentient beings. The Sangha’s main responsibility is to preserve and spread the Dharma, so we should offer service to the Sangha, those within the FPMT and outside. As well as offering service to the Sangha in the FPMT, [we should also offer service to Sangha outside the FPMT], the different nationalities in the East and West, the Western Sangha and the Chinese Sangha and those from different countries. To be able to do the most service, to take care of that, to be able to build monasteries and nunneries in different parts of the world, like Russia, where there’s an urgent need. And of course, to preserve and spread the Dharma for sentient beings, and to build the various holy objects in different parts of the world, which is the quickest way to purify the sentient beings’ sufferings and all defilements and to cause them to collect extensive merit and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible.

Then, to offer social services in different parts of the world such as in hospitals and hospices. That’s excellent. The most successful hospice and the first hospice we started was in Brisbane, Australia. I would like that to happen in many places, to provide places that have a good reputation, where people know that if you are dying, you will be taken care of [in a place like] Karuna, the hospice in Brisbane. There are also hospices in different places, such as Perth and America, but the bigger one, the most successful one, is in Brisbane. It also has government support and people say that if you’re dying and you are taken in by Karuna, that’s good luck. They say it’s good luck if you are taken care of by Karuna Hospice! They have been very, very successful, which has encouraged me to start them in different cities of Australia and in other countries, running them in a similar way. I think it’s great, making somebody happy when they are dying. I mean not just hallucinating happy, but by generating a positive thought when they’re dying. That’s the whole point, to die with a positive thought so there is the opportunity for a good rebirth.

There are various social services, such as the eye hospital in Kham, Tibet, that’s happening, which His Holiness supports. And there are many social services in Mongolia, which is a very difficult country. In Mongolia, there is a tent for people who are homeless, with food and many things. Especially, there’s universal education. That is a very important social service, because not everybody can become a Buddhist and come for the teachings, or not everybody can become a Catholic or a Muslim. This is another way to help the world to generate a good heart, to educate people in the good heart. That’s the idea, the good heart. In that way, it helps there be less violence, less killings, like in the United States where, some years ago and even in recent times, a small boy in school killed many people. It recently happened and also a few years ago. All the senators and politicians talked about whether people should be allowed to have guns—they talked for months and months and months, but in all that time I never heard the word “compassion.” Watching TV, I never heard of the need for compassion. They spent a long time talking about whether to allow people to have guns, but I never heard them trying to change people’s minds.

Bush used the word “compassion” a few times recently. I think somebody must have advised him! I wrote a long letter to Bush some time ago after the Twin Towers and the Iraq war. It was a long letter. I just thought to offer my ideas, just a small ant offering idea to Bush!

So, universal education is a big social service. We are trying to make books to guide teachers. I’m not going to talk in detail on that now because it would take a long time. It won’t be Tara initiation but a universal education initiation! We would like to establish this in a place like Columbia, where there is a lot of killing, where there is unbelievable killing all the time. There are many groups killing each other all the time. We have a very nice center there, Yamantaka Center, with very beautiful people there, but they say their families can be killed at any time. That’s what they tell me. It is very dangerous. So, in places like this, and maybe in Africa, where there is a lot of violence, we might be able to start this kind of school for educating people in the good heart. The school would have other education, a normal school education, but the special thing would be an education in the good heart, in tolerance, in practicing kindness to human beings and animals, without discrimination. To practice forgiveness and to apologize—to forgive when somebody harms you and to apologize if you did something wrong to others—as well as rejoicing. These are very basic qualities to practice in order to become a good human being in this world. We are a human being just about once, but this is about being a good human being.

I think this is a very important education. In Bodhgaya there is already the Maitreya essential education project. Of course, it’s at the beginning and it’s still not very clear, but as I assess more, its direction will become clearer. Even only a few years ago the children there were not able to take examinations; they had to go to another school to do them, but when they did they found out the other school was so violent and without discipline. When they returned to the Maitreya Project school, they found the children there were so much more peaceful. So already there’s a result achieved. In just three years, already this result has happened. That’s a great thing. That inspired me to start a school like that in Bihar, because Bihar is very poor and there is so much violence, like killing and theft. It’s similar to those places in Africa. In the very remote areas where there are so many poor, we could start a boarding school like this, to provide food and so forth. In this way, gradually, if those children develop a good heart, when they become parents, they will naturally educate their children to also have a good heart, and this will help generation to generation. That is the long-term benefit. That’s how [we hope to do it] one by one, little by little, starting with a few. That’s how it will bring peace in those villages, in those states. It encourages me very much when I see the results already in such a short time.

There’s also helping the centers to actualize their projects. The other projects are bigger than the Maitreya Project. Even though the Maitreya Project is a five-hundred-foot statue, it’s a very small project compared to the rest. I think [offering service] this way makes the students’ lives meaningful, because not everybody can go to the mountains to meditate, to live a renounced life and actualize shamatha, zhi nä. Some people can do that but it’s not something everybody can do. Therefore, I think making all these various projects, learning and teaching the Dharma and the many social service projects are all very beneficial. I think it helps to make the students’ lives productive and meaningful. You can make your life meaningful, doing something for others. This is what happens, you use your body, speech and mind to bring peace and happiness to others, which is the purpose of life.

So, request for success for this, and then for the projects of your own organization, whatever projects you have to benefit others and the teachings of Buddha. Request for the success of your own Dharma practice. So basically there are these three. First, the request that His Holiness’ holy wishes succeed, then that all sentient beings achieve happiness, and then that includes yourself.

Then, the Palden Lhamo prayer.

[Rinpoche and students chant the prayer]

Now the Four-arm Mahakala sadhana.

[Rinpoche and the students chant the Mahakala sadhana in English]

TARA INITIATION MOTIVATION: THE GURU IS ALL THE BUDDHAS

Tonight we’ll do the permission to practice the Twenty-one Taras, from those hundreds of initiations. We’ll see how it goes. I’m not sure but I think I’ll do some lungs, a few texts on the Tara practice. There are some elder monks and nuns here, so I’ll do oral transmissions of a few different practices.

Tara the Liberator, which is Dolma in Tibetan or Tara in Sanskrit, means the liberator mother. Being called “mother’” has great meaning. By understanding “mother,” we naturally know she is the liberator. We naturally come to know the meaning of “liberator,” how Tara is the liberator. Who is Tara? Who is the mother? This is the same. The transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss and voidness, the dharmakaya of all the buddhas’ holy minds, that is the absolute guru. Guru has two senses: the conventional guru and the absolute guru. In Tibetan it’s kun dzob lama and don dam lama. We have to think of the very heart, the essence, don dam lama, which is the absolute guru. We have to know what that is. Once we know that, that’s the main focus. What’s the real meaning of “guru”? The very heart of that, what it really means, from our side that is what we should realize.

