SAVING WORMS AND FISH

On the basis of what I mentioned, to make the life worthwhile, meaningful, fulfilled, there is the practice of the ten virtues. Whether you kill some being or you order somebody to kill, it is the same, but with the ten virtues, instead of killing you protect life; you guide other beings from danger to their life. You protect, you save whoever is in danger of being killed.

I don’t know how many beings we have saved. [Rinpoche speaks in Tibetan to the disciplinarian] Seventy-five animals. Goats and chickens? Chickens. I was thinking to buy land in Bylakuppe and build a house and to buy a thousand chickens or something like that. But chickens are very difficult. I bought some chickens in Patna on the way to Bodhgaya. The chickens were outside in bamboo [cages] waiting to be killed, so when Marcel was in Bodhgaya, I thought to buy them and take them there. But if you let chickens walk on the ground outside all day long, they eat worms. So, we put the chickens inside the house on a cement floor, and gave them food like that. We did that. Chickens are very difficult, not like goats and other animals.

I thought to buy a place to make a house, so you could get an idea how to help sentient beings. In the ceiling, we would put Namgyälma protection mantras—not just one but many, so by being underneath they would always get purified of negative karmas collected from beginningless rebirths. And then, when they die, they will not get reborn in lower realms. Even if there is one Namgyälma, it helps for that. Then, I wanted to put OM PÄDMO USHNISHA VIMALE HUM PHAT, written in big letters and covering as much of the ceiling as possible. By being underneath, a hundred thousand eons of negative karma get purified. I have recorded mantras, so if you play it for them, four sessions a day, it purifies their minds to not get reborn in lower realms and plants the seed of enlightenment. I wanted to play mantras for them through the speakers four times a day and different prayers like the Heart Sutra.

That’s what I was thinking. I don’t know how it’s going. There is a good-hearted monk who has promised to look after them. I was thinking to do that a few years ago. Even if we are unable to buy chickens in different places, if we can at least do it in one place, we will give some benefit to the chickens. So, hopefully that will get done.

By abandoning taking life, killing, you protect beings from danger to their life. Sorry to mention this, but to give you an idea, because you have to learn. At the Aptos house, we buy fishing worms every week. How many worms? Sometimes Chinese people come from outside, from Santa Cruz, and recite mantras and prayers at our house. One of the nuns leads the mantras and prayers. I made a book on how to liberate animals, what different mantras to recite for the animals. They recite and go around the stupa, carrying the animals, the worms or whatever. I explained that the stupa is like the one in Indonesia but smaller. They go around carrying the animals, and each time they go around, because there are many statues of the Buddha, they create so many causes of enlightenment. They plant so many seeds of enlightenment each time they take the animals around. There are at least several hundred. By carrying them around and reciting mantras, it purifies their negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths and plants the seed of enlightenment in all their hearts.

When I’m there, I try to bless water with mantras, which they keep to purify the animals and insects. After reciting the mantras, they are supposed to blow on the water and use the water to purify them. Every week, people come from outside to help.

There are different places—one near Land of Medicine Buddha—where you can safely bury worms in the ground. I have seen this on TV, where people carry buckets [to dig for worms]. Near the water the earth is very wet, so the people dig quite deep and put the worms used for fishing in the bucket. They don’t just do it in one place; they go to different places that are wet [to find the worms]. Our place is kind of dry, so I think they might have some difficulties because the worms live near water, where it is very wet. As I said, it might be difficult in Washington because it is very dry.

In Washington, there are two monks who prepare blessed water. I told them to blow on the water when they do commitments. After they bury the worms, they put water on top so the ground becomes wet. But also, one thing is when you bury worms, due to karma the birds see it and they dig the earth and then eat the worms. But if you dig a little bit deeper, it’s OK. Unless it is deep enough, the birds come and dig up the worms and eat them.

In Washington, they do that every week with worms used for fishing. Can you imagine what it would feel like to have a hook through your body like that? If it happened to you, what would you think? If somebody did that to the fisherman, what would they think? But they do that to worms so they can fish! So, each week they do that, saving several hundred or something. [Ven. Roger: One thousand five hundred each week.] One thousand five hundred each week. They are not only buried, there is also a carved stone Amitabha Buddha from Vietnam, which is very good. The Amitabha Buddha is carved marble. I sent how to make the eyes. I don’t think their own way, almost like the eyes were closed, was very good, so I wanted the eyes painted [differently]. They are very good artists but they are so used to doing it their own way.

There is a monk from Kopan Monastery, Gelek, who finished studying in Dharamsala. We got him from the private office. He cleaned [the statue] and then painted [the eyes] very well. He made a blue throne with two peacocks in front and a horse on one side and a garuda and elephants on the other sides, I think. Some parts are not finished. Most parts are. The peacocks have actual feathers and the throne is decorated. There are a lot of flowers I bought from the market to put by the sides of Amitabha Buddha and Medicine Buddha.

How many [worms are saved every week]? One thousand five hundred worms each week. Then, there is also the mantra from Padmasambhava—not Padmasambhava’s mantra but the mantra from Padmasambhava—that you put it in the water. If you put it in the water, you can achieve enlightenment in this life. I think it makes it easy to purify negative karma and achieve realizations, so you put that crystal with the mantras in the water. We also have a filtered water bird feeder outside, as well as His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s mani pills. Thousands of monks and His Holiness pray and bless pills, and the blessed pills are sent to Tibet for Tibetan prisoners, so when they die they are not reborn in the lower realms. I put the pills in the bird feeding water to purify the birds with the blessed water, then the Padmasambhava mantra. The small birds come and enjoy the bath so much. For me to see them enjoying it is so good. It is very enjoyable.

