1. If I had generated bodhicitta
All these beings, who are the source of all your own past, present and future happiness, are continuously suffering; totally overwhelmed by karma and delusion, they do not have any freedom at all.
Even though there are numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas working for sentient beings, there are many sentient beings—people, and even animals—who received help only through meeting you. They had some problem they couldn’t resolve until they met you and you were able to help them. Or they didn’t meet Dharma until they met you. You have had many such experiences of sentient beings being dependent upon your help.
There are numberless beings with whom you have a karmic connection and who depend upon you. Their being free from suffering, from samsara, and achieving liberation and enlightenment depends on you. You can understand from your experiences in this life of the many beings who depend on your help that there are numberless other beings who depend on your help to free them from samsara; they depend on you to meet, understand and practice Dharma and to achieve enlightenment.
Now think, “If I had generated bodhicitta much earlier, this one hell being who is dependent on me wouldn’t have to experience this unimaginable, unbearable suffering, the heaviest suffering in samsara.” One tiny spark of the fire of the hot hells is seven times hotter than the fire at the end of the world, which can melt rocky mountains and concrete. And the fire at the end of the world is sixty or seventy times hotter than the fire energy of our present human world.
“For one hell being to be suffering now in the hell realm for even one second is like they are suffering for eons—it is unbearable. If I had generated bodhicitta much sooner, that hell being would already have been enlightened. And there are numberless other hell beings who could have already been enlightened by me so that they now wouldn’t have to suffer. They have been suffering up to now because I have been following the self-cherishing thought, ego. Even when I think of that one hell being who is experiencing unimaginable suffering, it becomes urgent that I generate bodhicitta without the delay of even a second. Now there are numberless hell beings; therefore, I need to generate bodhicitta without even a second’s delay. Because there are numberless hell beings who are suffering, the need for me to generate bodhicitta is much more urgent.
“If I had generated bodhicitta much sooner, this one preta being, who is so precious and kind and from whom I receive all my past, present and future happiness, would have already been enlightened. But because I followed the self-cherishing thought, this one preta being has been suffering so much, experiencing all the unbearable sufferings of heat, cold, exhaustion, hunger and thirst, outer obscurations, food obscurations and inner obscurations. And there are numberless preta beings. If I had generated bodhicitta sooner, all these numberless preta beings would already have been enlightened. Because I didn’t generate bodhicitta, they have been suffering up to now. Therefore, it is urgent: I must generate bodhicitta without the delay of even a second, not just for this one hungry ghost but for the numberless other hungry ghosts as well.
“If I had generated bodhicitta much sooner, this one animal who has been suffering so much up to now—being extremely foolish, experiencing hunger and thirst, heat and cold, being tortured, being used for food—would have already been enlightened a long time ago. There are numberless animals, and they would all have already been enlightened if I had generated bodhicitta much sooner. It is because I didn’t generate bodhicitta but followed the self-cherishing thought that they have been suffering up to now. Therefore, the need for me to generate bodhicitta, to change my mind, is unbelievably urgent, not only for this one animal but for the numberless animals who have been experiencing so much suffering.
“It is the same with the human beings. If I had generated bodhicitta, if I had changed my mind, a long time ago, this one human being, who is constantly suffering, would already have been enlightened. Instead they are experiencing the suffering of pain; if not that, the suffering of change; and if not that, pervasive compounding suffering, by having these aggregates, this samsara, the nature of which is suffering. These aggregates are caused by karma and delusion and contaminated by the seed of delusion, so this person constantly, without even one second’s break, experiences pervasive compounding suffering. This human being is totally overwhelmed by karma and delusion; they are living in a total hallucination, with piles of wrong concepts, and suffering. If I had generated bodhicitta earlier, this most precious and kind human being who has been suffering up to now and who is the source of all my own past, present and future happiness would already have been enlightened and not have to suffer. And there are numberless human beings. Because I did not change my mind but followed ego, not only this one human being but numberless human beings have been suffering from beginningless time up to now. Therefore, without even a second’s delay, I must change my mind into bodhicitta, into cherishing others.
“It is the same with the suras. If I had generated bodhicitta much sooner, this one sura being, who has been suffering so much, would have been enlightened a long time ago. The sufferings of the suras are similar to those of human beings, but suras are also totally distracted by objects of desire. They cling to and are distracted by sense pleasures. No matter how many eons they live, their life is totally overwhelmed by desire. In this way, they are constantly creating the cause of suffering, the cause to again be reborn in the lower realms. Their having great enjoyment is just temporary. How wonderful it would have been if this one sura being could have been enlightened a long time ago. And there are numberless sura beings who could have been enlightened a long time ago. How fantastic that would have been. But because I didn’t change my mind and followed only my ego instead, not only this one sura being but numberless sura beings have been suffering up to now. And it is the same with the asuras.
“My kind mother sentient beings have been suffering from time without beginning; they have never had a break for even one second from the suffering of samsara, from pervasive compounding suffering. Therefore, without delay, I must generate bodhicitta.
“Generating bodhicitta depends on receiving the blessing of the special deity of compassion. Trying to develop bodhicitta just by remembering the words of the teachings is not enough. Even meditation alone is not enough. I need to receive the blessings of the special deity of compassion. For that reason, I need to meditate on Compassion Buddha and to recite the mantra that persuades Compassion Buddha’s holy mind. I need to recite the mantra that brings me closer to the deity of compassion, that causes me to receive the blessings of the deity of compassion. Therefore, I’m going to do the meditation-recitation of Compassion Buddha.”65
2. Freedom to practice Dharma
We have received a human rebirth at this time through our practice of pure morality in past lives. By looking at the world, we can see that living in pure morality is extremely difficult. Most people do not understand how and do not like to live in morality. It is difficult to understand the importance of living in morality, of abstaining from negative karma, from harming ourselves and others with our body, speech and mind; and even if we do understand the importance of living in morality, and even if we take vows, it doesn’t mean we can live in them purely. It’s very difficult to live in even one vow purely. By looking at our own experiences, we can see how difficult it is to live purely in any vows that we have taken. Therefore, we must have practiced pure morality in many previous lifetimes and have thus received a higher rebirth, the good body of a happy transmigratory being. There are also suffering transmigratory beings, but we have achieved the body of a happy transmigratory being.
Not only that, but this time we have received a human body qualified by eight freedoms and ten richnesses, or endowments.66
By not being born in hell, we have the freedom, the opportunity, to practice Dharma.
By not being born as a preta, we have the freedom to practice Dharma.
By not being born as an animal, we have the freedom to practice Dharma.
By not being born as (or by not being) a barbarian, we have the freedom to practice Dharma. (I think that if there’s not enough merit, it’s possible for someone to be a Buddhist and then later become a barbarian.)
By not being born as a long-life god, we have the freedom to practice Dharma. Even though such gods have very long lives, since they have only awareness of their birth at the very beginning and their death at the very end, they have no opportunity at all to practice Dharma.
By not being born as (or by not being) a heretic, we have the freedom to practice Dharma. We can relate this to our present situation, our present life. If we had been born in a place where Buddha hadn’t descended, we would have no freedom to practice Dharma. But it’s not like that for us. We are in a world where Buddha has descended and revealed the teachings and where the teachings still exist—we have just made it before the teaching of Buddha degenerates and stops in this world. That’s unbelievable success.