The dharmakaya is that which is eternal, with no beginning and no end; it pervades all phenomena. As I mentioned the other day, the Buddha’s holy mind pervades all phenomena, not just seeing all phenomena from a distance but pervading it, covering all phenomena. The real proof of that comes from the highest tantra. The Buddha’s holy body and mind is not like our body, caused by karma and delusion, with bones and flesh and all that. It’s not like that. There is the gross body, the subtle body and the extremely subtle body. Like that, the absolute guru has no beginning and no end and pervades all phenomena. As a highly attained Tibetan lama, Khedrub Sangye Yeshe, mentioned “Before the guru, not even what is called ‘Buddha’ exists.” No buddha existed before the guru, not even the name “buddha.”

If we don’t come to know what the absolute guru is, there’s no way to understand that meaning, and also the refuge prayer, La ma sang gyä la ma chhö [Taking Refuge in the Gurus],there’s no way to understand that meaning. The door to all these is the guru. The guru is Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and all the doors are the guru. That means the guru is the one we receive all our happiness from: all the past happiness from beginningless rebirths, all the present happiness and all the future happiness, including the ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, and full enlightenment. The guru is the one we receive all the collections of goodness from. It comes from the source, the guru.

So, all the buddhas come from the absolute guru. All the past, present and future buddhas come from the absolute guru. This is the way to actually understand what the absolute guru is. The guru is the one who manifests. One way to understand is that the guru manifests into all the various aspects of the Buddha, taking all the various peaceful and wrathful aspects of the Buddha. There are four classes of the tantric deities in the nirmanakaya aspect—those thousands of buddhas, the Medicine Buddhas, the Thirty-five Buddhas and so on, all those buddhas.

In the same way, the Dharma, which is revealed from these different aspects of the buddhas, comes from the guru. You can see here very clearly where the Dharma comes from, and where the Sangha comes from. When we take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, they all come from the guru.

Most of us do not have pure karma so we cannot see the guru in the aspect of the deity, in the aspect of the Buddha. Since our karma is impure, our mind is impure, the only way the buddhas can communicate with us, the only way we can receive teachings and guidance from them is by manifesting in an ordinary form. There is no other way to guide us at all except manifesting in an ordinary form. What’s the definition of “ordinary form?”

By saying this, I’m not saying that I’m a buddha! You should not misunderstand that! The definition of “ordinary form” is having delusions, having suffering such as old age, sickness, death and rebirth. And then showing mistakes in the actions. That is what “ordinary form” means.

At the moment, until we have purified this impure karma, this impure mind, we have no other way for the pure aspect of the Buddha to directly guide us, to reveal teachings, to grant vows and initiations. The only way is for this ordinary form to guide us directly, to look after us and protect us from the sufferings of the lower realms and from the oceans of samsaric sufferings, the sufferings of the human and god realms. This ordinary form can save us from all this, liberating us from samsara. Its continuation has had no beginning but who ends our suffering in samsara? By revealing the four noble truths, the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering and the truth of the path, the philosophical teachings, and the heart of the Buddhadharma, the lamrim, the stages of the path to enlightenment—in that way, this ordinary form brings us to enlightenment.

To be liberated, we need to actualize the path to liberation, which means those five paths to liberation and two things: the foundation clear trainings, which need the requirement of living in the pratimoksha vows to liberate us from the samsara, by living in the bodhisattva vows to bring us to full enlightenment and by living in the tantric vows to cause us to achieve enlightenment not just in one life but in a brief lifetime of degenerated time. In that way, we can liberate sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering quickly and bring them to enlightenment quickly, whereas the other way would take a long time—many eons. Like that, the guru can grant the advice, the practice, can give commentaries and initiations that allow us to practice the path, to listen, to reflect, to meditate and to actualize the tantric path. Like this, the guru guides us to liberation and enlightenment.

It is very good to meditate like this when we do the guru yoga meditation. Maybe I’ll mention this first since I mentioned guru devotion, so those who are new can get some clear idea.

ALL PROBLEMS COME FROM SELF-CHERISHING

I should have mentioned this at the beginning, but why we need to practice guru devotion is like this. It’s related to the question of the purpose of living. The purpose of our life is not just to achieve happiness for ourselves, to only solve our own problems. Even if we could do that, it is not the purpose of our life, the meaning of our life. That opens us to cherishing the I; that’s one reason. The other reason is that cherishing the I is opening the door for all the suffering. As I mentioned the other night, there are all these relationship problems in the world, unbelievable suffering, so much like hell. We are not born in hell but there is hell in our mind. We are not actually born in the hell but it’s like that. There are unbelievable sufferings for years and years, one thing after another. And because of that, life becomes unbelievably expensive. We build debts upon debts, losing our business and becoming bankrupt. In life, there is one problem after another, causing unbelievable suffering. If we check the source, it’s all related to the self-cherishing thought; it's all because of that.

All these problems and all this loneliness that so many people have come from the self-cherishing thought. But if we have a good heart, if we have bodhicitta, if we have the thought of cherishing others, like how we feel with our family members, if we have the thought of loving kindness, of cherishing other living beings, there’s no gap between ourselves and others; there’s no distance. We feel very close to everybody in our heart and they feel very close to us, like they are our family.

Again, the suffering of loneliness comes from the self-cherishing thought. So many people are suffering from depression, and that also has to do with the self-cherishing thought. That depression is a result of either the self-cherishing thought of this life or of negative karma created in past lives, of past negative karma done with the self-cherishing thought. Of course, with the self-cherishing thought, there is attachment and those other delusions.

It is mentioned by the Buddha in the sutra teachings that whenever the evening comes and our mind becomes naturally depressed and we don’t know why, that’s the karmic result of past sexual misconduct. That is mentioned in the sutras. I think it would be similar when we wake up in the morning and don’t know why we feel depressed. It’s based on past negative karmas done with the self-cherishing thought. In this life, we have so many problems we created in other lives with the self-cherishing thought. I mentioned this last night I think, when I was giving the lay vows.

Similarly, because of sexual misconduct, many people in the family don’t like us, many colleagues in the office don’t like us, their wish is opposite to ours. Our spouse opposes our wishes; we no longer get along; there is disharmony and fighting. Generally, others don’t help us, they oppose our wishes. As I mentioned, this is experiencing the result of the past negative karma of sexual misconduct.