Then, there is a bird house, where the birds come to eat food, which has mantras on the roof, so that when the birds come to eat they all get purified. One thousand eons of negative karma get purified. The mantras were done by the monk, Tharchin. Near where the birds come to eat food there is also a tape recorder playing Golden Light Sutra and Diamond Cutter Sutra, which Kyabje Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche and I have recorded, so they hear it all the time. We have two [speakers], one on either side. Are there still two? We put the tape recorder on the ground for them to constantly hear Dharma.

Then, very sorry, I bought a boat. You must think I’m crazy! I bought a rubber boat. I think John is part of this organization, what is it called? Amazon. So, I got it cheaper. It usually costs three hundred dollars but John got it for two hundred dollars. [Ven. Roger: It cost two hundred and fifty.]

OK. I bought it, but not for enjoyment on the water. We have the boat to feed the fish with fish food like the Vajrayogini [Tibetan] kind, a little bit fat and then finer. Well, we were supposed to try to make it like that. We made maybe two buckets of that with blessed mantra water, to purify the fish. I think they made it for two or three days and took it to the fish to purify them. How many people? Four people can fit in the boat. I went twice to give food to the fish in the lake. As the boat travels, we throw the food out. That is one thing. The other one is the blessed water, which we throw in the ocean to purify the fish.

Then, we have Namgyälma, the mantra for protection, which we carry above the water to purify the fish. It has not come yet but we also have these boxes that we put on the animals’ and people’s heads to purify them. We will hold them above water, so all the fish underneath get purified.

We are supposed to go up and down the lake to cover more fish, instead of going straight. Then, we are also supposed to play a tape recording of Kyabje Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche or me chanting mantras or prayers. The recording is played under the water, not on top, so they can hear the mantra, purifying them to not get reborn in the lower realms and planting the seed of enlightenment.

There are many lakes around, so each month we go to a different lake. The boat has two flags, one is the name of the boat, “Wish-Granting Boat for the Fish.” It is wish-granting because by seeing the mantra, it purifies a hundred thousand eons of negative karma. There is more but I don’t remember. The flag says how precious the fish are, how all our happiness is received from them. That is on the flag. There are two flags; on top of the flag there is gyaltsen, the banner, in different colors. Inside there are mantras, also Namgyälma.

When you put all that together, it sounds like quite an unusual boat. When people see it, there is a lot to learn from the flags. There are lot of messages to help them to purify their negative karma. There is a lot to learn, to give them the wisdom eye. So, two monks go each month on different lakes to help the fish to purify and to get higher rebirth and to achieve enlightenment.

PRACTICING THE TEN VIRTUES WITH ANIMAL LIBERATION

I think the Chinese centers in the organization liberate more animals. They have a kind of system. They normally take turtles to one temple and give them water there, something like that. In Singapore, the FPMT center, Amitabha Buddhist Centre, where Geshe Chonyi is the resident teacher, has liberated so many animals. Two hundred million? [Ven. Roger: More than two hundred million.] More than two hundred million animals have been liberated. That count was from a long time ago so there are much more than that.

Sometimes people who have cancer give them money to liberate animals. One person recovered from cancer by causing the long life of other sentient beings. You have long life by causing others long life. That’s cause and effect; it works in that way.

But in Taiwan there was a monk. What is his name? Hatapasa. A long time ago he liberated eight million or something of one type of fish, a vegetarian fish, as well as many cows. Because he liberated many millions of animals, the government became suspicious of him, thinking he had maybe done something wrong. So, they checked up him. I’m telling you this just for you to learn how to help others. There are many different ways you can help others; it’s very important. If you live your life helping others, your own things succeed very naturally. Your wishes—achieving realizations and achieving enlightenment—all those happen by benefiting others.

Animal liberation happens in other centers too. I think Hong Kong also does it. We have a center there that does it from time to time, maybe each month, I’m not sure.

Recently, I thought there have been so many fires in California, three huge fires that could not stop for months and months and months, but before that, fires happened from time to time. Many people died, but of course it is only the people’s deaths that are reported. So many animals also died—tigers, deer, numberless ants also died in the fire, with unbelievable suffering, especially for animals.

So, I thought to do something to help, to do some pujas and practice and sponsor a monastery in India, [Drepung] Gomang Monastery. In the monastery itself there are many monks and it’s a little bit difficult to sponsor. You have to make offerings to the thousands of monks. There are many smaller sections of the khangtsen, depending the place in Tibet the monks of that khangtsen come from. So, we asked one khangtsen to do Medicine Buddha puja for America to be safe from fires, so that not just people but also the numberless animals don’t get burned and die.

The centers don’t have much money to really sponsor this, so I tried to begin with a donation of twenty-five thousand dollars. The main expense was the offering to the monasteries for them to do pujas. Kopan Monastery as well. And also the nuns? I’m not sure. Like that, we have some Sangha at Aptos. And Yangsi Rinpoche recites the Diamond Cutter Sutra each week. A few Sangha, including Venerable Sarah, recite the Golden Light Sutra, and there is a monk from Nepal, Tsering, who writes the Prajnaparamita with real gold. He has been writing it for some years. I think he’s now on a break, in Bodhgaya doing prostrations.

Doing a puja cannot stop it—the karma is so powerful—but it can help. It also depends on what kind of motivation there is for doing the puja. Of course, having bodhicitta is the most powerful, and a realization of emptiness and tantra of course. It depends on the qualities of the practitioners. It can help, but also sometimes the karma is much more powerful and it cannot be stopped. If the karma is very powerful for the fire, then of course this happens. In recent times, there have been so many fires burning for so many months in California. People had to run away, even the lady. What is the name of the lady, the singer, the actress? Even she had to run. [Ven. Roger: Lady Gaga.] Even Lady Gaga had to run; even she had to move her place. The fire came and Lady Gaga had to run. It depends; sometimes the karma is so powerful that puja is not enough. But puja can prevent the fire or make the danger of the fire less, and things like that.

