His Holiness the 17th Karmapa

Karmapa Documentary：Learning Chinese Painting（2008）

2009-03-15T13:55:00.001+08:00

H.H. Karmapa's relationship to H.H. the Dalai Lama

2009-02-14T21:20:00.001+08:00

Karmapa's First Welcoming in America

2008-05-26T10:07:00.005+08:00

The video journaling team has begun to publish video clips from His Holiness Karmapa's travels in America on the KarmapaDotTV channel on YouTube. Included below is a clip of highlights from His Holiness Karmapa's arrival and official welcoming ceremony in New York City on the morning of May 15th.

Karmapa's Official Welcoming Ceremony in New York City

His Holiness Karmapa has arrived in America

2008-05-16T16:25:00.007+08:00

Photographer: James Gritz. Copyright 2008 by Karmapa Foundation.

His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, arrived in New York City this morning, setting foot for the first time on American ground.

After flying from India, His Holiness was greeted at the airport early this morning by a group of dignitaries and spiritual leaders, and escorted by motorcade to a private welcoming ceremony in Manhattan. A group of approximately 150 attendees welcomed His Holiness with a traditional Tibetan tea & rice ceremony.

During the ceremony, His Holiness remarked on how happy he is that his long-planned inaugural visit to America has finally come to fruition, and he expressed the aspiration that he might meet again and again with students here.

News from Karmapa Visit Blog

HH the 17th Karmapa Chants Karmapa Khenno

2008-05-16T15:57:00.003+08:00

HH the 17th Karmapa Chants Karmapa Khenno

[Karmapa] is not a title which only belongs to one person. It
belongs to all Bodhisattvas and great accomplished Masters. They are
all Karmapas; they are all practitioners of the Buddha's
activities.That is why when we recite this [mantra], we are able to
receive complete blessings from all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and great
accomplished Masters. Thus this is the simplest method in which we
can recite [the mantra] once and receive tremendous amounts of
complete blessings. So let's recite the "Karmapa Kyenno" mantra a few
times.

Translated by Jeffrey Chen

HH the 17th Karmapa speech on protecting life

2008-04-13T14:48:00.003+08:00

HH the 17th Karmapa speech on protecting life

Whether it is life protection or life liberation, there are many ways to do it.
It doesn't mean that this is the only way and there are no other means to do it.
There will be fewer obstacles if we could use more means to protect or liberate lives.

When comes to life liberation, different people share different views and there are both positive and negative views about it. Some believe that it can benefit a lot of sentient beings while others think that it will cause more harm to them. What does that mean? For example, an animal will be spared today if you liberate it when it is just about to be slaughtered.

However, though you have saved the life of this animal, you may also cause harm to the next animal indirectly as it will be slaughtered earlier than usual to replace the one that you have liberated. Hence, some people will contemplate it this way and they will feel that there are no perfect ways to benefit all sentient beings completely as you may still harm some while saving others.

No matter what, I feel that the best way to protect and liberate lives is to adopt a vegetarian diet because sentient being will be slaughtered as long as there are people who eat meats. Hence, in present situation, be it life protection or life liberation, I think that the best way will be to adopt a vegetarian diet.

An interview with the Gyalwang Karmapa

2007-12-17T22:28:00.000+08:00

The Gyalwang Karmapa kindly gave the following interview at Tergar Monastery on 13th December.

Q : Your Holiness, please could you explain the meaning of the word monlam?
GK : From the perspective of mind, the meaning of monlam can be explained in several ways. From the perspective of the individual it means having the profound wish to bring happiness and well-being to others and simultaneously enhance our own root of virtue, dedicating that merit for the benefit of all sentient beings. That type of dream is monlam.

Q : What is its importance?
GK : Generally speaking, all major developments in human culture have come about as the result of hope and a clear vision. From the Buddhist point of view, our ultimate goal is to attain parinirvana; in this process, the role of aspiration is fundamental and threefold. At the beginning it is like the seed, in the middle it is like water and manure, and at the end it is the fruit. Without an aspiration the seed of Buddhahood will not germinate.

Q : Are there any special features of this year’s Monlam?
GK : Because we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of Kagyu Monlam this year, we are offering free medical treatment to help local people. In addition, because the Kagyu Monlam has become an international event, which aims to bring the peoples of the world together, this year the Monlam, recitation texts are available in five languages: Tibetan, Hindi, English, Chinese and Korean. I consider these two the most important special features.

Q : Sanskrit prayers are being used for the first time this Monlam. Please could you expand on this?
GK : Our Tibetan dharma is based on the Sanskrit canon. So, in times past, Tibetan Buddhist scholars considered Sanskrit to be very important; they studied the language and also studied Buddhist scriptures in the original Sanskrit. But, from the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama, about three hundred and fifty years ago, the ties between India and Tibet were broken. Afterwards, it became difficult to maintain the standard of our knowledge of Sanskrit and so things such as pure pronunciation were lost. However, now that we are in India, Tibetans have begun to study and research texts in Sanskrit once more, and are involved in discussion with Indian Sanskrit scholars too. This development is very important for the Indo-Tibetan relationship and, I feel, it is essential that it be maintained. Thus, we are reciting prayers in Sanskrit so that the relationship may continue forever. Furthermore, by reciting in Sanskrit, we can transcend time, generating a feeling of closeness with the Buddhism of the time of Lord Buddha. It is my aspiration that we can achieve this.

Q : This year monks and nuns have received special training in codes of conduct. What was the purpose?
GK : In the twenty-first century there are many external distractions, so we need a way to remain stable. If we are carried away by these distractions we will lose our self-restraint. In order to instill proper conduct and to bring well-being and peace of mind, we have this Monlam. Using ancient methods from the Vinaya, we are training the sangha members because they are the principal participants in the Monlam.

This code of conduct, based on ancient Buddhist traditions, is not intended to serve the interests of one religious tradition alone, but to bring stability and happiness to society at large. Recently, the misconduct of some members of the sangha, both inside and outside Tibet, has become a threat to the security and well-being of society. Thus, we have done this as a service to humanity.

Q : How does the Kagyu Monlam help the well-being of sentient beings and world peace?
GK : Over the years, Kagyu Monlam has become a great assembly of people, and as such, it is very powerful. If we can win people over by our example, then, gradually, through this assembly, we will benefit the whole of human society. For example, if we can change one bad person into a good person, we will have been successful in reducing the number of bad people in the world by one, and thus will have helped world peace.

There is no way that Kagyu Monlam on its own has the power to bring peace to all sentient beings, but we can use the Monlam as a way of broadcasting the message that the world is something that all sentient beings have the right to enjoy, a message of loving kindness, compassion and peace to the whole world.

Q : The Akshobhya Ritual plays an important part in this year’s Monlam. Is there any reason why this was chosen?
GK : When looking at the reason for the Akshobhya Ritual, we need to consider three different karmas.

First, from time immemorial, there have been hunters and fishermen but nowadays they operate on such a vast scale that a whole species can be almost wiped out in a day. Although the world has the favourable conditions necessary to last for a long time, because of the extensive use of advanced technology, our power to accumulate karma has multiplied so much that we are now in the process of destroying the world itself.

The second karma to consider is the antidote. In order to counteract this powerful karma we need a stronger counter-measure. There are many methods, both known and unknown. However, the Lord Buddha taught that the Akshobhya Ritual is the most powerful for purifying strong karma; therefore Lord Akshobhya is the power and the activity.

The third karma is this. For a powerful karma there must be a powerful antidote. But, like a piece of wood and an axe, there has to be a link, a connecting factor; simply having the two together has no effect. There has to be someone to make the necessary karmic connection between the two. Because so many people at the Kagyu Monlam have made vast aspirations, there is great power. Primarily the participants are from Khamtsang Kagyu and have a very strong connection with the Karmapa, and Karmapa is a being who has been blessed by Vajra Akshobhya and therefore is a member of Akshobyha’s family. It is possible that one particular Buddha such as Lord Shakyamuni might be unable to tame a given individual, but there is no individual who cannot be tamed by one of the Buddhas. The Karmapa is the embodiment of the activity of all the Buddhas, is he not? So that is the reason for having this ritual; it is my aspiration that everyone will receive the threefold siddhis of Akshobyha: power, compassion and blessing.

The Gyalwang Karmapa Meets the Gelongmas

2007-12-15T18:02:00.000+08:00

The Gyalwang Karmapa Meets the Gelongmas

Thursday 13th December 2007, Tergar Monastery
By Jo Gibson

This year, there is a strict code of conduct which all gelong and gelongma attending Kagyu Monlam must observe. All gelong and gelongma will have undergone three days training and a test in this code of conduct.

During the Monlam they will be expected to attend every Monlam session, including the daily Sojong. They will eat only from the alms bowl, not eat after midday, and, on the final day, they must join the Alms Procession.

At a special meeting for gelongma (Sanskrit: Bhiksuni), held in his private room at Tergar Monastery this morning, the Gyalwang Karmapa welcomed everyone who had come to attend the 25th Kagyu Monlam. He then gave a short talk, discussing the reasons why he had specially invited the gelongma to attend Kagyu Monlam.

He recounted how, in 2004, when he took on the responsibility of overseeing the running of Kagyu Monlam, he began looking into the Vinaya and researching codes of conduct.

The Tibetan sangha has both gelong (fully ordained monks) and getsul (novices) but no gelongma (fully ordained nuns) only getsulma (novices). Yet, there are many gelongma from other traditions who don Tibetan robes. Because of his concern over the absence of the gelongma ordination in the Tibetan tradition, he began searching the Sutras and the Vinaya, looking more closely into the issues, trying to find a way in which he could help the gelongma. The more he studied, the more his interest and concern grew.

There was, however, an obstacle to this research, because, according to the Vinaya, a getsul is not supposed to study the gelong and gelongma Vinaya, and he himself was a getsul. However, because he is a doctrine holder and holds a position of great responsibility, he did study these texts, trusting that he would not incur any fault. After studying the issue, he felt deeply that if there were a gelongma sangha in the Tibetan tradition, it would be a glorious achievement.

Gyalwang Karmapa cited two reasons why it had been difficult to establish a gelongma ordination lineage in the Tibetan tradition.

Firstly, the Vinaya is the foundation upon which the Buddhist sangha relies, so changes are difficult to make. The constitution of a country cannot be changed immediately, but it can be changed through a lengthy process. Similarly, the Vinaya could be changed, but the process would be very slow. Hence, it would have been difficult to start the tradition of gelongma in Tibet.

Secondly, there is the inflexibility of some members of the sangha who think that there is no need for gelongma.

However, the Gyalwang Karmapa explained, it was his hope that the participation of gelongma in Kagyu Monlam, would eventually lead to the establishment of a gelongma sangha in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, because their excellent conduct would be a witness to all of the grace of the gelongma tradition. He reminded them that they therefore had a responsibility to live up to these expectations.

Finally, he said he prayed that all the nuns would stay well and that no obstacles would arise, so that they could attend the Monlam from beginning to end.

He concluded by offering each gelongma a complete set of robes.

Teaching Sessions on Lineage Practices II ---【The Four Foundations: Special Preliminaries】

2007-11-15T14:26:00.001+08:00

Teaching Sessions on Lineage Practices II ---【The Four Foundations: Special Preliminaries】

Guru: His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje
Sponsor：Taiwan Hwayue Foundation
Date: 2006/12/23~2006/12/26
Place: Tergar Manastery, Bodh Gaya, India
English Translation: Ringu Tulku Rinpoche

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2006/12/23

First of all, I would like to wish the all the Rinpoches, masters and everyone gathered here good morning. Today I will begin a short teaching on the Mahamudra ngondro practice. These teachings are primarily for people from the East. They requested it. Since it is for them, it is possible that I might speak in Chinese sometimes.

But there are also others who have come here, Tibetans as well as Westerners. I am very happy that you have come here. We are very happy to see you. We will try our best to make translations into your languages available for you, too. But sometimes I might speak in Chinese, which you might not understand, but that is because this teaching is mainly for the Chinese. This is something you should understand.

All of you might have received this yellow book. The main thing regarding this book is that because there are only four days to give the teachings, because there is not enough time, the usual ngondro teachings and practice cannot be completed. Since I need to finish, I wrote this short ngondro text. On the one hand, the reason for doing this is because it was necessary for this particular teaching.

On the other hand, those you who live in foreign countries are so busy that it is very difficult for you to practice the long ngondro. Therefore I think it is okay for you to do this short Ngondro. But Tibetans who want to do ngondro practice, even if they have received the transmission, do not have permission to do the practice of this particular Ngondro text. This is because Tibetans like short cuts and easy ways, so when they see this short practice you might forget the long ngondro and then make it shorter and shorter. So therefore for Tibetans, even if you received the transmission for this short Ngondro, you do not have permission to do this practice. If you want to practice this, you must ask for special permission.

Today is the first day, so I will talk about refuge and bodhichitta. Here in your books it says, “Once individuals have purified their mindstreams with the common preliminary practices, they should request empowerment and instruction well from a qualified guru, and then train in the recitation meditation of Mahamudra’s extraordinary preliminary practices as follows.”

There are many different kinds of beings. Some types can practice Mahamudra directly right from the beginning. There are people like that. That is talking in terms of specific, individual persons. But as a general rule, whatever level a person might be on, high or low, everybody has to start with the general four common practices of the Kagyu before doing the extraordinary ngondro practices.

If you don’t train in the common ngondro and arrive a certain type of experience, then there is no use going further into the extraordinary practices. Otherwise it is not useful.

In earlier times, according to the tradition of the Kadampa that comes from Atisha Dipankara, an individual would practice one practice, such as impermanence, until they had completely experienced it, even for their entire lives. If that individual could not come to this experience in their whole life, then at the time of their deaths, they would pray that they might able to continue this practice in their next life. They would make this kind of aspiration.

First you would practice one ngondro practice until that practice became really experiential. Only when you had completed that practice would you begin the second practice. There is that way of practicing, but here according to this system of Mahamudra, in this context you meditate on and train in precious human life. But even if you do not gain the total experience of the precious human life, you can practice impermanence, and through that you can actually come to experience the precious human life.

There are many different types of people. So therefore you do not have to force yourself to completely accomplish the first practice. Rather you can practice whichever of these four foundations is easier for you, and when you become more habituated with that, then generally you will become habituated or acquainted with the other foundation practices. So therefore you do not necessarily have to go through the meditations on precious human life, impermanence, etc., in order. You practice the one that is most familiar and easy to you first. Then the other common preliminaries will come naturally. If you can do that, that is enough.

Following that, “they should request empowerment and instruction from an authentic guru.” As I explained yesterday, this uncommon Ngondro practice is a Vajrayana practice, a secret mantra practice, and a secret mantra practice is not just receiving teachings, reflecting and then meditating. You have to receive a blessing of the Lama, and unless that happens, experience cannot come.

So therefore when you say that you received the blessings, it’s not just saying that you’ve received blessings from this or that Lama. It’s not like that. It doesn’t happen without proper teachings or the tradition. First you have to receive an empowerment from an authentic lama. As we discussed earlier, if you have received Chakrasamvara or Vajrayogini or some similar empowerment, it is not just a matter of looking at the text and seeing if you understand it. That is not enough.

There are many instructions which are not written in the text but come from the lama’s experience. So therefore we have to receive these teachings and empowerment directly from that authentic lama.

First I will read a bit from the text on refuge and bodhichitta. “First, so that everything you do will accord with the dharma, go for refuge and give rise to bodhichitta in two ways: during meditation sessions and in between meditations sessions. During meditation sessions, leave worldly concerns and other activities aside, sit in a proper meditation posture on a comfortable seat…”

First I will say something about the teachings for meditation sessions. First I would like to say a brief word about “leaving worldly concerns and other activities aside.” These days I’m very busy because of preparations for the Monlam. Therefore I have a lot of responsibilities to think about, which gives me headaches. Sometimes when I have to give an empowerment or some teachings, I have to look inwards and collect myself. But when I reflect, there are so many things to do and so many disturbances, and too many things come up in my mind—lots of thoughts. My mind gets very agitated, so concentration and peaceful stability of mind do not come naturally or easily.

