Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche Series
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Advice to Three-Year Retreatants by Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche Homage to the guru! This is addressed to those staying in three-year retreat in France. Those of you who live in Europe and other modern countries have all the amenities and luxuries this life affords, but until recently you had never even heard of t he practice of Dharma. In recent times, it so happened that the teachings declined in Tibet, and many lamas of senior and junior rank from all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism arrived in India. Now, when their various teachings are being revived and the allotted time for the Buddhadharma to remain has not yet passed, a number of great masters went to visit and settle in other countries, with the result that many people throughout the modern world now have the intention to practise Dharma. The students of my teacher, Kangyur Rinpoche, in particular have come to regard me as their own root teacher and have a sincere desire to practise Dharma throughout their entire lives. Through the inspiration and assistance of Tsetrul Pema Wangyal Rinpoche, they have established a retreat centre at Chanteloube. The real purpose behind this centre is that those who remain there in retreat establish themselves firmly on the path to liberation. If they t hey do so, they will fulfil the enlightened vision o Kangyur Rinpoche, serve their own teachers, and make the very best use of the many profound teachings they have received. With this in mind, all who commit themselves t hemselves to remain in retreat should ensure that faith, renunciation, compassion and looking into the nature of mind lie at the very heart of their practice.
Faith ‘Faith’ means complete trust in, and reliance upon, the Three Jewels in general, and our own teacher in particular, as well as in the Dharma we are practising. If we practise for a long time, after a while we might think, “I still haven’t gained any signs of progress! The teacher can’t have given me the most profound instructions. It would be better for me to do the main practice, rather than the preliminaries, because it’s more profound!” Or if we are doing the main practice we might think, “I think it would be better for me to set aside this simple generation stage practice and do some dzogrim instead.” dzogrim instead.” Or even, “Dzogchen would be more profound than these completion stage practices like tummo .” .” You might think that once you have received the Dzogchen teachings you will have all kinds of profound lofty experiences, even after just a few days. If you have such high expectations, then when things don’t work out that way, you will begin to 2
doubt the instructions and relax your diligence. Or, if you do develop the slightest hint of renunciation or gain some minor experience or realization, you will only develop pride and think, “The Kagyü, Sakya and Gelug schools have nothing to compare with these Nyingma teachings!” You must avoid developing wrong views such as this and arrogantly supposing that you have gained some special experience or realization. No matter who you are, the ordinary mind is always prone to change and transformation, so you should try never to get carried away. Even if you were to practise day and night with unflagging diligence for a full twelve years and still fail to have even one good dream, you must never lose heart. Recognizing that this is due simply to the strength of your own obscurations, you must be confident that neither your teachers nor the teachings will ever let you down. On the other hand, even if you were to make such swift progress that in just a single day you reached the level at which there is nothing further in saṃsāra to be abandoned nor anything further in nirvāṇa to be gained, you should feel no pride, because to do so would only be to invite the demon of obstacles. That is why Jetsün Milarepa said: When you are approaching the end of the Dharma, Continue ceaselessly, without any highs or lows, And without hopes for signs of swift attainment, Ensure your practice endures as long as you do! This is marvellous advice.
Renunciation ‘Renunciation’ means that while in the retreat centre, every single time you recite the Seven Line Prayer or or complete a single mālā of of maṇi mantras, mantras, you must dedicate it towards the attainment of buddhahood for yourself and all other sentient beings. While in retreat, you should not waste even a single moment in idleness or frivolity, and you must avoid any form of insincerity or duplicity, such as pretending—for as long as you are in other people’s view—to practise perfectly. Do all that you can to bring your own stubborn mind under control and to develop your faith, diligence and renunciation. Never think that the Dharma you are practising is for your benefit alone. To recite even a single maṇi mantra mantra is of inconceivable benefit, so dedicate it for the sake of all who live. Again and again, develop compassion for all sentient beings in general, and particularly for those who dislike you. It might be difficult at first, but you will never attain enlightenment as long as you continue to feel ill-will towards your enemies. Those who are now your enemies were in former lives your parents, and there is 3
nothing fixed about the status of an enemy or friend. To feel hostility towards enemies and affection towards your friends is nothing but a deluded form of perception. If you train your mind to recognize everything as insubstantial like a dream, hostility towards enemies will lose its meaning entirely. This is crucially important, because ordinarily our lives are driven by the yearning to acquire food and clothing, possessions, partners, status and acclaim. We put a great deal of thought into devising the cleverest, most efficient ways to obtain them, and we think, “So-and-so has this much money, my friends have this much, so I need more.” Or: “In the past, I stayed in this t his kind of house, in this part of town, but now I shall move to a better place.” We must put a stop to all such thinking. With ordinary work, the more you do the more suffering you create for the future. But now that you have found a human existence, met an authentic teacher, and received the Dharma teachings, your situation is even better and more fortunate than that of Indra, king of the gods. If you now put the teachings into practice with steadfast determination, you are sure to find happiness in all your future lives. So be content with only the most basic food and clothing. Let me put it simply: do all that you can to renounce and minimize the ordinary affairs and activities of saṃsāra. No one should stay in the retreat centre without taking the vows of refuge. Even if you are a layperson, for the three years that you are in retreat you must avoid sexual relations, and, while in retreat, it is enormously significant and beneficial to wear the robes of a monk or nun. The Buddha himself said it is permissible for anyone who has taken the vows of refuge to wear the monastic robes.
Compassion Generally speaking, you have been practising the teachings of the Mahayana ever since you first entered the door of the Dharma, and this is really nothing other than compassion. Without genuine compassion there is simply no possibility of reaching buddhahood. In their delusion, all the beings of saṃsāra cherish only their own selfish interests and neglect others’ welfare. At the moment, no matter how well off we may be in terms of food, clothing or material possessions, and no matter how much happiness we may experience, we can never be satisfied. At the same time, if we give away even just a tiny fraction of what we own, it feels as if we are losing something enormous. We must let go of such attitudes, and, instead of caring for ourselves alone, learn to cherish others. Previously we neglected others, but now we must neglect our own selfish goals. Whenever we perform any virtuous deed with body, speech or mind, we must first remember that we are doing so as a means to bring about the enlightenment of all. In Dharma practice, the most important thing is motivation. If it is motivated by the wish to benefit all beings, then even a single prostration or a single recitation of the 4
hundred-syllable mantra will yield inexhaustible merit—merit that will remain until we have reached enlightenment and there are no beings left in saṃsāra. Whereas if we do not have this motivation of universal benevolence, even a hundred thousand prostrations, or a hundred thousand recitations of the hundred-syllable mantra, will bear fruit only once before the merit is exhausted, and a single burst of anger will be enough to destroy our entire stock of virtue. It is crucial to understand this. If we consider that our practice is for the sake of all others, then because sentient beings are infinitely vast in number, our own merit will be equally vast. No one is entirely free from suffering, so consider all the major and minor sufferings that befall others, and imagine them happening to you instead. How would you feel? Surely you would do all that you could to find a way to avoid the pain. So reflect continually on all the sufferings that other beings undergo and develop the compassionate wish that they may be free from pain. Once you have true compassion, you will naturally feel the wish to benefit others. Our teacher, the Buddha, while still a bodhisattva, had such vast and overwhelming compassion that he made five hundred prayers of aspiration for our benefit, and, as his followers, we too must make compassion the very core of our practice. The immeasurable benefits of generating true compassion are described in detail in The Words of My Perfect Teacher and and the Bodhicaryāvatāra , so please study them.
Looking into the Nature of Mind To look into the nature of the mind we must understand how all its ordinary thoughts about anything and everything imaginable are just empty and insubstantial. Until now, we have been the slave of what we call ‘mind’, forced to wander helplessly through saṃsāric existence. Now we must reverse the situation, and take control of our own mind. It will be easy to do this if we have some real understanding of how the mind is empty, but just entertaining some vague notion of mind’s emptiness, by thinking, “Well, this is what the masters say,” or “This is what it says in the texts,” will not help us to recognize the insubstantiality of our own deluded perception. Turn your attention within then, and allow your mind to relax. You will notice not ust one thought or idea, but many. For example, if you think of your mother, that is one thought, but then it in turn evokes all kinds of other thoughts, such as memories of the kindness she showed you. If she is still alive, you might think about going to visit her, and if not, you might feel sad. These are thoughts of attachment. If you think about your enemies, reflecting on the ways they have hurt you in the past, how they are sure to do so again in the future, and how you must find some way to be rid of them, these are thoughts of aversion. You might wonder where this attachment and aversion come from. In fact, they come from the deluded belief in the existence of what we call 'I'. 5
Where is such an 'I' to be found? Is it in the body or the mind? If you really look into the body, examining each of its parts—flesh, blood, bones and skin—you cannot find anything at all called ‘body’, so how could this be the location of the 'I'? The mind, on the other hand, is insubstantial, so how could the 'I' abide within it? In fact, the 'I' is merely a concept or a thought. There is no location within a thought, and nothing could remain there, but still the power of one thought, such as the thought of our mother, causes us to think another thought, about her kindness to us, and that in turn inspires the thought of wishing to see her. If we look into this process in more detail, we can see that while we are thinking about our mother’s kindness, the initial thought of our mother is no longer there—it has already gone. And the thought that we must visit her has not yet occurred—it is still in the future. As soon as we look into it, the present thought of our mother’s kindness is no longer there; it has already turned into the future thought of wanting to visit her. This means that the thoughts of the past, present and future cannot exist at the same time, and we only use these terms for the sake of communication. The past is gone, like a person who has died, and the future (or ‘that which is yet to come’) does not exist at all. In fact, there is no such thing as a ‘present thought’ existing somehow independently of past and future. Before we thought of our mother that ‘present thought’ was still in the future. Then, as we thought of her, it was present. Finally, as we brought to mind her kindness, it was already in the past. For one thought to pass through these three phases of time is a sign of its impermanence, and whatever is impermanent is empty. It is because a thing is empty that it can change over the course of the past, present and future. Consider the surface of a mirror: because it is empty [and not fixed in a particular way], reflections can appear within it. When a person’s likeness appears in a mirror, the reflection resembles the real person, but the person’s face has neither entered the mirror nor been transferred to its surface. The image of the face appears because of certain causes and conditions, including the clarity of the mirror and the presence of the person’s face before it. The reflection of the face and the face itself are not the same. The reflection is inanimate, and when the reflection disappears the real face does not. A face can be burned if it is touched by fire, but you cannot burn a reflection. Nevertheless, the reflection and the face are not completely different either, because the reflection can not appear in the absence of the person’s face, and if the person adopts a particular expression, such as a smile or a look of anger, the reflection also appears that way. For these reasons, thoughts and reflections appear to be real only when we fail to examine them or look into them in any detail. If we do pause to consider them, we find that although they appear, they do not really exist. And this is true not just of these phenomena. It applies to all the appearances of our deluded saṃsāric experience: they seem real enough as long as we do not examine them too deeply, 6
but when we do, we find that they are not real. This is why we refer to them as “unexamined, seeming reality.” If the understanding of this point develops and takes hold, so that it becomes selfsustaining, that is what we call ‘experience’. When we become more and more familiar with this, so that the mind is no longer swayed by thoughts of aversion or attachment, that is what we call ‘realization’. When we examine thoughts again and again in this way, we come to see that although they have no real existence, still they appear, and although they appear, they are insubstantial. At the same time, we understand how the thoughts of the past, present and future exist only as mere names or labels, and have no more reality than that. If we have this understanding, then whenever we think of our mother and remember all the kindness she showed us, we need not succumb to thoughts of attachment. We will think, “Even if I were to go and see my mother, what good would that do? She has managed to provide food and clothing for herself, and even to provide for my material needs as well. If I were to take on this role, I would need to find work in some trade or business, and that would provoke all kinds of attachment and aversion and produce lots of distractions, which would only come in the way of my Dharma practice. Instead, I should put my energy into practising the Dharma, straightaway as much as I can, then dedicate all my sources of merit to my mother, to help relieve her sufferings of birth, death and the bardo states. It would be better for me to forget about ordinary worldly feelings of attachment to my mother. She has other children who can take care of her material needs, but there is no one but me to offer her spiritual assistance.” If we think this way, it will prevent us getting caught in the ordinary patterns of thought which can come up whenever we recall our mother. This also gives us some clues as to how we can give up our thoughts of aversion towards our enemies. At first it might be a little difficult to overcome our attachment and aversion, but by practising again and again, it will become easier. If you can overcome attachment and aversion, you will no longer accumulate karma. Moreover, if you look into the unaltered state of mind that follows whenever feelings of attachment or aversion have subsided, you will find the nature of mind. As long as there are not too many thoughts arising, look undistractedly into the mind itself. Whenever there are lots of thoughts, examine them in the way I just described. If you become really familiar with this by training in it again and again, recognition of the nature of mind will occur naturally and spontaneously. The mind will no longer be caught up in thoughts, and even if thoughts do arise, they will not have any real strength and there will be no need to analyze or examine them. It will be sufficient simply to maintain an unaltered state of mind. If ever you can not counteract a thought of attachment or aversion, repeat the 7
process of investigation. When you have thoughts, don’t react with anxiety, thinking, “I shouldn’t have thoughts during meditation! Now lots of thoughts are going to come.” Simply look straight into the nature of any thought—be it positive or negative—and it will lose its strength and disappear. Without letting go of the state which follows, look gently into the nature of mind, and thoughts will vanish by themselves. When thoughts no longer occur one after another in swift succession you will gradually be able to liberate them. When looking into the nature of mind, don’t expect to gain some exceptionally high or profound realization, or to see anything new. Nor should you hesitate or doubt your ability to meditate. Just trust that the nature of mind is simply the mind itself left in an unaltered state, and do all that you can to sustain this, without distraction, at all times, during and between the meditation sessions. Don’t expect to gain realization in just a few months, or even years. Whether you develop any of the qualities that come from the practice or not, remain steadfastly determined and resolve to continue the practice with diligence, day and night, throughout this life, future lives and the bardo state. Understand this: it is more important to take to heart the key instructions than to receive a great many teachings. In general, you should look at the instruction manualWords of My Perfect Teacher , and check whether or not your practice accords with what it says there. If you notice something that does not correspond, change it; and if there is something that is only partially in agreement, see whether or not it can be improved. Aspire to practise the Dharma authentically, and never do anything that might upset your Dharma brothers and sisters. In short, devote yourself to the Dharma as much as you possibly can, with body, speech and mind. I will certainly come and visit you, and I will always remember to pray and practise for your protection, so that all your wishes in accordance with the Dharma will be accomplished. | Translated by Adam Pearcey, 2007.