It also depends on the leader, the king or president who runs the country. It depends on how much good luck the king or president running the country has. One of my gurus, Kyabje Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche, said that England had so much peace because of the queen at that time, Queen Victoria. This is because she is the protector Palden Lhamo, the protector of Tibet and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Palden Lhamo has been the protector of all the incarnations, starting from the first, and of many great lamas for a long time. She is a Dharma protector, a manifestation of the wrathful aspect of Sarasvati, the wisdom female aspect of buddha.

The very first lady who recovered from cancer, one of her practices was liberating animals. I think she might have liberated a few thousand chickens, I’m not sure. She took the eight Mahayana precepts and started to get interested in Buddhism. She sells fashion ideas. She can make a thousand dollars an hour selling the ideas. She recovered from cancer by reciting the Secret Vajrapani, Hayagriva and Garuda mantra and I think doing the eight Mahayana precepts and liberating so many animals. Because you cause others to have a long life, it affects your health, giving you a long life. I don’t know if she is still alive; it was a long time ago. She was the first one to recover from cancer. Then, there were several others who got cancer and recovered.

If we abandon stealing but instead practice charity, this is the opposite of stealing; this includes charity, like I mentioned to you. Then, we abandon sexual misconduct and practice morality instead. Then, we abandon speaking harshly. We may be saying very nice words but it hurts others. Some people are very good at that. They speak very nice words but in a way that it hurts the mind of the other person. If we abandon speaking harshly, the opposite to that is speaking very gently.

Sorry, a director of a center in America, Land of Medicine Buddha, was quite impatient, upsetting many people. I wrote to her to show her how to speak by thinking of the kindness of others. We have received all our happiness, past, present, and future, from beginningless rebirths until now, and all our future happiness up to enlightenment, everything due to the kindness of others. [Thinking like that,] we should meditate on how they are most kind, most precious. On the basis of that, because they have been our mother and so kind, we speak very gently.

When you think of it, of course it is natural that when our way of talking becomes soft, when we speak very sweetly, that brings so much happiness to others. When somebody speaks very nicely to us, we are happy, so to speak nicely to everyone—people we like and people we dislike—brings happiness to so many people. So, I sent this advice about talking nicely instead of making others angry. If people don’t like the center or the person running the center, they won’t want to come to the center. So, it is very important to speak kindly, nicely.

Then, avoiding telling lies; we should tell the truth in the life. When we abandon slandering, it brings harmony among the people we meet. Harmony brings happiness. It helps us to bring peace and happiness in the world.

By abandoning gossiping, we talk about the Dharma. Whenever we speak to others, we talk about compassion, and that helps others. Nothing we say is meaningless; it is all worthwhile, to us and to others. Abandoning covetousness, we practice satisfaction. Abandoning ill will, we generate the thought to benefit others. And abandoning heresy, we develop faith in karma, in cause and effect.

By practicing the ten virtues, we collect extensive virtue. All our wishes succeed and we are able to benefit others more and more extensively. Then, it brings enlightenment.

THE EIGHT MAHAYANA PRECEPTS

In Maitreya Buddha’s teaching, Uttaratantra [Sublime Continuum], he talks about how to make life meaningful. This is by doing things like writing Dharma texts such as the Prajnaparamita teachings on emptiness, making offerings to the Guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, making charity to sentient beings, listening to teachings, reading the Buddha’s teachings and memorizing them, doing daily recitations, thinking of the meaning of the teachings and meditating on them. If we can do that, we collect inconceivable merits. This is just to get an idea of how to make life meaningful other than what I mentioned before.

The most important aspects of the graduated path of a lower capable being in general is taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and protecting our karma in whatever way we can. We try to renounce one negative karma or two negative karmas or all five [by taking the five lay vows]. There are five precepts like that as well as the eight precepts of the Lesser Vehicle path and the eight Mahayana precepts that you have been taking over the last two weeks.

Because you have taken them with a bodhicitta motivation, that means that even keeping one vow, like abstaining from killing, benefits numberless beings. Just the example of keeping one precept, abstaining from killing, you are doing this for the numberless hell beings, so it helps them. There are numberless universes where there are numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts and numberless animals, so you are taking the eight Mahayana precepts to help all of them. To help the numberless fish in the water, some big like a mountain and some small. There are numberless universes with numberless ants, so it helps every ant. Taking even one precept with bodhicitta helps every being become free from suffering and achieve happiness. There are numberless mosquitoes and numberless of the tiniest flies in the numberless universes, so it helps all those. It helps all the animals, from the tiniest to the largest, and the numberless human beings in the numberless universes, and the numberless asuras and the numberless suras. Taking even one precept with bodhicitta helps everyone to be free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and to bring them to enlightenment.

Although the eight Mahayana precepts are taken for one day, the benefit is not just for that day or for two days or two weeks, [but from now on]. You bring such unbelievable benefit to the numberless sentient beings. That is part of your coming to Kopan at this time. That is amazing.