You also have to work in your homelands. You have to work all day long, to think all day long, and this gives you headaches. In such situation or between your responsibilities, you might want to practice the dharma, but it seems difficult. It is very difficult to have very good or authentic practice. That is what I feel.

For that reason, when you practice, you shouldn’t directly begin the practice as soon as you sit down. First you should just relax—let the body and mind relax. This has nothing to do with dharma. Just relax. Relax.

Once you have relaxed a bit, only then should you begin to practice. Do not necessarily practice for too long, but do a short practice. If do that, you will be able to concentrate and your mind will settle. Your mental stability will become stronger. I think maybe you should just sing a song or listen to a nice song. Then when your mind becomes a little bit settled and relaxed, then you can meditate, and that will be good.

Next it says you should sit on a comfortable seat. You should get your own seat. Some people talk about special seats, but maybe not everyone will be able to get such a seat. So you will need to find your own comfortable seat yourselves.

After that it says to maintain good posture. This is important. When you start to practice, you can practice first with the mind, or another way is to first work on the body and then work on the mind indirectly from there. First for beginners it is easier to work on your body, and from there work on your mind. So therefore you should have good bodily posture.

We will start from the bottom and work upwards. First are the legs. It is best to sit in the vajra (full lotus) posture with your legs crossed like this, but that is very difficult. You don’t necessarily have to do in just like this. You can sit with one leg on the other—maybe with your right foot on your left thigh. That is called the half vajra posture. Sitting in half vajra is okay. Another possibility is do not to place either foot on top of the other, just sit with your two feet crossed as usual. That is also okay. I won’t say too much because then it will get too easy, so let us finish it here.

Then there is the posture for the hands. The mudra of equipoise. The right hand is on top. The left hand is below. The two thumbs touch slightly.

What’s after that? The main thing is our back. If our back is too hunched, then dullness, which is a fault in shamatha, will arise. If it is too straight or bent backwards, then the wind will rise into the upper part of your body. That is also a problem. Therefore you should not be hunched too far forward or bent too far backwards. You should sit up quite straight.

Bend your neck slightly. Don’t extend it too much, either. If our necks are bent too far forward, it is difficult to breathe. You should be just barely able to see the lines on your neck.

Let your two shoulders be natural. Your armpits should be slightly open. It is said that if you close them, the armpits are a secret place for dullness, so if there is space to let air under your armpits, that helps to prevent dullness.

As for your eyes and nose, let them be natural. Do not look too far away, but not too near either, because that is also uncomfortable. Look straight naturally in front of you, in the space in front of you.

There are lots of points about posture but briefly these are more or less the main things. You can also look them up in books and understand it from them also. It’s not necessary for me to tell you everything.

Now we’ve come to the actual field of refuge:

“Before me in the sky is Guru Vajradhara,
Surrounded by the gurus of the lineage of meaning and blessings
And the gurus with whom I have faith and dharmic connections.
In the front are the yidams, to the right are the buddhas.
Behind is the sacred dharma; to the left, the sangha.
All are surrounded by ocean-like retinues of their own kind.
My mothers, sentient beings, and I stand before
The eyes of all the sources of refuge.
One-pointedly we go for refuge and arouse bodhichitta.”

First of all, “Before me in the sky” means that you don’t have look up into the sky or you don’t have to look down on the ground. It’s more or less straight in front of the spot between your eyebrows, not to the right or left. That is the level you look at in terms of up or down: straight ahead. In terms of how far away it is, the field of refuge should be far enough from you that when you stand up to do your prostrations, your shadow does not fall on it. That is how far away it is. It is neither too far nor too close—not so near so that your shadow falls on it. That’s how far away you visualize the field of refuge.

In its center is a jeweled throne supported by lions. You have to visualize this jeweled throne supported by the lions. It is okay to visualize as many lions as you want. Some people visualize four lions. Visualizing four lions represents the four fearlessnesses. Some people visualize eight lions, which is symbolic of the eight qualities of power.

In any case, these lions are not like paintings but are three-dimensional. They are very lively. They’re alive, living and breathing. Their eyes are reddish, their claws very sharp. They have turquoise manes or whatever—they can be turquoise or not. So they have manes and tails, and in Tibetan we say they are chilewa. This means they have a live expressions. They should be glorious. The thing is they are very lively and glorious.
You can visualize the type of lions that we can actually see, or you can visualize Tibetan lions. No one has ever seen a Tibetan lion, but there are drawings of them. You can visualize whichever, both are fine. In any case, they represent the four fearlessnesses or the eight qualities of power. You should visualize the lions who represent this. If I talk too much about lions, I’ll turn into a lion myself and roar like a lion.

Now, don’t visualize the throne as being to small. If it is too small then you will feel it is will not hold everyone. All the lamas and deities will not be able to sit on it. Therefore it should not be too small. Also, if it is too high and too big, you won’t be able to see all of it. If it is too big, you won’t be able to get your mind around it. There’s a danger of that happening. So the way it should be is that when you look, you should be able to see it all in front of yourself. But when you look at it deeply, it is immeasurably vast.

It is like looking at the stupa in Bodhgaya from far away. It almost looks like something you can hold in your hands. But when you actually go there, it’s huge. So this is like that. When you look at it, you can see it all, but actually it is immeasurable—very huge.

Also to signify or to symbolize the two accumulations—the accumulation of virtue and the accumulation of wisdom—this throne has to be very finely decorated with all sorts of jewels and precious stones. You can imagine this for yourselves, but that is the sort of square, jewelled throne you should visualize. On top of that throne in its center, there is another, smaller throne, which is also supported by eight or four lions. On top of that is a lotus flower, which represents not being defiled by the defilements of samsara. And then to represent skilful means and wisdom, relative and ultimate bodhichitta, there are sun and moon seats. On top of the sun and moon seats is Vajradhara, your root guru whom you primarily meditate on.

How do we visualize guru Vajradhara? Who do we visualize? In the Gelugpa system, for example, they talk about Offerings to the Gurus, which are very important. In these, they visualize that the main central figure of the field of refuge has four qualities. The lama is your kind root guru, and they are also Lobsang Drakpa (Tsongkhapa). They are also the Buddha Sakyamuni and Vajradhara, the teacher of the Vajrayana. So they say you should visualize this lama who has one essence and four aspects.

The way I think, in Kagyu practice, we consider that our own root gurus are the most important. You visualize your own root guru in the field of refuge as Vajradhara. Generally that’s okay—there’s nothing wrong with that. If you visualize your root guru, it is said that there are many benefits. Blessings come easily and swiftly. But this is in terms of each individual’s own particular practice. If we look from the general point of view of the Karma Kagyu school or lineage, if you look from the Karma Kagyu general teaching and the Buddha’s general teaching point of view, then maybe a few more aspects should be added.

In my opinion, if you look at the Karma Kamtsang very deeply, the Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa and all the other Karmapas represent the Karma Kamtsang teachings. The Karmapa becomes the most important. He is the main holder and the main source of the teachings of the Karma Kagyu. If the followers who practice this lineage are like a country, then he’s the father of the country. He’s the father of the Karma Kamtsang. So therefore whatever practice we do, it’s important to remember that. If we don’t remember that, then when we look at the Kamtsang teachings, the teachings become less powerful and the harmony might decrease. That wouldn’t be so good.

This is because some students, like some Chinese students, think, “This is my teacher,” and then only directly relate to their own teacher and no one else, as if there were nobody else. Don’t do that. Vajradhara should be your own kind teacher and because this is from the Kamtsang tradition, he is the Karmapa, too. He should also be the Buddha Shakyamuni because the Buddha Shakyamuni is the source of the Buddhadharma. So if you don’t consider him important, then you are not even a Buddhist. Therefore he is the master of Buddhism, Shakyamuni. Then he is the teacher of mantra, Vajradhara. The teacher or master of vajrayana is Vajradhara. So therefore he should also be viewed as Vajradhara. If you can look at this Vajradhara from all four points of view, then whether you look from the Buddhist point of view, the Vajrayana point of view, the Karma Kamtsang point of view, or the point of view of your own particular practice, then it will be good, I think. This is not that I have the name of the Karmapa, so I am trying to inflate the Karmapa’s name. That’s not the point. This is what I think.

To his right and left, and in front of and behind him are the lamas of the lineage of the meaning of realization and the lineage of blessings of practice. Even if you haven’t come to any particular realization, there is the lineage of practice. There are the lamas with whom you have dharmic connections. Even if you don’t have a dharma connection with them, there are lamas you are connected to through faith and devotion. You should visualize them in this way.

In the front are the yidams—the yidam deities for whom you have devotion or feel a connection. But from the point of view of this lineage, we visualize the yidam Vajrayogini. On the right are the buddhas: the Buddha Shakyamuni and all the other Buddhas. Behind is the dharma. The dharma is both dharma scriptures and realization. These are the truths of cessation and path, but in any case visualize that they take the form of books and volumes. On the left of Vajradhara is the sangha—the bodhisattvas and also buddhas. Sometimes many buddhas appear in the form of the Buddha’s followers in the sangha. All this is the source of refuge.

The spot where all these sources of refuge are looking is before them. They are looking in front of themselves, slightly down but not too far below. They are looking at all sentient beings, together with ourselves, who are the main people.

All these sentient beings come in many different types—humans, animals, devas etc. There are two ways of visualizing them. One way is to visualize that all these sentient beings are in the particular forms of whichever realm they are from—they are in their own forms. Another way to visualize is that all these sentient beings at this moment are in the form of human beings. Whichever you want is okay. If you visualize them as beings in the own form of their realms with their own kind of sufferings or whatever, then it is easier to experience a strong feeling for them. If they take the form of human beings, then it is also good karma and creates a good interconnection by which they will be born as human beings. So there is no particular difference between these two.

And you see yourself in the middle of all these sentient beings. Sometimes you visualize your enemies in front of you, your father and mother on your right and left, and then all others around you. Whether you visualize it like that or not, the main thing is you are in the middle of all this. You are in the middle, but it’s not like being in the middle of a big crowd. It’s as if you are on top of a big mountain where you can see all around. When you look around you, before your eyes where you can see them are gathered all sentient beings. Otherwise when you do your prostrations you don’t remember or can’t see whether the people around or behind you are doing prostrations or not. You are in the middle, but when you look around, you can see everybody around you, all sentient beings. That’s how you should visualize. When you are practicing, if you can see them, it is easier to conceive.

Another problem is if you do the practice in a small room, all these beings can’t fit inside your tiny room. It is difficult. In a big hall like this, you feel like many people can fit, but if you practice ngondro in a very small room and look to the right and left, then all these people cannot fit in such a small room. You might feel something like that.

That is because we usually use our five sense organs too much and think that if we are thinking of something in our minds, it must be outside somewhere. But really what we think of does not really have to be out there. When you practice and first think that everyone is around you, and it seems good, so then you look around and think whether they’ll fit, we think they probably won’t all fit. When we look with our eyes and use our five senses, it’s as if it has to go from here to here. The five senses have limits, and so we think things must go from one limit to another. Because there is this limit, when we think of something in our minds, it’s as if it has to have a limit, like our five senses. That is not easy. So you don’t have to look at the walls or doorposts or such things. You don’t need to do that. If you do that, it will get worse. Let your mind relax. It’s like in a dream where a lot of things can fit even in a small room. It should be something like that. Don’t make your five sense organs the main thing, but let your mind be the main way you concentrate. If you do that, your concentration will become better.

This is probably enough for today. Now it is 12 o’clock, isn’t it? Tomorrow we will see each other again. Tomorrow’s refuge, isn’t it? Tomorrow we will talk more about it and do the refuge ceremony. But yesterday when we did the empowerment, we said, “Refuge, refuge,” and “Fa shi, fa shi,” so there is not much more to say.

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2006/12/24

I’d like to give my greetings to the respected Rinpoches, masters, members of the sangha, and everyone else assembled here.

First, today I will talk about going for refuge. Should I speak in Tibetan or in Chinese? In any case, we have translation into several languages, so it should be OK. Because there’s not too much time, I will speak Chinese as much as I can. Sometimes I’ll also speak in Tibetan, and you may be able to listen the English translation on your FM radios. If everything works, that’s great. If not, there’s nothing to be done, otherwise we won’t finish.

The first thing to talk about is going for refuge. When we say “going for refuge,” there are two words: refuge and going. The first, refuge, is the unmistaken support. The support that is not mistaken. That’s what it means.

Going means that when we ourselves are faced by whatever different fears or dangers, then we need to look for someone who can give us protection, and when we find them, we need to follow them and ask them for protection.

If I speak both Tibetan and Chinese, it’s very difficult. What should we do? Is this mike working right?

[His Holiness speaks Chinese]

Now continuing from yesterday,

“One-pointedly we go for refuge and arouse bodhichitta.
All sentient beings and I go for refuge to the buddhas.
We go for refuge to the yidams.
We go for refuge to the buddhas.
We go for refuge to the dharma.
We go for refuge to the sangha.
Go for refuge in the five jewels as many times as possible. Maintaining this same visualization, give rise to bodhichitta:”

When you say this prayer at this time, there are 5 refuges. When we talk about the Dharmapalas or Dharma protectors, the wisdom Dharma protectors, then there are the six jewels. But in this instance, the source on which I have based this practice presents only five refuges. There are not six. Therefore I will follow this example, and there are only five jewels. The wisdom protectors are not specifically in the field of refuge. Why aren’t they there? From one perspective, ultimately it is appropriate for us to take refuge in the wisdom dharma protectors. However, in terms of how they appear or show themselves, the wisdom dharma protectors are beings that great lamas can command or who protect yogis, but do not appear as a source of refuge. So therefore according to some lamas, these protectors are not a source of refuge when they take the form of protectors. That’s the reason why they are not specifically here. That’s how it is.

Now I should speak some Chinese. [His Holiness speaks Chinese.]

They aren’t included in the field of refuge, but that doesn’t mean that they do not appear as protectors around the field. It is not that they cannot be visualized around the field of refuge; it’s not like that.

Perhaps I should talk about refuge. Some of you would like to take refuge, and if we talk about it, it makes a good connection, so I will talk a little bit about refuge. So I will say something about refuge. When we talk about refuge, we have to talk about the causes of refuge. Refuge has two causes: fear and faith.

When somebody is fearful, afraid of suffering such as all-pervasive suffering and the others, then they wants to find refuge. When we know and understand that the three jewels have the qualities and ability to protect us from what we fear, then we naturally want to take refuge in them. For that reason, these two are absolutely necessary in order to seek or go for refuge.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese]

What is fear? It is the problem, that which inspires us to seek refuge. It is something that instigates us to seek refuge. But the real cause or the source of refuge is faith. I think we should wonder whether going for refuge out of fear is authentic refuge.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese]

To talk about the sources of refuge, there are three: the Buddha, the dharma and the sangha. When we go for refuge to the Buddha, we think of him as the teacher, the one who shows the path. We go for refuge to the buddha thinking of him as the teacher who shows the path. When we go for refuge to the Dharma, it’s the way, the method to free ourselves from dangers and problems. Likewise, we think of the sangha as our companions on the path when we go for refuge to it.

But even if we go for refuge to the Buddha, if we do not see the dharma as what can actually free us from suffering and practice it, we will not attain liberation.