If we were to be born in this world later, when the Buddhadharma had degenerated, it would be no different from being born as an animal. We might have some temporary pleasure, but we would not have the freedom to practice Dharma. There would be no way for us to use our intelligence to learn Dharma, to actualize the path, to overcome our samsaric sufferings and liberate ourselves by ceasing the cause of suffering, karma and delusion.
One time in the temple in Dharamsala, when His Holiness was giving all the rare initiations related to the Fifth Dalai Lama’s pure appearances, His Holiness pointed to His Holiness Karmapa and Ling Rinpoche and said that during their lifetime the Buddhadharma would be okay, but that after the lifetime of these young lamas, it would be very difficult in this world for the Buddhadharma.
So, we have been born just before Buddhadharma degenerates and stops in this world, and not as animals but as human beings having, especially, the eight freedoms and ten richnesses.
The complete teachings of Buddha exist. There are the Hinayana teachings, with which one achieves liberation for oneself from the oceans of samsaric suffering and its cause, karma and delusion. There are the Paramitayana teachings, with which one achieves enlightenment for sentient beings. And there are the Secret Mantra Vajrayana teachings, with which one achieves enlightenment for sentient beings quickly because one cannot stand that sentient beings are suffering in samsara.
The last freedom, the eighth freedom, is having the freedom to practice Dharma by not being born a fool. This can refer to somebody who is born a fool or who becomes a fool. Sometimes a person is not born as a fool but later becomes a fool due to past negative karma ripening.
So, we have all these eight freedoms to practice Dharma. With the first freedom, the freedom to practice Dharma by not being born in a hell realm, we can achieve the first great meaning, a higher rebirth; the second great meaning, liberation from samsara; and the third, enlightenment. Since we can achieve all that with this first freedom, this one freedom is so meaningful, so precious—unbelievably meaningful and precious. But this first freedom can be stopped at any time. So, not only must we practice Dharma but we must practice Dharma right now.
How precious is this first freedom, the freedom to practice Dharma by not being born in a hell realm? It’s more precious than a wish-granting jewel. I’m not talking about gold, silver or diamonds but about a wish-granting jewel. This first freedom that you have is more precious than the whole sky filled with wish-granting jewels. The value of all that is nothing compared to the value of this human rebirth that you have, especially this perfect human rebirth. The value of all that is nothing compared to even this first freedom. The value of this one freedom is just amazing, because if you don’t have this freedom, you can’t practice Dharma.
Nagas, who belong to the animal realm, are very wealthy and always have a wish-granting jewel on their crown. We have been born as nagas with all that wealth numberless times in the past but it didn’t do anything for us. It didn’t liberate us from samsara; it didn’t cause us to actualize bodhicitta or realize emptiness or renunciation. None of that. Under the control of karma and delusion, we’ve continued to be born in samsara, experience suffering and die.
Milarepa, on the other hand, had nothing—not even one dollar, not even one rupee. He had no money and not even one tiny jewel, but he had a human body, and he used that human body to practice Dharma. He had very strong guru devotion to Marpa, an enlightened being, the actual Vajradhara. For many years Marpa never gave Milarepa teachings or initiations. Marpa only scolded and beat Milarepa and gave him hard work to do, such as building a nine-story tower by himself. After he had finished the tower, Marpa then told him to take the stones back to where he got them from and then rebuild the tower. Then again he had to demolish the tower and return the stones, then again build the tower.
One day Milarepa came with the other students to receive teachings, but when Marpa saw Milarepa, he immediately scolded him in public, beat him and kicked him out. For years he never gave him any teachings—nothing!
Marpa’s wisdom mother (his wife, in ordinary language) pushed Marpa, begging him to give teachings to Milarepa. Marpa then manifested the mandala in his hermitage and initiated his disciple, Milarepa. After that he gave Milarepa all the initiations, commentaries and practices. He then advised Milarepa about places in the mountains where he should go to meditate.
Milarepa followed Marpa’s advice exactly. By bearing all the hardships to do the practice, Milarepa achieved full enlightenment in that life. He completed the entire tantric path and achieved enlightenment within a number of years.
Marpa made the comment that if his wisdom mother hadn’t pushed him to give Milarepa initiations and teachings, from his own side he would have given Milarepa more hardships to bear, and in that case Milarepa would have achieved enlightenment even sooner. He would have achieved enlightenment much quicker. But because Marpa’s wisdom mother pushed Marpa to give the teachings earlier, Milarepa took a longer time to achieve enlightenment, even though he still achieved it in the brief lifetime of a degenerate time.
During all the hard work, Milarepa never got angry or gave rise to one single thought of heresy toward his guru Marpa. He followed Marpa’s advice exactly, by looking at Marpa as a buddha. Because he did everything with that pure mind of devotion, within a few years Milarepa achieved enlightenment.
You’ve been born as nagas and had wish-granting jewels numberless times, but that didn’t liberate you from samsara; that didn’t cause you to achieve the realizations of renunciation, bodhicitta and right view or even the common attainments. However, without any of that wealth, just by having this perfect human rebirth you can achieve all these realizations and full enlightenment. With this human body you can practice Dharma in every second and not only liberate yourself from the oceans of samsaric suffering and enlighten yourself, but you, one person, can liberate the numberless hell beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. In the same way, you can liberate the numberless pretas from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. You can liberate the numberless animals from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment, and you can do the same with the numberless human beings, asuras, suras and intermediate state beings. Therefore, this perfect human body that you have received, with its eight freedoms and ten richnesses, is unbelievably precious.
As I said before, with one freedom you can achieve all the three great meanings. The first freedom is most precious, more precious than the sky filled with wish-granting jewels. Every freedom is unbelievably precious, more precious than the sky filled with wish-granting jewels. But if you don’t understand this, you might think that the sky filled with billions of dollars or with diamonds or gold is more precious.
To make it short, this perfect human rebirth that you have achieved is the most precious one. Every second of this human rebirth, especially this perfect human rebirth qualified by eight freedoms and ten richnesses, is most precious.
Now, it is the same with the ten richnesses that you have received. Each richness is unbelievably precious, more precious than the sky filled with wish-granting jewels. Your precious human body is qualified by eight freedoms and ten richnesses, so with these eighteen qualities, it’s much more precious, unbelievably precious.
So, in this life you must do your best. How can you dare to waste this precious human body? Only an ignorant person would be careless and waste this precious human body. And you don’t have it for a long time. Death is definite and the actual time of death is indefinite; it’s uncertain when it will happen. It could happen even today, in any hour, at any moment. So, you must practice Dharma right away.
If it’s the case that you want happiness and you don’t want suffering, then you have to practice the cause of happiness, Dharma, and abandon the cause of suffering. The very first thing is that you have to make sure not to be reborn in the lower realms and to receive a higher rebirth so that you can continue to practice Dharma and actualize the path. The method to achieve that is to take refuge and then protect karma. The very basic way to protect karma is to abandon the ten nonvirtues and practice the ten virtues as much as you can.