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The Blissful Path to the Ocean of Bodhicitta: A Brief Prayer of Aspiration for Mind Training by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche By the truth of the perfect mind of awakening Generated by the supreme noble Lord Avalokiteśvara And all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, May the supreme mind of bodhicitta be born In me and and in all other beings, as limitless as space. May the causes and effects of beings' suffering— Their involvement with the five poisons, And painful experiences in the six classes, All ripen on me! To them all, as limitless as space, I offer the six perfections in my own mind, And sources of virtue, free from the five poisons. May all the realms of saṃsāra's six classes be emptied, And may everyone attain the level of Avalokiteśvara, In his six sublime families and with six types of wisdom. May all disease, famine, belligerence, wrong views, Impairments, transgressions, downfalls, harmful actions, Self-cherishing, obstacles, harmful influences and impediments, All ripen on me and me alone! And to all these beings, who are as limitless as space I dedicate long-life, glory, wealth, happiness, power, Experience, realisation, and knowing, loving wisdom. May they all, through supreme enlightened actions, Attain the level of the most splendid Noble One! In short, may all the causes and effects Of egotism and self-cherishing ripen on me! And may all beings gain a wealth of benefit and happiness, And realise the meaning of emptiness and compassion! May all beings, especially those who harm me, Or who have developed a negative connection Through seeing, hearing, thinking of, or encountering me, Purify their obscurations, enter the path to enlightenment, And attain awakening straightaway!
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May I take the place of those experiencing the cause and effect Of unbearable, extremely negative acts, and may they all Purify obscurations and be born in realms of perfect bliss! For the sake of all, but especially those who harm me, May I remain only in the lower realms, And may all beings, my very own mothers, Escape samsara's ocean to reach liberation's shore. The only basis for bodhicitta— Kind enemies and harmful forces— For your sake, I shall gladly give away My body and my life—may you be benefitted! When I attain complete enlightenment, May you become the first in my circle, And, just like the five original disciples, Attain omniscience there and then! From now until I attain enlightenment, May I never be apart from you who do me harm, And with calm, untroubled view and conduct, May we set out together on the path to enlightenment. May those who see me, hear me or think of me, And also those who merely hear my name, Or are simply touched by the same breath of wind, Discard their obscurations and enter the way to peace! All beings are my own parents, as limitless as space, So how could I ever feel hostility towards them? Wishing only to repay their kindness, and acting gently, May I bring them, all at once, to enlightenment! May beings never be harmed on my account, Whether directly or indirectly, And, through bringing them only benefit and happiness, May I lead them all to the state of perfect bliss! In each and every instant, may all limitless beings, With skill in the means of liberation and the force of compassion, Become just like Avalokiteśvara, Mañjuśrī, And Vajrapāṇi, the Lord of Secrets.
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May those who suffer and are difficult to tame, Receive special loving care and guidance, And may the compassionate prayers and aspirations Of the Supreme Sage and the Lotus Born come true! In the wisdom space of the equality of self and other, Through the dawning of emptiness and compassion's power, ust so the benefit of others may be secured, May this prayer of aspiration swiftly be fulfilled! This aspiration prayer for seeing adverse conditions as supports on the path to enlightenment encapsulates the words of the Jamgön Lama 1 and was written by Lodrö Drimé Ziji Rabtu Gawé Pal, a mendicant heir to the victorious buddhas, who ardently and devotedly follows the Mahāyāna path, as a result of the kindness of the perfect buddha of Shechen (i.e., Shechen Gyaltsab), who was a master of wondrous bodhicitta and a crowning jewel for beings in this degenerate age. Translated by Adam Pearcey, 2015. With thanks to Po-yu Sung for providing the Tibetan text and a draft translation.
1. A reference to The Gateway to the Ocean of Bodhicitta (byang sems rgya mtsho'i 'jug ngogs ) by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thayé. ↩
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Wisdom’s Melody An Aspiration to Realize Madhyamaka, Mahāmudrā, and Mahā Ati by Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Incomparable Gurus in whom the three secrets of myriad siddhas are primordially perfected: Samantabhadra, Vajradhara, and you, Mighty Sage, together with your close disciples and oceanic deities of the Three Jewels, Three Roots, and dharmapālas, pray listen! Having purified myself with the common and extraordinary preliminary practices: cultivating faith, renunciation, compassion, and wisdom; with reliance upon the refuge of the three jewels, and the altruistic wish to benefit others, may I enter the path pleasing to the victors! The ultimate, essential nature of everything is emptiness , and the obscuring nature, devoid of self-characteristics , can arise interdependently as anything whatsoever. Their union lies beyond all extremes and is the dhātu beyond aspiration – may I actualize the Middle Way view of the supreme vehicle! Through the threefold natural occurrence the co-emergence of mind itself is realized; experiencing the self-liberation of the four faults is the fourfold yoga . Having found the deep confidence that the four kāyas are perfected within me, may I realize the meditation of Mahāmudrā! To realize the magical display of illusion, of appearance and mind as empty awareness, is to strike the vital point of the swift path of creation, recitation, method, and liberation; to see saṃsāra and nirvāṇa arise as the dharmakāya is to take both happiness and suffering as the path. May I dispel obstacles and enhance the practice through the conduct of single-taste ! Having liberated preoccupation with thought and hankering after self-characteristics into the primordially pure dhātu, the four visions of spontaneous presence exhaust contamination whence it lies. May I win the citadel of the dharmadhātu, the youthful kāya within a vase , and achieve the four visions of the resultant Great Perfection! With swift compassion for all beings throughout space, and to obtain the potential, ability, methods, and knowledge to tame those difficult ones – bringing about the amazing twofold spontaneous benefit – may I emulate the awe-inspiring siddhas of the past! Whilst explaining the Heart-Essence of the Lordly and Most Majestic of Siddhas (Druptop Chenpö’i Tuktik), I gave rise to a strong faith and conviction in the key vajra oints of the profound secret. I thought of the great fortune that would ensue if I and all 12
others could at least aspire to practise such a path. As such, I, Maṅgala, a beggar from Dokham, wrote this in the hidden land of fruits, Sikkim. May it prove meaningful! Virtue! Translated by Sean Price, 2015
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The Sage who Dispels Mind’s Anguish Advice from the Guru, the Gentle Protector Mañjuśrī On the Means of Accomplishing the Yogas of Śamatha and Vipaśyanā by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche Homage to the Guru Śākyamuni! When training in the yogas of śamatha and vipaśyanā by focusing on the body of the Teacher, Buddha, infuse your mind with precious bodhicitta —the wish to attain buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings—and think: “At this time when I have obtained the support of the freedoms and riches and met the Tathāgata’s teachings, I will put aside all worldly activities which only bring about negative results. Although such practices as making offerings to the Tathāgata’s form and so on do generate immeasurable merit, these accumulations of merit based on material wealth are something that the Tathāgata advised mainly for householders. As something far superior, for renunciates, those following in his own footsteps, he praised discipline and genuine inward resting. In accordance with the Tathāgata’s words, therefore, I will practice these as much as I can. “In particular, throughout the course of beginningless time, we have been disturbed day and night, without break, by all kinds of conceptual thoughts, rather like the stirring of wind, or clouds, or waves on the ocean, and have been brought low. Not only have we failed to accomplish a single remarkable quality, we are afflicted by all manner of suffering. Since that is so, I will now free myself however I can from the mire of these different conflicting thoughts, and, even if just for a single instant, focus on the Tathāgata’s body, which is of such great merit and significance. In so doing, I shall achieve the yogas of śamatha and vipaśyanā in the proper way.” With an intense pledge of one-pointed yearning think: “Guru, Victorious Ones, and your descendants, I supplicate you: grant your blessings so that I may succeed!” Remove yourself, first of all, from hustle and bustle; in a place without impediments to meditative concentration, such as people moving about during the day or hubbub at night, sit on a comfortable seat in meditation posture. Then thoroughly mix your mindstream with the preliminary dharmas. Place in front of you, at whatever height and position is comfortable, a beautiful and pleasing image of the Tathāgata, the King of Śākyas, which has been drawn correctly by a skilled artist. With the power of aspiration recall the Tathāgata’s blessings and by reciting the Essence of Causation mantra consecrate the image. Having done this, place it at whatever distance is right for you to look at, neither too close nor too far 14
away. Look at the image with admiration as if it were the Tathāgata’s actual form, and think: “Like an uḍumbara flower, which appears in this world only every few hundred years, the Tathāgata, arises from the cause of boundless accumulations of merit and wisdom beyond imagining. Since the Tathāgata is fully adorned with the thirty-two excellent marks and eighty excellent signs, seeing him is without disharmony. In the world of gods, the extremely clear and steadfast noble rūpakāyas are seen in common by all the sentient beings of that world at that time. These rūpakāyas also teach the Dharma there, and they display all kinds of miracles. For the benefit of those to be tamed they also perform various actions including staying, departing, getting up, and sleeping, bringing immeasurable sentient beings’ sources of virtue to fruition. Our Teacher, Śākyamuni, Lion of the Śākyas, was born into the royal line of Śākyas and eventually attained enlightenment, after which he taught the Dharma to bodhisattvas, śrāvakas, and many other gatherings of beings at Vulture Peak and elsewhere.” While keeping in mind these qualities and attributes, think, “This is what the Tathāgata’s form is like in shape and appearance.” The Tathāgata is the embodiment of discipline, of samādhi, supreme knowledge (shes rab ), complete freedom, the gathering of the wisdom and seeing of complete liberation and so on; he is endowed with immaculate qualities that are beyond imagining and cannot be adequately conveyed even unto the very limits of space itself. He closely embraces us all with his great love. For our sake he underwent immeasurable hardships; as you should learn from the supportive teachings for the Treasury of Blessings , which tell, for instance, of how the Brahmin Samudrarāja generated bodhicitta. In such ways, for three immeasurable aeons by practicing the six pāramitās he gathered inconceivable and inexpressible accumulations of merit and wisdom, and was freed from all obscurations. By conquering the four māras he completely perfected all excellent qualities without exception, and having obtained the kāya of the great wisdom of omniscience he became the refuge, protector, and friend of all sentient beings until the end of time. The virtues of recalling this unsurpassable Bhagavān, the Transcendent Conqueror, paying homage to him, uttering his name, seeing his bodily form and resting the mind one-pointedly upon it and so on, no matter how small, will become the cause for supreme awakening. Think: “Since that is due to the power of the Tathāgata’s past aspirations and inconceivable wisdom, how fortunate we are!” And generate great faith by recalling the Buddha. Then, without your attention being too tightly or loosely focused, but in a leisurely manner, without letting your mindfulness and attentiveness decline, focus your mind continuously on the appearance of the Tathāgata’s form. Distancing yourself from any thought other than the object of focus, settle your attention solely on the 15