Likewise, even if we see the importance of the dharma and start to practice, if we don’t have the sangha, the spiritual friend; if we don’t have the support of the sangha and our dharma friends—the authentic dharma friends being the spiritual friend or teacher—then our minds will be confused from the beginning of the path, we will not be able to understand what we should take up and what we should abandon. Therefore we definitely have to have all three sources of refuge. All three must be present. It is very important that all three be present when we take refuge.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese. Short conversation with Khenpo Tengye. Speaks Chinese]

What should I say next?

What are the benefits of going for refuge? When we go for refuge, what is the benefit? We need to speak about both the benefits and the disadvantages. When you go for refuge what the benefits are, the benefits of refuge…

Can you hear the English all right? Is it OK? Anyone who wants to answer, please do. English is work? No? I don’t know. OK.

What the benefits are is… There are a whole lot of benefits. Among them, the most important, the one that is most beneficial for us ordinary individuals, is that after we have gone for refuge, if we turn our attention to the three jewels… Can you hear? If you do an action with the Three Jewels as an object, even if we don’t have the right kind of positive aspiration, even then because of the power of the object, because the object is very powerful, those actions with the three jewels as their object can become a cause that results in enlightenment or Buddhahood.

This is important, isn’t it? Sometimes we think we should have a positive aspiration or intention, but it can be difficult, can’t it? So therefore even if there is something where we don’t have to do it ourselves but the object is powerful, our strength of mind increases, doesn’t it? That’s a great benefit, I think. That’s the benefit of refuge.

After this, wouldn’t it be good for me to say something about the refuge precepts? Usually we have to talk about refuge first and then the precepts. However, maybe it is good to know what to do first, and then you will know whether it is something that is suitable for you or not. When you know that, you will be able to decide whether or not to take the refuge vow.

There are two types of precepts: the shared and specific. The first of these are the specific precepts. There are two types specific precepts: what not to do and what to do. The first is what you do not do. The first is what to refrain from, and second are the precepts on what to do. For ordinary, samsaric people, there are more things that we need to stop doing. The things we need to take up and do are fewer, so for that reason we talk about what to stop doing first.

In terms of what we give up, the first is that having gone for refuge to the Buddha, do not go for refuge to worldly deities. Second, having gone for refuge to the dharma, do not act with violence towards other beings. Third, having gone for refuge to the sangha, do not keep negative company. That is what is said.

First by going for refuge to the Buddha, you don’t go for refuge to worldly deities.

First you must relax. Relax. Please relax. This is a new building, everything is new. It’s not easy. Please be patient. It’s good that gave us a moment to rest.

First, when you go for refuge to the Buddha, you don’t go for refuge to the worldly deities. The main reason for going for refuge is that we are afraid, or we don’t want to experience all pervasive suffering, or we are afraid of being reborn in the lower realms in future lives. If we are not liberated, we need to have such fears. Otherwise, if we go for refuge to the Three Jewels out of fear for the difficulties and sufferings of this life, we are not authentically going for refuge.

We can rely upon worldly deities for the pleasures of this life, to be able to enjoy the pleasures of this life. For other lives than this one, as they do not have control themselves, there is no point in relying upon them. When we say, “Having gone for refuge in the Buddha, do not go for refuge in worldly deities,” it is primarily just as the Buddha said: “If you cannot protect yourself, who else can protect you?” It is our own power, the power of practicing the dharma, that can protect us. That is important. It’s not like anybody else can free us. That is important.

And also when we say you have to be afraid of suffering, I don’t know how some of you are taking that. Saying that you need to be afraid of suffering is not to say that you must feel suffering. Some think that when we say you should be afraid of suffering, some of you might think that you have to remember suffering, or that you have to create some grand suffering to remember. If you try to do that, then suffering turns into dharma. Buddhism becomes the dharma of suffering. If you only meditate on impermanence and suffering, then suffering becomes dharma. That’s not how we should understand this. When we say here you should fear suffering, it’s not that you have to feel suffering. Rather, you should learn what suffering is. You should understand suffering. It’s not that you have to experience suffering, to create suffering.

Secondly, when we say, “Having gone for refuge to the dharma, give up harming beings,” this is talking from one perspective. This is only one part of it; the main point is that we have to give up the things that are contradictory to both the path and the cessation of suffering. We have give up the afflictions and obscurations of body, speech and mind. We need to give up bad actions of body, speech and mind, whatever they may be. “Giving up harming beings” doesn’t just mean giving up harm.

As long as we have the three mind poisons which are the main causes of violence and harm, it is possible that we might cause harm. As this is something to be afraid of, if we do not get rid of the cause itself, it is not okay. They are like a nuclear bomb—we say that we are going to keep it without using it. But we don’t know when it will be used or when it will go off. Our own nuclear bomb is the three poisons of the afflictions that we have in ourselves. They are extremely dangerous. For that reason, we need to discard all of the poisons of our body, speech and mind.

Third, when we say, “Having gone for refuge in the sangha, do not keep negative company,” what we mean by negative company are those people who prevent us from generating even the slightest positive actions of body, speech and mind. That’s what negative friends are. So these are people who prevent us from doing small positive things. You might think that it would mean people who make big problems, huge difficulties, but we need to pay attention to the small things. The big problems all start with small things. For that reason, we need to recognize that those people who prevent even small virtuous thoughts from arising are negative friends.

Well, that pretty much finishes the things we need to give up. Next are the things we need to do. I’ve already explained what not to do; there is not much time to tell what to do, so I I do not have much to say about this. Do what you should do. I’ve already spoken about the things that you have to refrain from. So all of you, do what you should.

So now it’s time the refuge vow. It’s time to take the refuge vow. All of that, what I said, has been mere words. Now when you take the refuge vow, it should not just be words. It should be something alive. The words should be moist and alive. You have to feel it, to have this feeling. In order to bring this feeling out, you should combine it with what there is in your being. If you combine the refuge vow with the dharma that you already have in your being, then the feeling will come, I think.

So I should talk about this. Let’s think about it. So, where is the Buddha? Where is the Buddha to whom we go for refuge? If at first you can’t find the Buddha, it’s not possible to go for refuge. Where is the Buddha? When we look at it, maybe, as the Buddha said, the “Buddha” is somebody has extinguished all faults and possesses all the qualities. There isn’t anyone present now who has extinguished all faults and possesses all the qualities, but lamas, the spiritual friends, to whom we are connected, our teachers, are our guides. They are the ones who teach us the path. This spiritual friend becomes a representative of the Buddha, so we conceive of them as the Buddha and go for refuge.

But this is just as a support for the Buddha. It’s not as if just having a spiritual friend will destroy our negative emotions, the mental poisons. We can’t take the spiritual friend and use them to destroy our negative emotions. What we destroy our negative emotions with is the dharma.

The dharma is the main thing. There’s lots of things to say about dharma. I have already said the most important things about it. At this point, we all have in our beings a subtle positive mind. We do have this subtle positive mind. We must all have either some faith or some devotion or some bodhichitta.

From the time we were children, we have had a inherent positive, wholesome intention. We need to remember that and make it into something living. We can remember that and make it manifest. Because of that, we can use that as the beginning of our dharma practice and the beginning of the all paths. The intention “I will do that” is what is important.

I said this before in Mirik, and I would like to repeat it. For instance, if I take myself as an example, I remember what it was like when I was small—maybe 4 or 5 years old. We were nomads, so we occasionally had to slaughter animals. At those times I naturally had very strong feelings like compassion or whatever you want to call it. It would awaken my heart and a strong feeling would arise. I had these very strong feelings when I was about four or five years old. Now I am in my twenties. Since that time I’ve read lots of dharma books and done some dharma practice. But since that time, I’ve never had any feelings of compassion that could be compared with strong feelings of compassion that I had when I was four or five years old.

A single innate, natural quality is better than the thousands of qualities we could create through conceptual practice. If we could remember our natural qualities, such as loving-kindness or whatever, and bring them into our dharma practice, it would be very good, I think.

Then there are the sangha, our companions on the path. There are a whole lot of you here, and many of you are dharma friends. But all of you always say, “Lama, lama,” but you don’t often think about your dharma friends, do you? Remember your dharma friends. Think about how you have connections, connections through the dharma, connections through good samaya, connections through helping each other. Thinking about all this, go for refuge in the Buddha, dharma and sangha.

There are some Tibetans among you who are taking refuge. They will also go for refuge. Some Tibetans might think this teaching is just for the Chinese and Westerners, it’s not for us. Then you kind of relax and stop thinking, but I’m talking in Tibetan, so I’m trying to talk to you as well. So you have to think about that as well.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese.]

Now repeat after me. [His Holiness gives the refuge vow. The translation of the vow is as follows:]

From now on, I go for refuge to the Buddha. I go for refuge to the dharma. I go for refuge to the sangha. [Repeated 3 times]

Next we will do the refuge ceremony in Chinese language. [Gives vow in Chinese]

My hope now is that those of you who have already taken the refuge vow may develop it further and further, and that those of you who had not taken it, have now received it. Of course when we say received, it’s not that there something new that you get. It’s that you’re making a kind of decision or a commitment. So that’s the power of that commitment. Those who need a new refuge name you please contact the organizers of the teachings; you can get your name by contacting them.

Finally, now that you have received the refuge vow, what is to be expected? What do I hope for from you? What do you have to do? I’ve already said what I could and there is nothing much more to say. I’ve already said what I could about the precepts. That is in general terms.

What I have to say from my personal point of view is this. I’ve given you the refuge vows, but I don’t have the particular expectation that having given you refuge, you develop good practice, and in the future become very diligent and become a Buddha with an ushnisha on your head and wheels on your feet. If it happens, that’s great, but I don’t have a particular expectation of that. If I had that expectation, then I should have one, but it hasn’t grown yet.

Primarily, in this world groups and associations are very important. Groups and associations. If we do negative things in a group, then everyone we are associating with does negative things, and that is harmful to the world. But if we do positive things together, then it is helpful to the world.

Now many of you have gathered here and I’ve given you the refuge vows. I wish that all of you become more responsible and develop more courage to work for the benefit of this world. I hope that your courage becomes stronger and that each of you feels as if you not only intend to do something positive to benefit the world, but that you can actually do something more than just have the intention. That is the expectation with which I have given you the refuge vows.

So for your own part, develop loving-kindness and the intention to benefit other beings. Try to bring more happiness first to your own family, then to society and then to the whole world. That’s my personal expectation of you now that I’ve given you refuge. That concludes going for refuge.

We talked a little bit about bodhichitta the other day during the empowerment. The phrase “generating bodhichitta” means generating a state of mind. It’s not “generating words,” is it? So you should generate bodhichitta. Each of you, for your own part, should put some effort into developing love, compassion and bodhichitta. All people have the seed for love, compassion and bodhichitta. It’s just something we need to improve; there’s nothing new to buy. So all of you for your own part, please meditate on it.

Next I’ll say a few things about prostrations. First I will explain them in Chinese, and then in Tibetan. So shall I speak in Chinese first? First I’ll speak in Chinese.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese.]

Now I’ll speak briefly in Tibetan. Our time’s nearly up, isn’t it?

When we do prostrations, there are three types of prostrations: prostration with the mind, prostration with speech, and prostration with the body. When you fold your hands and bow your head down, that’s the prostrating with the body. When you recite words of homage and praise, that is prostrating with speech. When the mind remembers the positive qualities and faith arises, that’s prostrating with the mind. If you think that faith and devotion in the mind and reciting prayers are not prostration, and that moving your body alone is the prostration, there’s no problem with that. This is because the Sanskrit word for prostration is Namo. Namo can mean prostrating, and it can also mean showing respect, so there is no problem.

There is a story about this. In 1925, there was a butcher in one part of China who, at the time of his death felt great faith in the Buddha and raised one hand to his heart out of faith. About nine months afterwards, all the members of his family members had the same dream. They all dreamt of the father of the family who had just passed away, and he said, “Tomorrow, I’ll be born as a piglet with a human hand for one of his paws in your neighborhood. Please protect me.”

The next day it actually happened. The family members pooled their money, bought the piglet, and offered it to a monastery to save its life. This is possible because it was the effect of showing respect with just one hand. And if that’s the benefit of showing respect with one hand, you can hope for great benefits from doing it with two hands, right?

The actual meaning of prostrations is really excellent. In terms of the sutras, the best way to accumulate virtue is the seven branch practice. Prostrations fulfills be all seven branches.

Showing respect with our body, speech and mind is prostrating. The aspect that pleases all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas is offering. We talk about the four powers, right? Among these is the power of support, and relying on the power of support to purify our misdeeds, obscurations and downfalls is confession. The joy we feel from making offerings and purifying our misdeeds is rejoicing. Because of that, the Buddhas and bodhisattvas are pleased, and therefore they give turn the wheel of Dharma and remain without passing into nirvana. This aspect of them staying and teaching the dharma is the branches of asking them to turn the wheel of dharma and not to pass into nirvana. Then dedicating all these roots of virtue towards the attainment of buddhahood is dedication.

Next is the way we prostrate. I’ll talk first about how we join our hands. Your fingertips should touch. But leave an empty space in between your hands. Then stick your thumbs inside there. The shape that makes is like the shape of a flower bud that has not yet blossomed, right? In the morning, the Indian children sell flowers, right? So look closely at those. To explain this, the empty space between your palms represents the Dharmakaya. The shape of the two hands represents the form kaya. The right and left hands represent the skillful means and wisdom. When we are doing positive things, that’s what they represents. When we do negative things, they can represent the maras and obstacles. In this context, they represent skilful means and wisdom. Joining these two together, it creates the conditions that through the union of wisdom and means, those who haven’t begun the path begin. Those who’ve begun it, remain on it and develop it further and further.

First you place your joined hands at your forehead, and then you put them at the level of your throat, and then you put your folded hands at the level of your heart. Putting them there shows that you remember the Buddha’s qualities of body, speech and mind and that his body, speech and mind have been purified. This becomes a cause for purifying obscurations.

In the future when you are doing the refuge practice, you will do prostrations, right? When prostrating, you can do either a full prostration or also do a half prostration, which is to touch the five points of your body to the ground. There are many types of prostrations. Full prostration are primarily from the tantras. The half prostration, with the five points on the ground, is sometimes called the five-point mandala. This is the general Buddhist prostration. Whatever prostration you do is fine. If you do full prostrations, that’s fine. If you do half prostrations, that’s fine. If your knees aren’t very good, you can kneel on the ground, touch your joined palms to the three places and bow down. That should be OK. You don’t have to stand up but can remain kneeling.

In any case, that’s how you prostrate. Now normally when you do prostrations, you have to do 100,000. But some foreigners complain about prostrations—my back hurts, my knees hurt, they say a lot. If you can do 100,000 prostrations, that’s really good, but you don’t have to. If you can do one hundred thousand, that is great, but if it becomes really annoying and difficult, if it disturbs your mind, then it stops being dharma practice. So maybe when you practice this particular ngondro that I have composed, you do not absolutely have to do one hundred thousand. But maybe we can set a minimum, such as one thousand or ten thousand or fifty thousand or something like that. This is only applies to my ngondro text. I’m not talking about other texts; this has nothing to do with them. If you can do one hundred thousand, then you could do not just that but two hundred thousand. If instead of doing one hundred thousand you do two hundred thousand, that would be most welcome.

The most important thing about prostrating, what we need from doing prostrations, is that we show respect through the appearance of our body and speech, the signs of our body and speech. It should show pure conduct with our body, speech and mind. If that happens, it is a prostration. If it does not, it’s not a prostration. If a student can prostrate in a way that shows this, the number is unimportant—they will gather the accumulations. The main purpose will be filled. One Tibetan lama once said that you can tell how much faith somebody has by the way they prostrate. Sometimes when you see Tibetans prostrating, it’s really scary. It’s like, vroom! It seems really scary. Prostrations must show faith and purity.