I think John may have told you about the four harmonious brothers. I forgot the name but there was a country in India where the rains came at the right time, the crops grew well and the economy became so good. The king thought he was responsible for this and the ministers thought they were. Each thought they were the one to bring all this good fortune to the country. [Nobody could agree] so they went to the forest to see a sage and ask who was responsible. The sage said that none of them had caused this. It was the four harmonious brothers living in the forest, the four animals. The elephant spread the five precepts to other elephants, the monkey spread the five precepts to other monkeys, the rabbit spread the five precepts to other rabbits, and the bird spread the five precepts to other birds, and because of that the country developed economically. Shakyamuni was the pheasant, Ananda the rabbit, Maudgalyayana the elephant and Shariputra the monkey. They manifested as animals and spread the Dharma to other animals, which is why the country developed.

This is what you have done, coming to Kopan. For two weeks, you have taken the eight Mahayana precepts, dedicating your life with bodhicitta. It brings so much peace in the world. It brings incredible peace to other countries and to Nepal in particular. And besides that, it leads you yourself to enlightenment. With it, you free yourself from samsara and achieve enlightenment, being able to give unbelievable benefit to every sentient being with bodhicitta. You are serving all the buddhas and bodhisattvas. You are taking the precepts from them.

CHERISHING THE ENEMY

For a negative action to be complete it needs four things. For example, for the complete negative karma of sexual misconduct, we need the base, the person we have sex with, then the thought and the action and finally the completion of the action. There are these four things. And when these four things are complete, there are four suffering results. Generally speaking, the [object of sexual misconduct] is somebody who is not our wife or husband—the texts say somebody we don’t own—and the completion is when there is pleasure from the act.

The ripening result is rebirth in the lower realms, where we suffer for a very long time. Then, there are the three sufferings we experience in the human realm. The possessed result is to do with the place. For sexual misconduct, we are born and forced to live in a filthy place, full of kaka. If we ever have to walk through a place that is filthy, very unclean and unhygienic, full of bad smells, even for five minutes, that is the result of having committing sexual misconduct in our past life. Then, experiencing the result similar to the cause, our partner becomes unhappy with us, always challenging us, always in competition with us. We are not even physically happy, so it becomes a cause for divorce. Although all these problems are the results of our previous actions, we think they come from others. We always blame others.

In Mahayana thought transformation teachings Kadampa Geshe Chekawa said:

Banish all blames to the single source.
Toward all beings contemplate their great kindness.²⁹

We receive every happiness of the past, present and future, including enlightenment, from that person we are blaming. By relying on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, we become free from samsara. When we take refuge and rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, we not only become free from lower nirvana, we also achieve enlightenment. Then, we are able to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment. By taking refuge, we are able to bring all these numberless sentient beings unbelievable happiness; we are able to lead every sentient being to enlightenment. This comes from the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, the Three Rare Sublime Ones, and it comes from every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every mosquito, every sura being, every asura being and every human being. Therefore, every sentient being is unbelievably precious. They have all been our mother and so kind. They have given us a human body; they have protected us from danger hundreds of times a day; they have had to bear so many unbelievable hardships from beginningless rebirths for us, giving us an education. That is what it means by “toward all beings contemplate their great kindness.”

So, meditate on the kindness of others. The person who is angry, the person who abuses us—if we practice patience, if we cherish that person, we achieve enlightenment. If we renounce that person, if we don’t cherish them, we have to experience the endless suffering of samsara and the lower realms. When we practice patience, there is enlightenment.

There are six perfections we need to practice to achieve enlightenment with bodhicitta and patience is one of them. If we practice patience with that abusive person, they give us enlightenment. What we get is enlightenment, the infinite qualities of the holy body, holy speech and holy mind of a buddha. We are able to do perfect work for sentient beings. It all comes from that person, therefore they are so precious. The one who abuses us, who is angry with us, that person helps us develop patience, a good heart, compassion, bodhicitta. They are so precious.

To have these qualities, we need them. To practice patience, we need somebody who abuses us, who harms us. Without that person who is angry at us, who abuses us, who harms us, we cannot develop patience. With that person we are able to practice what the guru-buddha teaches us. We can practice due to that person. They are giving us skies of kindness, unbelievable kindness.

I said I would explain this to somebody, it is very important, but my memory is not so good. I have written it here. I still haven’t been able to explain it to Lama Ösel, but I gave it to him to recite every day. Please, if you have your diarrhea book, write it down. If you are wise, you must write it down.

If I cannot even bear this present suffering,
Which is causing me problems and anger,
Because anger is the cause of the suffering of hell,
Why don’t I avert the anger?

Do you understand? It is so profound. This is the best psychology, if you want to know, the best psychology. If we cannot bear even these problems, why don’t we avert anger, the cause of the suffering of hell? You must learn this; you must write it down. The problem can be very simple, really nothing, but we cannot bear it. Not practicing patience, we get angry instead, which is the cause of the suffering of hell. Why not avert that? Do you understand?

The next thing is very important for you to learn, then I think maybe I have to stop.

If you didn’t give harm to others,
Nobody will harm you.

That is so important, otherwise whenever problem there is, we always blame somebody outside. If we have influence, we can even begin a war! I heard the First World War was started by one person. The evolution came from one person. If we are an influential person, by blaming the outside person, we can even create a war in the world, the Third World War, the Fourth World War.

To finish, from Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life:

[6:42] Previously I must have caused similar harm
To other sentient beings.
Therefore it is right for this harm to be returned
To me who is the cause of injury to others.

What this is saying is that in our life, whatever undesirable things happen, when somebody abuses us or whatever, that is because we have harmed them in the past. If that person abuses us now, that is the result of us abusing that person in the past. If we had not harmed others like this, nobody would harm us now. That is very logical; it is because of cause and effect, because of karma.

We have to know that. We always have to remember this in our life. This is the basic thing. Then, rather than getting angry back, we can think of the kindness of the person instead. We harmed that sentient being in the past like this, therefore we are now receiving harm from them now. It is only right that we receive that harm.