Buddha’s form. Eventually you should focus one-pointedly without interruption as much as you can. In short, practice progressively the nine methods of mental-abiding until you achieve the ‘one-pointedness of a mind of the desire realm’. You can look at and focus upon the body in general, or, in order to obtain the noble Dharma and pacify dullness, focus particularly on the uṣṇīṣa , the crown on the Buddha’s head, the limit of which is impossible to see. Alternatively, in order to obtain samādhi and pacify agitation, you can concentrate directly on the enlightened mind’s glorious knot (which is at the Buddha’s heart centre). Or, to accomplish great merit and gain happiness, you can concentrate on the appearance of the coil of hair between the Buddha’s eyebrows, which is white as snow or conch and curls to the right. In order to make the great melodious sound of Dharma pervade the whole world and to benefit sentient beings by teaching the Dharma, fix your mind on the form of the throat, the source of the sixty qualities of melodious speech, at the conch of Dharma with its three lines and so on. Wherever it is you feel inclined to focus, concentrate your mind there unwaveringly. When focusing your mind like this, at the very beginning it is like catching a snake; the mind is so wild and untamed that the first stage of meditation is called the experience of movement, like a waterfall. At this stage you have the impression that your mind is in constant motion. From the Sūtra Requested by Subāhu : This mind is like lightning, wind, and clouds, Like the waves of a giant ocean, Cunning, indulging in everything it desires, Moving, straying—I must certainly tame it. Think: “Since all sentient beings have fallen under the sway of this completely distracted mind, I will persevere without giving into laziness come what may! For if one perseveres there is nothing one cannot accomplish.” Then endeavour to maintain the focus for as long as you can. By persevering in this way, discursive thoughts, which were so apparent and rough, wild and turbulent, will settle down slightly after a while. But there will still be the busyness of many different thoughts—a bubbling stream of restless mental activity. That is called the second meditation experience of ‘attainment, like a river flowing through a narrow canyon.’ The example is used because although a river running through a narrow canyon is still very turbulent and noisy, it is a little slower than a waterfall. If you keep persevering and continue the practice, then you will feel that inwardly the mind’s thoughts are slowing down and you are able to remain with the object of focus. However, if you examine carefully you will see that you are still involved in a 16
continuous stream of many subtle conceptual thoughts. This is the third experience, called the experience of ‘familiarisation, like a gently flowing stream.’ When you look at a stream from afar it seems to be still and you cannot tell that it is moving, but when you get up close you see that it is moving a little and rippling. From this point on, if you don’t stop persevering, but keep on striving, you will have less hardship and suffering than before—so exert yourself continuously! By practicing like this, even the movement of subtle conceptual thoughts will be pacified and as long as you have the conditioning for the focus you will be able to remain as long as you like. Yet this does not mean that you are completely impervious to circumstances. This is the fourth meditation experience, called the experience of ‘stability, like an ocean free from waves’, since the mind abides and is stable. Having reached this far, without having to undergo great hardships, the fifth meditation experience, ‘perfection, like a mountain’, will arise as long as you continue to familiarise yourself with this state over time. This is synonymous with effortless engagement (rtsol ba med pa’i ‘du byed) . The mind naturally mixes with whatever you focus on and, without the need for any effort, remains steadily wherever you want; conceptual thoughts no longer have the power to shake the mind. This is the accomplishment of what is called the ‘one-pointedness of a mind of the desire realm’. At this time, various experiences resulting from the mind’s abiding will also arise. When you have become familiar with this state, mind and body are said to become supple (shin tu sbyangs ba ). As body and mind become workable in this way, whatever object of focus you settle the mind upon, even if you remain for several days, there is no sense at all of either the body or the mind being unable to cope; the body feels as light as cotton wool and the mind is pervaded by the bliss of vivid clarity. This suppleness is rough and heavy at first and has a sense of solidity. But with familiarity the heaviness fades and there arises an unwavering śamatha that is extremely fine and clear, like a shadow, a mind of meditative concentration that is in accord with the main part of practice. This kind of meditation has the name “śamatha”, since it is a mind endowed with suppleness. It also corresponds to the aspect of the first meditative absorption’s capable preparatory stage (bsam gtan dang o’i nyer bsdogs mi lcogs med ). There is nothing that this kind of meditative concentration is incapable of—be it meditation with a conceptual focus, or meditation without concepts, as in the meditations on emptiness and the like. There are several ways of counting the stages of accomplishing śamatha, such as the four mental engagements or the six powers, but essentially they are all included in the following: the mind remains totally concentrated, with mindfulness and attentiveness, for as long as possible on the object of focus, and as you familiarise 17
yourself with this the five meditation experiences (explained above) will arise. When you have accomplished śamatha in this way, the strength of the mind’s workability gives the body a gleaming complexion and makes it comfortable and strong. The mind too becomes clear and lucid and settles on any object of your choice. Body and mind are ‘saturated’ with immeasurable joy and bliss, the afflictions are reduced, and you have an experience concordant with the extraordinary joy of inner solitude. By the strength of the merit of practicing śamatha with this focus on the form of the Buddha, and through the Buddha’s blessings, you will come to see the Buddha, either in actuality or in dreams. You will receive Dharma teachings and so on—all sorts of different excellent qualities will arise in your mind. Once you have accomplished śamatha in this way, begin the practice of vipaśyanā. How should you do so? When first practicing śamatha, you rest the mind using an image of the Buddha’s form as a support. Even when not using such a support as the focus, the Buddha’s form can still arise as a mental object on which you rest the mind. When, having practiced in whichever way you wish, you finally accomplish śamatha, the Buddha’s body appears vividly even without any support as the characteristic form of samādhi. At first this form shines vividly and steadily as an object of the mind, like a reflection in a mirror. Then, as you familiarise yourself with it more and more, it manifests as an object of your senses as well, like something that is actually present. If you continue to familiarise yourself with it yet further, the image you are focusing on becomes perceptible even to others’ senses in the same way. So, it is said that the firs clarity appears as a mental object; the second as an object of the senses; and the third as an object of touch, as is taught in all the Early Translations’ textbooks on approach and accomplishment. When you accomplish just the first level of clarity, from then on you should practice vipaśyanā. Consider the way the form of the Buddha endowed with the marks and signs—beautiful, delightful, vivid, and steadfast—now appears as a mental object as if actually present. This is just the appearance of habitual imprints in your own mind: it has not come from anywhere, nor does it go anywhere. When examined it is isolated. It is not found anywhere at all, inside or out. It depends on the mind and appears entirely as a result of the mere interdependent arising of habit. The mind to which it appears too, when examined, is not found anywhere, inside or out; since it is devoid of any basis or root, what need is there to speak of what appears to it? This appearance, therefore, does not possess even the slightest trace of any true nature. In the same way, the appearance of buddhas in the world is due to the power of the interdependent arising of sources of virtue based on beings’ pure intentions, together with the buddhas’ great aspirations made in the past; just as when someone’s 18
reflection appears in a clean mirror. Although in worldly beings’ domain of experience it does indeed appear undeceiving, the Tathāgata does not have any ordinary aggregates, elements or sense-sources—not even to the slightest degree— since he is the utterly unfathomable wisdom kāya equal to the dharmadhātu, the basic space of phenomena. In the Sūtra of the Ornament of the Appearances of Wisdom it says: The Tathāgata, by inexhaustible virtue, Is a reflection of dharmas; Since there is no thusness (tathātā), there is also no Tathāgata. In all worlds he appears only as a reflection. Also, from the Samādhi in which the Present Buddha Abides Directly: Buddhas are analysed by bodhisattvas. Mind as well is completely pure, naturally luminous, Stainless, not merged with conceptual thoughts. Whoever knows this will attain supreme awakening, buddhahood. We must examine this with supreme knowledge and understand it. Having understood this, just as it is with the Tathāgata, we will see that all the phenomena of appearance and existence that are contained within the aggregates, elements, and sense-sources also appear in the world and are experienced as they are through the force of interdependent origination. Yet all these phenomena are no more than mere appearances coming about due to the interdependent arising of their individual causes and conditions. And when they are properly examined, we don’t find even so much as a single atom’s worth of true nature. Just as with magical illusions and appearances during a dream, in reality there is no going or coming, arising or ceasing and so forth at all. Nevertheless, childish ordinary beings, who cling to appearances as existing the way they appear and who have forsaken individual analysis, cling to arising and ceasing and the rest as existent. It is as if a person with cataracts has no notion that the falling hairs which affect their vision should be removed. Throughout beginningless time our minds have been tainted by the 'cataracts' of ignorance, as a result of which we do not know how things genuinely are. Those who have realised the way things genuinely are, meanwhile, do not need to be rid of appearances, because they can see that although things appear, they are not real at all. Having seen this, they realise that all phenomena are naturally and primordially unborn. The Sūtra Requested by Anavatapta says:
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Whatever was born from conditions was not born; It is essentially devoid of birth. Whatever relies on conditions is empty, it is taught. Whoever knows emptiness is careful. Also, in the Mother of the Victorious Ones, the Prajñāpāramitā , it says: All phenomena are like illusions and dreams. Nirvāṇa as well is like an illusion and dream. If there is any dharma superior to nirvāṇa, it too is illusory and dreamlike. Furthermore, from the King of Samādhi Sūtra : Just like mirages, cities of gandharvas , Like magical illusions, like dreams, Conceptual meditation is essentially empty. Understand all phenomena to be like this. And in the Root Knowledge of the Middle Way it is taught: Like a dream, like a magical display, Like a city of gandharvas, just so— Both arising and dwelling and, likewise, Destruction—all were taught to be like this. No matter how the Buddha’s body appears to the mind, therefore, all acts of focusing on it are non-existent from the beginning. And all phenomena are the same, ourselves included. Whatever is one’s own nature, is the nature of the Buddha. Whatever is the nature of the Buddha, that is also the nature of all phenomena. From the Sūtra of the Ornament of the Appearances of Wisdom: Permanently unborn phenomena are the Tathāgata. All phenomena are like the Sugata. Those with childish minds who grasp at characteristics Interact with phenomena that do not exist throughout all worlds. From the Condensed Prajñāpāramitā : Understand all sentient beings to be like oneself. Understand all phenomena to be like sentient beings. Not conceptualising things as either unborn or born— This is the practice of the supreme Prajñāpāramitā. And from the Root Knowledge of the Middle Way : Whoever forms mental constructs about Buddha, 20
Who is beyond constructs and inexhaustible, Will be brought down by their constructs. They will not see the Tathāgata. Whatever is the nature of the Tathāgata, That is the nature of these wanderers. The Tathāgata is without self-nature. These wanderers also lack self-nature. In the natural state, the ultimate nature, all phenomena are perfectly equal in the dharmadhātu, the basic space of phenomena, that is beyond all the webs of mental constructs, such as the notions of being born, unborn, and so on. From the Sūtra Requested by Sāgaramati (Ocean of Intelligence) : This dharma is stainless, pure, virtuous, naturally luminous; Like the sky, equal, and primordially unarisen. Unborn, unarisen, without abiding, and without ceasing— This is the victorious ones’ stainless, unwavering seal. From the Avataṃsaka Sūtra : Fine and crystalline, the path of great sages, Non-conceptual, not the conceived, difficult to look at. Naturally peaceful, without ceasing, without arising, It is realised by the wise who clearly understand. Empty of essence, peaceful, devoid of suffering, Free from the continuum, equal nirvāṇa, Free from centre and extremes, inexpressible, Free throughout the three times, like the sky. From the Sūtra Spoken in the Presence of Noble Rāhula: Inconceivable, inexpressible, the Prajñāpāramitā, Unborn, unceasing, the nature of space, Object of the wisdom of individual self-awareness— To the mother of the victorious ones of the three times, I prostrate! The protector Nāgārjuna taught: Not known from other, peaceful, and Not elaborated by elaborations, Free from concepts, devoid of plurality— That is the definition of suchness. Accordingly, the yogi who resolves thusness—that which is beyond all expressions, elaborations, and objects of focus—at first by means of the samādhi that realises all phenomena to be like illusions rests in equanimity on the Tathāgata’s illusory body. 21