However, that alone is not sufficient. You must free yourself from samsara and achieve the ultimate happiness of liberation. But just achieving liberation for yourself, with cessation of all suffering and its causes, is still not sufficient. That’s still not the real meaning of life. The real purpose of life, the real meaning of life, is to benefit others, to free the numberless sentient beings from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to full enlightenment. This is the thought of seeking enlightenment for others. The way to succeed in that is for you yourself to achieve enlightenment. In order to seek enlightenment for other sentient beings, you first seek enlightenment for yourself. This is what makes life the most meaningful, most productive and most beneficial for all sentient beings and yourself.
For the success of this, you must actualize bodhicitta, the door of the Mahayana path to enlightenment. For that, you must actualize the root of bodhicitta, great compassion. For that, meditation alone is not sufficient. You need to receive the blessings of the special deity of compassion, Chenrezig. It is for this reason that you are going to do the nyung nä practice.
3. Your human body is so precious
It is said that Buddhism is differentiated from other religions by compassion for all living beings. Compassion doesn’t mean feeling compassion only for the friends who love you or for those who smile at you for as long as they like you or need something from you. When they don’t like you or don’t need anything from you, they don’t smile at you. You have compassion for them at the times they smile at you; but you need to develop compassion for them even at the times they don’t smile at you or don’t love you. You have to have compassion for them even at those times when they don’t pay attention to you, when there’s nothing they need from you. You have to have compassion for them even at the times they harm you.
You have to develop compassion not only for friends but also for strangers and even enemies. You have to develop compassion for every sentient being—not only for every human being, but even for every animal: for every single fish, every single lobster. Due to karma such animals have been born with unimaginable kinds of bodies. In this life, if your body slowly started to change into that of a lobster, thoughts of suicide would arise. You would prefer to die rather than to have a lobster’s body.
As I often mention, when you look down at the ocean from an airplane, if you don’t understand the reality of the world and just think in a superficial way, the blue ocean looks very peaceful. It looks as if there’s no suffering there. But if you look deeper and think about what’s happening inside the ocean, there are numberless sentient beings there. I’m not talking here about human beings, hell beings, hungry ghosts, asuras or suras, but just about animals. The animal beings alone are numberless.
In the ocean, animals as large as mountains, whales, are eating so many small animals, and then so many small animals are living on their body, eating them. Buddha mentioned that in the deepest ocean, where there’s no light, where it’s totally dark, there are large animals with many small animals around their mouths. They just eat whatever is there in front of them; they just eat each other. It’s unimaginable.
If you look at the animal world inside the ocean, there are animals as large as mountains and ones so tiny that you can see them only with a microscope. Every one of them is constantly looking for food for their own happiness; and much of their finding food involves eating other sentient beings, who are scared of being eaten and always try to escape. Animals’ lives are always full of fear. Animals are always scared, trying to escape being eaten by their enemies and looking for protection, and at the same time they’re looking for food, which is other living beings. It goes on and on like that continuously, from those animals as large as mountains down to the tiniest ones. It’s unbelievable. They are constantly trying to escape from their enemies and looking for safety; but at the same time, they are looking for food. That’s the nature of their life—the result of their past negative karma. We can’t even imagine their suffering.
The root of all that suffering is the ignorance not knowing ultimate nature, or emptiness. There are two types of this ignorance: ignorance not knowing the selflessness of the I, the person, and ignorance not knowing the selflessness of the aggregates. Or you can say: ignorance not knowing the ultimate reality of the I and ignorance not knowing the ultimate reality of the aggregates. This ignorance is the root of each individual being’s suffering of samsara. With that as the root, ignorance, anger and attachment then motivate karma, leaving karmic imprints on the mind, which then produce the various rebirths.
So, we have experienced all this animal suffering. The ocean has been our home, our residence, numberless times. We have been born as fish, lobsters and all those other animals, including the tiniest microscopic ones. We have been born as every single animal and insect numberless times. There’s no ocean where we haven’t been born with bodies similar to the bodies of those animals. The main cause is attachment. Attachment to water is nothing new—it’s a very old story. During beginningless rebirths we have had this attachment, and we have been born in the water and lived like those animals numberless times.
In the world animals live in under the ocean, there’s unbearable suffering, worry and fear. They are totally ignorant and live in fear of being eaten by other animals and experience heat and cold and many other sufferings as well. Wherever you are, wherever you escape to, even between rocks, your enemies are always there. It’s karma; it’s because of the past karma of having harmed others. Due to karma, wherever you are, your enemies are close by.
Your enemies have exactly the right kinds of hands and mouth to be able to catch and eat you. It looks as if somebody designed them precisely for that. Some birds, for example, have very long beaks with a hook on the tip, as if somebody designed it exactly to catch their prey. Pelicans have long beaks with a huge pouch down below, like a handbag, to catch big fish inside. They collect all the food there.
In an animal documentary on TV, I remember seeing a big orange rock and a lizard with what looked like thorns or pimples on its body whose color was exactly the same as that of the rock. It’s similar to the way insects born inside a flower are the same color as the flower. If it’s an orange flower, the insect born there is orange in color.
I remember one time at Mahamudra Centre in New Zealand, an elderly Western nun was cooking and she sprinkled orange flowers on the yogurt as decoration. You can eat such flowers but you have to be careful as many insects live in the center of them. If you don’t watch for them, of course, you don’t see them, but you have to look. I have a lot of karma to see insects in food . . .
Anyway, this orange lizard was sitting on top of the orange rock. Then a snake, also the same color as the rock, came from down below the rock to eat that lizard. Can you imagine? If you’re an animal, your enemies are just there, wherever you are. That is life as an animal.
I also saw in a TV documentary many seals on the sand at the shore of an ocean. The seals, which are full of fat, are eaten by polar bears, and the seals themselves eat penguins, and the penguins eat other beings in the water. One animal eats another animal, which eats another animal, which eats another animal.
As human beings, we can’t even imagine it. We don’t have that constant fear, day and night, all the time, of being attacked and eaten by an enemy. We don’t experience constant danger. (Of course, a person could be in danger of being killed by somebody, but this is only sometimes; it’s not that it lasts the whole life.) We have unbelievable freedom. Even in terms of food, we have so many choices. We don’t have to eat just one type of food, and the food we eat doesn’t have to be only other sentient beings. We can find and eat so much food that is not a living being. In our life we have so much comfort and so many choices in regard to food, clothing and shelter.
While we have this amazing opportunity, it’s unimaginable for us not to practice Dharma, not to do something meaningful at least for ourselves, if not for others. Our practice of Dharma can rescue us, liberating us from all sufferings (from the general sufferings of samsara and the particular sufferings of each realm; from the suffering of pain, the suffering of change, which means all the samsaric pleasures, and pervasive compounding suffering) and from the cause of suffering, karma and delusion. We have an unbelievable opportunity: whatever Dharma we wish to practice, we can practice.
We have unbelievable freedom if we compare our lives to those of animals in the ocean. We can understand that their lives are lived totally in worry and fear. They’re looking for food, and at the same time they’re in danger of being eaten by other animals. They live their whole life always being attacked by others. We’re free from those kinds of problems. We have the most unbelievable freedom.
Now, this is not for long—just for a very short time. We mustn’t deceive ourselves. We need to think about life deeply, not just superficially. If we don’t get to practice Dharma, our life will have been completely wasted; we will have completely deceived ourselves, cheated by the ignorance not knowing Dharma and particularly by attachment and sometimes by anger.