That is how it is. Thank you.

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2006/12/25

Yesterday we talked about what to do during the sessions of refuge and bodhichitta practice. I will tell Mingyur Rinpoche the gist of the practice between sessions and he can explain it to you. There’s not very much time, so explaining it will be Mingyur Rinpoche’s job.

Now it is time to talk about Vajrasattva practice and mandala offering practice. When we talk about purifying negative actions, we talk about four powers. The powers of support, regret, the antidote and resolve are taught to be the four powers. The easiest of these is probably the power of support, I think.

[His Holiness speaks in Chinese.]

The reason why the power of support is the simplest is because the power of support is to rely on the Three Jewels. We rely on the field of merit. Although our intentions and conduct may not be completely pure, the power of the support is very helpful. For instance, when we confess our negative deeds, our confession may not be completely perfect or authentic, but if we rely on the support of the Buddha, dharma, and sangha, the wisdom of the support makes it easier to get rid of our negative karma. Maybe it’s like that.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese]

And regarding the purification of negative deeds, many people think that when we talk about purifying negative deeds, we must think, “I killed an insect, so I must confess that.” Or maybe, “I killed a tiger; I’ve got to confess that.” Or else they think, “I killed a person, so therefore I have to confess that negative deed.” They think in that way. That’s very good.

But what is even more important than that, is that if we first make a commitment or a hope, a vast commitment or hope, and then later do something bad that contradicts that, it is much more problematic—that’s much more harmful. In general it is bad to kill a person or other being, and confessing that is good, but if you first make a big commitment or hope in your mind and later do something that goes against your own hope or commitment, that is a greater harm; it is worse.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese]

Therefore, for example, if you kill an insect—for instance, if someone sees a bug and says, “I’m going to kill that bug,” and then steps on it or squashes it with their hand, they feel no immediate harm or some negative effect. There is no immediate negative result. Suffering will come, but it doesn’t come immediately. In general, it is wrong, but there’s no immediate great harm.

This is because when you kill an insect, it just happens kind of spontaneously. It’s not something that you prepared beforehand and kept in mind before doing. Therefore since there’s no particular intent, it doesn’t have such a great impact on us. We kill a lot of insects, but we don’t particularly feel like we have killed a lot. But when we make a strong commitment or wish and then do something contrary to it, committing such an action is much more harmful to us because we had made the commitment and had made the aspiration and hope. That is something we had kept for a long time, and when we go against that, the harm is much worse. For that reason, violating the three vows is far more harmful than killing insects, etc. If we first take a vow, make a commitment, and then later do something contradictory of that, that is more harmful to ourselves.

At this point the way we know whether the negativity is strong or not, is not because somebody like the Buddha said this is very harmful or that is not harmful. It’s not like that. To tell how strong the negativity is, look in your own being. Looking in your own being, you see how harmful it is. I think that’s what we have to think of: if you look directly at it and see that it made a big impression or strong experience, then it probably was very harmful. I’m speaking directly here.

If that action brings some very strong negative experience or some strong movement, then it was probably a grave wrongdoing. If you do the action but it doesn’t create a strong negative experience, a strong impression on you, then it becomes a smaller negative action.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese.]

When we confess our negative deeds the most important thing to do is to think, “I have done this or that negative action.” Thinking it is this specific action, this specific misdeed that I have done, we confess it specifically and that is extremely good. We should remember our past misdeeds and confess them specifically; to do that is good. If we do that, then our confession becomes something authentic and complete.

But when we make a general confession we do not need to identify each and every one of the negative deeds we have done before confessing. So it is good to confess generally all of the things we have done, everything negative from beginningless time until now generally—all the negative things that we have done, under the power of the three poisons. Doing that is good. This is because it is extremely difficult to individually identify each and every misdeed. For instance, if I talk about myself, I don’t remember committing any very big, very strong negative deeds when I was young, but I must have done lots of small negative things. I don’t remember them all. So we are all the same: we’ve done many bad things but don’t remember them. However, we’ve done nothing negative that was not mixed with or motivated by the three poisons of the negative emotions. So if we confess everything motivated by the three poisons, all of these negative actions, whether we remember them or not, can be purified.

There are primarily three conditions for committing negative deeds. There is king-like ignorance and minister-like aversion and attachment. That is because ignorance or delusion pervades all the other negative emotions. Because of ignorance, we see things wrong and that creates inaccurate conceptions. Because of these inaccurate conceptions there are the other negative emotions. It’s just as our sense of touch pervades our bodies, ignorance is present in all negative emotions. That’s the reason why it is called “king-like.”

When we say “minister-like,” there are lots of different negative emotions under the influence of ignorance, but the main ones—the ones with power that we act upon—are aversion or attachment. So therefore they are like the ministers—they’re “minister-like.”

So therefore whatever negative deeds we do, it is impossible that they not be supported by aversion or attachment. These are the conditions; they motivate the actions. So in terms of the conditions or motivations, all misdeeds are one of these three: those we do out of ignorance, out of aversion, or out of attachment. When we are as disgusted by all these wrongdoings committed out of the power of the three poisons as if they were vomit and confess them, then we can truly purify them.

When we talk karma in terms of what commits it, then there is karma of body, speech and mind. In terms of who commits them, actions are committed with body, speech or mind. Any kind of negative action has to be done with one of these three—with the body, speech, or mind. So to classify them in terms of how they are committed, there are actions of body, actions of speech, and actions of mind.

If we classify karma in terms of how we do the actions, there are three types: those which we do ourselves, those which we ask somebody else to do, and thirdly those others have done which we rejoice in. The ones we have done ourselves are very clear: they are what we actually did. In terms of those we ask others to do, asking others to do negative deeds is more harmful than those deeds you actually do. We can somehow pretend that we ourselves are not doing anything negative while at the same time asking somebody else to do something. It’s worse because two people are committing negative actions. We commit the negative action ourselves, and the other person also commits it. It becomes two negativities and is more harmful.

Rejoicing in someone else’s negative deeds is when someone does something negative and we think, “That’s very good! That’s really good! He’s really great! It’s very good!” If we think in that way and rejoice in that, the power of that negative thought creates the wrong. It is the same negativity for ourselves as for the other person. It’s not as if the misdeed the other person did is divided in half and we get one half. The person who rejoices in the negative deed gains the whole misdeed, the entire negative deed. They don’t get only a part or half of the deed; they gain the entire negative deed. So it is the same as doing it yourself.

So now we should read from the Vajrasattva practice.

“To purify negativity and obscurations, first, during meditation sessions, recite:”

“First” means during the sessions.

“Above the crown of my head, on a lotus-moon seat,
Is Guru Vajrasattva, white in color, adorned with ornaments,
With one face and two arms,
Holding a vajra with his right hand and a bell with his left, and seated in vajra posture.”

[To translators] Read that.

At this point, before you do the Vajrasattva practice, you have to go through the entire refuge and bodhichitta practice. As I described earlier, during your sessions, even if you are doing Vajrasattva practice separately, you must recite refuge and bodhichitta beforehand. First recite the refuge and bodhichitta well, and then recite Vajrasattva practice.

It says “Above the crown of my head.” When you say “my,” it is you in your ordinary form. We have to think of ourselves as the ordinary person that we are now. You do not have to visualize yourself as a deity or anything like that, because our wrongs and negative deeds are done in this ordinary form. Because our ordinary form is faulty, it is easier to remember that we have done wrong. When we committed misdeeds, we did them in an ordinary form and it is in that very form that we visualize ourselves.

When we say “Crown of my head,” it means about 12 finger-widths above the crowns of our heads—in the space 12 finger widths above our heads. Vajrasattva is seated on a lotus flower to represent that he is not defiled by the faults of samsara. The lotus is white in color—a white lotus with eight petals. On top of that seat, visualize a moon disc which is by nature relative bodhichitta and is round like the full moon. This looks like the white moon we see when we look from the earth up at the moon. Modern scientists have gone near the moon and taken photographs that show the moon as a dark sphere, but we don’t visualize it like that. It is white and shining.

To explain it in detail, the white color is relative bodhichitta, the source of all positive deeds. That is why it’s white in color. It is a full, complete circle that represents that our compassion extends equally, without prejudice, towards all sentient beings. That’s why it is a circle. Because it cools our strong, burning sensations of selfishness, it is cool to the touch. Because it brings complete benefit for others, it radiates light. We need something like that.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese]

Then on top of that, visualize Vajrasattva. Immediately visualize Vajrasattva. I think it’s okay not to visualize any letters or radiation of light or anything like that. In a split second, you visualize Vajrasattva’s complete form. Visualizing like that should be OK.

When we talk about Vajrasattva, first I have to say what Vajrasattva means. Vajra can mean many different qualities; there are many meanings for the word Vajra in Sanskrit. The main meaning is that this is the nondual wisdom of the Buddha’s mind. It’s something which is not defeated by the four maras. It’s very strong and impregnable. Because it has that nature, it’s called vajra.

And sattva means that although he has overcome the subtle cognitive and afflictive obscurations and actualized the nondual union of form and wisdom, he displays the form kaya and continuously works to benefit of beings. There is no weariness or getting tired of working for the benefit of others. That’s why he’s called sattva, or courageous or brave.

Vajrasattva is white in color. He is white in color because one feature of the most subtle wisdom wind is that it is white in color. Therefore he is white in color. He is also peaceful and smiling. It is important that he be peaceful and smiling. It is very important to meditate on him as having an expression. Sometimes when we think of him as unmoving and still, like an image or a statue, there is no particular feeling. So if we meditate that he is actually living and smiling, then it feels like we are really seeing him. And you should imagine that he is smiling at you, the yogin, in particular.

There are two reasons why he has to be smiling. One is to represent that it is something very difficult to attain. It is not easy to find the intention to practice dharma and purify all our negativities. Now we have this opportunity and we are purifying ourselves now, and to show that this is difficult to find, the bodhisattva Vajrasattva is happy, delighted, and thus smiling.

The second reason is because he is trying to guide or instigate us. He is smiling in encouragement. The reason is that there is nothing about us that is particularly pleasing. We don’t really have any qualities that would please him. For example, if a mother had only one child who does not listen to their mother and behaves badly, first the mother gives advice and then even beats them, but none of that works. So the mother has nothing to do but laugh. Other than stand there laughing, there’s nothing that she can do.

In the same way, we are very drawn towards negative deeds and our mind is not particularly drawn towards positive deeds. So therefore the bodhisattva, Vajrasattva can do nothing but smile. That’s to encourage us to go in a more positive way. If I say too much, I’ll almost about to say the bodhisattva is going crazy. Maybe it’s better not to say too much.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese]

I can’t say much, so in brief, he has two hands. His right hand holds a five-pointed vajra. The left hand holds a bell. The vajra is at his heart center. The bell is on his left thigh. Visualize him like that. There are so much in all this. The posture he is sitting in is the vajra posture.

“Clearly visualize at Vajrasattva’s heart center a moon disc, upon which sits a HUNG, encircled by the mantra garland. Supplicate Vajrasattva, and visualize that when you do so, a stream of amrita fills his enlightened form and then comes out from his right big toe into the Brahma aperture at the top of your head. All your obscurations and past negative actions, embodied in a substance that looks like ink or dark smoke, leave your body as all of your body’s parts are filled with amrita. While doing this visualization, recite Vajrasattva’s mantra as many times as you can.”

In Vajrasattva’s heart center, there is a moon, upon which there is a syllable HUNG. The HUNG is the size of the thumb. If you look at it, it’s the size of a thumb, or you can also visualize it as big as a human body—that would be OK. If you look from afar, it’s the size of a thumb, or it could be the size of a human. You can do either—whichever is easier for you.

Then concentrate on that while supplicating. Because of the power of our sincere prayers to purify our misdeeds, amrita flows down from his body. It’s not like when we sweat—some people think that it dribbles down like sweat, but that would be really strange. Vajrasattva’s form is not solid like ours. It’s like a clear crystal or a rainbow. His form is like a rainbow which is not solid.

The amrita flows from his body into us. That’s something to think about. The amrita flows in through the crowns of our head, filling our body, and all our misdeeds and obscurations become like ink or black smoke and dissolve into the ground. When the amrita fills our body, all the previous misdeeds and sorrows in our beings are eliminated, and our minds are filled with courage, bravery, strength and hope. We should think in this way.

We could either purify ourselves through visualizing radiating lights or the flow of amrita.
Maybe visualizing nectar is stronger. This is because when we take a bath or a shower, we think we are washing away stains, right? Otherwise with light, there’s just more dust, and we don’t really think of ourselves as getting cleansed. So here we think that the amrita flows down and cleanses us like water, and we think that all our negativities have been purified.

At this time, pay good attention to the visualization; meditate on it well. When we recite the mantra, it’s good to recite it without thinking too much.

[His Holiness recites the mantra.]

“Then, confess your past negative actions and vow not to perform them again by reciting the following:

Noble Ones who know and see everything, think of us.
Under the power of the three poisons from beginningless time,
With our bodies, speech and mind we have broken
The three vows and the Victors’ commands.
We admit and confess these downfalls and misdeeds.
We will not do them again. May we not experience their results.

Saying this, confess and resolve not to repeat your misdeeds.”

When you say, “Noble Ones who know and see everything, think of us,” the reason “Noble Ones” is plural is this: We have primarily visualized the guru Vajrasattva—Vajrasattva indivisible from our root guru. He is the main witness. But also remember all the other lineage lamas and bodhisattvas and think of them as witnesses, too. There’s no need to visualize them. Just think of them—think to yourself they are there—and make them your witnesses as well.

We say that we are confessing and purifying all the negative things we have done in the past, and we make a promise for the future. This is primarily making the resolve not to do them again. Just as with vows, if we make a promise not to do something negative but then do it again, it’s like telling a lie. Not only did we do a negative deed, but we lied to the Buddhas, and that is an additional wrong. We have to be careful about that.

“Vajrasattva says, ‘Your misdeeds are purified,’ and is pleased. He melts into light and dissolves into you.”

Then at the end, we think that the lama Vajrasattva says, “Now you have been purified.” Vajrasattva is overjoyed and dissolves into light. He must be really pleased and delighted. This time Vajrasattva really feels, “Oh, yes you have really done it well. You have done very well, it’s good.” He is very pleased. We should feel that.

When we talk about Vajrasattva, purifying ourselves is when our innate wisdom appears as the deity. We visualize this, and our misdeeds are purified through the power of our practice. It’s not that some god from outside appears, blesses us, and purifies our negative deeds. That is not how it is. The buddhas and bodhisattvas are like examples, and when we take them as examples and imagine them, our natural wisdom and means arise as the male and female deities. This then becomes an excellent way to purify our misdeeds. It’s not anything else—it would be really difficult for some god to come, sprinkle water on us, and purify our negativity. If we could be purified in that way, we all would have been purified long ago.

The most important thing about being purified by Vajrasattva is that it is the way we focus our minds. Whether we are able to or have the power to purify ourselves through the strength of our wisdom and methods depends mainly upon us individually and also on the blessings of the lineage.

And then let your mind settle in a uncontrived state of mind. Relax your mind. This is trying to create tendencies towards the meditation of Mahamudra, and it is possible that it might help awaken our wisdom.

To close, I have a few words to say. This is not particularly connected to this teaching, but there’s something I should say.

Today is Christmas, isn’t it? Christmas may be a Western, Christian celebration, but it is not only a Western celebration. It is a holiday of joy and happiness in society in general. For me, too, it has been a great Christmas. In Buddhism, we say that all sentient beings throughout space are our fathers, our mothers, our brothers and sisters. At Christmas, they all get together, right? Today all these fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers have come together, and I have got to know many people I didn’t know before. I’m really happy about that. So today I really feel that I’m really celebrating Christmas.