Why is sexual misconduct a negative karma? Because it’s not just done with attachment but also basically with the self-cherishing thought. In the Mahayana, the bodhisattva who has very brave-hearted compassion can sacrifice their own life to be born in hell to protect a sentient being from engaging in very heavy negative karma. For them to be born in the hell realm on behalf of that other sentient being is unbelievable joy, incredible bliss. The bodhisattva has unbelievable joy to be born in the hell realm, even if they are there for many eons. How many eons? Equaling the number of the drops of the ocean. Even if they have to suffer for that long to protect a being from engaging in heavy negative karma, they are very happy to do that even for one sentient being. That bodhisattva feels about achieving liberation from samsara, the total cessation of the oceans of suffering of samsaric suffering for themselves alone, like we feel about used toilet paper, disgusted—used toilet paper, not unused. The text mentions where we spit becoming like a poison, so we can compare it to used toilet paper, something to throw away it’s so disgusting. For the bodhisattva achieving liberation for themselves alone it’s like that.

Bodhisattvas were permitted by the Buddha to do the three physical actions of killing, stealing and engaging in sexual misconduct [and the four verbal actions] of telling lies, slandering, saying harsh words and gossiping. When the bodhisattva engages in these seven actions, it only become virtue, and they collect extensive merits like the sky. This makes their time in samsara shorter, instead of longer when it is done with the self-cherishing thought as it usually is. For the bodhisattva, it causes them to be in samsara for a much shorter time.

This is like the story of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s past life when he was a captain. He saw a short black man carrying a spear who was thinking to kill the five hundred traders on the ship. The captain found this out and felt so sorry that this person was going to engage in such heavy negative karma, which of course would result in rebirth in the lower realms, where he would have to suffer for an unbelievable number of eons. Therefore, the captain with unbearable compassion killed him, completely giving himself to be born in the hell realm for killing that person. By killing him, the captain collected unconceivable merits and it made his time in samsara a hundred thousand eons shorter. By the power of compassion, it only became purification rather than collecting negative karma, the cause of being longer in samsara.

I said that sexual misconduct becomes negative karma because it’s done out of the self-cherishing thought. I was just trying to clarify that point by bringing up these stories.

Many of the problems we experience in this life were created by negative karma created in this life, but there are so many created in the past life with the self-cherishing thought. Basically, those ten nonvirtuous actions done in the past could be done in the life before this or many eons ago. Anything done with the self-cherishing thought becomes negative karma.

Although people can be wealthy in this life and even in the next life or for a few lifetimes, with so much wealth, they are still not satisfied. They still want more, and so they engage in illegal things. Then, after becoming very wealthy and very famous in the world, they end up in prison. That is all to do with the self-cherishing thought. It’s very clear it’s the shortcomings of the self-cherishing thought.

Once the attitude of our life is the self-cherishing thought rather than cherishing others, whenever something happens in our life, when somebody says something or acts in some way, we judge it from our self-cherishing thought. We always wish everybody to act nicely to us, to be kind, to say only nice things, never nasty words! We want others to do only nice things, with a respectful manner, only ever smiling at us. These are what the self-cherishing thought always wants, but that doesn’t happen all the time. Whatever happens is due to past karma—how we think of the other person, how we treat them, whether we look at them and treat them with compassion and loving kindness or whether we treat that person with the self-cherishing thought, only seeking our own happiness. One thing is past karma; the other is how we behave now, [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] this morning. Every moment, what we think of the other person, how we look at them and behave toward them, affects us now.

It is mentioned in A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life that when we look at the sentient beings, at human beings or animals, we should look at them with a sincere heart, with loving kindness. If we smile at other sentient beings, it should not be with the political mind, thinking of our reputation, smiling for our own happiness; we should smile because in our heart we hold the happiness of others. Then, we smile like His Holiness does, thinking of others’ happiness. Our smile should not be for our own happiness; that is a political smile, done with attachment, and it is difficult for that to become virtue. Shantideva said that when a person who smiles has a very kind nature, others feel it. Even when animals see that person, when they are near, they are unafraid; they feel very relaxed.

In Australia, when I was doing a retreat in Perth, no, in Adelaide, there were some mice going around and around. One mouse climbed onto the table and looked at me, checking me out! He was checking whether this person was somebody who was going to give him harm or not. He climbed over the table and then with his big eyes he checked on me, whether I was a bad guy or not! Every animal is like that. There are many stories of bodhisattvas where the animals around them feel very relaxed, and not just stories about the bodhisattvas. When snakes or tigers encounter somebody who is very soft in the heart, because there’s no self-cherishing thought, the animals like that person. They feel protected when they are with that person.

There are many stories, for example, Saint Francis, the great Italian saint. There was a wolf in the forest that harmed many people. Saint Francis wanted to go to tell the wolf not to give harm to others. Others told him not to go but he went into the forest and met the wolf. The wolf was usually very vicious and had harmed many people but when he was in the presence of Saint Francis, he licked Saint Francis’ feet like a dog, when a dog sees the master who takes care of it so happy, rolling on its back on the ground. Like that, the wolf licked the feet of Saint Francis, and then Saint Francis told the wolf to not harm others. He said he would beg for food from the town and give it to the wolf if it stopped harming others. And after that the wolf never harmed others again. It listened to Saint Francis because he had a realization of bodhicitta, and bodhicitta has no thought of cherishing the I. It is because of that power, the power of the loving compassionate thought. And what other thing?

Lama Tsongkhapa Institute is quite close to Assisi, the place where Saint Francis’ holy body is kept. One of his disciples was a nun who had three hundred nun disciples. You can see her body covered by glass, well kept, kind of like she’s still alive, but you can’t see Saint Francis’ body. I went there with Lama Yeshe. Lama sat down and did a meditation for a short time. In that place, there was water running down, so the disciples of Saint Francis complained to him that they could not meditate because of the noise of the water. Then, Saint Francis went there and talked to the water, saying, “Sister don’t come. My disciples can’t meditate.” Right after that, the water stopped.

There are many stories in the Buddhist texts like that, such as when bodhisattvas cross a river, the river stops, and then, when they have crossed, the river flows again. Also, there was a great lama, Kälsang Jamyang Mönlam. When there was a flood in Tibet coming towards the monastery, he wrote on a stone, “If it’s true that I have bodhicitta then the flood should go back.” After writing it, he put the stone in the way of the coming flood water and, when he did that, the flood water receded. That was by the power of his bodhicitta. So not just sentient beings, even the elements can be controlled by bodhicitta.