When death suddenly happens, our human life is gone. At that time, we can’t go back. No matter how much we think we have made mistakes in our life, no matter how much we think, “I should have practiced Dharma seriously every day” or “I should have done many years of retreat,” the time is gone—we can’t go back. We can’t think, “I made a mistake. I wasted my time—I must go back,” and go back to this morning and really practice. We can’t go back even one second. As His Holiness often says, we can’t go back to the previous second. Time is always finishing; life is always finishing. Of course, we can purify negative karma, but we can’t go back in time.
Therefore, there’s nothing more ignorant than not practicing Dharma while we have found this unbelievable opportunity, this unbelievable freedom, and instead totally cheating ourselves by following ignorance, anger and attachment.
After our death, when we’re in front of Yama, Yama will question us about or show us in a mirror all the negative karmas we have collected in the past. We won’t be able to hide anything or lie about anything before having to reincarnate and experience the resultant suffering.
As I mentioned at the beginning, compassion for all living beings is what differentiates Buddhism from other religions. In Christianity, it’s believed that pigs, fish and other animals were created by God and given by God to human beings for their food. It is not like that in Buddhism, where there is compassion for every living being, for every suffering, obscured being. Compassion is not only for your friends but also for strangers and even for your enemies. Compassion is for everybody.
The most important thing in your life is to develop compassion for all living beings. Having generated great compassion, you’re then able to take full responsibility upon yourself for liberating sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and its causes. The numberless sentient beings, especially those who have a connection with you and who rely upon you, will then be liberated.
From great compassion, you then develop the special attitude, taking the responsibility to liberate the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment by yourself alone. You then generate bodhicitta. With bodhicitta, the extraordinary principal consciousness with the five similarities,67 there are two intentions: the intention seeking the works for other sentient beings—freeing them from suffering and bringing them to enlightenment —and the intention related to you yourself—to succeed in that, you yourself have to achieve enlightenment.
Bodhicitta is the door of the Mahayana path to enlightenment, and the root of bodhicitta is great compassion. By generating great compassion, you are able to have bodhicitta and thus enter the Mahayana path. You are then able to achieve the five paths and ten bhumis and then the tantric path, including the generation and completion stages of Highest Yoga Tantra. After achieving the gross and subtle stages of the generation stage, you then achieve the isolation of speech and the isolation of mind, then the unification of clear light and the illusory body, and then the unification of no more learning. You are able to actualize the completion stage paths and achieve full enlightenment. With practice of the Paramitayana path, it takes three countless great eons to complete the two collections of merit: the merit of wisdom and the merit of virtue. Tantra, even the lower tantras, is a quicker path to achieve enlightenment, making it possible to achieve enlightenment in one life. You don’t need to take three countless great eons to complete the collection of merit—you can complete it within one life.
Why are you able to do that? Tantra has greater skillful means, with the one mind practicing method and wisdom together. In Mahayana sutra, you practice the paths of method and wisdom together but with separate minds, not with one mind. That’s why it takes such a long time. In order to achieve the deity’s holy mind, dharmakaya, and the deity’s holy body, rupakaya, you need to complete the merits of wisdom and virtue, which takes three countless great eons with the Paramitayana. But tantra has greater skills. Since with one mind you practice both method and wisdom, you’re able to complete all that merit within one life, which means you can achieve the dharmakaya and rupakaya within one life.
With the lower tantras—Action, Performance and Yoga tantras—within one life means that first you have to prolong your life so that you can live for hundreds or thousands of years. You can achieve enlightenment within one life, but by prolonging your life in that way.
The Highest Yoga Tantra path has greater skillful means than the lower tantras and is the quickest means to achieve enlightenment, allowing you to achieve the unification of the deity’s holy body and holy mind in the brief lifetime of a degenerate time, even within a few years. This is the quickest way to complete the two types of merit and achieve the dharmakaya and rupakaya. The Highest Yoga Tantra path is the only one that has the advanced method to cease the gross mind and to actualize the subtle mind of clear light, which is the direct cause of the dharmakaya, and the illusory body, which is the direct cause of the rupakaya. You cannot actualize these two by practicing the lower tantras—only by practicing Highest Yoga Tantra. Once you actualize the simultaneously born great bliss of clear light in this life, you’re certain to achieve enlightenment in this very lifetime.
Lama Tsongkhapa’s disciple’s disciple, Drubchen Chökyi Dorje, and his disciple, Gyalwa Ensapa, as well as many other great meditators, great holy beings, achieved enlightenment in the brief lifetime of a degenerate time. Milarepa wasn’t the only one to do this—there were many others. When Padmasambhava was in Tibet, twenty-five of his closest disciples definitely achieved enlightenment, and I think eight of Milarepa’s disciples also achieved enlightenment.
The most important thing is for our life to become most beneficial for sentient beings. For that we need to develop compassion, the wish to free sentient beings from all their sufferings and bring them to enlightenment. We need to develop great compassion for each and every single obscured, suffering sentient being. To develop great compassion, we need to meditate on the lamrim, the stages of the path to enlightenment. The root of the path to enlightenment, what brings all the success up to enlightenment, is guru devotion. The actual path then begins with the first meditation, the perfect human rebirth, realizing how this human rebirth with the eighteen precious qualities of the eight freedoms and ten richnesses is the most precious one. However, learning the lam-rim from the beginning of the path is not sufficient. We can’t have realizations just by meditating on the lam-rim. In order to achieve realization of great compassion, and from there up to enlightenment, we need to receive the blessings of the special deity of compassion, Chenrezig. And to receive permission to do the meditation-recitation with ourselves generated into Chenrezig, we need to be empowered by receiving a Chenrezig great initiation.
Because they don’t have a human body, animals can’t do meditation-recitation; they can’t meditate on Chenrezig or recite the mantra. Not having a human body blocks their understanding the words and meanings. Since we have received a human rebirth, when somebody tells us to repeat “OM MANI PADME HUM,” we can immediately imitate them. It doesn’t take us even a minute to be able to recite the mantra. Cows, donkeys, snakes, lizards, tigers, elephants, mosquitoes, cockroaches, frogs and crickets can’t do this. Animals can’t recite words. No matter how long they lived, even if they lived for billions of eons, they have no karma to be able to chant mantras. But we human beings can learn to repeat a mantra even within a minute. Imagine the difference. Imagine the freedom we have to practice Dharma.
We have unbelievable freedom to purify negative karma and to collect extensive merit, to develop compassion and bodhicitta, to achieve enlightenment quickly and to liberate numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and quickly bring them to enlightenment. While having this incredible opportunity, imagine if we then live our life in complete laziness? Or with the concept of permanence? Even though life is impermanent, we have the wrong concept that it’s permanent. Every day, when we get up, we think, “I’m going to live for many years.” Even the morning of the day that we’re going to die, we think, “I’m going to live for many years.” Even five minutes before the car accident or plane crash in which we die or before we collapse with a fatal heart attack, even one minute before, we have this concept, “I’m going to live for many years.”