That “harm” is actually harming the self-cherishing thought. With the self-cherishing thought, we can kill, steal, cheat, we can do anything to others, but nobody dares complain about us. Nobody can get angry at us. Our self-cherishing thought is the real dictator. When we follow our dictator, the self-cherishing thought, it is always like that. Thinking we can harm anybody, we can kill anybody, but nobody can ever get angry at us, nobody can complain to us, that is the self-cherishing thought. This verse says the opposite. Because we have harmed before, as a result we receive harm now. When we can see this, when we accept it, we don’t become crazy, “Oh, he is harming me!” It’s not like that.

Then, the next one,

[6:47] Having been instigated by my own actions,
Those who cause me harm come into being.
If by these (actions) they should fall into [the hole of] hell
Surely isn’t it I who am destroying them?

The harm we have received from others is the result of us harming them in the past, but by harming us they create negative karma, which will result in them falling into the lower realms, into the hole of the hells. Isn’t that our doing? When somebody harms us, instead of harming them back, we should use it to develop compassion. We should do whatever we can to save that person, to help that person not be reborn in hell. We should do whatever we can, dedicating our merits, making prayers and things like that.

I think maybe I should stop here. Oh, one left! Sorry!

The path to be liberated from samsara is the three higher trainings. If it is summarized, the three higher trainings are the higher training of morality, the higher training in concentration and the higher training of wisdom. “Higher” means with refuge.

That is the basic path of how we can free ourselves from samsara. Then, we can help other sentient beings be free from samsara and bring them to enlightenment.

I left out one before. I explained experiencing the result similar to the cause of sexual misconduct. Now the fourth one, creating the result similar to the cause. Because of habituation from the past with sexual misconduct, we commit sexual misconduct again in this life. When we are reborn a human being, we commit sexual misconduct again. That is the result of past negative karma, habituation. It is a habit of our past life, so we do it again and again. That is creating the result similar to the cause.

Do you understand the four suffering results? Any harm we do to other sentient beings, we experience that harm over many lifetimes. If we abuse others, we create the cause to be abused by others for five hundred lifetimes. You have to know that. We create the cause to suffer for five hundred lifetimes. Unless we want to suffer, we have to abstain from that negative karma.

The Buddha explained in the sutra The Lamp of the Moon,

Compared to someone who, with a pure mind,
Has honored for millions of eons, as numerous as the Ganges sands,
Quintillions of buddhas with food, drink,
Parasols, flags, and rows of lights,

Another who practices a single teaching day and night
When the good Dharma is being destroyed,
When the Sugata’s teaching is coming to an end,
Will have merits that are far greater than the first.³⁰

What this says is something we should write down and read again and again. It is very important to make our life the best, the most meaningful, the most beneficial, not only for us but for the numberless sentient beings. We can make offerings to the numberless buddhas, more than the number of sand grains of River Ganga, and we can do that for eons, for tens of millions of eons, with faith, with devotional thought. We can offer food and drink, umbrellas and flags, garlands of light and so forth, and we can offer them billions of times. But compared with keeping one vow now, when the Buddhadharma is degenerating and the teaching of the One Gone to Bliss will soon be no more, the merits we create are far greater than having made all those unbelievable offerings.

You have received the lineage of the eight Mahayana precepts from Khen Rinpoche, therefore wherever you are, whenever you want, you can take the eight Mahayana precepts, which are for one day. Keeping precepts, even one precept, in your whole life is amazing. Keeping the five lay vows for your whole life is so amazing. Because you have received the lineage, you can take eight Mahayana precepts any time you want. They are just for one day, but you can keep them for one day or for life.

OK, I think I’ll stop there. What time do you leave tomorrow morning? [Ven. Yarphel: Seven.] Seven o’clock! [Everybody laughs] I’m going to explain the refuge prayer through to sang gyä chhö dang tshog kyi …, taking refuge and bodhicitta. Before that, because you have been meditating on the lamrim, with John guiding you on the lower capable being and middle capable being, I don’t need to explain impermanence, hell, refuge, karma and all that.

Now think, “I have been experiencing the oceans of samsaric sufferings from beginningless rebirths.” Without end, you have been suffering in samsara, endlessly. Before reciting sang gyä chhö dang you must think this at the beginning. Then, it has great taste; it has a real effect on the mind. Otherwise, it’s just words, like a parrot reciting sang gyä chhö dang.

You went through the hells, the eight major hells, the six neighboring hells and so forth, and still there is no end. After that, the solution is that you rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, who have the complete power, all the extensive qualities. From them you can learn the extensive philosophy. The lamrim is the very essence, and it is very simple. So, you have to rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha to be free from the endless suffering of samsara. You cannot wait for even a second.

If you meditate on the lamrim, you can feel that; otherwise, if you don’t meditate, it just becomes words. Then, your refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is just between the lips, like playing a tape recorder. It becomes real when you think this, that you cannot stand it for even one second, you must be free from it.

Then, think that the numberless sentient beings—the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings—have been suffering the oceans of each realm’s suffering from beginningless rebirths and they will have to experience those sufferings again endlessly. Every sentient being—even just us here in the gompa—will have to experience this endless suffering of samsara again and again unless we can rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. To be free from all this suffering, we wholeheartedly go to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. The Buddha refers to the Omniscient One, the Dharma to the actual Dharma, the true path and true cessation of suffering. There is the absolute Dharma and the conventional Dharma, which refers to the texts, the teachings, which we must also regard as the rare sublime Dharma and respect.