So as part of my aspiration that all you be happy, I have made some drawings that I would like to give you as presents. In particular, I have written some Chinese calligraphy for you. All you Chinese people can take them home, and I hope that you will have a very good New Year celebration.

First I will give these to all the Westerners and Chinese who have come. I will give them first to the foreigners. If there are enough, then I will give them to the Tibetans as well. If there are not enough, bye-bye! Sorry! That’s it.

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2006/12/26

First I would like to say Tashi Delek to all the Rinpoches, masters, and all those who have come here. [Chinese] Good morning. [Korean] I’m pretending I know a lot of different languages. Today I will speak about mandala offerings and guru yoga.

First are the mandala offerings. I will explain them briefly. The mandala offerings are on page 29.

“The mandala offering which completes the two accumulations has two parts. First, during the meditation session, there are two types of mandalas: the mandala of accomplishment, the field of focus for one’s gathering of the two accumulations, and the offering mandala, which contains the substances offered. With the first of these, the mandala’s physical base may be made of any suitable material. Visualize that in its center and each of its four directions there are lotus flowers, upon each of which stand eight lions supporting a throne made of precious jewels, upon which is a lotus, sun, and moon seat. On the center thrones sit the gurus, in front sit the yidams, to the right the buddhas, behind the dharma, and to the left the sangha—so are the rare and supreme jewels arrayed. The dharma protectors guard the mandala’s perimeter. While remembering its meaning, offer this seven-branch prayer.”

It is often said that there are both composite merit and non-composite merit. It is very difficult for us ordinary individuals to accumulate non-composite merit. However, whatever stage we are at—the stage of the ground, path or result—we must accumulate composite merit.

It is difficult for people who do not have much merit even enter the path. Not only that, it is difficult for them to even hear the word “dharma.” Therefore it’s important to gather within our beings the accumulation of merit. Mandala offerings are a way to do that.

The way to make mandala offerings is described in both the sutras and the tantras. Generally, mandala is a Sanskrit word. What it means is to get the essence.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese]

Therefore mandala means to get the essence. So therefore before we offer mandalas, we have to identify what is the essence that we are trying to get. That’s important.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese]

The essence which we are trying to get is the three kayas of the Buddha—the result that is the three kayas: the dharmakaya, the sambhogakaya and the nirmanakaya.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese]

So what is the method by which we get this essence? It is to continuously offer mandalas to the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Because of that, we slowly, step by step, get rid of the obscurations within ourselves, and eventually we manifest the state where all negative faults are extinguished and all the positive qualities are developed. And that is when we actually get the essence.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese]

We should also talk about what the actual mandala and objects we offer are made of. There are three kinds of mandala plates. Here we are talking about the substance of the plate, the actual material it is made of. The best mandala plate is made of gold, silver, or another precious metal. The second best is made of iron, copper, etc. Then the lowest is made of clay, stone, or something like that. Those are the main materials mandala plates are made of.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese]

Mandala plates come in different colors and shapes. Peaceful mandalas are round. Enriching mandalas are square. Magnetizing ones are semi-circular. Wrathful mandalas are triangular. They also have their own colors—peaceful, enriching, etc. mandalas each have their own color.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese]

Regarding the size of the mandala plate, there are many different types of sizes. The minimum size, the smallest one, should no smaller be twelve fingers widths.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese]

Then you make offerings with a mandala that meets these physical characteristics. You need two kinds of mandalas for making offerings: the mandala of accomplishment and the offering mandala. The mandala of accomplishment is the one you arrange as a support. There is also the mandala that you use to actually make offerings. These are the two different mandalas that you need.

It’s explained here that if you already have on your shrine representations of the sources of refuge—the gurus, buddhas, dharma, sangha and yidams—then you don’t need a separate mandala of accomplishment. Whether or not you have an actual mandala of accomplishment, the way you visualize it is as described here in the text. Then you make a very clear, authentic seven branch offering that you really feel in your mind.

When you are offering one-hundred thousand mandalas, the offering mandala is the most important, and here the mandala offering of seven piles is the main thing. If I try to explain the mandala and the seven piles, the mandala plate represents the golden ground which has been anointed with a wonderful, fragrant scent. To represent the ring of iron mountains, it is scattered with all kinds of different flowers. In the center of that is the king of mountains, Mount Meru, and in the four directions are the four continents. On the right and left it is adorned with the sun and the moon.

You mentally imagine this as a Buddha field that has been created by the power of the Buddhas’ intentions and aspirations. Through the power of visualizing that you are offering it, wish that all beings may be cleansed of the defiled obscurations and that they be able to enjoy undefiled state of the four kayas. We make the offering with that sort of a focus.

In terms of how to offer the mandala, we have already discussed what kind of mandala plate to use, so we should describe what substances we use to make the piles. If you offer medicinal substances that heal the body, it is said that it will help you to cure bodily illness and have long life. If you make offerings with jewels and precious stones, then it might result in you getting all your wishes fulfilled.

And if you offer sweet-smelling things, such as rice or wheat which has been perfumed with nice fragrances, then also it might result in being able to lead others or to inspire others.

When we make these piles, precious stones never get old. But grains or the medicinal substances get old quickly, so we cannot use the same grains or same substances again and again. But jewels and precious stones can be offered over and over again.

When making the offering, first we hold the mandala plate in our left hand with some grains or precious stones in our palm. If you hold the mandala plate with an empty hand, it does not create good circumstances. We pick up whatever it is we are offering—medicines, grains, etc.—with our right hand, and make the offerings with our right hand. We then clean the mandala plate with the heel of the right hand—the base of the right hand—wiping in a clockwise direction. According to the Kamtsang system, first we wipe the mandala plate twice clockwise and then once counter-clockwise. It is different in the tantras. In the outer tantras you go clockwise, and in the inner tantras you go counterclockwise. So normally we wipe twice clockwise and once counterclockwise, but it is also okay to do it three times clockwise.

What is most important is that whether you wipe in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction, you must wipe with the heel of the right hand. This is the point where the bodhichitta channel is. Because the bodhichitta channel is there, it creates the circumstances for quickly purifying our misdeeds and obscurations and for generating bodhichitta.

Maybe it is okay to do it three times clockwise. It is okay to do it just three times clockwise or maybe it’s okay to do one counter-clockwise, too. When you do this, visualize that the entire ground is cleared of everything negative like stones, dust, thorns or such things, and spread with precious substances. If we visualize it like this, then it becomes a practice that purifies the world into a pure realm. Such practices that purify worlds into pure realms are taught in the Prajnaparamita sutras, aren’t they? So this represents a practice that purifies the world into a pure realm.

After cleaning the plate, we put the things we have been holding in our right hand—the grains, etc.—in the center of the mandala plate. If you do not do this, then it can create the wrong circumstances that might lead you to be born into an empty Buddha field—you will be born in a Buddha field, but an empty one. Wrong means it’s a fault. Then you make the seven piles on this as described earlier. In the center is the king of mountains, Mt. Meru and in the four directions are the four continents, adorned with the sun and the moon. That’s it. Do this without visualizing it wrong.

There are two ways of considering the directions. The direction you are facing can be the east, or the front of the mandala can be the east. There are these two ways: the direction the lamas to whom you are offering are facing, or the way you are facing.

[His Holiness speaks Chinese.]

If you look at this, then this is in front of you. One way is to say that this is east. Or others say that this, the other side, is east. They say that this is east and make the offering there first. What is the eastern continent Purvavideha called in Chinese? So some people say this is the east.

[Khenpo Tengye speaks Chinese.]

When we say this is the east, the direction we are facing, then it is easier to receive the blessings of the Buddhas. If you make this the east, then it is about offering our body, speech and mind towards all the Buddhas. Whichever you do is fine—the difference is not important.

So we need to visualize Mt. Meru in the center. These days we talk about whether or not there is a Mt. Meru. When you meditate, it doesn’t matter whether Mt. Meru is as it is when we meditate. Each individual visualizes it differently—maybe some visualize it as square, some as round. There’s no way it could be what everyone visualizes. So therefore the main thing is that the entire universe is transformed into a pure realm. All that is negative and impure is purified, and everything transforms into a Buddha field. The point is to make this sort of an aspiration, creating a pure intention. But what is mentioned here, Mt. Meru, the four continents, and the sun and moon, were actually taught.

If you want to create a new seven-pile mandala with Asia in the east and America in the west, in terms of the logic it is probably OK. But if you make it up, then it would require a lot of thought, and that is not so easy.

However you see it, what we are offering here are the four continents and Mt. Meru. The main point is to have the tremendous intention to transform the whole universe into a pure realm.

For instance, in Taiwan and mainland China, the human pure land is frequently pointed out and talked about. When we are offering mandalas, the pure land is something we visualize. The pure land is not something wonderful that is outside somewhere. The impure world can become the pure land if you purify it. There’s nothing that is already pure right from the beginning. First it is something that needs to be purified.

Even in Amitabha’s Buddha realm, the Buddha himself was an ordinary human being at first. Because of his purification of the Buddha realm—the place, circumstances, and environment—everything has been purified of impure stains and then became a pure land, and that is how the pure realm of Sukhavati was created. We can also train in a similar way.

We haven’t much time, so we will leave the mandala offering here. Mingyur Rinpoche has a teaching tonight, so we’ll ask Mingyur Rinpoche to go into detail. I’m very serious—I seem very reserved. In the evening, Rinpoche will make you all laugh. All my seriousness will be gone, so you can relax a lot. I’m a little serious. Even if something’s funny, laughter doesn’t come. It does for some, but my face is like that. I don’t feel like laughing too much. So do not be offended.

“Guru yoga, which quickly brings blessings, has two parts. First, during meditation sessions, there is the common and the extraordinary way to do this practice. Here do the former by visualizing yourself as your yidam…”

The extraordinary guru yoga has to do with the six yogas. That’s not necessary here.

Now the common guru yoga is this.

“Above the crown of my head, on a lotus, sun, and moon seat
Is my guru, the mighty Vajradhara,
Sky-blue, holding a vajra and bell in his crossed arms,
Beautified by precious ornaments, blazing with major and minor marks.
He is vividly the embodiment of all the ten directions and three times’ victorious ones.

Recite the seven branch prayer as above…”

At this point, this is guru yoga. Guru yoga depends primarily on blessings, but blessings do not come in loud way. Blessings come in a secret way. It’s not something that you can make a great fuss about it. If you do, you cannot receive the blessings. If you make a big fuss, saying, “I’m practicing guru yoga. I need to receive the blessings,” you won’t receive the blessings. So for that reason, we have to turn off all the cameras and recording devices.

***
There is a danger the long practice will be forgotten. You cannot do this practice just by receiving the transmission. Anyone who wants to practice should ask me, and then it will be okay. Now I’ll speak in Chinese.

[His Holiness speaks in Chinese.]

I’ve read this to Tengye too many times. So therefore he has received the transmission, but if you say if I’m boss, then I’ve already blessed him.

[The lung is given in Chinese.]

Now I will say a few more words. It’s okay to translate this into English.
Many dharma friends have gathered here, and I feel as if I have seen all my family members. That’s how much joy and happiness I feel. Sometimes I also feel a bit of anxiousness.

But there is one thing for which I have to ask for your forgiveness. Because I have so many things to do and to worry about, I could not prepare myself well for these teachings. For that I beg your forgiveness. But when I look out and see the way you are all smiling, I still have a very strong feeling that this has made you happy. It has made a very strong impression on me, and this has made me try as hard as I can.

Now in this place where the one thousand and two buddhas will become enlightened, I pray that I will be with you in body, speech and mind throughout all your lifetimes and that I will be able to lighten the burdens on your body, speech and mind. That is my prayer.

So today we have completed these teachings. After this you will all go your separate ways. However, if you all practice what I have instructed you in regularly and continue to have interest in it, it will be good, because this practice is one way to make a connection between us. I hope that you will all be happy. In particular, I hope that all you English speakers may be very, very happy. I hope that we can perhaps meet again in the future, too.

Teaching Sessions on Lineage Practices I ---【The Four Foundations】

2007-11-07T11:52:00.000+08:00

Teaching Sessions on Lineage Practices I ---【The Four Foundations : ordinary preliminaries】

Guru: His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje
Sponsor：Taiwan Hwayue Foundation
Date: 2005/12/30~2006/01/03
Place: Vajra Vidya Institute, Varanasi, India
English Translation: Chen Tsao Shin, Chen Li An

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2005/12/30

First of all, we are all gathered here at a very auspicious place, a place where our supreme Teacher, Buddha Sakyamuni, gave his first teaching of Dharma- Saranath.

When Buddha turned the First Wheel of Dharma, there were only five people in the audience. But today, we have hundreds of participants here. We can say that the Blessings of the Great Compassionate Buddha has never declined, rather it has been flourished and been spread widely.

Though the doctrine, which propounded by the Buddha, has been prospered since 2500 years ago, Buddhism has drawn attention from and learned by more people in the 21st century. Not only those who already have faith in the Dharma, but also those who have no religious belief, are attracted by the doctrine of non-violence, and the practice of loving-kindness and compassion taught in the scripture, and gradually give rise to confidence and joyfulness toward dharma .

Why are there more and people practice Buddhism today? It is because the teachings of the Buddha do not only aim to benefit His own disciples, but to indiscriminately benefit countless sentient beings as well.

In the East many Buddhist traditions are still well preserved today, especially the Mahayana Buddhism tradition from India and the first place it was spread to is China. This is a very auspicious event in history.

Buddhism was originated in India, but due to the changes of time and conditions, Buddhism now had extinguished in India. Fortunately, branches of Buddhism have prospered in other places, particularly in China, where due to its great permeation of Buddhism there, Buddhism has become an inseparable part of Chinese culture and has truly become a precious jewel of Han land.

There is a saying: "The more Dharma permeates, the more are there obstacles" It means that in countries where the Dharma is more prosperous, demonic obstacles increase even more. It had happened in China, fortunately through the great courage and resolution of lineage forefathers, all obstacles had been removed and the true Dharma lineage has survived.

I had been to China twice, and had visited many monasteries there. Although I didn't have the opportunity to have in-depth discussions with their sangha about views and practices as I merely strode through monasteries to see objects of refuge such as Buddha statues, sutras and stupas, and briefly meeting the sangha, I can still deeply feel the great blessings of the lineage transmitted to my heart. For that I felt much honored.

Perhaps due to the activities in my previous lives, I tend to have a strong connection with the Chinese culture since I was a child in this life. I am very fortunate to have this special affinity. Therefore, I have deep affection and great respect for the Chinese Mahayana Buddhism and the Chinese culture.

Generally speaking we are all disciples of the Buddha, and therefore friends in the Dharma. Once we become the disciples of Buddha Sakyamuni, and if we can maintain the motivation and actions of benefiting oneself and others throughout our lives, it would be a very virtuous practice. I am always reminding myself of this.

However before we know how to benefit ourselves and others, we must first understand and study the views and actions of the Lord Buddha.

Taking your career as an example, you must first have a thorough understanding about the nature of your job and have some confidence in it; otherwise, you can not accomplish much in this career. Similarly, in the study and practices of the Dharma, to achieve some fruition you must truly understand "how to benefit oneself and others", and generate confidence in this. This is very important.

If we believe in the truthfulness of the Dharma, we must first generate faith in the Dharma speaker or the Guiding Teacher.

We often speak about taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. But why can they become the source of our refuge? We must understand this. As there are many reasons behind this, the main reason is the Quality of the Buddha's mind.

Speaking of Quality, people will think of many types of Qualities. What is so special about the Buddha's Quality? Is the quality of the Buddha especially precious and more superior to ours? The answer is definitely "yes". The Buddha has two types of supreme Qualities: Wisdom and Compassion.