We are living our lives with the concept of permanence and with other wrong concepts. While samsaric pleasures are only suffering in nature, we are living our lives with the wrong concept that they are all sources of real happiness. We completely cheat ourselves in this way, and we have been doing so from beginningless rebirths up to now. That’s why we have still not achieved liberation. Not only have we not achieved enlightenment; we haven’t achieved even liberation from samsara for ourselves.
Also, this body is unclean, or impure, and suffering in nature. After clean food goes inside our body it becomes dirty. Food is dirty when it comes out of this body, not only from the lower door but even from the mouth. Nobody wants to eat vomited food. As Nagarjuna says, the body is the container for thirty-two impure substances. But we have the wrong concept that it’s clean, that it’s pure.
Also, if you look for the I from the top of your head down to your toes, there’s nowhere you can find it. It’s neither outside nor inside the body. You can’t find it inside your chest or anywhere else inside your body. You can’t find it anywhere. But at the same time, because these aggregates exist, the I, which is merely labeled by mind, exists. That’s the reality.
There’s no I there, from where it constantly appears and where you believe it to exist. It’s like a dream, an illusion, a mirage. This wrong view, this hallucination, of a real I is projected by the negative imprint left by ignorance on the mental continuum. This real I is projected there the moment after the I is merely imputed by mind, by thought. The real I is a mental fabrication, a total hallucination, and you let your mind believe in it one hundred percent. You have no doubt that it is true.
You then live your life with this wrong concept. Every day, every hour, of your whole life is lived with the belief that this I is really true. You live every day, every hour, of your life with this wrong concept, this hallucination.
From birth to death, you live your life with this hallucination. For you, this hallucination is true; you let your mind believe it is totally true. But it is not only that. There’s a continuation of this hallucination from your previous life, from before the consciousness took place on the fertilized egg in your mother’s womb. This belief existed in the life before this; it did not start with this life. Ignorance didn’t begin with this life; it has a continuation from the past life, whatever that past life was. There’s a continuation of that hallucination and the total belief that this I is true from the life before this.
From beginningless rebirths you have had this hallucination and the total belief that it is true. You let your mind believe that it is true, instead of looking at it as a hallucination, instead of looking at it as empty, as it is empty. Instead of looking at the real I as empty, you believe that it’s true. You believe that it inherently exists, that it exists from its own side, that it exists by its nature. Instead of looking at the real I as nonexistent, you believe it exists. The I appears to be truly existent, inherently existent, and you believe this to be true, instead of believing it to be nonexistent, empty. During beginningless rebirths, you have been living your life with this hallucination, this wrong concept. While there’s no such I at all, you have been believing that it exists as it appears to exist, from its own side.
In reality, the I exists as a dependent arising, dependent on the aggregates, the label and the mind that labels. The I exists because the base, the aggregates, exist; the I exists in mere name, merely imputed by the mind, by thought. While the I exists as a subtle dependent arising in this way, we hold that the I is not merely labeled by mind, but exists from its own side. That is a wrong concept, and we have been suffering from beginningless rebirths up to now because of it. However, this is the life in which we have all the opportunities to realize the ultimate nature, the emptiness, of the I.
As Buddha said, the way Buddha liberates us sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and its causes is not by washing away negative karmas with water. Nor does Buddha liberate us from the oceans of samsaric sufferings with his hand, like taking a thorn from the body. Nor does Buddha transplant his realizations within us, like transplanting a heart. The way Buddha liberates us sentient beings is by revealing ultimate reality, the truth. Buddha doesn’t transplant his realizations into us but introduces us to the truth.
We have received teachings from many great teachers, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Compassion Buddha in human form. If, from our side, we don’t put effort in this life into developing this realization that can directly cease karma and delusion, the cause of suffering, of samsara, it’s not sure when it will happen. If we don’t make it possible for this to happen in this life, it will be extremely difficult, almost impossible, for it to happen at all.
If we develop compassion for sentient beings and then generate bodhicitta, we will collect limitless skies of merit all the time. With the power of that great collection of merit, we will incidentally be able to realize emptiness. We should also study teachings on emptiness to leave as much imprint as possible. Even if we don’t understand what we’re reading, by reading teachings on emptiness as many times as possible and meditating on them, we will leave so many positive imprints that sooner or later we will be able to realize emptiness.
The great lama, Trehor Kyörpön Rinpoche said,
It is only difficult to realize emptiness for those people who don’t have much merit. Those with much merit have no difficulty realizing emptiness.
Trehor Kyörpön Rinpoche was a great meditator, with great attainments, and the leader of many meditators in Dalhousie. He achieved the path of merit and the preparatory path, and the tantric paths of clear light and illusory body.
Rinpoche became a lharampa geshe in Tibet, where there were many thousands of learned geshes. After his geshe examination Rinpoche went to the mountains to meditate, to integrate and actualize the extensive Buddhadharma, the extensive study of Pramanavarttika, Abhisamayalamkara, Madhyamaka, Abhidharmakosha and Vinaya he had done in the monastery. He went into the mountains carrying only the two types of monks’ robes, the chögu and namjar, and a lamrim text.
Trehor Kyörpön Rinpoche went looking for a cave on a very high mountain near Lhasa, the top of which is always obscured by clouds. Rinpoche saw stones coming down the mountain, one after another, so he decided to follow the stones to their source. After some time he came to a cave, and inside the cave was a skeleton sitting in meditation position. Rinpoche didn’t enter the cave, but sat outside and offered a mandala. The skeleton sitting in meditation then collapsed. A stone landed on top of this cave, so Rinpoche decided, “This is the cave in which to meditate.”
His disciples, other geshes, then came and meditated on the mountain under his guidance. They didn’t live together but at some distance from each other on the mountain.
When Communist China invaded Tibet, Trehor Kyörpön Rinpoche escaped, and later went to Dalhousie, where he led a group of meditators in integrating the extensive Buddhadharma into lamrim and then actualizing the realizations. Rinpoche didn’t accept everybody who came, but selected some geshes who could live an ascetic life, who could really sacrifice themselves to actualize the path and who could meditate. First he gave them elaborate lamrim teachings for a few months. Many other learned geshes, such as Geshe Sopa Rinpoche, attended those teachings.
What I’m saying is that if you practice great compassion and bodhicitta, which collect the most extensive merit, then you can actually realize emptiness by the way.
I want to mention again the unbelievable freedom that we have compared to animals and to other sentient beings, especially those in the lower realms, and compared even to the devas in the higher realms and the human beings in the other continents (the eastern, western and northern continents). The human beings in the other human worlds don’t have the great freedom that we have. We are able to meet the Buddhadharma. We are able to meet the Hinayana teachings, where we can recognize true suffering and the true cause of suffering and then abandon them by actualizing the true path to achieve liberation from the oceans of samsaric suffering and its causes for ourselves. We have the freedom to make it impossible for us to experience suffering again.
Not only that, but we have met the Mahayana Paramitayana teachings, with which we can achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. We also have this unbelievable freedom.
Not only that, but we have already met the Mahayana Vajrayana teachings, which make it possible for us to achieve enlightenment in one lifetime, even in the brief lifetime of a degenerate time. Receiving Chenrezig initiation allows us to receive teachings on the Chenrezig path and attain Chenrezig’s enlightenment. We also have this unbelievable freedom. Even the human beings in the other worlds don’t have this most amazing freedom that we have.