There was an ex-abbot of Sera Je, Losang Wangchuk, an extremely renowned and learned monk among Tibet monasteries, Sera, Ganden and Drepung. I think he has now passed away. His face always reminded me of Lama Tsongkhapa. When he was at Buxa, the concentration camp where Gandhi-ji and Prime Minister Nehru were imprisoned when India was under British rule, and where I lived for eight years, he had a cat. Usually if cats see a mouse they would immediately jump and grab it, but by living with the ex-abbot, even though the mouse might be running back and forth in the same room, the cat just stayed with the monk, not harming the mouse. It had totally changed because of the bodhicitta of Losang Wangchuk. Even though before the cat was quite vicious, seeing the mouse as something to play with and to eat, with the ex-abbot the cat just sat there, seeing the mouse but not running to kill it. That was due to the blessings of the ex-abbot’s bodhicitta.

So anyway, what I was saying before?

If we live our life with the self-cherishing thought, it is very easy for mistakes to arise when we are dealing with others, when we are living with others, because our attitude is only seeking our happiness and we don’t care about others’ needs and happiness. Because we don’t care about others, whenever the way they think, speak or behave is something that our self-cherishing thought doesn’t expect or doesn’t like, it’s so easy to get angry or jealous or for all those other negative emotions to arise. Then, we will scold or beat them, or hit them or even kill them. Then, not only will this violent action harm the body, speech and mind of others, but also those around us will be unhappy with us. Discovering that our motivation is only this selfish mind, they get bored and unhappy; they are no longer interested in us.

With this self-cherishing thought, saying disrespectful words, behaving badly, whatever conduct we have with others becomes negative, making others unhappy. Angry at us, it makes them harm us, insulting us, fighting with us, beating us and even killing us. There are these negative consequences. With the self-cherishing thought, with those unkind, bad manners and those harmful actions we want to do to others, there are the consequences that we are treated badly by others. When we engage in negative karma, it causes others to engage in negative karma by harming us. We both create the cause of the lower realms like that.

But here, with a good heart, with loving kindness, with the compassionate thought, there’s respect. With the thought of cherishing others, respect for others arises. A sincere loving smile comes. These kind acts with the body, speech and mind have a positive effect on others, making them happy, making them also generate loving kindness and compassion. And seeing that they are happy with us, that makes us happy too. So, there’s a circle.

How others think of us, how they treat us, with respectful words and respectful manner, with a kind heart, depends on how we treat them. How they treat us is an immediate consequence of our own act, with what kind of motivation we look at them and what kind of conduct we have. We can see that the person who is good-hearted, with a very calm, loving nature, wherever that person goes—to the market, a shop, a restaurant—even though other people don’t know them, they have never met them before, when they see that person has such a kind heart, they want to speak with them, to spend time with them. They naturally ask them if they need any help. But if that person is very selfish, full of negative emotions that they express physically, in their looks, there’s a negative feeling when other people see them. They don’t want to go near them or help them.

The more selfish we are in our life, the more jealous we are, the more external enemies we have. Wherever we live in the East or the West, whether we are at home or in the office, it is like that. There’s no real happiness. For example, it is often said when our motivation is the self-centered mind, the selfish mind, our only concern is, “When can I be happy?” We only think of our own problems. “When can I be happy?” With this problem and that problem in our daily life, when we only think of our own problems, even the face is very dark. Walking on the street or wherever, if we only think of our own problems, then we are a very tight person, a very unhappy person. Our life feels very dark; there’s no light in our life. There’s no happiness or peace in the heart.

But, the minute we change our attitude from that to cherishing others, while we are walking on the road, while we are in the market, wherever, the minute we change the object [Rinpoche snaps his fingers], instead of cherishing the I, cherishing others, with loving kindness, with the compassionate thought toward others, immediately there’s a release. There is immediately a great release in our heart. We immediately release the tension in our face from its very uptight, very unhappy expression. We immediately find peace and happiness. Then, there’s a natural smile, a very happy face. Immediately life becomes meaningful. The minute we change the mind to cherishing others [Rinpoche snaps his fingers], life immediately becomes meaningful, filled with happiness, with joy. So, the difference between cherishing the I and cherishing others is huge. With cherishing others, there’s immediately fulfillment in our heart.

MISTAKES OF NOT DEVOTING TO THE GURU ARE DUE TO SELF-CHERISHING

I’ve already gone through the eight shortcomings of making mistakes in devoting to virtuous friend, of creating negative karma with the relationship of the virtuous friend.

Criticizing the guru is as heavy as criticizing all the buddhas. Engaging in such heavy negative karma again comes from the self-cherishing thought, is motivated by the self-cherishing thought. Even making mistakes in the practice of guru devotion is due to the self-cherishing thought. Having non-devotional thoughts, going against the guru’s advice, disturbing the holy mind, getting angry with the guru. There are three hundred and sixty-five shortest moments in a finger snap and for however many of those we are angry at the guru, for that many eons our merit is destroyed. For that length of time we have to be born in the hell realm and suffer. Engaging in these shortcomings is again due to the self-cherishing thought.

As a practitioner, as somebody who is trying to practice Dharma, the self-cherishing thought is so harmful, interfering with our guru devotion practice and causing us to create this heavy negative karma. Even if we practice the highest tantric path, we cannot achieve attainments. We make so much effort, going so many years without sleeping, without eating, being so strict, practicing tantra for years and years bearing so many hardships, having made mistakes devoting the virtuous friend, but it’s like there’s nothing, there’s no change, no progress. Besides that, it only results in obtaining the lower realms, only the hell realm.

If you mix the color black with white, how does it look? Still black. I’m giving an example of how to understand that when there’s a small amount of white color and you put a lot of black color, it’s still black. Because the karma is so heavy, while we make mistakes in guru devotion—having non-devotional thoughts arising to the guru or breaking their advice, criticizing them, having heresy or anger toward the guru—while we might try to practice day and night for years in retreat, with a lot of hardships, the negative karma is so heavy that, despite those many other practices, it’s like achieving the hell realm. The Dharma understandings we didn’t have before, the realizations and qualities, don’t happen. We are unable to achieve them. And what experience or Dharma understanding we had before becomes degenerated. Then, our life is tormented by so many problems, so many heavy sicknesses one after another. And the next life is an unimaginable number of eons wandering in the lower realms.

Now, here’s the point. If we let ourselves come under the control of the virtuous friend, the guru, if we allow ourselves to follow the guru, we do not receive any of these shortcomings, any of these problems. When we cherish the I, we don’t surrender, we don’t allow ourselves to follow the guru and because of that, all these shortcomings arise—breaking their advice, disturbing their holy mind, heresy, anger—all this arises due to the self-cherishing thought. It is very clear how the guru devotion practice is related to self-cherishing thought. When we recite even one mala of the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM or something, we are unable to do it correctly, unable to concentrate our mind. Our mind becomes like a monkey, jumping all over the place. We are unable to meditate for even the duration of one mala of OM MANI PADME HUM. Again, this is to do with the self-cherishing thought.