In the texts, Buddhism is explained on the basis of the two truths, the absolute and conventional truths, and then the path, method and wisdom, and the goal, the rupakaya and dharmakaya, the buddha’s holy body and the buddha’s holy mind, which are to be achieved. Because they show the path we achieve, freeing us from samsara and achieving the rupakaya and dharmakaya, we must respect the Dharma texts as the actual rare sublime one, the Dharma.

So, I want to say here. Please, in the centers, the assistant or what do you call them? The SPC. Please be aware of this. I have seen many times, before meeting together, they put the meditation books on the chairs. This is maybe because they have not heard the explanation of refuge from the lamrim and maybe don’t know. I’ve seen many times people put the meditation books on the floor or on a seat without any cloth. That is very bad. That is being disrespectful to the Dharma texts. We are supposed to respect them, as I mentioned. That is disrespectful and it obscures our mind. Then, it is difficult to purify the delusions, difficult to understand the Dharma, even intellectually. It makes it difficult to understand because it obscures the mind. It becomes so difficult to have realizations, to see ultimate truth, to generate bodhicitta and emptiness.

We cannot do that. We have to have something, cloth or something, underneath the text. Put it on a table, not on the seat or the cushion where the person sits. That is very bad. It obscures the mind, making it even more difficult to understand the Dharma, which is already difficult.

I’ve seen this happen in many centers, because the people there have not heard about refuge; they have not read about it and understood. Even if we cannot see the Buddha, when we respect the statues, stupas and scriptures, we create so much unbelievably good karma. Then, it makes it easy to receive realizations and easy to achieve enlightenment.

This time, when I was coming up, I saw some books left on the cushions. You cannot do it like that. I’ll tell you a story about Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Italy. Khadro-la came from Tibet to Dharamsala solely to protect His Holiness and to ensure His Holiness’s holy wishes have great success. She just came for that. The first time she visited Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Italy, there was a Chenrezig statue left on the ground. This was not at the main center but where people were doing nyung näs. I think the director also ran a company and although he had a lot of experience in business, maybe he didn’t know the lamrim. He was studying the Basic Program but maybe didn’t know the lamrim. The statue was left there on the ground. and when Khadro-la went there and saw it, she cried. She could not express herself so she cried and cried and cried, seeing the statue left on the ground.

Although Lama Tzong Khapa Institute has many branches in Italy and the two geshes who teach there, she thought Lama Tzong Khapa Institute did not know about refuge; they did not know how disrespectful it was to leave the statue on the ground. She cried and cried. The second time she went to the center, she had a discussion with the director, who said he had meant to bring it inside but just temporarily left it outside. She thought that because it was still left on the ground, it did not help, so she cried and cried, thinking the center does not know about Dharma, does not know about refuge.

Do you have refuge cards? Everybody should get them. You have to respect them. When those great meditators, the Kadampa geshes, see even one syllable, like the Tibetan letter na, in the garbage, they take it out and put it in a high place. They treat even one syllable as the precious, sublime Dharma. Like that, you have to respect it. You cannot put your glasses on Dharma texts. You cannot even put Buddha statues on Dharma texts. On the altar, you put the Dharma texts first and then the statues, not the statues first and then the Dharma texts.

Once, just after Lama passed away, we went to see His Holiness. An Italian student, Piero, brought a brochure and a stupa, and he placed the stupa on the brochure. His Holiness quickly took the stupa off the brochure. Like this example, you cannot even put statues and stupas on texts, so there is no way you can put malas and glasses on texts. You cannot do that! If there is a wind blowing [and there is the danger of the text blowing away,] that is different, but otherwise you cannot put malas or glasses or even statues on texts. Otherwise, you might be studying philosophy using very big texts, very vast texts, but you still do not know how to practice lamrim, you still do not know the simple practice of refuge. It’s very sad. This happens in FPMT centers, but I don’t know about in other places.

Sentient beings have been experiencing the oceans of samsaric suffering of the six realms from beginningless rebirths, endlessly. So, with your whole heart, rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha because they have the power and qualities to free you from the oceans of samsaric sufferings. Relying on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha to be free from your own samsaric suffering is the Lesser Vehicle beings’ refuge.

The next one is to understand that numberless sentient beings have been cycling endlessly in samsara from beginningless time. Relying on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha in order to free them is taking the Mahayana refuge. Then, there is tantra refuge. When you rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, the benefits are unbelievable. There are many benefits, but one benefit is this. If your refuge could take material form, even the three great thousand great universes [trichiliocosm] would be too small a container. The three great thousand great universes means a thousand world systems makes a great world system and a thousand of those makes a second-order thousand-fold world system, and a thousand of those makes a third-order thousand-fold world system or three great thousand great universes. But even that would be too small to hold the benefits of taking refuge.

We cannot measure the water of all the oceans, but if the benefits of refuge materialized, they would be much vaster than that. That is Mahayana refuge. Refuge is something we really feel from the heart.

I want to tell you one thing. Because when I was a small child I escaped from the monastery a few times to return home, for no reason, just to play, my mother sent me to Rolwaling. It takes three weeks crossing snow mountains to get there. I was there for seven years. The people there were very primitive. On this side of Namche Bazaar, the people are clever, but on the other side they are not at all clever. There is the very holy place of Padmasambhava there. I think I went there twice from this side of Solu Khumbu, where Namche Bazaar is. There is a mountain where there are rock slides, with big and small rocks falling down the mountain. When you arrive there you have to take rest and drink chang, potato wine, which looks just like water but is so strong. I didn’t drink it; the others did. I was carried by my teacher on his back like luggage. My teacher passed meat back to me that had been cooked at home. In the autumn, you can get more meat because animals get killed by wolves, so he passed pieces of meat back to me as we walked.