First we need to understand the Quality of Wisdom. When we talk about Wisdom, we are talking about the supreme Wisdom of Omniscience- the Wisdom that knows all phenomena. Most of us will then question and doubt about it. How can the Buddha possibly know every thing? Because we are so used to thinking in our mundane habitual pattern that we cannot understand this kind of wisdom. Further more, we are also limited by our habitual tendency of perceiving outer objects and forms in a certain rigid way. This then blocks us from understanding what "the Great Wisdom" is. We can use the analogy of boiling water: the water will start boiling when it reaches a certain temperature; and if you continue to boil it, it will all dry up. So, to mundane beings the Quality of the Great Wisdom is beyond their level of comprehension, and therefore is inconceivable.

Many great Sutra Masters of the past such as Dharmakirti, Dignaga and others understood this problem, and tried to explain that "the Omniscient Wisdom" means that for those who long for liberation, the Lord Buddha can unmistakably know all their needs and the ways to benefit them. This is the Buddha's "Great Wisdom".

The Sutra Masters continued to explain that "If the Omniscient Wisdom merely means knowing how many worms there are in our body and how many types of living beings or the population there is in this world, this kind of intelligence is not worthy to be an object of ultimate refuge".

But I should remind everyone here that the above explanations about the Great Wisdom only are skillful teachings made by the Sutra Masters for those who do not have faith. If you mistake this as "Oh, I see, actually the Buddha doesn't know everything." I will feel very disappointed.

Will this single special quality alone - the Quality of the Great Wisdom make the Buddha our ultimate object of refuge? For example, we have many Tibetan schools in India, and nowadays the students are all very interested in science. To them, Buddha would be like a great scientist, smart and brilliant.

However, the Quality of the Buddha is far more than that- besides the Great Wisdom, Buddha also has the Great Compassion- the great mind of loving kindness. This is a very important point. For instance, a very intelligent person who is not equipped with a kind heart for benefiting or helping others, his intelligence will not be of benefit to anyone. He is not qualified to be a Protector or the Refuge for others.

As disciples of the Buddha, we should therefore know that the Quality of the Buddha is not limited by his Great Wisdom alone, and all the dharma we practice today were taught by the Buddha with the Great Compassion in His mind with intention to benefit beings.

The Buddha first generated the Bodhicitta- the mind of Enlightenment, followed the great Bodhisattva paths for countless eons, and finally attained the perfect Enlightenment. After He attained the Buddhahood, He kept his original Bodhicitta vow, and turned the wheel of Dharma. From then on until the end of his life, the Buddha always retains the mind of the Great Compassion, the one and the only one mind to benefit countless beings. By contemplating on this, we will reach a deeper understanding of the Buddha as a great Teacher with Great Compassion. Further, we will further understand that the teachings of this benevolent teacher not only can improve our wisdom but can also help each of us. Based on this, we then know that the Dharma practices are definitely beneficial to us.

We should have been convinced by now that the Dharma is pure and truthful. However, if we think that “The Dharma is all great, but to practice or not to practice it does not matter”, then this is another mistake. The Dharma has to be practiced and be experienced. Why is it so? Because in this samsaric world we will encounter many difficulties, make many mistakes, and generates many sufferings. These sufferings not only impact us, but also to our families, the society, or even to the whole world. Therefore, Dharma practice is the only way to liberate us from all kinds of problems and sufferings.

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Although each sentient being has different degrees of perception, the desire to attain happiness or avoid suffering is the same. For a human being, there is a strong desire to attain a certain kind of happiness or to withdraw from a certain kind of suffering. In comparison, insects might not have as such strong feelings. Nevertheless, all sentient beings are constantly striving for happiness, and continually finding ways to terminate suffering. We all share these experiences.

From the moment we were born, we are constantly thinking of ways to obtain happiness, but no one has yet attained happiness to one’s satisfaction. No one has found perfect happiness in previous generations, neither can anyone in this generation say, "I am satisfied, it is enough," and attain peace of mind.

Especially we are now in the 21st century, which is an era of changes, unpredictable like demons. In the past, aside from natural disasters, man-made sufferings were relatively fewer. However it is a very crucial time now as mankind is constantly creating huge catastrophes, which threaten the whole world. Hence at this time we should seriously try to find the right and altruistic ideal and aspiration.

We have never been satisfied. From the very beginning, we have been asking: is there really a good or a correct way to find happiness? It is very important to seriously ask, contemplate, and search for the answer.

However, if we always try to seek happiness outside, it is very hard to find, and we will not be satisfied. True happiness is in the heart, and is not filled with external things; it is mainly a satisfaction from within. Therefore we should turn to our hearts, looking inwards to examine ourselves.

When we look inwards, we will find that we have a lot of sufferings, a lot of mistakes, and unending dissatisfactions. Where do these problems come from? Actually, they come from afflicted emotions such as jealousy and dissatisfaction. The most serious of these defilements are ignorance and confusion.

Each of us wants a happy result and not a bad one. We know how to choose the right results, but we tend to do the wrong things in planting the seed. Why is it like this? It is because of our ignorance. What are we ignorant of? We do not know that vicious actions will never result in virtuous fruits. In summary, our actions are exactly the opposite and completely incompatible of what we hope for in our hearts. We are totally unaware of this, and therefore continue in our vicious behaviors in a deluded state.

Ignorance is referred to the unsatisfied desires in one’s mind. The Buddha in His great compassion expounded the Dharma especially for the benefit of ignorant and deluded beings.

I do not think the Dharma is a way of thinking or a school of philosophy. The Dharma is a skillful mean that enables us to eliminate our illusions.

In Sanskrit has two meanings: one is “to transform”, the second is “to rescue”, that is, through transformation we are rescued from the pains of suffering. The term “transformation” is an appropriate term. We can apply it to the analogy of sending an innocent child to a school, where he gradually learns how to read and write, becomes more knowledgeable, and eventually can benefit and lead others. This is the power of transformation.

Each one of us has this innate ability and wisdom within us, but we do not know how to use them. However, through the introduction to Dharma practices, this innate ability and wisdom can be clearly revealed and effectively put into practice.

We are born with this special quality and wisdom; they are not something new that grew out of the practice of Dharma. For instance, the Mahayana tradition specially emphasizes on compassion and Bodhicitta. They are all innate within us; Dharma cannot even give us the seeds of compassion or Bodhicitta. If, for instance, the practice of Dharma has no relationship to our minds or our lives, then learning Dharma will be totally meaningless. On the contrary, Dharma is so intrinsically and closely tied to our lives that we must practice seriously.

Although our compassion and Bodhicitta have not yet developed to their fullest potential, but the seeds of compassion or the essence of love, is truly in every one of us, even in animals and insects.

The Dharma practice is to ripen the seeds of love and compassion in us, and it is closely related to us. The Dharma is not about a fascinating story or an assembly of great words. The Dharma is a discipline, which we are able to master. The Dharma is also a kind of knowledge, which we can realize through practice experiences; and the Dharma can bring about immense benefits.

The Dharma is not an empty talk; it is inextricably linked to our daily lives. Just talking about the Dharma will not bring us any benefit.

Some people will doubt the practical application of loving, kindness, and compassion in these times as modern people think nothing except how to benefit oneself at the cost of harming others. For instance, it is like this in the business world, and we might think that there is no room left to accommodate compassion. Actually the situation is somewhat more optimistic, although we might be somewhat selfish at the expense of others, but we must not forget we do possess a kind heart by nature.

An example may help to illustrate this: let’s say a family is gathered together for a meal, affectionate and amiable. This kind of warm gathering never appears in news reports because no one will pay much attention to it. However, if one day a very serious argument arises between a husband and wife, and they end up suing each other in court. Then news like this will get press coverage. This example points out the fact that being in harmony and happiness is our innate nature state, so they are not newsworthy; sufferings and quarrels are what we cannot tolerate.

In these present times, a compassionate heart is absolutely necessary, and this is something we can accomplish. We should give this more serious thought.

In conclusion, I want to stress that without greed, anger and ignorance a person can still live, but without compassion and love one will not be able to survive.

2005/12/31

Many Chinese friends anticipated that I can directly speak Chinese in the teaching. I promise I will not let them down, and hope that I can fulfill some of your wishes. However, it’s a bit difficult for me to speak fluent Chinese in these two days though this is my commitment to you. Some of you may wonder when I can fulfill this promise. I can promise you that I will always keep this in my mind.

Today we will enter the sections of the main practices. , and focus on the Practice of the Basic Level.

When we talk about the Four Foundations we should know that they are related to Vajrayana. For instance the Mandala Offering, the Vajrasattva Practices, and the Prostrations are all Vajrayana Practices.

The Mandala Offering belongs to the category of Special Foundations whereas contemplating on the Precious Human Life and on Death and Impermanence etc. belong to the Common Foundations. There are many differences between Common and Special Foundations in terms of terminology and meanings.

Today’s main focus is on the average people’s progressive Foundation Practices, or the method for the people below the average. Through these practices such as contemplating on death and impermanence, our mind can be purified, which is of great importance.

Before we enter into the topic of the Foundations, we should first discuss the meaning of Taking Refuge and receiving the Refuge Vows. We always stress the fact that Taking Refuge is very important, and there are reasons for this. Generally speaking, to determine whether one is a Buddhist or not, the most important criteria is if one has been Taking Refuge or not. Therefore, it is very important for a Buddhist to understand the significance and scope of Taking Refuge. I will divide this topic into Five Aspects:

1. Causes and Conditions of Taking Refuge.

In many of the teachings of the Buddha recorded in the sutras, as well as other texts expounded by later masters, there are two, major Cause and Condition why we take refuge – they are out of Fear, and out of Faith.

(1) Taking Refuge out of Fear.
What are we afraid of? We are mainly afraid of sufferings. Who is being afraid? It is we ourselves. There are three types of sufferings: the suffering of sufferings, the suffering of changes, and the all-pervasive suffering. We are mainly afraid of all-pervasive suffering. Why are we afraid of this type of suffering?

The Suffering of Suffering is something that can be felt by all beings, either Buddhists or non-believers, or even animals and insects. They all want to get away from this type of suffering. Therefore the fear of the suffering of sufferings is not really a true fear.

Similarly, the Suffering of Changes can also be felt by non-Buddhists, who can experience this type of suffering by meditating on Changes and Impermanence. Thus, it is of paramount importance that we understand what the All-Pervasive Suffering is. We must understand that all phenomena created by karma and afflictive emotions are suffering and will result in sufferings. When one fully realizes this, and out of fear one generates the motivation to take refuge, then it becomes a real, beneficial, and powerful refuge commitment.

Being merely afraid of sufferings is not enough. We must have the sincere wish of being free from sufferings. We must also recognize whom we can rely upon to help us to avoid sufferings, and who can save and protect us, and then generate confidence in this person.

(2) Taking Refuge out of Faith.
What is the main question we should think about here? Many people nowadays think that religions are merely superstitious beliefs. Especially in the Chinese language, the word “superstition” is very often used.

A friend of mine came to Dharamsala to visit me. He said, “Having faith based on wisdom and analytical judgment is of course very good; however, if without that to be superstitious may not be bad, though some people may disagree.” He asked my opinion about this view.

In Chinese the prefix for both words, “superstition” and “being lost”, means being confused and disoriented. With that, some people interpret the word superstition as “perceiving something unreal as real” such as ghosts. In short, this kind of blind faith, a faith without any proof and reasoning, is called superstition.

However the faith of taking refuge in the Three Jewels is different from the above mentioned. Some people might give rise to the faith towards the Three Jewels without a reason, though this kind of faith can not be called a superior intellect or wisdom, yet I don’t think it should be called superstitious neither.

Why? It is because the Three Jewels are not something unreal and being fabricated by our delusion. The Three Jewels are absolutely real and authentic, and they are our real and ultimate refuge. Therefore, the benefits that we gain by taking refuge are also real and authentic.

Therefore, it is also good if we can generate faith towards the Three Jewels without any special reason. We should maintain this kind of confidence. Furthermore, we need to cultivate our wisdom and analytical intelligence to thoroughly cut through all our doubts and wrong views. By doing so, the initial blind faith will become the seed toward liberation and omniscience wisdom.

2. Object of Refuge.

The three Jewels, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, are our Objects of Refuge.

Let us first talk about the Buddha. The word “Buddha” in Sanskrit means “Enhancing” and “Developing”.

In Tibetan, we call Buddha “Sang-gye”. “Gye” means “Enhancing” and “Sang” means removing obscurations.

In order to understand what “the Buddha” is, first of all, we need to know the process and methods of becoming a Buddha.

Many religions believe that the Founder of their religion has come into existence since beginningless-time. From the Buddhism’s point of view, the Buddha Sakyamuni was not a Buddha by birth, but rather like us he was born as a normal human being, who aspired to attain enlightenment, and then achieved the Buddhahood through progressive stages of practices.

Just like the Buddha, who went through the stages of the path from an ordinary being to an enlightened being, ordinary people like us can also achieve the same results by following his example.

It is clearly stated in various Sutras that the term “to become enlightened” means to purify mental afflictions and habitual behaviors. If these negativities are a part of our nature, then to remove these would mean to perish ourselves – just like a tiger would be killed if we try to get rid of the stripes on its skin.

However the afflicted emotions are not like this, they are not part of our nature. This point can be well observed from our daily experiences. For example one can lead a life without having any negative emotion, but without love and compassion one can hardly survive. It is like a new-born baby, without being proper cared and loved, who will definitely die. From this kind of direct experiences, we can conclude that afflictive emotions are not part of our basic nature.

We has talked about “eliminating all obscurations and obstructions” yesterday. As I said, we may think that eliminating all obscurations and ‘obtaining all virtuous qualities’ are something inconceivable and impossible to achieve by ordinary people like us. What is the cause of this feeling? It is because we are always searching outwards, and outer objects and forms are limited and therefore we feel it is unachievable. However, if we inspect inwards, then we will realize that the power of the mind is limitless. Since the power of our mind has no limits, therefore, to remove all obscurations and to obtain all virtuous qualities is also achievable.

The view that the power of mind is limitless not only pertains to Buddhism, science and psychology also shares the same point of view.

Next we will continue with the subject of the Dharma. The Dharma embodies two Truths out of the Four Noble Truths that are present in the mind of the enlightened saints. They are the Truth of the Cessation of Suffering and the Truth of the Path. The Truth of the Path refers to the methods that can eliminate attachment and desire; the fruition of which is referred to the Truth of the Cessation of Suffering.

In addition, we should also respect all symbolic representations of the Dharma such as Sutras, Buddhist texts and writings.

The Dharma is very important because although we take refuge in the Buddha, He could not save us from Samsara by pulling us up with His own hands. Buddha would have done this if He could, and the samsara would have been empty a long time ago.

After the Buddha showed us the Way to achieve Liberation, t He then said “goodbye” and left. We have to walk the Path ourselves, and it is completely up to us to become liberated.

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a master, who had many disciples, monasteries and Buddhist institutions, and his Dharma activities were pervasive.

People would come from all around to ask him questions even for trivial matters. The master was quite troubled by this. As time goes on, things got worse. The master was constantly solving people’s problems. Some disciples were worried and asked the master, "Master, you are so busy these days. If your activities continue to prosper, wouldn’t you have more headaches?" The masters replied, "It's still manageable now, not too troublesome. One day if I really become too busy and get tired of it, I will move to the Mount Everest."

Finally he went up to the Mountain, and since the mountain is a holy place with many tourists, they too became his disciples and troubled him with a lot of questions. Then the master thought, "All right, I will move to the moon then!"

So he went to the moon. However more and more foreigners begin to land on the moon, which has made things even worse because not only disciples would trouble him with questions but also a lot of strangers? In the end, he had become internationally renowned.