He or she should look at the body of the Tathāgata and then when listening to Dharma and so forth train in the manifestations of illusory objects of experience. If the yogi then rests in inexpressible equanimity, the emptiness that is to be individually recognised, in that manner he or she will attain the patience towards the dharma that is concordant with dharma. And owing to that there is no doubt that before long the yogi will attain in actuality the wisdom of the path of seeing. This is clearly explained in the pith instructions for taking into experience the meaning of the Samādhi in which the Present Buddha Abides Directly and the Same Arrangement Samādhi . Even those who are not able to practice like this should engage in the yoga of continually recalling the Teacher, Lord of the Sages, as is taught in the Treasury of Blessings . Bring to mind the visualisation for taking refuge and generating bodhicitta, and with a firm and confident pledge recite the following three times: In the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme assembly I take refuge until enlightenment. By the merit of my generosity and so forth May I attain buddhahood for the benefit of beings. After meditating on the four abodes of Brahma, from the illusory state of the unity of emptiness and interdependently-arisen appearances say: Ah Like the illusory display of the unity of unborn emptiness… etc. Actualise the visualisation as it is described in the Treasury of Blessings chant text. Thinking that the Buddha is present in person, practice with longing and steady faith that by which the bodhisattvas, those expert in skilful means, gather together the accumulations of many aeons in a single instant of mind: the condensed key point that accumulates, purifies, and increases, the seven branches of homage, and the rest. To avoid squandering your hopes, supplicate the Buddha with confidence and make aspirations for the desired aims as taught in the root text. Then, with one-pointed faith bow down to the buddha bhagavāns with as many bodies as there are motes of dust in the universe and make offerings with all appropriate gifts. With the one-pointed aspiration of thinking, “Until obtaining unsurpassable enlightenment, I and all sentient beings go for refuge!” recite the Buddha’s names with, “Guru, Teacher, Transcendent Conqueror...”, as many times as you can. Finally, by reciting the dhāraṇī mantra (gzungs ) in the manner of invoking the Tathāgata’s enlightened mindstream. Consider that light-rays shine out from the Tathāgata’s body and fill the entire expanse of space. Imagine that by dissolving into 22
you and all sentient beings all obscurations and suffering are cleared away and you come to possess every happiness. All the excellent qualities of the Mahāyāna path, such as faith, dhāraṇī, samādhi, courage, supreme knowledge, and wisdom and the like, arise properly in your mindstream. You become someone with the fortune of attaining enlightenment, from the level of a non-returner up until final, unsurpassable great awakening. Recite the mantra as many times as you can. From the Jewel Mound Sūtra ’s eleventh, “Radiating Light” chapter: Now, by the causes and conditions Of inconceivable virtuous actions I have completely abandoned all delusion And accomplished manifold light-rays. And: By the power of non-doing Lights of infinite colours stream out, Fulfilling the hopes Of those aspiring accordingly. From a single ray of light two colours shine out, and so on. Thus, there are immeasurably different kinds of light-rays, all radiating: the light-rays Shining Clean Cloud, and Pristine Eyes, Pristine Ears, …etc., up to Pristine Mind. Similarly, there are Pristine Form, etc., up to Pristine Phenomena; Pristine Earth, etc., up to Pristine Space; Pristine Aggregates, etc.; Pristine Truth etc.; Pristine Courage etc.; and those named after colours such as White, Yellow, etc.; as well as Supreme Excellent Quality, Nāga’s Splendour, Elephant’s Splendour, Prosperous Lion, Prosperous Supreme Nāga etc.; Tamed Nāga, Tamed Yakṣa, etc.; Vajra Strength, Empty etc.; and Completely Pure Past Virtue, each arising individually. The light-ray called Dharmatā makes ten million buddhafields quake. The one called Taming Māras terrifies the māras. Holding in mind the name of the light-ray called Merit Victory-Banner overcomes harm. Holding in mind the name of the one called Mighty Victory-Banner overcomes enemies. Holding in mind the name of the one called Completely Pacifying Victory-Banner overcomes desire, and so on. Merely holding these names in mind is enough to overcome all faults, including sexual misconduct, corrupt discipline, and the like. Moreover, taking the name of any of the light-rays is also enough to perfect discipline, samādhi and so forth and annihilate all the afflictions such as delusion. Similarly, happiness is obtained, one is freed from anguish, transcends all mental constructs, and gives birth to excellent qualities such as knowing the three times. Each light-ray, such as Sorrow-Free, has as well a retinue of eight thousand billion. In such ways it is said that by means of the different light-rays the Tathāgata has, the 23
number of which goes beyond the count of particles in the buddhafields, sentient beings are brought to fruition and their individual hopes are fulfilled completely. In the bodhisattva piṭaka it also says: The buddhas’ infinite light, A web of light beyond imagining, Pervades an infinite ocean Of buddhafields in all directions. Furthermore, you should also consider the meaning of what is taught in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra and the “Excellent Splendour” chapter of the Precious Palm Tree Sūtra and similar texts. In this context as well, by putting into practice in whatever way is appropriate the yogas of śamatha and vipaśyanā as taught above, you will accomplish something that is at least an approximation of genuine śamatha and vipaśyanā. During a session, make maṇḍala offerings, praises and supplications, and dedicate the virtue and make different aspirations in whichever way is suitable. There is no need to request the Buddha to come and dissolve, since wherever you visualise the Buddha’s body, he is there; in the space-like kāya of equanimity there is no coming, going, arising, or decreasing. You can recall the Buddha in any place or time. In the breaks between sessions exert yourself in the sources of virtue as much as you can, by reading different sūtras, or doing prostrations, making offerings, circumambulating, and so forth. Even if you are unable to do any of these, recall the Buddha as much as you can and bring to mind repeatedly the concepts of impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and selflessness, as well as the concept of nirvāṇa, or peace. When lying down, continue your practice for as long as you are not overwhelmed by sleep. When you do fall asleep visualise light radiating out from the Buddha’s body and pervading everywhere, and meditate on the concept of light. From the dharma text known as the Completely Certain Meaning : Bhikṣus, if you wonder how one attains the wisdom of seeing by training thoroughly in samādhi meditation, bhikṣus, the bhikṣu thoroughly takes hold of the concept of light and so on…. Bhikṣus, it is like this: for example, during the last spring moon the sky is cloudless, and on a cloudless day the sun’s form appears completely pure, completely white, and luminous; it is not dark. Bhikṣus, likewise the bhikṣu thoroughly takes hold of the concept of light. He keeps it perfectly in mind. He perfectly encounters it. He perfectly realises it. Having truly abided in the concept of the sun and meditated on its light in the mind, just as in the day so also in the night, just as in the night so also in the 24
day, just as early on so also late, just as late so also early on, just as below so also above, just as above so also below. Like that, with mind free from all divisions and cycles truly abiding in the concept of the sun he meditates on its light in the mind. If you cultivate this samādhi meditation at all times and deeply familiarise yourself with it, you will obtain the wisdom of seeing! Likewise, constantly endeavour as much as you can in the practice of recollecting the Lord of Sages, and with sincere intentions dedicate all sources of virtue for the sake of unsurpassable perfect awakening. All those who exert themselves like this and, by resting in equanimity in the manner of the illusory relative and the absolute, free from elaborations, accomplish śamatha and vipaśyanā will obtain extraordinary qualities of the path, such as seeing the Buddha, hearing the Dharma and so forth. Even those who practice a mere semblance of this will gain all kinds of blessings and accomplishments. Wonderful signs, such as seeing the Tathāgata in dreams, will also arise. Moreover, with regard to good and bad signs in dreams, the Sūtra Called Accomplishing the Fourth Noble One says: The Youthful Mañjuśrī said to the devaputra Bhadvika: “The four dreams of dusty obscurations are as follows: seeing a moon-disk inside a dusty well; seeing a moon-disk at the bottom of a dirty pond or well; seeing a moon-disk in a sky obscured by large clouds; and seeing a moon-disk in a sky shrouded by smoke and clouds of dust. “Moreover, the four dreams that correspond to karmic obscurations are: falling into an abyss from a huge precipice; approaching an undulating road; approaching a narrow road; and seeing polluted places and many frightening things. “The four dreams that correspond to the obscurations of the afflictions are: being upset by fierce poison; hearing the sound of mostly ferocious wild animals; staying in a fraud’s home; and seeing one’s own body as filthy and wearing stained clothes. “The four dreams that correspond to obtaining dhāraṇī mantra are: seeing a place full of all sorts of precious treasures; seeing a pond totally filled with blooming lotus flowers; finding a set of white clothes; and seeing a deity holding a parasol above the crown of one’s head. “The four dreams that correspond to obtaining samādhi are: seeing a lovely girl adorned with fine jewellery offering scattered flowers; seeing a flock of white and grey geese in the sky hooting and then flying off; seeing the Tathāgata place his hand, beautified by many lights, on the top of one’s head; and seeing the Tathāgata sitting in a lotus flower in meditative concentration. 25
“The four dreams that correspond to seeing the Tathāgata are: seeing a moondisk rising; seeing a sun-disk rising; seeing a blossoming lotus flower; and seeing Lord Brahmā in an extremely peaceful posture. “The four dreams that correspond to the bodhisattva’s own qualities are: seeing a large sāla tree filled with all sorts of leaves, flowers, and fruits; seeing a bronze vessel filled with gold; seeing the face of the sky filled with parasols, victory-banners, and standards; and seeing a great cakravartin king. “The four dreams that correspond to taming the māras are: seeing a great athlete defeating all other athletes, hoisting a standard, and going; seeing a great hero win a battle and leave; seeing someone being empowered as king; and seeing oneself in Bodhgaya taming the māras. “The four dreams that correspond to the signs of a non-returner are: a white skull being tied on one’s head; making unstinting offerings; sitting on a large dharma seat; and seeing the Tathāgata staying in Bodhgaya and teaching the dharma. “The four dreams that correspond to obtaining the essence of enlightenment are: seeing a vase; seeing a chicken encircled by Indian jays; witnessing all the trees rising up, bowing down, and making prostrations wherever you go; and seeing a vast golden light.” Having also understood the good and bad signs of dreams as described, rely on the skilful means for clearing away faults and accomplishing excellent qualities. In [Buddha Vairocana’s] Chökyi Gyamo it is taught that: Signs of true purification through remorse are seeing the Buddha come, rub his hand on the crown of one’s head, and lights radiating out; and seeing flowers and so on. In other sūtras it is also said that if you see lotus flowers in dreams your aim has been accomplished. From the Liberation Sūtra : The dream signs of having purified negative actions are wanting to cross an enormous river and then going over a bridge, being washed, and rain falling on your body. These are all signs of complete purification. Joining and sitting in a row of many ordained saṅgha members, and entering a stūpa or temple and seeing all the images of the buddhas and bodhisattvas are signs of following in the footsteps of the Buddha and Dharma. If you dream of finding fruit and eating it, you will actualise the accomplishment of the fruits of excellent qualities in this life. It is taught that just one such dream marks the purification of one of the five evil 26