I want to mention again that even if animals—turtles, pigs, horses and even cats and dogs, the animals that normally live with human beings—lived for many billions of eons and even if you explained to them that the cause of happiness is virtue day and night for billions of eons, there’s no way they could understand what you were saying. There’s no way they could understand even the words, let alone the meaning. The definition of virtue is “any action of body, speech or mind motivated by a pure mind, by non-ignorance, non-anger or non-attachment, which results in happiness.” Even if you explained this definition to an animal continuously, without even a second’s break, for billions of eons, there is no way that animal could understand. No matter how much animals suffer, due to ignorance they cannot understand Dharma. They have no way to practice Dharma, no way to attain the path, no way to achieve liberation or enlightenment.
As human beings, if somebody explained this definition to us, within a few seconds we could understand that the cause of happiness is virtue and that virtue is any action motivated by a pure mind that results only in happiness. As human beings, we can understand not only the words but even the meanings within a few seconds. That shows the value of this human body, how precious this human rebirth is. Having a human body that can understand words and meanings and can communicate makes it so easy for us to learn Dharma, compared to animals and to other sentient beings. It’s unbelievably easy for us, as human beings, to learn and to understand Dharma.
You can now see how foolish it is if you don’t learn Dharma, if you don’t practice Dharma. There’s nothing more foolish than this. As Shantideva said,
While you have such incredible freedom to practice Dharma, if you don’t practice Dharma, there’s no greater ignorance than this.68
While you have this unbelievable freedom to practice Dharma, if you don’t practice, it’s most foolish.
Because animals don’t have a human body, they’re completely blocked from understanding words and meanings. There’s no way they can understand. It’s so easy for us to learn and understand the words and meanings, which makes it so easy for us to practice Dharma, which makes it so easy for us to achieve realization, to achieve liberation and enlightenment. We have to appreciate the unbelievable opportunity we have. It’s unimaginable! Having this human body is the easiest way to learn, to practice and to have attainment. We must realize this and practice Dharma—this is the only life in which we can do it.
Even devas don’t have virtuous friends who explain the complete path to enlightenment to them. They hear Dharma through the sounds of drums. In the Thirty-three Realm, on the fifteenth day they hear teachings through the sounds of drums, but they do not have the opportunities that we have. Even though devas have sense pleasures that are a hundred thousand or a million times greater than ours, they don’t have the opportunity to practice Dharma, to be liberated from the oceans of samsaric suffering and its cause: all the defilements and all the wrong concepts related to ignorance that have made them suffer from beginningless rebirths.
Therefore, since this is the only life with this unbelievable opportunity, if you don’t get to practice Dharma, there’s no greater ignorance than this, and no greater loss than this. If you don’t get to practice Dharma, you will have wasted this life. If you pass not only a day, an hour or a minute but even a second without practicing Dharma, without practicing bodhicitta, it’s a greater loss than losing the sky filled with not only billions of euros or dollars or pounds, but diamonds or gold or even the highest, rarest, most precious one, wish-granting jewels. If even one second passes without your practicing Dharma, it’s a much greater loss than losing the sky filled with wish-granting jewels. That loss is nothing compared to wasting this precious human body for even one second. If you don’t have a precious human body, even if you have the sky filled with wish-granting jewels, you can’t achieve a good rebirth next life, you can’t achieve liberation from samsara, you can’t achieve enlightenment. But if you have this body, even if you don’t have a single jewel or a single penny, even in every second you can create the causes of the happiness of future lives, liberation from samsara and enlightenment. This is why this human body is unbelievably precious.69
4. We need to purify right now
The great bodhisattva Shantideva said,
This precious human body, qualified by freedom and richness, will be extremely difficult to find again. If I don’t get to obtain benefit on this body, how can I receive a perfect human body again in the future?70
At this time, we should think in the following way: “If I had already died, where would I now be? It’s not sure. I might have been born as a lobster and be in a glass tank in a restaurant waiting to be put into boiling water. I might have been born in the shape of a scallop, with my body between two shells. Or I might have been born as a fish, swimming in the water or caught on a hook by a fisherman, who would then slice my body in half. Or I might have been born as a worm and be attacked by ants. Or I might now be in a hot or a cold hell or be born as a preta.
“If something like this had already happened what could I do? Nothing! No matter how much I was suffering and how much I didn’t want that suffering, there would be nothing I could do. I would have to go through that experience.
“So far I haven’t died, and today I’m again able to be a human being and again have the opportunity to practice Dharma—how fortunate I am!”
Many of our relatives have already died; they have already left this human world. For some of us, our father or mother has died, or both have died, or our grandfather and grandmother or other relatives have already died. It’s difficult to say where they now are. If they’re now in the lower realms, they have no opportunity at all to practice Dharma and are experiencing only suffering.
Think, “At this time, I have received a precious human body qualified by eight freedoms and ten richnesses. I have the freedom to practice Dharma by not being born in a hell realm; I have the freedom to practice Dharma by not being born a preta; I have the freedom to practice Dharma by not being born an animal; I have the freedom to practice Dharma by not being a barbarian, with no understanding of Dharma at all and totally wrong views; I have the freedom to practice Dharma by not being born as a long-life god; I have the freedom to practice Dharma by not being a heretical being; I have the freedom to practice Dharma by not being born in a place where Buddha has not descended; and I have the freedom to practice Dharma by not being born a fool. My precious human body is qualified by these eight freedoms.
“In regard to the ten richnesses, I have the opportunity to practice Dharma by being born a human being. Second, I have the opportunity to practice Dharma by being born in the center of a religious country. I have the opportunity to practice Dharma by being born with perfect senses. I have the opportunity to practice Dharma by not having committed the extreme actions.71 I have the opportunity to practice Dharma by having faith in the teachings that subdue the mind.”
Here, the teachings that subdue the mind are the teachings of the lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment. Why is this particular title used? Because when listening to and studying the extensive sutra and tantra teachings don’t subdue your mind, the lamrim teachings are able to do so. Why? Because the lamrim teachings are presented in a special way that focuses mainly on subduing the mind. When the extensive teachings don’t affect your mind, listening to, reflecting and meditating on the lamrim can subdue it. Having faith in the teachings that subdue the mind means having faith in the lamrim teachings, especially the teachings on karma.
“I have the opportunity to practice Dharma by being born in a time when a buddha has descended. Not only that, but I have the opportunity to practice Dharma because the Buddha’s teachings still exist at this time. Not only do the teachings still exist in this world, but I have the opportunity to practice Dharma because I follow the teachings. Finally, I have the opportunity to practice Dharma because the virtuous friend has compassion. If the virtuous friend didn’t have compassion, I wouldn’t receive teachings, I wouldn’t receive guidance. But because the teacher has compassion, I receive teachings and guidance.”
Since the precious human body that we now have is qualified by these eight freedoms and ten richnesses, it is unbelievably precious. At this time, this one time, we have received a perfect human body and have met the Buddhadharma and the virtuous friend, who has revealed the path. During this time, since we have received all the necessary conditions to practice Dharma, we can achieve whatever happiness we wish. We can achieve any of the three great meanings that we wish. We can achieve the happiness of future lives because we can create the cause with this perfect human body by practicing morality and charity, dedicating the merit to achieving a perfect human body and so forth. Even if we wish to achieve the ultimate benefit of liberation from samsara, we can obtain it, because with this perfect human body we can create the cause with the three higher trainings. Even if we wish to achieve the ultimate happiness of full enlightenment for sentient beings, we can obtain it, because with this perfect human body we can generate bodhicitta and practice the bodhisattva’s deeds of the six paramitas and so forth.