Finally, he thought of a solution, and told his students, "The real guru is not anywhere outside of you, he is always in your own mind. So, if you have any questions, ask your inner guru!"

This way, the master solved the problem once and for all.

Just like the master in this story, though the Lord Buddha had entered the Nirvana, and we don't need to seek for Him. However we do not have to worry, because the Buddha had left us with His precious teachings - the Dharma. The Dharma is the representative of the Buddha, and it represents the Buddha. Getting in contact with the Dharma is equivalent to seeing the Buddha in person. When you listen to the Dharma teachings, it is equivalent to that the Buddha speaks directly to you. Thus, the Dharma is extremely important.

Next we will discuss the Sangha. In Tibetan, we say Gendun, which means 'uninterrupted and unchanging virtuous mind'. Strictly speaking, the Sangha is referred to the assembly of people who have attained certain levels of realization. A group of four on more bhiksu can be called the Sangha. The Buddha had said wherever there is a gathering of four bhiksu, it is equivalent to have the Buddha’s presence as the assembly possesses the virtues of the Buddha. Therefore we should show respect towards the Sangha.

The Sangha are our spiritual friends on the path of Enlightenment. Friends play an important role in our mundane life as well as in our spiritual life. As I learned from the Chinese classic 'Sun Tzu- Art of War' that friends are as important as comrades in times of wars. We will need to depend on many friends throughout our lives, and it can not be stressed more that we especially need the assistance from our Dharma friends, life after life walking on the path to attain the Omniscient Buddhahood.

However, whether it is a good friend or a bad one is up to us to decide. What does this mean? If we do not hold pure thoughts and actions, then even we are sounded by a saint, we still can not benefit from it.

On the other hand, if you have a bad companion, but you are a diligent practitioner with mindfulness and correct views, you would not be influenced by his bad habits rather you could even earn some merits out of it.

Once in India, the Buddha was begging with his begging bowl in front of a household. The head of the household was quite annoyed by this, and had become very angry. He started to insult the Buddha in an angry voice that, "You are just like a beggar begging food from others!" Buddha said nothing but replied with a smile. The man continued his scolding, but seeing no response from the Buddha, his anger began to subside. He didn't know what to do next. The Buddha then smiled compassionately and asked him, "Is there anything else you want to say?" The man answered, "No, I've finished." Then the Buddha said, "If you give someone something, and he rejects it, what would you do?"

What would you have done?

If the giver is Tibetan, whether you want it or not, he will still push it to you! (Laughter)

Then the man replied, "If the object was rejected, I will have to take it back then." Buddha then said, "By the same reason, you have been scolding me so much, and I accept none of it, so please take back all your scolding!"

Above is a brief explanation about the meaning of the Three Jewels. There are four major reasons why we should take refuge in the Three Jewels:

1. We can free ourselves form fear ─ In the Jatake Stories, an ill-willed person was trying to harm the Buddha by releasing a mad elephant, but the animal was tamed and subdued by Buddha's fearlessness. Even animals show great respect for the Buddha. This shows that Buddha had vanquished all fears from his mind.

2. To gain Wisdom and help others to eliminate their Fears ─ Why do we say that with wisdom one can help others eliminate their fears? If we have liberated ourselves from fear but do not know how to help others, then it is like a mother without arms, who can do nothing but watch her beloved son being washed away by the flood. The Buddha possesses tremendous skilful means in helping and taming sentient beings. In ancient India, Buddha Sakyamuni once tamed and transformed an evil person called Angulimalya with just a few words of wisdom.

3. To generate Great Compassion with equanimity
The Buddha not only applied skillful means to his family members or relatives but also to all sentient beings without discrimination. Regardless of the far or the near, the close or the remote, the Buddha's compassion extended to all of them equally. The Buddha had a cousin called Devadatta. Due to jealousy, he always wanted to compete with the Buddha. One day Devadatta was seriously sick due to medicine indigestion. Upon knowing this, Buddha exclaimed, "If I love Devadatta as dearly as my own beloved son Rahula, then may Devadatta be cured immediately." Due to the true sincerity of the Buddha's words, Devadatta was healed instantly. This attests to the Buddha's Great Compassion is unbiased and equal.

4. To be able to help all beings ─ regardless of whether they are helpful to us or not.
The Buddha's Great Compassion is not limited to his loved ones or to his enemies, but also extended to complete strangers and to many others regardless of whether they are helpful to Him or not. In many stories of the Buddha, the Buddha was said to be friend with great kings and had spent time as well with low-caste beggars in order to help them. These activities truly deserve our praise and veneration.

The reasons mentioned above are mainly on the virtues of the Buddha. The virtues of the Buddha alone are inconceivable and extraordinary, not to mention the virtues of the Dharma and the Sangha. Therefore, the Three Jewels are ultimate the source of refuge for all of us.

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Q and A:

Q: Your Holiness, how does one generate the Bodhicitta (the Mind of Enlightenment)? Is it mentioned in any Buddhist scriptures?

A: I will explain this subject in details in tomorrow or later’s sections on Bodhisattva Vows. Actually all Mahayana texts mention have mentioned the Bodhicitta, though this term is not explicitly spelled out. They all had talked about the causes of the Bodhicitta, the fruition of the Bodhicitta, the path of the Bodhicitta, the ground of the Bodhicitta, and the virtues of the Bodhicitta. Generally speaking, all teachings of the Buddha are inseparable from the Bodhicitta. Especially in Mahayana texts, the main teaching is also the Bodhicitta; therefore, you can read more Mahayana texts.

2006/ 1/1.

The Nature of Taking Refuge

Tashi Delek for the New Year to everyone. Our teaching today will be on the nature of Taking Refuge. We will give the Refuge Vows today. Besides the Chinese friends in the audience, there are also many other foreign friends who wish to take the Refuge Vows. I think we need more translators.

Generally speaking, whether the term of “refuge” is originated from Buddhism or not, in fact, we are all applying it in our daily life. Taking refuge means being mutually reliant and care for. For example, since the moment we were born we have been relying on our parents. Hence we can say that we have been replying, and taking refuge since childhood. Based on the essence of taking refuge, we are actually taking refuge in our daily life.

The Dharma mentioned that the ultimate savior is oneself, which implies that the basic sufferings can only be eliminated by one’s own efforts. However, for a beginner it is rather difficult to rely on one’s strength alone without others’ help to eliminate sufferings. Therefore initially it is needed to have a source of refuge, and the source of the refuge has to be powerful and truthful. Hence, the Buddha taught about the Three Jewels, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, to be the source of our refuge.

As we mentioned before, the essence of Refuge is mutual dependence and trust. Therefore I think that if a person believes with certainty that the Three Jewels are one’s saviors, then one will receive the blessings of the Vow. Why then, do we need a master to administer the Vows? There is a special reason for this procedure. Refuge Vows master is our conscience refuge, because if we take the Refuge oath by ourselves, we might easily slight it. However, if we take the Vows in front of a master, he becomes our witness that we will take our Vows seriously and also to remind us to cherish and keep our Vows.

Although we have divided the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha into three aspects, to attain perfect Buddhahood all these three are indispensable. For example, a full recovery of a patient needs the combination of doctors, medicines and nursing cares. Similarly for a personal who aspires to attain the Buddhahood, one would need the cares from the Buddha as the doctor, the Dharma as the medicines, and the Sangha as the nurse.

I will tell you a story called “Thank goodness there are only Three Jewels, but not four”. There was an old man, who became a monk when he was quite old. And there was a female disciple who had great faith in him. One day she offered two bolts of clothes to the lama to request his teaching. But this old lama didn’t know how to teach the Dharma, and he mumbled continuously to himself, “Ignorance is suffering…” When the woman heard this, she realized that the cause of ignorant will lead to suffering. Later on, having witnessed the offering of cloth, a thief then followed the lama home, and demanded the lama to give him the cloth. The worried lama said, “I do not want to come out. I will give the cloth to you through the window.” The thief stuck one hand in, and the lama continued: “When the offering was made, she used both hands. Therefore, you too need to use both hands to receive it. ” As the thief did that the lama quickly tied him to a post and gave him a sound beating, and at the same time commanded him to repeat the Refuge Vows to the Three Jewels three times after the lama. The thief could hardly stand up after the beating and hobbled off. Later a passerby run into this crippled thief, and asked him what had happened. The thief said, “I’m just a petty, small thief, but today I had met a very fierce big thief. I was beaten up for every Refuge Vows that I had to repeat. The Buddha is really compassionate. If he had taught four Refuge Vows, I would have been dead.” For this reason, the thief began to have faith in the Buddha. With the Refuge Vows constantly in his mind, no terrifying demons could attack him. Finally, with this deep faith he took the Refuge in the Three Precious Jewels, and became a monk.

We will continue with the main practice of the Refuge Vows. Today is an auspicious day. In this hall, there is a stature of the Lord Buddha Sakyamuni, and this place is also the holy city where the Buddha first turned the Wheel of the Dharma. Generally speaking, the Buddha we take refuge with can be all the Buddhas of the three times; however, from the perspective of the Lord Buddha Sakyamuni’s teachings, our current refuge source is referred to Sakyamuni Buddha. Without this kind of visualization and conviction, one will not be able to receive the Refuge Vow in the Buddha. Next, we must also take refuge with a loving and devoted attitude, not out of fear. Please recite the refuge vows after me.

Please kneel down. If you are unable to do so, you may just sit.

I Take Refuge in the Buddha
I Take Refuge in the Dharma
I Take Refuge in the Sangha
(Repeat three times)

The refuge ritual is a commitment. I will then ask you “Will you take this vow?” Please answer, “Yes, I will take this vow.” As you reply, please also visualize that you have received the refuge vows.

It is not sufficient to take refuge or have faith in the Three Jewels. Only through practices and realization can one reap the benefits. The Dharma can help us, benefit us; therefore practice the Dharma is very important. Especially, the basis of the Dharma is Taking Refuge; we should diligently study all aspects of Taking Refuge.

The Commitments of Refuge
A. Special Commitments
˙Commitments of Restriction
1. Having taken refuge in the Buddha, one should not take refuge in other worldly gods.
2. Having taken refuge in the Dharma, one should not harm other sentient beings.
3. Having taken refuge in the Sangha, one should not reply on heretics.
˙Commitments of Performance
1. Having taken refuge in the Buddha – even a piece of the image of the Buddha should be revered.
2. Having taken refuge in the Dharma – even a single syllable of the Dharma should be respected.
3. Having taken refuge in the Sangha – even a tiny patch of the cloth from the sangha’s robe should be venerated.

B. Common Commitments
1. Even if your life is at stake or enticed by bribes, do not abandon the Three Jewels.
2. Under no circumstances should you take refuge anywhere else, but the Three
Jewels.
3. Never, at any time, should you discontinue devotion and offerings to the
Three Jewels.
4. Encourage yourself and others to take the Refuge Vows.
5. In whichever direction you take the Vows, prostrate to the Buddhas of that direction.
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Student’s Questions:

Question: Your Holiness, what is a root guru? How do we understand the phrase that “The Karmapa is the root guru of all disciples of the Karma Kagyu”?

Answer: A Root Guru is the person who guides and points out to us the nature of our mind, especially when we do the Mahamudra practice. Therefore, in the Kagyu lineage, the person who can guide us to recognize the nature of our mind is our root guru. The Karmapa is not necessarily the root guru of all the Kagyu sects. However, in the Kagyu lineage, especially the Kamtsang Kagyu lineage, the Karmapa is very important.

Question: Your Holiness, if we do not fully understand or are unaccustomed to the process of the Refuge ritual, can we take refuge?

Answer: Generally speaking, there are several kinds of taking refuge, such as taking refuge with the appreciation of the Qualities of the Three Jewels, or taking refuge completely knowing the nature of the Three Jewels. These are ideal ways of taking refuge. However, even if we do not possess these understanding, we can still take refuge. Just as the Buddha had mentioned in the Sutras that reciting the word “Buddha” is taking the refuge in the Buddha, reciting the word “Dharma” is taking the refuge in the Dharma, and reciting the word “Sangha” is taking the refuge in the Sangha,. It means that if we can recite the names of the Three Jewels and think of the virtues of the Three Jewels, then we will immediately receive the refuge vows.

Question: I supplicate Your Holiness to be my root guru. I do the Pure Land practice. After I take refuge with Your Holiness, can I still continue practicing my current practices?

Answer: Generally speaking, taking refuge is not directed at a particular person such as myself, but rather in the Three Jewels. However it is customary in China to take multiple refuges with different masters. If you like to think that way, it is all right. However, if taking refuge with me interferes with your Pure Land practice then it is not right. Of course you can still continue with your Pure Land practices. Not only you, but I am also becoming more and more interested in the Pure Land practices, and would also like to practice it. As both of us have the same aspiration for the Pure Land practice, you should continue your practice as you had been diligently doing.

Question: Your Holiness, when we practice the Guru Correspondence, how do we visualize our guru? When I do the guru visualization, sometimes it appears to be my root guru and sometimes it is Your Holiness appearing on the crown of my head. In this case, should Your Holiness or my own guru Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche appear in my visualization? Despise of the appearances, I believe that the mind of the Karmapa and other lineage Rinpoches are the same. Am I making mistakes here?
Answer: The practice of the Guru Correspondence is also known as the Guru Yoga. I think the so called correspondence does not mean the correspondence of the apparent appearance. It’s like to impose my face on that of Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche, and that might look very odd.

What we called the Guru Correspondence or “the Guru’s mind assimilates into our mind” means the guru virtues assimilate into our mind. When the cause of suffering, the dualist mind, arises, if we can nullify the rising of two obscurations, the irrational makings of our mind and cognitive obstructions, without external help, then we can say that the guru’s mind has been successfully assimilated into our mind. This is because that the most supreme quality of a guru is to subdue afflictive emotions and to, subdue egoistic mind; Therefore, when this kind of capacity rises from our mind, this is called “the guru’s mind had entered our mind” or “the blessings of the guru had been assimilated into our mind ”.

Hence, we cannot forcefully impose the guru’s image into our mind or combine my look with the look of Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche. It will not look good.

〔Blessings for the New Year〕

In this New Year, I wish that everyone has new hopes for the New Year, and also wish that all your kind-hearted aspirations will bear auspicious fruits.

The Karmapa use Chinese to say: 「Happy New Year to all dharma teachers and lay practitioners」
The Karmapa use English to say: 「Joyful New Year」
The Karmapa use Korean to say「Se he, o ma ni ,pa di se yo」

Today is the New Year Day. I haven’t prepared any special gift, but there is a book I would like to give every one. This book is edited and compiled by myself. Most of the contents are excerpted from the sutras, and only a small portion is coming from me. This book is about the Guru Supplication Ritual, and is for use in the Monlam Chenmo yearly prayer ceremony. In Tibet, the Land of Snow, there are many lineages, so I compiled this to include every aspect of the “Guru Yoga Ritual”. I did my best to input everything into the computer. In additional, every book has my signature in it. Why did I do this? Everyone has such great expectations of me, but most of the time, I cannot satisfy everyone’s wish, and I feel saddened by this. Therefore, I hope that with every signature, it's me, infinite emanations of me, accompanying everyone, helping everyone, not for a short period but for eternity, every day, every life, helping and benefiting everyone. This is my wishes to everyone; at each moment of signing the book, I had no other thought but only my blessings.

[On this New Year’s day, the Karmapa Composed a new poem 〈An Aspiration to the World〉Please recite it after the Karmapa ]

An Aspiration for the World

World, we live and die on your lap.
On you we play out all our woes and joys.
You are our home old ancient one.
Forever we cherish you; we could not bear your loss.
We wish to transform you into the pure realm of our dream.
Into a field where all creatures live without prejudice all equal.
We wish to transform you into a loving warm gentle goddess.
Our wish to embrace you is unchangeably stead fast.
To that end be the ground which sustains us all.
Do not show us the dark side of your character – and we too will transform you –
All your corners into fertile field of peace and happiness.
May the harvest of joyfulness and freedom’s million sweet scents fulfill our limitless infinite wishes –So we pray.