Before that mountain, everybody stopped to relax and warm their hands. Each time we were there, there was no sound, no falling rocks. It was very strange. Once we got a bit higher, there was no longer a road, just rocks we had to get over. The Sherpas had yaks carrying very heavy loads. They had to pull the yaks [to get them to move]. It was an extremely hard life. You would not believe it. The first time I crossed the mountain, there was a noise like wrrr, wrrr. I wondered what it was, but it was everybody reciting the Padmasambhava prayer because of the great danger. Almost every time, there would be an avalanche and people would be thrown off the mountain, so everybody was reciting the mantra. Some were Tibetans, so maybe they recited OM MANI PADME HUM.

The minute we got across the pass, big stones started falling, woooh, and then small stones, hitting the rocks. This happened both times I crossed the pass and both times I thought some of the last people had died. But I found out that nobody had died or been injured. Whenever that group had to make that trip, as soon as they got past that point, there would be an avalanche but none were ever killed. That’s amazing. It’s very interesting because they always took refuge in Padmasambhava with their whole heart.

Normally, if we have a realization of refuge, that is what has to happen to us. We can die at any time; we have no control over this, so we need to take refuge, to rely on refuge. But of course, mostly because we are totally distracted—and I include myself—we have no thought of refuge. But if we have a realization of refuge, the mind should be like that all the time.

After we got through the pass, I asked if anybody had died but nobody had, whereas whenever people went there, some would fall over the cliff. But this group was safe because they strongly relied on Padmasambhava.

That is refuge. Now, the next one is generating bodhicitta. “Due to the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by the numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas…” So, everyone! If we collect one dollar from each of a million people, we can raise a million dollars. We can do big projects with a million dollars, otherwise we cannot do anything big. This is similar. When we say, “Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by the numberless sentient beings and the numberless buddhas,” we mean everyone. The three-time merits collected by the numberless buddhas are so unbelievably powerful.

Then we say, “May I achieve enlightenment in order to benefit all the transmigratory beings.” There are two things. The first thing is to benefit transmigratory beings by freeing them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings. The second benefit is to bring them to full enlightenment by ourselves. For that reason, we must achieve enlightenment.

You have to understand the meaning of “transmigrator.” It means somebody who has been under the control of karma and delusions from beginningless rebirths and who has been migrating in one of the six realms constantly during all that time. That means, being under the control of karma and delusions, they have constantly been experiencing suffering. That is the meaning of “transmigrator.” Another meaning of transmigrator is that after we are born, there are a certain number of seconds until we die. After we are born, we rush so quickly toward death. Unless we are practicing the Dharma, we are going so quickly toward the lower realms, toward the hell realm. We have only a certain number of seconds, and they finish so quickly. We are going so quickly toward death. That is also the meaning of “transmigrator.”

First is being under the control of karma and delusions, having to experience all the sufferings again and again. When we think of the meaning of transmigrator, suffering from beginningless rebirths, compassion has to arise. So, we think “May I achieve enlightenment for them.” That is generating bodhicitta.

Quite a few days ago, I explained the benefits that Lama Atisha spoke about, according to the Buddha’s teachings.

Although someone may totally fill with gems
Buddha-fields equal in number
To the grains of sand on the Ganges
And offer them to the Guardians of the World,

Yet should anyone press his or her palms together
And direct his or her mind toward bodhicitta,
His or her offering would be more especially noble;
It would have no end.³¹

Just putting our palms together and generating bodhicitta creates far more merit that offering all those incredible offerings to all the buddhas for that incredible length of time. Offering to all the buddhas becomes tiny in comparison. This is far greater. The benefits are limitless. By seeing the benefits, we can rejoice that our life is most meaningful, most beneficial.

OK, now refuge. Think, “Therefore, I’m going to take refuge.” Usually, when I say the morning motivation, I mention changing our kaka life into gold. Sorry, I use the term “kaka life.” This is the bodhicitta motivation. “Therefore, I’m going to listen to teachings, to reflect and meditate on them for sentient beings. I’m going to live my life for sentient beings. Every single thing I do—eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, meditating, doing my job—everything I do is for sentient beings.”

Think like that. A morning dedication like that is very good. Plan to do it like that.

Here now, refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. When you die, if you remember the Buddha, the Buddha’s mantra or if you remember one of the Three Rare Sublime Ones—either the Buddha or the Dharma or the Sangha, like the Heart Sutra, if you can rely on just one object of refuge, [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] you do not get reborn in the lower realms. If you can think of a mantra, [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] you do not get reborn in the lower realms. If you can think of a Sangha member, a monk or nun you have devotion in, you do not get reborn in the lower realms.

So here, if you want more than just not being reborn in the lower realms, if you want to be free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings, to be totally free from samsara, for that you need to take refuge in all three. It’s like if you are a patient, you need a wise doctor, the right medicine and a good nurse, all three. So, [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] to be free from samsara, you need to rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. The Buddha is like the doctor, the Dharma is like the medicine and the Sangha is like the nurse. The Dharma is that which ceases the suffering and the cause of suffering, the delusions; the Sangha is like the nurse who helps you to actualize the Dharma in your mind, in your heart. So, you need to rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. You have to know that.

So please repeat. [Rinpoche gives the students the refuge vow]

There are five lay vows you can take. You can take five, four, three, two or one—you can choose from the five precepts—but if you cannot take any vow until you die, there is the refuge upasika [or upasaka] vow only. Just taking the refuge vow has unbelievable merit. It is unbelievable protection for your life, bringing you happiness, freedom from samsara and the achievement of enlightenment.