If we don’t accomplish these benefits now, it will be difficult to do so in the future. Why? Such an opportunity as this will be difficult to find again. It will be difficult to receive a perfect human body again, because it is extremely difficult to create its causes.
Also, this life is very short. Death is definite, and the actual time of death is uncertain. Death can happen at any time. We have accumulated so many negative karmas in this life, such as the ten nonvirtuous actions. There are three nonvirtuous actions of body (killing, stealing, sexual misconduct), four negative actions of speech (telling lies, speaking harshly, slandering, gossiping) and three nonvirtuous actions of mind (covetousness, ill will, heresy). These are just the basic examples—there are many other negative karmas. We have accumulated many negative karmas during this life, and during beginningless rebirths.
Take covetousness, for example. When we go shopping, during those hours, how many times do we accumulate the negative karma of covetousness? With attachment, we are always thinking, “If only I could have that.” After those many hours of looking around at all the different things, we come back home with big piles of the negative karma of covetousness. There are many other similar examples of which we are not aware.
After our death of this life, even though our body disintegrates, our consciousness doesn’t cease. A candle flame stops when the wax is finished, but our consciousness is not like that. Our consciousness continues, and if we haven’t done anything to purify our negative karma and our nonvirtue is stronger than our virtue, we will take rebirth in the lower realms.
When death happens, it’s not like a flame going out when the wax finishes. The flame stops and has no continuation. The consciousness continues after this life, even though this gross physical body doesn’t. Where our consciousness migrates accords with our karma. If we didn’t get to purify all our negative karma (the actions motivated by disturbing thoughts that are the cause of the lower realms) accumulated in the past and if we didn’t get to accumulate virtue, the cause of the realms of the happy transmigratory beings, and if we have been accumulating heavy negative karma (such as the karmas that become heavy because of the nature of the object itself; because of the motivation, such as strong anger; or because of the action being very harmful), we will be born in the hell realms.
If we are going to be born in a hot hell, no matter how many blankets or heaters we have at the time of our death, due to karma, we feel very cold and crave heat. That craving is the immediate cause to be born in a hot hell. If we don’t apply meditation at the time of death to stop this craving and to stop the disturbing thoughts of ignorance, anger and attachment, we will die with this mind craving heat. Like having a dream, we will then be born into the intermediate state. Like waking up from sleep, from the intermediate state we will suddenly have the karmic appearance of ourselves in a hot hell.
If we are born in a hot hell, we have all the obstacles and none of the necessary conditions to practice Dharma. One tiny spark of hell-fire is millions of times hotter than all the fire energy of the human realm. To give you some idea of the heat, think of the fire of a volcano, which is much hotter than the usual kind of fire we make. The heat of lava gives you some idea of the heat in hell.
All the hot hells have red-hot burning iron ground that is one with fire. To understand the red-hot burning iron ground consider touching a hot pot when you’re cooking. Even if the pot is not red hot, to touch it is extremely painful. We can’t imagine doing that for even a second. There in the hells everything is completely red hot, one with fire. If you were to drop food or liquid on the burning ground, it would immediately get burnt up. But because of heavy karma you don’t immediately get destroyed in that way. You have to abide on the burning iron ground or in the burning iron house, which is many thousands or even hundreds of thousands of times hotter than a red-hot pot.
Also, you are cooked in molten metal in a large pot and suffer so much. The karmic guardians put you into this liquid and then stir it. When you’re deep inside the molten metal, it’s so hot that your skin and flesh separate from your bones. When your body comes out of the liquid, it becomes alive again and gets flesh on the bones. You have to experience that again and again.
If the body of a hell being were tiny, like some insects, there would be less pain; but since the body is huge and tall, like a mountain, there is much suffering. The skin is also extremely thin and sensitive, like the skin over an abscess, which is painful even when touched by a hair. The sufferings of the hot hells are much greater than that. They’re unbearable.
The first hot hell is called Being Alive Again and Again. When you are born there, even though there are no hell guardians, due to your own negative karma, every sentient being that you see in that realm becomes your enemy. On seeing each other, the hell beings get angry and attack each other. If 360 short spears were put through your human body in one day, you would find it unbearable. If even a tiny thorn goes into the sole of your foot, you can’t stand or walk; you find it unbearable. If you were born in this hell realm, Being Alive Again and Again, the suffering would be much heavier than 360 short spears being put through your body.
Due to karma, everything you hold in your hand becomes a weapon. Your body is then cut into pieces, which all fall on the ground. Again, due to karma, a voice comes from the sky, “May you be alive!” Cool air comes and touches the scattered pieces of your body so that they come together again. Once again you revive and become alive.
Everyone again fights each other and cuts each other to pieces. The pieces of the body falling to the ground is defined as death, and that death happens many hundreds of times in one day. You are alive, die, are again alive, again die, and so on. In this hell, hundreds of times each day you are killed and again become alive.
The length of life in this first hot hell is also extremely long. Fifty human years is one day for a deva, such as one of the four guardian kings, who live for five hundred years, and the length of life of those devas is one day for the hell beings in Being Alive Again and Again. The length of life of the beings in this first hell is many trillions of human years. These hell beings have to suffer for that duration of time.
The next hell is called Black Line. This hell has karmic guardians as huge as mountains, with big, red, terrifying eyes, and they make terrifying sounds urging the hell beings to kill, hit and so forth. (The guardians, as well as the red-hot iron ground and everything else, are your own karmic appearances, the appearances of your own negative karma.) The guardians capture the hell beings and stretch out their bodies on the red-hot iron ground. They then mark many black lines on their huge hell bodies with iron rope that is one with fire.
After that, like carpenters cutting wood, the guardians cut the bodies into pieces, some with axes and others with swords. The pieces of body and even the scattered drops of blood have consciousness. When we have a wound, the blood that drops on the ground and the small piece of skin that’s separated from the body don’t have consciousness. But here, due to karma, the flesh that drops on the ground and even the small drops of blood have consciousness, so there’s much suffering. You have to experience that for a long time.
The causes to be born in these hells are all the ten nonvirtuous actions and beating human beings or animals.
The third hot hell realm is Gathered and Destroyed. Two mountains in the shape of animal heads (it could be a goat, a sheep or another animal you have killed—the animal accords with your own past karma) come from your right and left sides and crush you between them. This hell is mainly the result of killing, and the shape of the mountains is related to the type of being you killed in your past life. There is no way to escape. You are crushed between the two mountains.
Like sugar cane being pressed to give the juice, rivers and waterfalls of your blood flow. You experience so much heavy suffering in this way. Here, at this time as a human, the blood that comes out of your body doesn’t experience suffering; but there in the hells, even the blood that comes out experiences suffering. Due to karma, even the blood has consciousness, and as it spreads it experiences suffering.