LACK OF ALL SUCCESS COMES FROM SELF-CHERISHING

Even if we have taken lay vows or the thirty-six ordination vows, or the two hundred and fifty-three vows of the gelong, again the self-cherishing thought makes us break those vows or degenerate them. It’s very clear that when we cherish the I, attachment, anger and all those negative minds arise, thus causing us to degenerate the vows; we are unable to live in the lay or ordination vows, unable to have renunciation. Breaking the vows is related to the self-cherishing thought. If we look at what caused it, it’s related to the self-cherishing thought. If we have taken a vow to lead a better life, to achieve liberation and enlightenment, to benefit others, because the self-cherishing thought is always there, when we follow it, that thought makes us break the vows, and that destroys our own liberation.

If we cherish the I, we are not only unable to achieve realizations, but all these mistakes also arise. Due to the self-cherishing thought, due to cherishing the I, because there is no special bodhicitta motivation, whatever we do in our daily life, nothing becomes the cause of enlightenment, not even meditating or reciting prayers. Because of cherishing the I, attachment arises to the samsaric perfections of this life and the samsaric perfections of future lives. Because of that, whatever activity we do does not become the cause to achieve liberation from samsara, not even meditating or reciting prayers.

Then, because of cherishing the I, attachment to this life arises, which is a nonvirtuous thought. Therefore, whatever activity we do becomes negative karma, even meditating or reciting prayers. Everything becomes negative karma; everything becomes the cause of the lower realms. Again, here it’s very clear that many mistakes arise by following the self-cherishing thought.

The self-cherishing thought makes even one day not only totally empty, but it also causes us to engage in negative karma. It is like that for one week of our life, for one month of our life, for one year of our life, for our whole life. That is how the self-cherishing thought has been so harmful from beginningless rebirths up to now. As long as we cherish the I, we receive all the shortcomings and are unable to attain any realizations. From beginningless rebirths up to now, we have never achieved any realizations and the mind is still totally empty. Nothing is happening; there is no progress. As long as we cherish the I, there is no attainment, nothing—just the endless suffering of samsara.

Even if we have the wisdom directly realizing emptiness, if we don’t have bodhicitta, the mind cherishing others, the highest we can achieve is only arhatship, not enlightenment. We are unable to even become a bodhisattva and cannot receive even the name “bodhisattva.”

What we all want is happiness, what we do not want is suffering. By cherishing the I, we are opening the door to all suffering; by cherishing others, we are opening the door for all happiness, for all our temporary and ultimate happiness, for liberation and enlightenment. And we are also opening the door to be able to cause all the happiness for each and every single sentient being, all the temporal and ultimate happiness, for liberation and enlightenment.

Even for our own happiness, the best thing is to cherish others, to seek the happiness of other sentient beings, so no question about actually achieving happiness for all sentient beings. The purpose of our life is to benefit other sentient beings. Therefore, as I mentioned before, of causing the happiness in this life, causing others the happiness in all the coming future lives, or causing them to achieve liberation from samsara and then enlightenment, that’s the highest benefit. Bringing sentient beings to full enlightenment is the best benefit, the highest benefit.

The solution is that first we ourselves must achieve the state of omniscience. For that, what is the solution? Actualizing the whole graduated path to enlightenment is the cause to achieve the omniscient mind. That’s the reason we practice guru devotion. If our goal is to achieve enlightenment, we need to actualize the stages of the path to enlightenment. For the success of all that, we need the root, guru devotion. The perfect human rebirth is the beginning of the path. To have success from there up to enlightenment depends on the root, guru devotion. Only by having that stable realization, we don’t create any obstacles for our realization. We only create the cause to have success. Whatever we do, we only create the cause to have success in attaining all these realizations up to enlightenment. The main reason we practice guru devotion, the main goal, is because we want to become enlightened and liberate numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and enlighten them. That’s the reason—because we want to benefit others.

How it works is scientific. It’s like a machine where every thing depends on every other thing. In a watch, there are many mechanisms that depend on each other for the watch to function. It’s very important to know why we need to practice guru devotion. If we don’t know, if we don’t have a deep reason of that, many difficulties will arise. We might think it is just superstition or it’s useless.

When we were in Nepal the first time, we stayed in Boudha and lived together with a French doctor who worked at the public hospital in Kathmandu. He always meditated. I don’t know what he meditated on, but he always meditated. He was with us the very first time when we came to Kopan hill.

From the Gelugpa monastery we stayed at, Samtenling, from the window where Lama’s bed was, Lama always saw Kopan hill and felt an attraction and he always wanted to go there. So, one day we came here. There was a very old house the king had built for his astrologer, but it was covered by trees so we couldn’t see it from below. We went to the top of the hill and came down, but the French doctor had disappeared! It took us some time to find him. He was there at the astrologer’s house, sitting on the cement step, facing the door, meditating. He couldn’t enter the house, of course, because it was locked. We saw him there but didn’t disturb him.

What were we talking about? Yeah, Lama. There was a French artist who always talked about Madagascar and all those places where he had been. He made and bought oil paintings, and he and the French doctor came for meditation. Lama gave a Vajrasattva meditation, describing how to visualize Vajrasattva on the crown. After he heard that, the French doctor said, “What’s the difference? You visualize the shoes outside or the shoes at the door on the head?” “What’s the differences between Vajrasattva here and the shoes on your head?” This is what he said. If you don’t understand, it’s like that! So, there’s a reason deep as the ocean to practice guru devotion.

TARA INITIATION MOTIVATION: HAVING STABLE GURU DEVOTION

I would like to mention this. This is a Tara initiation—Tara is called Tara the Liberator—and what Tara actually means is the guru, as I mentioned at the very beginning. With stable guru devotion, looking at the guru as the Buddha and seeing the Buddha, whether from the guru’s side they are a buddha or not, from the disciple’s side, we must look at the guru as the Buddha and see them as the Buddha, using the quotations, the reasonings and our own special experiences with the guru. With stable devotion, we must see them as the Buddha, by looking at them as the Buddha. At the beginning we do it with effort, then as a result we see the Buddha.

In The Foundation of All Good Qualities it says,

The foundation of all good qualities is the kind and perfect guru;
Correctly following the guru is the root of the path.
By my clearly seeing this and applying great effort,
Please bless me to rely upon the guru with great respect.

Without effort, it just doesn’t happen. We have to put many years of effort into looking at the guru as the Buddha. Then, as a result, we see the Buddha. It’s the nature of the mind that it can develop. That the mind can become pure is a quality of the mind. It depends on how we train. If we train it in a negative way, we become negative. If we train it in a positive way, it can be turned that way, so we only see the guru as the Buddha, with no mistakes, with only pure qualities.