deeds of immediate fruition, while five such dreams indicates the purification of all five evil deeds. This should also be understood according to the dreams chapter of the Jewel Mound Sūtra and other such texts. Although there are many different bodhisattva practices for the time of death, including the eleven concepts taught in the sūtras, the crucial point is taught and contained in the Noble Wisdom of Passing Sūtra . There it is taught that at the time of death bodhisattvas meditate on the wisdom of passing as follows: whenever you think, “I am dying!” visualise the Guru, Lord of Sages, on the crown of your head and generate intense faith. Then think: “It is not only me: all sentient beings are subject to the law of death, no-one is exempt. Although we have repeatedly undergone countless births and deaths here in saṃsāra, we have only ever known the suffering of death and all these births have been entirely devoid of meaning. But now I will make sure that this present death of mine is meaningful!” Having contemplated in this way, reflect that there is not a single conditioned phenomenon included within the internal or the external, or the past, present, or future, that is immune to impermanence, the nature of arising and ceasing, even for a single instant. Within the category of the conditioned there are those t hings whose continuum ceases after a short time, such as water bubbles and bolts of lightning, and there are also those whose continuum ceases after a much longer period of time, such as the realms of this world. But whether they abide for a long time or a short time, all conditioned things must cease in the end; there is not one that is unchanging. The entire world of the ‘vessel’ and its ‘contents’—the environment and its inhabitants—will also disintegrate, and if even the Tathāgata, the Transcendent Conqueror, demonstrated death in the manner of passing into nirvāṇa, what need is there to speak of the likes of us? As the Tathāgata said, “Everything conditioned is impermanent.” “Not understanding the nature of conditioned things like this, being averse to separation and death and delighting in gathering and birth, sentient beings remain in saṃsāra, circling around again and again. Yet I shall take my own death when it comes as a teacher, a virtuous spiritual friend, and will realise from the depth of my heart how all conditioned things are impermanent! I will decide on this with certainty!” Think earnestly like this at the time of death: “In all future lifetimes too until I attain the essence of awakening, by understanding everything conditioned to be impermanent may I not become attached to conditioned objects of experience! Guru, Lord of Sages, victorious ones and your heirs, I supplicate you! Grant your blessings that it may be so!” Then, as it is said in the Mahāyāna sūtra, the Noble Wisdom of Passing: Since all phenomena are naturally pure, Meditate on the concept of non-entities. Fully endowed with bodhicitta, 27
Meditate on the concept of great compassion. Since the nature is unseeable luminosity, Meditate on not being attached to anything at all. Mind is the cause for the arising of wisdom. Do not search for buddha elsewhere. First consider how the principle illustrated by one’s own death applies throughout the infinite reaches of space. Focus on all sentient beings, who cling to impermanent conditioned things as permanent and to painful saṃsāra as pleasure, and experience death and endless varieties of suffering. Generating a mind of great compassion, think: “In order to free them from the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, and death and lead them to unsurpassable perfect awakening, may I become the protector of the three worlds, a buddha, a transcendent conqueror, and free all sentient beings from their endless suffering!” Then meditate on the concept of great compassion endowed with bodhicitta. Similarly, when you examine all phenomena, as exemplified by this death, you find that they are by nature void, and yet, by conceptualising, through the force of mere imputation, we create happiness and suffering, benefit and harm. If these phenomena really existed, there would be no so-called death and suffering at all! Think: “All phenomena are unreal!” Decide that this is the case, and reflect. Likewise, all these phenomena, including death, have no established identity whatsoever, yet like illusory appearances their expression is completely unobstructed. When analysed, they cannot be expressed in terms of the extremes of existence or non-existence. They are naturally non-conceptual and luminous. Therefore, one’s own mind that does not abide as any entity or non-conceptual thing whatsoever is primordially luminous; in the state of present direct awareness all the phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are totally equal. Decide, therefore, that the enlightened mind of the Teacher, Lord of Sages, and your own mind are indivisible within the nature of mind, the state of self-existing wakefulness. If without getting distracted from that state you come to possess confidence and develop certainty in it, that is the realisation of the true nature of your own mind. Other than that there is no so-called ‘buddha’ whatsoever. In that state there is neither death nor birth. Death and the like are mere concepts; in the truth of the innate nature of mind free from concepts, birth and death are not established in any way. If you were to pass away while resting evenly in such a state, you would be reborn in a buddhafield without experiencing the deluded appearances of the intermediate state. If you do not have that level of confidence however, but still remember only the Guru, Lord of Sages, at the time of death and throughout the intermediate state, without forgetting, then that will be enough to lead you to a pure realm. Moreover, no matter what terror and suffering you face in this life, if you remember the 28
Buddha you will certainly be liberated from any trouble. Whatever happiness and excellent fortune you enjoy, know it to be the great kindness of the Buddha, and, visualising the sources of pleasure as an offering-cloud of Samantabhadra, present them to the Buddha. Constantly reflect on the meaning of the three liberations and the six pāramitās and other topics the Buddha taught. With great compassion for all sentient beings generate the mind of supreme enlightenment and train as much as you can in the conduct of the bodhisattvas. Recalling the Teacher like this is extremely important, for it is by recalling the Buddha that we first set out on all the bodhisattva paths. It thus has immeasurable benefit, as it generates all the excellent qualities of the path. These days, when everyone believes their own school’s tenets to be the most important, only a few people pay much attention to the Teacher, the Lord of Sages. But anyone who has embraced these teachings and yet still has no notion of faith in the Teacher as supreme must surely lack intelligence. Why? Because it is solely due to the Teacher’s compassion in demonstrating his enlightened deeds in this place and time for us wandering beings of the degenerate age that the teachings have appeared —and that means not only the three piṭakas, but all the teachings, up to and including those of secret mantra Vajrayāna, the path that can bring about the unified state of no-more learning in one short lifetime in this degenerate age. It is also solely due to his compassion that there are beings who hold these teachings, those who have entered the teachings of sūtra and mantra, the saṅgha of noble beings. If the Teacher had not radiated the light of the teachings here in this realm at this time, we would not hear even so much as the sound of the Three Jewels. What need to speak then of practicing the paths of sūtra and mantra? Therefore, whichever tradition we practice, whether it is from the New Schools or the Old School, to have the intense faith that holds the Teacher as especially important is indispensable at all times. We must therefore be especially devoted to the Teacher and persevere in this form of yoga! Some others may think, “Even if it is not the Teacher, Lord of Sages, but the Buddha in another form, as a renunciate free from attachment, for example, or a peaceful or wrathful yidam and so on, what difference does it make as long as we feel devotion?” Essentially there is no difference, since all Buddhas are the wisdom kāya, perfect equality, and there is no distinction in their qualities of abandonment and realisation. Yet from the perspective of the relative level of mere appearances it is due to the Teacher’s compassion that the visualisations and recitations of the yidam deities of the different schools in all their peaceful and wrathful forms and the paths and trainings emerged in the first place. Therefore, just as the source of all the water in the world is Lake Mānasarovar, all appearances of the greater and lesser teachings of the practices of the paths of sūtra and mantra are certainly a result of this Teacher’s compassion. Just as when you 29
supplicate your own root guru you receive more blessings than by supplicating other gurus, because of the power of your connection, supplicating the Teacher, Lord of Sages, brings swifter blessings than supplicating any other buddha. You might then wonder, “Well, does that mean I should focus solely on the Lord of Sages, and stop supplicating other buddhas?” But it is not like that: understand that whichever yidam you might supplicate is no different in reality from the Teacher, Lord of Sages, since it is taught that all buddhas are equal in the dharmakāya. You must understand this point. Think: “The supreme Teacher, manifesting different bodily appearances as this and that yidam deity, showed himself to be a refuge and friend to us all, the wandering beings of this degenerate age.” If you nevertheless separate the Teacher and your yidam, and, giving up on the Teacher, believe the yidam to be somehow separate, this will make it difficult for accomplishments to arise. Similarly, in the tradition of unsurpassable secret mantra, the guru who is the vajra master is in essence inseparable from all the buddhas of the three times. The guru’s manifestation is of even greater kindness than the buddhas of the three times, since without the guru, even though the buddhas of the three times are present, you will not receive blessings and accomplishments. This means that even if you make an offering to just a single pore of the guru’s body it is much more noble than making offerings to the buddhas of the three times. All the vajra tantra scriptures state repeatedly that simply by succeeding in pleasing the guru, you will please all the buddhas of the three times and receive their blessings. For these reasons, the guru is known as the complete embodiment of the Three Jewels, or as the Fourth Jewel. Understand, therefore, that the guru is more powerful than the buddhas of past, present and future. You might wonder if there is anything superior to guru yoga and such practices. The answer is that there certainly is not. Although in the tradition of secret mantra there is no practice for entering the door of blessings, no dharma superior to the profound path of guru yoga, the guru who teaches us the secret mantra is in fact an emanation of the Teacher, the Lord of Sages. In the section of sūtras about nirvāṇa it is said: Do not despair, Ānanda. Do not lament, Ānanda. In the future, I will manifest as virtuous spiritual friends And act for your own and others’ benefit. Since they have practiced the paths of sūtra and mantra that were taught out of the compassion of the Teacher, the Lord of Sages, the gurus are also offspring born from Śākyamuni’s speech. The guru endowed with experience and realisation is the heartson (or heart-daughter) who has received the blessings of the relative and absolute bodhicitta of the Teacher’s enlightened mindstream. This means that whatever guru 30
yoga you practice, you must understand the guru to be inseparable from the Teacher, Lord of Sages. Not only that, you must understand that the guru is not separate from whichever yidam you meditate on. The guru and yidam are not separate from each other; nor are they separate from all the buddhas of the three times. In those who have concepts of high and low, or adopting and abandoning with regard to the buddhas, accomplishments will not arise. Acknowledge the great kindness of the Teacher of the past and be supremely devoted to him. Having understood the gurus, yidams and so on to be inseparable from Śākyamuni, whichever yoga of visualisation and recitation you practice, be it the guru or yidam, it is certain that you will gain great accomplishments. When you visualise and recite based on the practice of recollecting the Lord of Sages, then, you must visualise and recite with the devotion of understanding that not only the sublime gurus who teach the Dharma of sūtra and mantra, but all the Three ewels of the three times too are actually embodied within the Buddha. Although here in the context of sūtra, merely recollecting the Buddha is considered most important, it is also quite alright to meditate on the Buddha as being indivisible from the guru. Yet this is not absolutely necessary, because simply recalling the Buddha will accomplish the aim. When reciting the Buddha’s names, Buddha is called ‘Guru, Teacher’, because Buddha is the guru of the three worlds. That is why it is an appropriate name for the Buddha, but if you understand it as a sign that the Buddha is indivisible from whichever guru you have faith in that is also alright. In any case, even if you practice in the manner of guru yoga in which the guru himself, the source of the unsurpassable secret mantra tradition, is in the form of the Lord of Sages, do as explained above. Since the guru him- or herself is the essential embodiment of all the buddhas, then whichever buddha you meditate on, and in whichever form, there is no contradiction. It is in the nature of things that blessings too will arise in accordance with your own devotion. This was adapted from the White Lotus, the supportive teaching for the Treasury of Blessings, the instructions of the Gentle Protector (Mañjuśrī), Mipham Rinpoche, without corrupting either the words or the meaning. It is said that it is very good for those who do not know how to practice Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen to practice in accord with these teachings. This was heard [by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche] from Rigdzin Tekchok (Vidyādhara of the Supreme Vehicle), a direct disciple of the omniscient guru. May virtue and excellence flourish! First translated by Lhasey Lotsawa Translations & Publications in 2008 for The Shravakayana - A Collection of Teachings , compiled by Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche for his teachings on the Nine Yanas. Revised and edited for Lotsawa House, 2016.