When the mountains then pull apart, your body again revives. You are then again crushed. Like fruit in a juicer, your body is crushed by the mountains again and again. Due to karma, some of the hell beings here are ground between two round iron stones, like grinding barley into flour. Other hell beings get crushed, like someone beating grain inside a large container with a huge stick to separate the husks from the grain. Other hell beings suffer as when dough is put into a machine and forced out of small holes to make noodles. Hell beings suffer in many different ways.
When we are born in this hell, the things that crush our body appear in the form of the tools we used to kill animals in our past life. If you used sticks to kill animals, what tortures you appears in that form.
The next hell realm is Crying. Due to karma, you are caught inside an iron house that is one with fire. Since it has no doors or windows, you have no way to escape. You are caught inside and experience much suffering for an incredible length of time.
The next hell is called Great Crying. After experiencing karma similar to that in Crying for a long time, even when that karma finishes and you are able to get out of that burning house, there is no real freedom because there’s another similar world. Even if you become free from one burning iron house, you can’t get free from the next one. The suffering is much greater, and you experience that suffering for a long time.
The causes to be born in these Crying hot hells are all the ten nonvirtuous actions, and the particular nonvirtue of carelessly drinking alcohol. A person who drinks alcohol is born in these Crying hell realms, and a person who gives alcohol to others is born in the surrounding hell realm. This is mentioned in the sutras. (There are four surrounding hell realms around each major hot hell.)
In the next hell, Hot Hell, you are stretched out on the red-hot iron ground, and the karmic guardians ask you what you want. When you reply, “I want something to eat and drink,” they put red-hot iron balls or molten metal from a pot into your mouth. It then burns the inside of your body. They also put a flaming skewer through your anus so that it emerges through the crown of your head. In this way it burns all the inside of your body. Flames come from all your openings—mouth, nose, ears, eyes—and everything is burned. You are also cooked in a large pot full of molten iron. Your body disintegrates into pieces, but then your bones come back together and you again become alive. This happens again and again.
The next hell is called Extremely Hot because it is twice as hot as the previous hell. Your whole body is cooked in a large pot so that all the flesh disappears, and all that is left is bones. The pieces then come together again and you are revived. You experience this suffering again and again. Due to karma, your flesh is revived, and you are again burned.
The bodies of some of the hell beings are rolled in red-hot iron sheets, with no way to escape. The bodies of other hell beings are tied so tightly with burning iron thread that the flesh oozes out, like the pulp of fruit crushed in a machine. Some hell beings have a red-hot trident put through their body from below, with the middle prong coming through the crown and the other two prongs coming through the shoulders. They are then burnt in this way. The karmic guardians stretch out the tongues of other hell beings for many miles, then use animals to plow the top of the tongue, like plowing a field. Some hell beings are tied between two red-hot flat pieces of iron, like the covers of a Tibetan text, and squashed. There is no way to escape. There are various types of sufferings in the Extremely Hot hell.
The eighth, and last, hot hell is Inexhaustible Suffering. Among all the hot hells, this one has the greatest suffering. When a blacksmith makes an iron pot or iron tools, the iron is red hot, one with fire. Like that, the body itself here in this hell is one with fire. The only way you can discriminate that a sentient being is there is by the sound of their screaming. Otherwise, you can’t tell there’s a sentient being. You can’t discriminate a living being by the shape.
There is also the karmic appearance of fire coming from the ten directions: from the four cardinal directions, the four intermediate directions, above and below. When we’re near a fire, we find it hot. Even if a fire were coming from four sides and not even touching us, we would find it unbearably hot. This is a thousand times hotter than that. Not only that, but fire also comes from inside the body. So, there are eleven fires in all. Like the wick of a candle, the hell being’s body is one with fire. The suffering is unbelievable.
In Letter to a Friend, Nagarjuna says,
Among all happiness,
The cessation of craving is the best happiness.
Among all suffering,
The Inexhaustible Hell is the most unbearable.72
Even if you put together all the other sufferings of the three realms, all the other sufferings that exist in samsara, the suffering of the Inexhaustible Hell, this last hell realm, is much greater.
Each of the major hot hells is surrounded by four branch hells, with different types of sufferings. The first is the karmic appearance of being caught in the center of a blazing fire.
The next branch hell is like being in a septic tank, like being drowned in a quagmire of filthy things. While you are drowning, tiny worms with sharp, pointed mouths, like mosquitoes or certain kinds of fish, pierce your body.
There is then the karmic appearance of your most beloved friend, the object of your attachment, calling to you from the top of a tree, “Come here! I’m up here.” As you start to climb up the tree, all the branches of the tree bend down and pierce your body so that it is difficult to climb up. While this is happening, there is also the karmic appearance of iron dogs that come to eat you.
Even if you manage to reach the top of the tree, the person you are attached to then calls to you from the ground down below the tree, “I’m down here!” When you then start to climb down, the branches of the tree now turn up and again pierce your body and there is the karmic appearance of birds with sharp beaks that eat you.73
In the cold hells, you experience the suffering of your body being one with ice. Different names are given to the cold hells as the skin becomes more and more blistered and cracked. It is completely dark, windy and unbelievably cold. To be naked in such a cold, windy place for an hour or even a minute would be unbearable. The cold hells are hundreds of thousands times colder than winter on the human earth.
Where do all these hells come from? They’re productions of our disturbing thoughts and karma. We have created so many causes to be born in these hell realms in this life and during beginningless rebirths. If we don’t do anything to purify our negative karma, as soon as our death happens we might be born in these hell realms. We can’t have any confidence that this won’t happen as we haven’t reached the level of the path that makes it impossible to be reborn in the lower realms.
There are five paths to liberation and five paths to enlightenment: the paths of merit, preparation, seeing, meditation and no more learning. The second path, the preparatory path, has four levels: heat, tip, patience and sublime Dharma. It is only when we achieve the path of patience that we can be confident that we will never again be reborn in the lower realms. Before that we can’t be completely confident. We haven’t got that confidence as we haven’t achieved those paths. Before our death, we have to make sure that we won’t be born in the lower realms and that we’re able to create the causes to be born as a deva or a human being. But even that is not sufficient, because it’s still in samsara, still suffering in nature.
Therefore, the solution is to purify the karma that has been accumulated during beginningless lives. We are extremely fortunate to have met the teaching of Buddha, which can purify these causes—especially the most powerful practice of nyung nä, which combines three powerful practices that bring great purification and accumulate merit like infinite space: the Eight Mahayana Precepts, prostrations and recitation of the Chenrezig mantra.74
NOTES
65 This was a bodhicitta motivation before mantra recitation, taken from Teachings from the Mani Retreat, p. 95. [Return to text]
66 See Rinpoche’s The Perfect Human Rebirth for extensive teachings on this topic. [Return to text]
67 A principal consciousness and its mental factors have similar basis, duration, aspect, object and substance. [Return to text]
68 A paraphrase of Guide, v. 23, ch. 4. [Return to text]
69 This was the motivation for a Chenrezig great initiation. [Return to text]
70 Guide, ch. 1, v. 4. [Return to text]
71 The five uninterrupted negative karmas. [Return to text]
72 V. 85. [Return to text]
73 For a slightly different presentation of the branch hells, see Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, pp. 332–33. [Return to text]
74 This was a motivation for taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts. [Return to text]