That meditation on how to train the mind—all the reasonings, all the stories, all these things—was explained by the Buddha, by Lama Tsongkhapa, and by those great enlightened beings. What happens if we don’t have this stable guru devotion, [which arises by] putting effort for many years into seeing the Buddha by looking at [the guru as] the Buddha? Without this stable guru devotion realization, for example, heresy can arise. Then, there is no protection in our life at all. What happens is that when we have ordinary heresy or anger we create negative karma, but when it is in relation to the guru, it is the heaviest negative karma.

Why? The parents of this life are powerful objects, more powerful than other people, more powerful than anybody other than ordained people, arhats, bodhisattvas, buddhas and gurus. Other than that, our parents are more powerful objects than other people. If we criticize our parents, even just a small disrespect, the negative karma we create is so heavy that we experience the result in this life. And if we are respectful in a small way, giving them a small praise or doing them a small service, the good karma is so powerful that we experience the result in this life, besides for many hundreds of thousands of lifetimes. Now, more powerful than the parents is the ordained person, the ordinary Sangha. Then, there are the arhats, the absolute Sangha, and the arhats are more powerful still. Then, of the numberless arhats and one bodhisattva, one bodhisattva is a much more powerful object. If we create negative karma with a bodhisattva, harming or disrespect them, or if we offer respect or offer service, one bodhisattva is more powerful than the numberless arhats who are free from samsara.

It is mentioned in Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo that when a non-bodhisattva gets angry at a bodhisattva for one second, they experience the hell realm for one eon. But it is mentioned here that this is the same with guru devotion. If we as a non-bodhisattva get angry at a bodhisattva for one second, we are born in the hell realm and suffer for an eon. I asked the ex-abbot of Sera Mey for clarification when I took teachings from him. Rinpoche explained that with the guru we count in the shortest moments, of which there are 365 in a finger snap. With the guru, each time we [develop heresy for the guru] we get reborn and have to experience that many eons in hell. I think this might be what Rinpoche answered, but otherwise it looks exactly the same as with a bodhisattva. How can it be possible? If we get angry at a bodhisattva, we are born in hell and suffer for one eon. I think Rinpoche clarified it like that. If we get angry at a bodhisattva, even if we just look at them like this. What do you call it? I always forget the name. [Student prompts] If we scowl at a bodhisattva, we create heavier karma than taking out the eyeballs of all the three realms’ sentient beings. The karma is so heavy if we look at a bodhisattva like that.

And if we look at a bodhisattva with a very calm mind, with a devotional mind, we collect as much merit as giving eyes to the three realms’ sentient beings. Maybe it’s even more. But now you can see how even a small disrespect or a small respect toward a bodhisattva makes a huge difference; even a small service creates unbelievable merit. Now, between numberless bodhisattvas and one buddha, one buddha is more powerful. And between numberless buddhas and one guru, one guru is more powerful. Now you can see that. It is said that from the disciple’s side, you should rely upon the guru, you should devote to the guru. That’s the definition of a disciple. The guru is the one who instills devotion in the disciple, who is relied upon by the disciple. That’s the definition of a guru.

I think there may be different answers. But anyway, if we wish to be accepted as a disciple by the guru and from the guru’s side they also accept us as a disciple, with this recognition from the side of the disciple that this is our guru, this creates the guru/disciple relationship. Then, with that understanding, even receiving OM AH HUM or any four words or a just few verses of a teaching or of an oral transmission, the relationship is established. From that second, it is done; from that second, that person becomes the most powerful object in our life. It’s all a dependent arising. They are the most powerful person in our life, more powerful than the numberless buddhas.

Then, for not just a second or a finger snap but the shortest length of time, if we get angry or develop heresy with the virtuous friend, that many eons of merit are destroyed. That’s one thing to understand. Then the next thing is that for that many eons we have to be in the lower realms, in the hell realm, and experience the most unbearable suffering. And the third thing is that because our merits are destroyed for that number of eons, our realizations are delayed for that many number of eons. So, there are these three things.

So, you see this is the heaviest negative karma; it is the greatest obstacle to developing the mind in the path to enlightenment. It is the greatest obstacle if we want to help other sentient beings, if we want to liberate numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. If we don’t have a stable guru devotion realization, all the negative thoughts arise and we give up the guru. After having made the connection and established the relationship, if we give up the guru when we think that we cannot do what we want but we must do what the guru wants, this is a great danger. All this is the heaviest negative karma.

That is why there is so much emphasis in both the sutra and tantra teachings on having a stable realization of guru devotion. In The Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion there are so many things to observe. It is emphasized so much because of the shortcomings, the heavy negative karma that we create, which is a great obstacle to developing our mind in the path. Benefiting others, liberating others from suffering and bringing them to enlightenment, that’s the meaning of our life, the purpose of our life. If we want temporary or ultimate happiness, enlightenment, if we want to be the cause of all the happiness of the numberless sentient beings, this is what we need to practice. For the success of actualizing the whole path, we need the realization of guru devotion. If we have the stable realization of guru devotion, we are protected all the time from anger, heresy, non-devotional thoughts, breaking their advice, disturbing their holy mind—we have all that strong protection so those things don’t occur. That is why it’s emphasized so much in the teachings.

When we think about how the real meaning of guru is the absolute guru, we can see that the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha we take refuge in all come from the guru, the absolute guru. All our past, present and future happiness, all the qualities, every goodness, everything comes from the guru. That’s why, with Mother Tara, mother liberator, the real meaning of “mother” is guru. The name “mother” is given and the function is to liberate us sentient beings from suffering, from the sufferings of the lower realms and even the sufferings of the god and human realms. It also liberates us from the lower nirvana, from the subtle defilements and brings us to enlightenment. So the “mother liberator” means the guru.

The mother liberator, the absolute guru, is bound with infinite compassion for us sentient beings, liberating us from all undesirable things, from all sufferings and even from the subtle defilements, the negative imprints, and granting us every happiness: temporary happiness and ultimate happiness, enlightenment, everything we desire. This is all manifested into a female aspect. The interpretive meaning of the ultimate guru is this female aspect who manifests in order to do all those activities: liberating us from samsara and lower nirvana and granting every happiness up to enlightenment.

All the gurus that we visualize who have shown an ordinary aspect are the embodiment of the absolute guru, manifested in an ordinary aspect to guide us to liberation and enlightenment. Here, Tara and these gurus are one. Tara is manifested from the absolute guru; these gurus are also manifested from the absolute guru. Each of these gurus is Tara. That is how to meditate on this. That is what we must realize.