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་མ་ལ་འ ར།ོ Guru Yoga Composed by Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
ཨ། རང་ག་མ་བས་གདོད་ནས་ོ་་ེ མས། ། a, rangrik machö döné dorje sem
A! My own rigpa, unaltered, is and always has been Vajrasattva,
ན་ི་བ་པ་་ི ར་གས་ན་བདག བོ ། lhün gyi drubpé chiwor rik kün dak
Spontaneously perfect; above my head is the embodiment of all the buddha families,
ོ ། འཇམ་པ་དངས་དས་ས་་ི ོ་ ས་། ampé yang ngö chökyi lodrö ché
Mañjughoṣa in person: the great Chökyi Lodrö,1
སངས་ས་ན་་ི མེན་བེ་་ས་གར། ། sangye kün gyi khyentsé yeshe ter
Wisdom treasury of all the buddhas' knowledge and love.
་ེ ་དལ་བར་་ན་བ་དང་། །
é dé tralwar jñana benza dang
At this master's forehead is Jñāna Vajra—Jikdral Yeshe Dorje,2
མིན་པར་མཚོ་ང་་་དྷ་དང་། །
drinpar tso jung ayu dharma dang
At his throat is Ayudharma—Tsering Chödrön3—the lake-arisen Sarasvatī,
གས་ཀར་ོ་་ེ ག་བདི ་དཔལ་་འབར། ། tukkar dorje ziji pal du bar
At his heart is Dorje Ziji Tsal—Khyentse Wangpo—blazing in splendour,
ེ་བར་ིན་ལས་མ་ལ་གནས་པ། ། tewar trinlé mangala nepa
And at his navel is Maṅgala—Tashi Paljor4—his enlightened activity.
ོ ི ། དག་ན་ཡོངས་བ་མ ས་ས་ག་ལ་ ས། dakchen yongdrub mögü riktsal gyi
Rigpa’s radiance arises as devotion which accomplishes the great purity (of perception),
གསོལ་འབས་དབང་དང་ནི ་བས་དས་བ་ོལ། ། soldeb wang dang jinlab ngödrub tsol
With that I pray: grant me empowerments, blessings and siddhis! 32
ེ རང་ག་་མར་ས་པས་ ས་ན་ན། ། rangrik lamar shepé jedren na
Recognizing and remembering that my own rigpa is the Lama—
ེ ི ོབས། ། གས་ད་གག་་འ ས་པར་ ནི ་ ས་ tuk yi chik tu drepar jingyi lob
Through this blessing, may your mind and mine merge as one!
ༀ་ཿ་ྃ བ་མ་་་་མ་་ཥ་དྷ་མ་་་ན་བ་་་་ི ་མ་ལ་ས་ི་ྃ།
om ah hung benza maha guru mañjughosha dharmamati jñana vajra ayu dipam mangala sarwa siddhi hung
oṃ āḥ hūṃ vajra mahāguru mañjughoṣa dharmamati jñānavajra ayudipaṃ maṅgala sarva siddhi hūṃ
ོ་མ་ ི ས་པའངམེན་ཡོན་གས་བེ་གར་ན་ལ་་བསོད་ནམས་ལ་མཚན་ ས་བཀའ་བན་ཁམས་པ་ན་པ ི ོན་དང་ན་པར་ར་ག། །། ལས་ ས་པ་ད At the request of Tulku Sönam Gyaltsen, the incarnation of the great Tertön Sogyal and one who is the source of all knowledge, love, compassion and noble qualities, this was written by Maṅgala, an old man of Kham. May its meaning and purpose be fulfilled! Rigpa Translations. Adapted for Lotsawa House 2015. Revised 2016. 1. ↑ Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö 2. ↑ Dudjom Rinpoche 3. ↑ Khandro Tsering Chödrön 4. ↑ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
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ེ ིན་བས་བད་ི ་ཆར་ ༄༅། །བ་བདག་་མ་ ས་་ན་པ་གང་དངས་ འབས་བགས། ། Nectar Shower of Blessings A Song of Yearning Devotion Recalling the Everpresent Gurus by Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentsé Rinpoche
ཨ་ཧོ། ོགས་ས་ལ་བ་་དང་་ས་་ི བ་བདག ། a ho, chok dü gyalwé ku dang yeshe kyi khyabdak
A ho! Universal embodiment of the kāyas and wisdoms of all the buddhas throughout the whole of space and time,
་མཚར་མ་ཐར་བསམ་་བ་པ་་འང་གནས། །
ngotsar namtar sam mi khyabpa yi jungné
And source of wondrous lives of liberation beyond imagining,
ཡབ་གག་འཇམ་དཔལ་དཔལ་མན་་མ་ར་བངས་པ། ། yab chik jampal palgön lamé kurshyengpa
Is the one and only father of all the buddhas, Mañjuśrī, who manifested in the form of this glorious lama,
མཁས་བ་་ད་མེན་བེ་དབང་པོ་་མེན་ནོ། ། khedrub damé khyentsé wangpo dé khyen no
Whose learning and accomplishment are beyond compare—Khyentsé Wangpo, care for me! Guide me! Inspire me! Make me one with you!
་ེ ་་ས་པད་འང་་མ་ལ་དས་ང༌། ། é dé yeshe pejung bimala ngö nang
This great lord's wisdom embodiment was an actual manifestation of Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra,
ཡོངས་ོགས་ལ་བན་དབང་བར་འཇམ་དཔལ་་ི བས་གན། ། yongdzok gyalten wanggyur jampal gyi shenyen
And of Mañjuśrīmitra, who mastered all the Buddha’s teachings in their entirety;
ིགས་མ་ན་ལ་ནི ་ལས་འཛམ་ིང་ན་བ་བལ། ། nyikmé münsel trinlé dzamling künkhyab dal
His enlightened actions to dispel the darkness of this degenerate age extending throughout the whole of Jambudvīpa—
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ོ ེན་ནོ། ། འཇམ་དཔལ་དངས་དས་ས་་ི ོ་ ས་་མ ampal yang ngö chökyi lodrö dé khyen no
Mañjughoṣa in person, Chökyi Lodrö, care for me! Guide me! Inspire me! Make me one with you!
ེ ་་གཙོ་མོ་མཚོ་ལ་ལ་དཀར་བཟའ་ད ར་ད། ། daki tsomo tsogyal shelkar za yermé
Inseparable from the queen of ḍākinīs, Yeshé Tsogyal of Shelkar,
་ེ ་་མག་ེལ་བ་ག་་་བངས་པས། ། dorjé tsé chok pelwé chakgya ru shyengpé
Was the spiritual consort who extended the supreme vajra life of
ེ ེ་ལ་མཛད་པ། ། པ་་ས་ོ་ེ ་ད ས་ pema yeshe dorjé gyé dé tsul dzepa
Pema Yeshé Dorjé,1 this great master, and cared for and delighted him—
མ་གག་་ང་ས་་ི ོན་མ་་མེན་ནོ། །
ma chik tsering chö kyi drönma dé khyen no
One and only mother, Tsering Chödrön, care for me! Guide me! Inspire me! Make me one with you!
ེ རང་ང་སངས་ས་པ་་ཛ་ཡས་ ས་བང༌། ། rangjung sangye pema vidzayé jezung
Guided by the spontaneously awakened Padma Vijaya,2
ཟབ་ས་བཀའ་གར་ད་ང་མན་ངག་་མཛདོ ་འཆང༌། ། zabgyé kater gyülung mengak gi dzö chang
Keeper of the treasuries of the profound and vast kama and terma, tantras, commentaries and pith instructions,
ོན་པ། ། ེ ེ་ན་འཇམ་མན་ད ས་པ་བཀའ་འབངས་་ kyé kün jam gön gyepé ka bang su mönpa
You who aspire to serve Mañjughoṣa throughout all your lives—
འར་ད་ག་མག་བན་པ་ལ་མཚན་་མནེ ་ནོ། ། gyurmé tek chok tenpé gyaltsen dé khyen no
Gyurmé Tekchok Tenpé Gyaltsen, 3 care for me! Guide me! Inspire me! Make me one with you!
མེན་ནོ་་མ་མེན་ནོ་བདག་ད་ལ་གགས་ག ། khyen no lama khyen no dak gyü la zik shik
Care for me! O masters, guide me! Look into my mind!
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ས་ངན་ིགས་མ་མས་ཅན་ལས་ངན་ལ་མས་པས། ། dü ngen nyikmé semchen lé ngen la gompé
We, the beings of this degenerate age, are so accustomed to our negative actions,
ཐར་པ་་བས་ལ་བ་དས་ལོང་བན་ར་པས། ། tarpé gokab dralwé mülong shyin gyurpé
That, as if blind, we have no chance of gaining liberation,
ི ོད་དོ། ། ་ས་གཞན་ལ་ད་པ་གང་གས་ ས་འབ resa shyen la mepé dungshuk kyi bö do
And, with no other hope but you, we call out with fervent longing!
ཐོག་ད་མས་པ་འལ་ང་གས་ང་ལས་་བ། ། tokmé gompé trulnang chak gong lé sawa
Our deluded perception, cultivated throughout beginningless time, is tougher than iron,
ི ཡང་འལ་ིགས་མ་ོད་པ་གཡའ་ེགས་ ས་བམས་པ། ། yang trul nyikmé chöpé ya drek kyi tumpa
And we are further deluded by our own impure actions, which are like a layer of rust—
ི ཆགས་ཐོགས་ལ་བ་ནི ་ ས་ན་ན་་བར་ནས། ། chaktok dralwé jin gyi men chen du gyur né
Through your unimpeded inspiration and blessings, transform this delusion into a great healing medicine,
ོ་་ས་ལ་བར་བ་ཁ་ལོ་པ་མཛདོ ་ག ། lona chö la gyurwé khalo pa dzö chik
And be our guides, steering our minds towards the Dharma!
ར་ང་ངན་ོད་ས་ག་ལ་ན་ལས་མང་ང༌། །
tarnang ngen chö sashyi dultren lé mang kyang
It appears as if negative actions are more numerous than atoms in this world,
ོ ས་བན་ོད་པ་བསམ་ ར་གར་བཟང་ལས་དན་པས། ། chö shyin chöpé samjor ser zang lé könpé
While Dharmic thoughts and actions are rarer even than finest gold—
འལ་ང་ོག་པ་་བ་བཙན་ཐབས་་ད་ལ། ། trulnang tokpé drawa tsentab su chö la
So cut through the tight mesh of our deluded thoughts and perceptions,
ས་བཟང་ག་མག་ལམ་ལ་ོད་ས་ག་མཛོད་ག ། chö zang tek chok lam la chö nü shyik dzö chik
And enable us to practise the excellent Dharma on the path of the supreme vehicle!
36
བསགས་ང་ས་ཚད་་འ་གས་པ་ར་དགས་ང༌། ། sak jang jé tsé tsé di lekpé gyur mik shing
Whenever we view the practices of accumulation and purification as causes for happiness in this life alone,
ེ ོབ་ས་བད་ི་འང་ཐག ། ་ལོག་་ངན་ ས་ ta lokta ngen jé lob chö gyé kyi ching tak
Or hold false, mistaken views, cut through such bonds of the eight worldly concerns,
ོ ེ བཅད་ནས་ལ་བ་ད ས་པ་ལམ་མག་ལ་ ར་བས། ། ché né gyalwa gyepé lam chok la jorwé
And, by leading us to the supreme path which delights all the buddhas,
ང་བ་ོད་པ་་མཚོ་ོད་ས་་མཛོད་ག །
changchub chöpa gyatso chö nü su dzö chik
Empower us to carry out vast oceans of enlightened action!