There are three things to be abandoned and three practices to do. For example, even taking only refuge, before you eat and drink, you make offerings to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. You offer with the mind, whether you make a prayer or not. You offer with the mind and then take it as a blessing.

Each time you make an offering to the Buddha, even to a Buddha statue, a scripture or a stupa, whatever offering you make—a bowl of water, a stick of incense, a tiny flower, a grain of rice—each time you make an offering, you do not get reborn in the lower realms for eighty million eons.

One day, a female being, Palmo was her name, sprinkled sandalwood powder on the Buddha’s feet, and the Buddha predicted that she would not be reborn in the lower realms for eighty million eons. The Buddha said these were the benefits of sprinkling sandalwood powder on the Buddha’s feet. Therefore, whatever offering you make to the Buddha—a water bowl, a tiny flower, a tiny grain of rice—even if you have nothing [just visualizing], every time you offer, you do not get reborn in the lower realms for eighty million eons. You have to know that. You have to write that down. We are unbelievably fortunate because of this.

Then, practicing compassion, relying upon the guru, receiving teachings from the guru, you control your delusions. Your senses are no longer under the control of the three poisonous minds, of the delusions. This brings the most unbelievable benefits, usually listed as about eight.

Even if you do not take any precepts, it frees you from samsara and brings you to enlightenment. There are five precepts, even if you do not want to take five, but take four, three, two or one—or even if you do not want to take any but just take refuge. The Buddha is very kind; he gave many choices regarding what you can take.

Please repeat. [Rinpoche continues to give the refuge vow]

OK. Finished.

Please read the refuge cards. There are three things to practice and three things to abandon. You must know that. And then there is the general advice. I’m not going to go through it, so you must read that so you are aware in daily life. So that’s all, thank you very much.

How many people are taking Vajrasattva? Is anybody leaving tomorrow or the day after tomorrow?

Maybe we’ll stop now, then maybe we’ll do Vajrasattva the day of the long-life puja or tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or the day after that. The day after that is empty. There are two days empty after the long-life puja, so, if it is not on the long-life puja day there are two days empty.

[Some students indicate they will be leaving and there is a general discussion]

It can be done in some other space. We will see. But I think coming back you need to be more relaxed, because going around is maybe tiring. You’ll want to be in your sleeping bags. So maybe we’ll do it the day of the long-life puja in the evening. We will see. Now, it’s too late. Thank you very much.

I forgot, three prostrations! At the beginning you did them and so now, afterwards, you need to do three prostrations. OK. Three prostrations.

DEDICATIONS

We are responsible to pray for the world: “Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by the numberless sentient beings and the numberless buddhas, may the wars happening now and in the future be stopped immediately. May all the famines and disease be stopped immediately. May the dangers of fire, water, air and earth—may all global problems be stopped immediately. May perfect peace and happiness prevail in everyone’s hearts by generating loving kindness, compassion and bodhicitta.”

There was question on the iPad. The BBC asked what method is there to stop global problems. I told Roger I was thinking to translate the teachings Padmasambhava gave, which are a very detailed explanation of how opium and cigarettes harm the world. Not only health, it harms the world. It harms nagas, the cities of devas; it makes you lose your positive mind. I thought to translate it, to make it available, to send it to them because they asked a question. It doesn’t matter where they believe it or not, because they asked the question, you just explain things like that, even if they don’t believe it. Lhasa was cold but now it’s become warm, because people smoke an unbelievable number of cigarettes. The Communist Chinese smoke so many cigarettes. That happened in Lhasa. This is what I thought.

Then, “May I cherish every sentient being more than the sky filled with wish-granting jewels.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by the numberless sentient beings and the numberless buddhas, may any sentient being who sees me, who hears me, who hears my name, who remembers me, who touches me, who even sees photos of me, just by that may they be free from all suffering. May all their suffering be pacified immediately. May they achieve all the happiness immediately, including enlightenment.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by the numberless sentient beings and the numberless buddhas, which exist in mere name but do not exist from their own side, which are totally empty from their own side, may the I who exists in mere name, who does not exist from its own side, who is totally empty from its own side, achieve buddhahood, which exists in mere name, which does not exist from its own side, which is totally empty from its own side, and lead all sentient beings, who exist in mere name, to that buddhahood, which exists in mere name, by myself alone who exists in mere name.”

[Mandala offering and long-life prayer to Lama Zopa Rinpoche]

OK, thank you very much. Good night.

I saw at a temple in Malaysia there were three statues who spoke. I think there is a month they spoke. There was a news reporter who asked questions, but she could not understand them. There were two statues of the Buddha—not the Buddha, I don’t know, maybe Chenrezig, maybe Samantabhadra. Its mouth opened and it talked but the news lady could not understand it. Only the Chinese temple man who gives prediction could understand the two buddhas talking, but not always. They only did that for a few weeks. The news reporter was either unable to hear them or could not understand them. Only the temple man. It was something like that, quite a number of years ago. Thank you. That is the news. 

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Notes

²⁹ From the Seven-point Mind Training taken from Mind Training: The Great Collection (Wisdom Publications), p. 83. [Return to text]

³⁰ Ch. 36, vv. 23–24. The [Sutra of the Samadhi of the] Lamp of the Moon (Candrapradipasamadhisutra) is another name for the King of Concentration Sutra (Samadhirajasutra). See read.84000.co/translation/UT22084-055-001.html. [Return to text]

³¹ Vv. 16 and 17. Translated by Alex Berzin. See studybuddhism.com/en/tibetan-buddhism/original-texts/sutra-texts/lamp-for-the-path-to-enlightenment. [Return to text]