Tara’s mantra, OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA, includes the four noble truths, showing the cessation of the suffering and the cessation of the cause of suffering. Within that it also contains the truth of the path. Where it says, “TURE liberates from the eight fears,” that also relates to the eight delusions. What was I going to say? I’ve already explained before, we are seeking the cessation of all the defilements; from the thought of mistakes toward the guru up to the subtle dual view; chag means to cease and tsal lo refers to all the realizations up to enlightenment chag tsal lo.

Maybe a short break? Huh? We’ll have a short break to stand or something.

[Students offer mandala]

TARA INITIATION MOTIVATION: TARA AND ATISHA

It is a very common experience that when we rely upon Tara, doing the meditation, the recitation, it makes it very easy to have our wishes fulfilled, to have success. It’s a very common experience, even for ordinary people. Lama Atisha, who always relied on Tara, was able to offer extensive benefit to sentient beings and the teachings of the Buddha because of Tara. Whatever activity he did, he first made requests to Tara, and through Tara he was able to accomplish extensive work and give extensive benefit to sentient beings, not only in India but also in Tibet. He was able to make the Buddhism in Tibet pure.

Lama Atisha composed the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment in Tibet, and then Lama Tsongkhapa and many of the great lamas wrote commentaries to it from their own experience of the path. There have been numberless beings who have become bodhisattvas and achieved enlightenment by practicing the lamrim, which started from Lama Atisha’s Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, the heart of the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha. Even in these days, many meditators are practicing and having realizations of the lamrim based on the integration of all the 84,000 teachings of Buddha into the lamrim. There are meditators in Dharamsala or in different places attaining realization by correctly meditating on the path. Now it’s spread all over the world, even in the Western world, which has been dark from the beginning of time. Now the light of the Dharma, the lamrim, is spread even in the Western world and in many of the Chinese countries.

Every year, many tens of thousands are able to meet the Buddhadharma and are able to have opportunity to practice the lamrim and follow the path to enlightenment. They are able to find the answers in their life which they could not find in Western culture. This includes us here, during this one month. We came to attend the course and we have the opportunity to hear the lamrim teachings and meditate on them. Not only to hear them but to make the mind closer to the path. We have left so many imprints on our mindstream during this month by doing this course. I haven’t had so many imprints left because I didn’t attend the course! But you have been able to leave so many positive imprints to actualize the path to enlightenment, making you so much closer to the lamrim realizations, to the realizations of the path, so much closer to enlightening all sentient beings. Every day, meditating on the lamrim during this one month at Kopan has made you so much closer to enlightening the numberless sentient beings. So, we must rejoice. We are able to do all this because of Lama Atisha’s kindness, because of Lama Atisha’s holy activities.

All these incredibly extensive benefits all over the world are due to Tara. This is just one example. There are many other great yogis, great holy beings, who through Tara have been able to benefit many sentient beings in the world. Through Tara, it is very easy to have success, even in just ordinary activities or in Dharma activities; that’s very common.

His Holiness Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche, who is the Dalai Lama’s guru, used to tell me that some children are close to the father but most are close to the mother. Similarly, Rinpoche used to say that even to receive the blessings of and achieve Compassion Buddha, it’s easier through the Tara practice. Rinpoche used to give the example that if you are a friend of the attendant of the lama, or if you know them, you are able to see the lama easily. Rinpoche used this example! We can pacify obstacles and have success through Tara. What pleases Tara, what makes Tara close to us is bodhicitta, the tonglen practice—taking other sentient beings’ suffering and giving them our happiness and merit. As much as we are able to do this bodhicitta practice, that’s what brings Tara close to us and grants all our wishes more quickly.

TARA INITIATION

We are taking the permission to practice, the jenang, of the Twenty-one Taras for success in attaining the path to enlightenment, the lamrim, and success in service for sentient beings and for the teachings of the Buddha.

For the jenang, the self-generation, the front generation, the blessing vase and those things are done. Now, there are the graduated activities to do from the lama’s side and the general activities to do from the disciple’s side—washing the mouth, prostrations, distributing flowers. Then, there’s the mandala offering before that and giving torma to interferers who interfere with granting and receiving the jenang, the blessing of Tara.

[Rinpoche confers the jenang]

It’s part of tantric practice to see the lama you take the initiation from [as the deity]. I’m not qualified. I don’t deserve to tell you to visualize me as Tara, but as there’s a special purpose for the disciple to achieve enlightenment, in this part of tantric practice it requires you stop the ordinary thought of the ordinary person and to look at them from the side of the disciple not only in the essence of Tara but also in the aspect of Tara. And you see the place where you take the jenang as not an ordinary place but as a celestial mansion, the transformation of Tara’s transcendental wisdom, or Tara’s pure land, Yulokod, Khadiravana in Sanskrit [Acacia Forest]. Then, in order to receive the jenang, the permission to practice, you should offer mandala, your body, speech and mind and all the three-time merits in the various form of offerings, of the whole entire universe. Offer without any clinging. So, the short mandala.

[Students offer a short mandala]

As I mentioned before, three extremely rare things have been gathered. From your side, you have achieved the perfect human rebirth, which is extremely rare to find, and you have met the Buddhadharma, which is extremely rare to meet, and you have also met the virtuous friend revealing the path to enlightenment, which is extremely rare to meet. All three of these are most rare and you have achieved them at this time, which happens about once. You have achieved this body about once. Therefore, it is not sufficient just to not be reborn in the lower realms or just to receive a higher rebirth. Even achieving liberation from samsara is still not sufficient. As I mentioned before, for all these reasons, you must achieve full enlightenment for sentient beings before death happens. For that, you need to actualize the path. For that success, you are taking this jenang. You need to rely upon a special deity to bring success and Tara is the incomparable one.

With that, to do the mantra recitation you need to receive permission to practice, the jenang. Even that is for the benefit of all sentient beings.

[Rinpoche recites prayers and asks students to repeat]

The next one is the bodhisattva vows. Those who have taken them in the past, there is no question that by taking them again you purify them. And those who have not taken bodhisattva vows, has George already gone through the wishing and entering vows? [Ven. George replies.] The wishing vows. So, George will introduce the entering vows after the initiation. For those who have not taken bodhisattva vows, there are the wishing vows and the entering vows. The entering vows are abstaining from the eighteen root falls and the forty-six vices. Basically, even though there is a great number, the very essence is that you try to live your life with the attitude to benefit others, to think that your life is for others, to free others from suffering, to cause them happiness. You live your life engaging in that attitude.

With that attitude, even though there are so many other bodhisattva vows, when you are able to practice you feel that what you have belongs to other sentient beings. This is the key point to be able to keep the many bodhisattva vows. It very much depends on how you keep the attitude, the thought of benefiting others or not.