ང་ོད་་ས་ན་པོ་འར་ལོ་་ཤར་ནས། ། nang chö yeshe chenpö khorlo ru shar né
When our perception and experience dawns as the maṇḍala of great primordial awareness,
རང་ག་་ས་་མ་ནི ་བས་ི་་མས། ། rangrik yeshe lamé jinlab kyi nyimé
Then, through the sun-like blessings of the lama, who is the wisdom of our very own rigpa,
འལ་པ་ག་ལ་དག་པ་བཙན་ས་ག་ན་ནས། ། trulpa shyi la dakpé tsensa shyik zin né
Let us seize the stronghold, in which delusion is purified into its basic nature,
ོ དོ ། ། ་གམ་་མ་མཇལ་བ་ལ་བཟང་ལ་ ར་མཛ ku sum lama jalwé kalzang la jor dzö
And grant us the excellent fortune of meeting the three-kāya guru!
ས་པའང་བན་པ་ིན་བདག་ན་པོ་ལ་དཀར་ས་ལ་་བསོད་ནམས་ལ་མཚན་བད་ོང་་་མ་ལ་འ ར་ོ ོ་མ་དཀར་མ་ལས་ཕ་རན་་ང་ཤར་་ཏོག་་ ི དང་མན་པ་་མ་ང་འབོད་ ས་ས་ད་བལ་བན་ན་པ ི ོན་ན་་ར་ག ། ེད་ཚལ་་ཉལ་མལ་ནས་ ས་པ་ད This was written by the old white-haired Maṅgala, from his bed, near a flowering garden in north-east France, to ulfil the wishes of the son of the Lakar family of great Dharma benefactors,Tulku Sonam Gyaltsen (Sogyal Rinpoche), who requested a prayer of ‘calling the guru from afar’ to accompany a practice of guru yoga. May it be of benefit! | Translated by Adam Pearcey, Rigpa Translations, 2012. Revised 2016. 1. ↑ Jamyang Khyentsé Chökyi Lodrö 37
2. ↑ A reference to Shechen Gyaltsab Gyurme Pema Namgyal (1871–1926), Dilgo Khyentsé Rinpoche’s root teacher. 3. ↑ Dilgo Khyentsé Rinpoche.
38
ོ ༄༅། །ས་་ེ ས་་པ་ི ཏ་་མ་ལ་འ ར་་ས་བད་ ི ་ན་དེ ་བགས་སོ། ། The Sun of Ambrosial Wisdom: A Guru Yoga of Dharmarāja Sakya Paṇḍita by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
༄༅། །་ི བ་། The Outer Practice:
ཨ།
ང་ིད་མ་དག་འོག་ན་བ་ན་ང་། །
a nangsi namdak womin dechen shying
Ah! Where all that appears and exists is completely pure, Akaniṣṭha, the realm of great bliss—
བད་པ་རབ་མས་རང་མན་མད་ིན་དས། ། köpa rab dzé rang dün chötrin ü
Before me, amidst a ravishing display of cloud-like offerings,
འཇམ་པ་དངས་དས་ས་་པ་ི ཏ། ། ampé yang ngö sakya pandita
Is Mañjughoṣa in person, Sakya Paṇḍita Kunga Gyaltsen.
ན་དགའ་ལ་མཚན་མཚན་ད་གཞོན་ལ་མས། ། kün ga gyaltsen tsenpé shyön tsul dzé
Youthful and handsome, adorned with all the enlightened marks,
ི ར་ིག་ས་ས་གམ་ ས་མས་པར་བབས། ། ngurmik chögö sum gyi dzepar lub
And attractively clothed in three saffron dharma robes,
ག་གས་གས་ཀར་ས་འཆད་ག་་ལས། ། chak nyi tukkar chö ché chakgya lé
At his heart his two hands form the Dharma-teaching mudrā .
པད་ོང་ང་ེང་རལ་ི་ེགས་བམ་བམས། ། pedong zung teng raldri lekbam nam
Both hold lotus stalks, upon which rest a sword and a scripture,
ཞབས་གས་ོ་་ེ ིལ་ང་པད་་ེང་། ། shyab nyi dorjé kyiltrung pé dé teng
His legs are vajra-crossed, and he is seated upon a lotus and moon.
39
ེ་བ་ན་ ས་བདག་ལ་གགས། ེ ི ད ས་འམ་བ ། gyé dzum tsewé chen gyi dak la zik
Smiling with delight, he looks upon me with love.
གས་ཀ་དཔལ་ར་་ས་མས་དཔ་ལ། ། tukké pal ber yeshe sempé tsul
As the glorious jñānasattva in his heart,
འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་་དམར་ར་རལ་པོད་ཅན། ། ampal shyönnu marser ral pöchen
Youthful Mañjuśrī, orange, with scripture and sword,
ི ་ེ ་ལི ་ང་འོད་ར་འམ་ ས་འད། ། dorjé kyiltrung özer bum gyi khyü
Sits with legs in vajra posture, enveloped in myriad rays of light.
ལོངས་་ཆས་ཅན་གས་ཀར་་ེང་ཿི longkü chechen tukkar da teng dhih
With all saṃbhogakāya attributes, upon a moon in his heart is dhīḥ ,
དམར་ར་་མ་་ེ བ་ག་ནི ་འབར། ། marser nyima jewé zijin bar
Blazing with the orange brilliance of a billion suns.
འར་་ས་བཅས་ལ་བ་དལི ་འར་བགས། ། khor du sé ché gyalwé kyilkhor shyuk
Around him is a maṇḍala of buddhas and bodhisattvas.
སངས་ས་ན་་ི ་ས་་འཆང་བ། ། sangye kün gyi yeshe ku changwa
He possesses the wisdom kāya of all the buddhas.
དཔལ་ན་་མར་དད་བ་ག་ས་འད། ། palden lamar dé gyé chak gi dü
Bowing with devotion to the glorious guru, I prostrate a hundred times,
ེ ང་ིད་ན་བཟང་མད་ིན་ད ས་དར་འལ། ། nangsi kunzang chötrin gyé gur bul
I offer all that delights within appearance and existence as clouds of Samantabhadra’s offerings,
་ས་ིབ་པ་ནོངས་པ་མཐོལ་ལོ་བཤགས། ། mi shedrib pé nongpa tol lo shak
I regret mistakes due to obscured ignorance and confess them,
40
ོ ས་་རང་། ེ འར་འདས་ད་ཚོགས་་མཚ ར་ ། khordé gé tsok gyatsor jé yi rang
And I rejoice in the ocean of virtues gathered in saṃsāra and nirvāṇa,
ོ ་ི ད་ཟབ་ས་ས་འར་བ ར་བར་བལ། ། drimé zabgyé chökhor korwar kul
I enjoin you to turn the wheel of stainless Dharma, profound and vast,
འོ་ཁམས་་ིད་ོ་ེ ་ར་བགས་ནས། ། dro kham jisi dorjé kur shyuk né
And to remain in the vajra body for as long as wandering beings exist:
མཁའ་བ་ད་ཅན་ིད་་ལས་ོལ་ང་། ། khakhyab yichen sishyi lé drol shying
Please free beings from existence and peace as far as the reaches of space,
ོགས་ིན་ངས་མཐར་སོན་པར་མཛད་་གསོལ། ། dzok min jang tar sönpar dzé du sol
And bring completion, maturation and training to perfection!
ོད་་ས་བཅས་ལ་བ་ན་་ི ཡབ། ། khyö ni sé ché gyalwa kün gyi yab
You, father of all victors and their bodhisattva heirs,
གས་ད་་ས་་ཅན་འཇམ་པ་དངས། ། nyimé yeshe kuchen jampé yang
Have the form of non-dual wisdom, Mañjuśrī.
མ་ཐར་བསམ་ཡས་ོགས་ས་འེན་པས་བགས། ། namtar samyé chok dü drenpé ngak
Your inconceivable life and liberation, a guide for all places and times, I praise.
ོལ་བ་འབས། ། ེ ཡོན་ཏན་ ས་་ན་པས་གས yönten jesu drenpé solwa deb
Remembering your qualities, I pray.
བདག་་ིང་དས་པ་་སར་ ར།ེ ། dak gi nying ü pemé gesar tser
Within my heart, atop a blossoming lotus flower,
ེ ད ས་པ་མཚན་བཟང་མན་མ་བད་ནས་ང་། ། gyepé tsen zang ngönsum kö né kyang
With excellent, delightful marks, truly adorned,
41
མན་པོ་ོད་ི་མ་ཐར་་བན་། ། gönpo khyö kyi namtar jishyin du
ust as you have done in your life and liberation, O Protector,
ོད་ས་ནི ་བས་ནེ ་འར་བལ་་གསོལ། ། chö nü jinlab ten dir tsal du sol
Please bestow on us, your disciples, your conduct, power and blessings!
ས་དང་།
ཞལ་གང་གསོལ་འབས།
Then, the prayer spoken by the master himself: 1
ས་་ཐམས་ཅད་གགས་པ་ན་ཡངས་ང་། །
sheja tamché zikpé chen yang shing
In your expansive vision, you see all that can be known,
འོ་ན་ད་གས་བ་པ་གས་་ེ ཅན། ། dro kün gelek drubpé tukjé chen
In your compassion, you accomplish virtue and goodness for all beings,
བསམ་ཡས་ནི ་ལས་མཛད་པ་ོབས་མངའ་བ། ། samyé trinlé dzépé tob ngawa
In your power, you perform activities beyond comprehension,
འཇམ་མན་་མ་ཞབས་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འབས། ། amgön lamé shyab la solwa deb
At the feet of the teacher Mañjunātha, Gentle Lord, I pray!
ས་གསོལ་བ་ར་གས་་གདབ། Thus, pray with one-pointed trust.
ས་ེ ་གས་ཀར་་ེང་ཿི དམར་ར། ། chöjé tukkar da teng dhih marser
In the heart of the Dharmarāja, an orange dhīḥ rests upon a moon,
ོ ། ི ར། ་་ག་པ་་ེ ་ེ གས་ ས་བ yigé drukpa dé jé ngak kyi kor
Surrounded by the six-syllable vajra mantra.
འོད་ར་ོ་བས་འོ་ན་ིབ་གས་ངས། ། özer trodü dro kün drib nyi jang
Light-rays shine out and then gather, purifying all beings' two obscurations,
42
སངས་ས་ང་མས་ད་བལ་མནེ ་ས་བེ། ། sangye changsem gyü kul khyen nü tsé
And invoking the mind-streams of buddhas and bodhisattvas,
ནི ་བས་འོད་ར་བས་ནས་གས་ཀར་མ། ། inlab özer dü né tukkar tim
Light-rays imbued with the blessings of wisdom, power and love gather and dissolve into the heart.
ི ། ་ལས་བསམ་་བ་པ་འོད་ར་ ས། ku lé sam mi khyabpé özer gyi
From your form, inconceivable light rays
རང་་ས་གང་ནད་གདོན་ིག་ིབ་དག ། rang gi lü gang nedön dikdrib dak
Fill my own body, and purify spiritual and physical sickness, negativities and obscurations.
་ས་་ི ངས་བདག་ད་གནས་གས་དོན། ། mi shé dri jang dakmé neluk dön
With impurities of ignorance cleansed, wisdom which realizes
ེ གས་པ་་ས་ད་ལ་ ས་པར་ར། ། tokpé yeshe gyü la kyepar gyur
The meaning of selflessness, the natural state, arises within the mind.