If you can’t take the entering vows now, you can take the wishing vows, which Venerable George has already explained, so I don’t need to repeat it again. That is avoiding the four black dharmas and practicing four white dharmas. For those who can’t take even the wishing vow, what I normally say is you should think, “I’m definitely going to practice more compassion for others than before. I’m definitely going to practice bodhicitta in this life.” You must make a strong decision like that. So please repeat.

[Rinpoche continues the initiation]

Since you have taken the bodhisattva vows, in every second you collect limitless skies of merit, and any other virtue you collect increases millions of times. This makes life unbelievably meaningful, productive. Taking the bodhisattva vows becomes the most practical contribution for the happiness and peace of all sentient beings, particularly of this world. Please do the particular request.

[Rinpoche recites prayers and the students repeat]

Here, you purify yourself into emptiness with the mantra OM SVABHAVA SHUDDHA SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SHUDDHO HAM. Look at the I who is taking the jenang, the blessing of Tara. How does that I appear to you? Does it appear merely labeled by mind or not merely labeled by mind? Check that one. Unless you are a buddha, everything appears as not merely labeled by mind, everything appears as truly existent. This I appears as something real from its own side. Hold onto that. One-pointedly concentrate on that. Think, “This real I appearing there, this is what is called the object to be refuted.” Think that this is a hallucination. What it means is that this is totally nonexistent. There is not even an atom of that which exists. Now your wisdom sees the emptiness; it is nondual with it, like having put water into water.

[Rinpoche continues the Tara initiation]

Ah lá! I forgot to mention this! I’ve only remembered this now it is already done. We’ve already gone to the hell realm; we’ve already bought the ticket and gone to the hell realm. This is Kriya Tantra so you need to have received a great initiation, such as the Chenrezig great initiation or Mitukpa or Medicine Buddha. In Kriya Tantra there are three types: the vajra type, the lotus type and the tathagata type. If you haven’t received any of the great initiations, you cannot visualize yourself as the deity. I missed that out at the beginning! Of course, no question if you have already received a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation, or if you have received any of those great initiations of Kriya Tantra, you can visualize yourself as the deity, Tara. But if you haven’t received any of the great initiations, either lower tantra or highest tantra, then you must not visualize yourself as the deity. If you have visualized yourself as the deity before, now pack up! I’m joking!

[Rinpoche continues the Tara initiation]

In regard to the various activities to do with Tara, there’s a common one and an uncommon one. I received the uncommon one from His Holiness Zong Rinpoche when Rinpoche first came to the United States, to Geshe Sopa Rinpoche’s center in Madison. At that time, I received it with Alan Wallace and maybe somebody else. I’m not going to do the whole thing. There is the whole night purification with Tara. You can do the whole night of purification. I thought it might be good if many people can do that practice, so I’ll do the lung of that.

[Rinpoche confers the lung]

Within this, there is healing the I to develop wisdom, the meditation to protect yourself and others, from danger. It’s very effective when you have harm from black magic or harm from nagas or human beings, to be liberated from strange sicknesses, those that cannot be cured in hospital. And betraying the death, the puja, the practice to pacify the danger of untimely death. Then there are pacifying actions, increasing actions and controlling actions.

[Rinpoche confers the lung]

This is available in English. In the past, many years ago, we used to do it many times in Lawudo as well as here. We did the Tara purification practice many years ago, also maybe some other centers in the West have done it.

Why do we do it at nighttime? Because it’s more difficult; you have to sacrifice your comfort and sleep for the Dharma practice. You do prostrations and circumambulation. You make sessions like that. Because it is harder, that means more negative karmas get purified. I think that’s the whole reason. Tara herself taught this method.

[Rinpoche confers the lung]

You have to offer butter lamps or candles, whatever it is, light that lasts the whole night until the next morning. Until the light of the butter lamp or candle stops, you don’t take away the Tara statue that’s put there. Doing that practice purifies all the defilements, negative karma, downfalls, all those things. It makes a huge difference to generating the realizations of the path and increasing wisdom.

Doing this practice is an extremely profound way to increase wisdom. If you do the practice correctly, you will definitely achieve perfect wisdom and a long life. Tara herself said, “This I promise.”

[Rinpoche confers the lung]

This is a short meditation for long life, which was translated into English many years ago, from the first Dharma Celebration I think. Maybe that’s enough.

[Rinpoche confers the lung]

With the Twenty-one Taras, you can eliminate whatever problems you have. This oral transmission is a very special meditation to do for pacifying problems and for benefiting sentient beings. This is from the collection of texts by Panchen Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen, who composed the Lama Chöpa.

[Rinpoche continues the initiation]

I just went over the Twenty-one Taras mantra. The twenty-one Taras do different actions: pacifying problems, bringing the wishes. This one actually elaborates the meditation. It specifies how to do the meditation, whichever problem you have or whatever way you want to help others. This shows how to do the meditation for each Tara.

While you are reciting the Twenty-one Taras praises, when it comes to each Tara, you do the more elaborate meditation to accomplish those purposes. It looks like a lot but actually it’s empty. It looks like many pages but it’s empty. There are not so many lines.

There’s a meditation to liberate from prison. If somebody is in prison, you can liberate them; it shows how to do that. There’s another text for that too but I never got it translated. It’s quite a few pages. But this Tara meditation on how to get out of prison is very short. It would be a very good practice to do for those who are going to be killed in prison, who are facing a death sentence. Not a life sentence, a death sentence. There was a person who was going to be executed. I wrote a very, very long letter, but it seems it has been delayed a year. He did a lot of practice in prison. There are quite a number who did lots of practice in prison, many hundreds of thousands of prostrations. This is extremely meaningful, because if they were out of prison there would be so much distraction and they wouldn’t be able to do that much practice. I think being in prison, because the mind is different, you want to do something meaningful, and I think many of them do a lot of practice, like somebody being in a hermitage. Doing a lot of practice and not coming out—it’s similar.

[Rinpoche continues the initiation]

For these activities to be successful, you need to do a nearing retreat—no, not a nearing retreat, an enabling action retreat, with something like 400,000 Tara mantras. In the past it was 100,000 but now you need 400,000, like the jenang retreat, and a fire puja. You need to do that preliminary before you actually do these various activities.

[Rinpoche continues the initiation]

Doing this Tara practice is according to Lama Atisha’s tradition.

So that’s it. Maybe we will do the Twenty-one Tara praises tomorrow. Maybe tonight that’s enough.

Now short mandala of thanks.

[Students recite mandala offering and Rinpoche and students do dedication prayers]

So I must say, “Good morning!” Thank you very much.