ༀ་ཨ་ར་པ་ཙ་ན་ཿི
om a ra pa tsa na dhih
oṃ arapacana dhīḥ
ས་་ས་བ།
ན་མཐར།
Recite this as much as you can. At the end of the session:
་མ་་ལས་་ས་བད་ི ་ན། ། lamé ku lé yeshe dütsi gyün
From the guru’s form, ambrosial wisdom
དམར་ར་བ་བ་ན་པོ་མ་པ་ང་། ། marser dewa chenpö nampa jung
Pours forth as an orange stream of great bliss,
43
ི་གག་ནས་གས་ས་ན་གང་བ་དང་། ། chitsuk né shyuk lü kün gangwa dang
It enters the crown of the head and fills the whole body,
་གང་གས་་ི ནི ་བས་དས་་གས། ། ku sung tuk kyi jinlab ngö su shyuk
And blessings of enlightened body, speech, and mind are truly received.
ས་ངག་ད་ི་ིབ་པ་མ་ས་དག། lü ngak yi kyi dribpa malü dak
All obscurations of body, speech and mind purified,
་མ་འཇམ་པ་ོ་ེ ་གསང་གམ་དང་། ། lama jampé dorjé sang sum dang
The three vajra secrets of Guru Mañjuśrī,
གས་་ད་པ་ལ་བཟང་མན་་ར། ། nyisu mepé kalzang ngön du gyur
And the good fortune of non-duality are actualized.
་མ་འར་བཅས་འོད་་རང་ལ་མ། ། lama khor ché ö shyu rang la tim
The guru and entourage melt into light and dissolve into me.
གདོད་ནས་ེ་འགག་གནས་ལ་མས་་ི གས། ། döné kyegak nedral sem kyi shi
The ground of mind is primordially free from arising, ceasing and abiding.
ོ ས་པ་ས། ེ གས་ད་་ས་ང་པ ར་འ ། nyimé yeshe pungpor drepa yi
Non-dual wisdom suffuses the aggregates.
དབང་དང་དས་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཐོབ་པར་བསམ། ། wang dang ngödrub tamché tobpar sam
All empowerments and siddhis are obtained.
ང་ོང་་མ་་ས་ང་ན་བ། །
nangtong gyumé ku yi shying künkhyab
All realms are pervaded by illusory forms, empty yet appearing.
མ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ག་གམ་ས་་ོགས། ། nampa tamché tek sum chö dra drok
All sounds at all times proclaim the three vehicles’ Dharma.
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མེན་བེ་ས་པ་དཔག་ཡས་འཇམ་མན་ེ ། ། khyen tsé nü pa pakyé jam gön jé
May we enjoy the glorious three secrets of Lord Protector Mañjuśrī,
གསང་བ་གམ་ི་དཔལ་ལ་ོད་ར་ག ། sangwa sum gyi pal la chö gyur chik
His wisdom, love and power beyond measure!
ེ ས་པའང་མེན་ོགས་ཡོན་ཏན་ད་ང་འོང་པ་ལ་་ནི ་ལས་་མ་དང་། །དོ་་ལ་་ས་་ི ་མ་ ས་་ ི བལ་བ་ེན་ ས་ས་ ་ེ འཇམ་དཔལ་དངས་་ི ནི ་བས་ཆ་ཙམ་ཐོབ་པ་འས་ང་ི་ན་བ་འགས་ད་མེན་ ོ ི་ད་ག་བདེ ་རབ་དག་དཔལ་ ས་འཕགས་ལ་ ོ་་ེ ིང་་་ེ་ཌ་ས་དན་ི་གག་ ི བེ་འོད་ར་ོ་ ས་ ོལ་བ་བཏབ་པ་དོན་དང་ན་པར་ར་ག ། ི ལག་ཁང་་ ས་ང་གས Due to the requests of those who closely rely upon extraordinary wisdom, realization and qualities, Tulku Trinlé Nyima (Sun of Activity), and Dokya Tulku Chökyi Nyima (Dharma Sun), the invalid of little worth who's attained but a fraction of the blessing of Dharmarāja Mañjuśrī, Jikmé Khyentsé Özer Lodrö Drimé Zijé Rabgé Pal, wrote this in the monastery of Ritsé Dali Gön in Dorjé Ling (Darjeeling), within the noble land of India, and there made prayers. May it be meaningful!
ོ ནི ་ལས་་མ་་ངས་དང་པ ས་བལ། ། First requested by the daybreak of the Sun of Activity,
ས་ི་་མ་འཆར་བ་ནེ ་འལེ ་ི། ། And in dependence upon the rising Dharma Sun,
་ས་་མ་་བ་འ་ད་ ས།ི ། By this guru yoga, which is the wisdom sun,
ལ་བན་་མ་ིབ་ད་གསལ་ར་ག ། May the sun of the Buddha’s teachings shine, freed of veils!
མ་།
དའོ།།
Maṅgalaṃ! Virtue!
| Translated by Peter Woods and edited with the help of Stefan Mang, 2017. 1. ↑ This four-line prayer to Mañjuśrī, which appears at the beginning of Sakya Paṇḍita’s Tsema Rikter (Tshad ma rigs gter), was later adopted as a prayer to Sakya Paṇḍita himself.
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Prayer to Longchenpa (Adapted from the Words of Mipham Rinpoche) by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche The primordial and spontaneous nature of luminous awareness Is unchanging and of one-taste with all the victorious buddhas. To you who have perceived this directly, Omniscient Lord of Dharma, Drimé Özer, I pray! With your brilliant, stainless insight you have clearly and unerringly understood The meaning of the supreme vehicle in its entirety And are possessed of the pith instructions of profound key points: To the collection of your speech—fine explanations all—I pray! The lion's roar that is the beautiful speech of buddhas and bodhisattvas Has prophesied that you, protector, will awaken And be renowned as the guide Rirab Marmé Gyaltsen. At that time may I and all parent beings gather At the place of your enlightenment as youthful bodhisattvas, And, having enjoyed the nectar of your true words, Receive a prophecy of our very own — That we too will attain the ten powers! Thinking to alter the prayers of the one who was Mañjuśrī in person, Mipham Rinpoche, ust a little, I, Maṅgala Śrībhūti (Tashi Paljor, Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche), wrote this supplication. May it serve as a cause for the sun of the wisdom lineage to rise and open the lotus blossom of our hearts! Translated by Sean Price, 2016. Revised and edited for Lotsawa House.
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Vajrakīlaya Prayer: A Rain of Accomplishments revealed by Gyarong Khandro & recorded by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche Emaho! Out of the dharmadhātu palace of great bliss, The dharmakāya Samantabhadra and consort, to I pray: Grant your blessings so I may realise the primordial nature! Out of the sambhogakāya realm of the five certainties, The sambhogakāya Garab Dorje, to you I pray: Grant your blessings so that clear light is uninterrupted! Out of the glorious Copper-Coloured Mountain of Chāmara, The nirmāṇakāya Padmākara, to you I pray: Grant your blessings so I may be empowered with immortal life! Out of the blazing palace of the dark blue triangle, The supreme wrathful one, Vajrakumāra, to you I pray: Grant your blessings so I may subdue damsi demons and enemies of the teachings! Out of the vast expanse of great four kāya wisdom, The supreme sons of the four families, to you I pray: Grant your blessings so I may accomplish enlightened action without hindrance! In the wild charnel ground upon the ten fit for liberating, The ten self-arisen wrathful ones, to you I pray: Grant your blessings so that beings welfare may come about without hindrance! From the supreme sacred place at the peak of the king of mountains, Garuḍa, the king of the wrathful, to you I pray: Grant your blessings so that the eight classes may be overcome! From the palace of the triangle of swirling blood and fat, Terma guardians, Ekajāṭī, Rāhula and Damchen, to you I pray: Grant your blessings so that outer and inner obstacles may be pacified! Through the blessings of praying in this way, May I utterly renounce all worldly, samsaric action, Set out upon the pure, undeceiving path of the three secrets, And obtain the supreme, ultimate vajra secret! This is the authentic profound terma deciphered by the dākiṇī Dharmatsandra (Gyarong Khandro) from the inlaid casket taken from Khyungtak Dorjei Yangdzong. 47
Translated by Adam Pearcey, 2015.
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A Prayer to Swiftly Fulfil All Wishes by Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche Oṃ svasti Lordly Guru, wisdom kāya of all buddhas and deities Of the three roots throughout all time and directions, to simply recall you fulfills all wishes; With your love, exalted knowledge and power, Pray protect all beings and the Dharma during these most decadent of times! Pray come quickly from the gandhola of the supreme field of Lotus Light, To beautify this earth; show a magnificent aspect, As holder of the life force, the very heart of the precious Buddha’s teachings, To clear away the decadence of the age. Pacify the aggression of demons and enemies, As well as all obstacles — both outer and inner — And grant us everything we desire with favorable circumstances. Mahāguru, with your vajra blessing fulfill our wishes, right now! Sharpa Tsenam, one of a very pure disposition wrought through former aspirations, accompanied the request for this prayer with the offering of a celestial scarf. And I, a ollower of Padmasambhava, Garwang Ösel Do-ngak Dechen Lingpa, wrote this after invoking the aspiration of the oceanic objects of refuge, with the aspiration that it may be useful for the faithful; that it might serve as a support for the swift fulfilment of their wishes in accordance with the Dharma. | Translated by Sean Price, 2016.
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Ambrosia for the Mind by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo In commenting upon these seven points of mind training, a pith instruction of the precious Kadampas who upheld the teachings of the seven divine dharmas, in the tradition of Chekawa Yeshe Dorje, there are three main parts.
Part One, Good in the Beginning, which is divided into two 1. The Title of the Prayer “Ambrosia for the Mind, A Prayer of the Seven Points of Mind Training.” 2. Homage
I bow down before the spiritual guides of the supreme vehicle, The source of all that is positive in saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. May the precious masters grant their blessings So that my mind is purified through the three kinds of faith.
Part Two, Good in the Middle: the Main Subject of the Text, which has seven subdivisions 1. The Preliminaries, the Basis for Practice**
May the precious masters grant their blessings so that I may train thoroughly in the preliminaries, Recognizing how hard it is to gain the freedoms and advantages and how easily they are lost, So that I strive always to act in accordance with the laws of karma, adopting wholesome deeds and avoiding what is harmful, And develop genuine renunciation for samsara. 2. The Main Part, Training in Bodhicitta
May the precious masters grant their blessings, So that I may always cultivate the two aspects of bodhicitta, Purifying my dualistic perceptions, which have no basis in reality, into all-pervading space, And practising the profound exchange of my own happiness for others’ suffering.
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3. Transforming Adversity into the Path to Awakening
May the precious masters grant their blessings, So that whatever adversity and sufferings may arise I see them as the wiles of this demon, ego-clinging, And transform them into the path towards awakening. 4. Applying the Practice Throughout One’s Life
May the precious masters grant their blessings, So that I may focus upon the essence of the practice throughout my life, And always apply the five strengths of pure thought and pure deed, Gathering merit, purifying obscurations and making prayers of aspiration. 5. The Measure of Mind Training
May the precious masters grant their blessings, So that with joyful self-assurance and freedom of mind, I may bring all adverse circumstances onto the path, And everything may become a remedy to ego-clinging. 6. The Commitments of Mind Training
May the precious masters grant their blessings, So that I may keep my promises without hypocrisy, And always remain impartial, and free of ostentation, Guarding the lojong commitments as I do my very life. 7. The Precepts for Mind Training
In short, may the precious masters grant their blessings, So that I may genuinely follow all the precepts For increasing the two aspects of bodhichitta, And within this lifetime gain the realization of the supreme vehicle.
Part Three, Good in the End 1. Dedication
Through the merit of this heartfelt aspiration To practise the seven points of mind training, The heart-essence of the incomparable Jowo Atiśa and his heirs, May all beings attain the level of perfect awakening.
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Atisha statue at Nyethang 2. The colophon
This one-pointed prayer was made before the precious statue of the glorious Atiśa at Kyishö Nyethang by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, a carefree yogin who wanders throughout the land and is extremely devoted to the precious Kadampa tradition. May it be accomplished! The section headings were added by Mangala (Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche). | Translated by Adam Pearcey, 2007. Revised 2012.
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