Translated by David Karma Choephel

2006/1/2

Yesterday we explained the meaning of Taking Refuge. Next, we will go into the subject of Bodhicitta.

Some of you might wonder why I am still talking about Taking Refuge and engendering Bodhicitta, but have not touched upon the subject on or . Some people practice in progressive stages, but some might attain enlightenment by skipping some stages. Nevertheless, I feel that the progressive practice is more practical.

Whether a person accords to the Mahayana practices or not, depends on if one has engendered Bodhicitta or not! Without the engenderment of Bodhicitta, no matter what we do, it will not conform to the teaching of Mahayana.

To generate Bodhicitta is like climbing up stairs; we must slowly begin at the base. Can I make it? We have to think. With the progressive stages of practice we still need to consider whether the basis and root of practice accord to the Dharma? This is very important. Before we discuss on Bodhicitta, we must distinguish between what accord to the Dharma, and what dose not.

In the Sakya School’s four oral pith instructions of renunciation says, “Those who still have attachment to this life can not be qualified as a practitioner”.

From here we can see that “being away from the attachment to this life” is the correct attitude in the Dharma practices. All the Dharma practices are included in the practices of the Three Vehicles. The trainings in the Three Vehicles start from the practice of the Hinayana, whose essence lie in renunciation. If you can not engender renunciation, then how can you advance to the Mahayana stage at all? Therefore, renunciation is very important.

When I was young, about 3 or 5 years old, I became a monk. I was so young that I didn’t even know my parents’ names, not to say knowing what renunciation is.

Renunciation is to cut through the mind with the attachment to this life. What then, are the "criteria" and “standard” of the renunciation? In general, according to Tibetan Buddhism, it is whether you can abandon the eight-worldly dharma.

Also, what is the "cause" of abandoning attachment to this life? We must recognize the meaninglessness of samsara. And what is the "dependent condition" for this abandonment? We must realize the miseries of this life.

We must understand "cause and dependent condition", because if we do not, it would be very difficult to abandon attachment to this life.

Also, what is the "criteria" for abandoning this life? It is to generate genuine aversion to the eight worldly concerns of this life.

What are the signs for abandoning this life? It is to deliberately teach you the worldly concerns and you can never learn them. (The Karmapa jokes: If it was me, I could probably learn.)

The eight worldly concerns are: Gain, Lost, Fame, Disgrace, Praise, Blame, Pain, and Pleasure. They are eight conditions that arouse the feeling of happiness and sufferings within us based on the near-sighted interests and harms.

What we need to contemplate here is that for ordinary people, it is quite difficult to meet this standard. Why? Because by the rules of the world, to live in this world, it is almost impossible to find anything that is not related to these eight concerns. What we do, what we say, and dream are all confined within these concerns, so it is very difficult to be detached from them. What then should we do? Just go to sleep? (Everyone laughs.)

No. Is it true then that a mundane person cannot live life according to the Dharma? We should think about this. I have given it some thought. I think that to cut through the eight worldly concerns, it is enough just to talk about it, most importantly, we need to identify the fundamental flaw of the eight worldly concerns. I have given it a name called “the blind attachment”. What does the blind attachment mean? It means a stubborn and obstinate habit regardless of good or bad consequences.

For example, there is person, who enjoys and is interested in the dharma, and wants to practice it. However, this person uses the Dharma practice as a way to comfort himself, like a relaxing past-time, or like a sort of “spiritual massage”. (The audience laughs). The “spiritual massage” is a very peculiar term!

Hence, unknowingly, the person falls back into the worldly behaviors and still firmly believes that worldly concerns are more practical and correct. As soon as one turns the focus on worldly affairs, practices of the authentic dharma gradually fade away.

Another pitfall is too relaxed. There are many kinds of relaxation. For example, to relax the body, one can go for a walk, or do tai-chi, or practice yoga. What about the relaxation of the mind? It is to meditate, and let the mind calm down. One thing I do not understand is that some people after their meditation practice end up feeling tired and need to take a rest. This is very strange. No wonder after several years of practice, everything remains the same.

Under these circumstances, it’s like the cancer patient whose cancerous cells have spread throughout his body, and yet he is not aware of it at all.

Why is it like this? Because he is not aware of that his entire mind still focuses on worldly matters. Another example is that after a whole day’s work, at night sometimes we continue to dream of work. Regretfully, after a whole day of practice, we probably seldom dream of the dharma or our dharma practice. Because we consider the dharma practice as massage, and you wouldn’t dream about massage at night.

The blind attachment not only obstructs the advancement of our practice, but it will also quietly bind our mind to worldly concerns. This kind of blind attachment will lead us to rely on worldly things, and to believe that they are absolutely essential. Not only that, but we will believe that this is more real and that we cannot do without it. Afterwards we become arrogant, and we begin to use the popular form of dharma to satisfy our personal needs. Slowly, dharma becomes a poison, and finally destroys our practice. This is really pitiful.

Perhaps I’m not qualified to say pitiful, because if I also fall into the pit of the eight worldly concerns, that would really be pitiful.

This situation is also similar to the television commercial. In a commercial, there is an actor riding a motorcycle flies dashingly through the air. In reality, a motorcycle can’t do that, but why is that scene plotted like this? There must be a reason.

When we first see this commercial, we might not even take notice of it, but as this commercial is repeated daily continuously, we will gradually be influenced andslowly slowly get used to it. The result is that we then want to buy that motorcycle thinking that dashing actor flying through the air on the motorcycle. Our mind becomes captivated by that image, and then we become stupid, believe in it as real, and give up thinking anymore.

The more you are accustomed to it, the less awareness is here. You will blindly be addicted to it, blindly chasing after it, and blindly wanting to possess it. The Great Master Gampopa once said, “If one does not practice the dharma properly, practicing the dharma will, on the contrary, become the cause of taking birth into the three lower realms.”

Therefore we must be very cautious and mindful. The main point is that, in general, it is very difficult for us to avoid the eight worldly concerns such as praise, ridicule etc. If we can not get rid of our stubborn and obstinate attachment to worldly things, our practice will always have obstructions.

Furthermore, this is not enough. As practitioners of the Greater Vehicle, we must also engender Bodhicitta. This is very important.

On the first day a dharma friend asked about the meaning of Bodhicitta. Today we will talk about how to engender the enlightened attitude. There are many methods, and there are also many oral pith instructions. Engendering the enlightened attitude is not just talking about it; it must genuinely rise from within our hearts. Among the many pith instructions, we will discuss two methods: the first is passed down by the Vast Conduct lineage, called “The Seven Cause and Result Pith Instructions” method; the second is from the Profound View lineage, called “Exchanging Self with Others” method. The practice method of “The Seven Cause and Result Pith Instructions” also has two traditions: The first is passed down from Atisha of the Kadampas. The second is from the Drikhung Kagyu lineage.

Today we will study Kadampa’s “The Seven Cause and Result Pith Instructions.”

1. To know Your Mother.

It is very difficult to know your mother!

Why is it difficult? It is very easy to know your father and mother of this life, but that is not enough. What we mean by “to know your mother” in this context is referred to that after we engender Bodhicitta we must realize that all sentient beings are like our own mother. This is very hard to do.

How then do we know that all sentient beings are our mothers? First of all we must understand that there is cyclic existence.

How do we comprehend the cyclic existence? For example, a new born infant has a consciousness that is aware of itself. The birth of this consciousness is dependent on previous causes. It will not arise for no reason, or from foreign causes, or from a creator. This consciousness is a continuity of a previous cause, or arises due to previous cause of similarity. When we logically contemplate along this line, we can conclude that a similar previous consciousness or awareness exists, one after another, in an unbroken continuum. By this logical reasoning, we can prove the existence of cyclic existence through knowing that continuous consciousness exists. If, on the other hand, this consciousness does not depend on previous causes of similarity or any other external cause to be born, then it could exist at any time, or even does not exist at all.

Similarly, we can find many real and true cases of coincidences in this world. For example, some people can predict where he will be born in the next life, and true enough he is born in the foretold place. There are also many people who can recollect memory of previous lives. Hence, cyclic existence has now become the focus of experimentation and attention of many scientists. Although up to now there is still no concrete proof of anything, at least, people are all very concerned about this topic. Even though we cannot completely believe in the cyclic existence, but it’s alright; at least we should question the existence of the cyclic existence. If the cyclic existence is really true, but out of ignorance we disbelieve it, then it would be a very serious mistake. Therefore, now we should contemplate the cyclic existence from a different angle.

When we talk about previous lives and future lives, it is a beginningless, unbroken continuity. In every lifetime we must have had parents as most sentient beings need parents. From the beginningless samsara, adding all the lifetimes together, we would have had countless parents. Therefore, in the continuity of samsara, there is not a single sentient being who had not yet been my parents.

Looking at it with another way, worldly parents can be divided into three kinds: 1. our natural parents. 2. Our foster parents. 3. Parents who have been beneficial to us. When we say parents we often refer to our natural parents. If our parents die, foster parents can also be called our parents. There is a saying in Chinese that I believe says that the kindness of our foster parents is greater than that of our natural parents. Thus I have heard. The third kind is parents who have been beneficial to us. Most of us know this. Many Tibetan Buddhist lamas now teach the dharma abroad, and have been cared by local hosts. Gradually, they also consider these hosts their fathers and mothers. This kind of parents is those who are benefit us.

Hence, the term parents do not necessarily refer to our natural parents. Those who take care of us can also be called our parents. We can further expand the meaning to include those who rely and help each other, those who directly or indirectly beneficial friends. These can also be called parents. For example, now I am wearing monastic robes, but I was not wearing these robes when I was born. These monastic robes depend on many people to sew them. Everything in this world is like that, helping each other, relying on each other, benefiting each other in order to be accomplished. We can consider these sentient beings, who help each other, our parents.

Some people may say, you are always talking about positive things. Actually there are also many negative things, such as people hurting each other, hurting other’s families, seizing other’s houses. There are many of these horrible people. When we think like that, we should also contemplate: will it bring us any benefit by thinking of negative things?

2. To Remember Kindness

To our natural parents or parents who have benefited us, we owe them gratitude for their kindness. Some of which can be enumerated, others can not be counted. Among them, the most important is saving our lives.

When we are in danger, the most important person is the person who saves us, our benefactor.

Just like the person who saves us, their kindness is enormous, but the kindness of our parents is even greater. Why do we say this? If our parents abandon us anytime after we are born, or before we are able to independently take care of ourselves, then we will surely not survive. Therefore, the kindness of our parents is boundless. They take care of us not only for a day but for months and years; they are constantly accompanying us, taking care of us. Therefore it is said that the kindness of our parents is like saving our lives hundreds and thousands of times over and over again.

Perhaps some people will think that not all parents take responsible care of their children. For example, a mother turtle leaves her eggs as soon as they are laid. Some parents undeniably are bad parents. What we mean here when we say To Remember Kindness is remembering the parents who have been kind to us. In summary, all sentient beings have to rely on their parents, so we owe them gratitude.

3. To Repay Kindness

When we contemplate the kindness of our parents, with heartfelt gratitude and clarity, then we will wish to repay them. The stronger our wish to be thankful for their kindness, the wish to repay their kindness also becomes greater.

4. Loving Kindness

Loving-Kindness is to love, to treasure.

There is a story about Patrul Rinpoche and his major disciples. When they were in retreat in the Dzogchen Monastery high in the Snowy Mountains, one day, Patrul Rinpoche asked his disciple, “Do you miss your mother?” This disciple, thinking that he has already left home to become a monk, should forsake everything. So he replied, “Ever since I followed you, I have forsaken my home town, my parents and relatives, so I don’t miss my mother.” Patrul Rinpoche said, “This way of thinking is wrong. Bodhicitta is the root of all Dharma. Remembering your mother’s kindness is the cause to engender Bodhicitta. In your situation, the root of your ability to engender all phenomena is all dried up. That’s terrible!” Patrul Rinpoche then taught this disciple what great kindness a mother possesses. Rinpoche instructed this disciple to practice thinking of his mother’s kindness for several months. After some period of practice, the disciple yearned to go home to see his mother, and asked for permission to leave. Ordinarily Rinpoche do not like receiving offerings, but that day, he ordered his disciple to bring all the offerings that Rinpoche received to give to his mother, and also ordered him to stay for more than ten days before coming back. After this disciple returned from visiting his mother, whenever he talks about the kindness of his mother, tears would automatically fill his eyes. When Patrul Rinpoche saw this, he was very happy, and said, “Look! My child! He has just established the source of all phenomena.”

When we talk about loving-kindness, there are positive and negative aspects to it.

Sometimes we feel our love binds and constricts us, and we have no freedom.

When we practice Bodhicitta, what are the prerequisites? Our hearts should always maintain a joyful and happy attitude. This is very beneficial to the practice of loving-kindness. When someone whom we dislike commits a small mistake, we will feel it’s a big thing, but when one whom we like, makes a lot of mistakes, we feel it’s nothing. This difference is whether we have a joyous loving heart or not. We should therefore always maintain a joyous loving kind heart. If this has not been developed, we should let it rise up. If it has already arisen, we should maintain and expand it. Joyful loving kindness combined with dharma practice would be very helpful to the development of Bodhicitta.

5. Compassion
Compassion means the hope to avoid suffering. Some people may think this is a painful method. I feel that the suffering feeling that comes from compassion practice is different from the suffering we usually associate with pain and pleasure. The suffering of pain is intolerable and uncontrollable. But the suffering that grows out of the compassion practice, or to put it in another way, the feeling of the rise of compassion, is powerful. It will invoke a great strength to eliminate suffering. Hence, the suffering of compassion is different from the suffering of pain. Some people feel the opposite, after they practice compassion they suffer even more. Perhaps they did not practice it correctly.

Why do so? It’s because our ego-clinging has not been eliminated. It is highly possible that the more you practice loving-kindness-compassion the stronger your ego-clinging becomes. For example, your attachment to “my” mother is sick, “my” son is ill. Although there is loving-kindness, it is mixed with attachment, and attachment is the source of all suffering. “I” does not exist in the beginning, but we insist there is an “I”. Therefore behaviors associated with ego-clinging will lead to suffering. This suffering is not due to the practice of compassion but due to the presence of ego-clinging.

6. Advancing Inner Happiness
Advancing Inner Happiness has two folds of meaning. The first is I must take the responsibility to help sentient beings to avoid suffering, attain happiness, and achieve the Buddhahood, this kind of resolute kindness and enthusiasm. The other meaning is that I myself will take responsibility to benefit all sentient beings. Whichever meaning advancing inner happiness is, resolution and responsibility are the main qualities.

7. To Engender Bodhicitta
Relying on the aforesaid causes, the fruition of Bodhicitta can be engendered. Bodhicitta includes the great compassion to benefit others, and the wisdom of Buddhahood.

The above are the seven cause and result progressive stages for engendering Bodhicitta.

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Student's Questions:

Question: Your Holiness, I must go to Amitaba's Pure Land. Besides reciting mantras, contemplating the Buddha, what other prerequisites should one have? How should we practice? I fear the pull of karma that I will not be able to reach the Pure Land. Amitaba!

Answer: To be reborn in the Pure Land you need four conditions:
To think of the Buddhas and pray to the Buddhas.
To accumulate merits.
To aspire sincerely.
To engender Bodhicitta.
The important point here is we must perform good deeds, and while we are doing good deeds, we must have a clear
objective and aspiration, that is, we must clearly aspire to be born in the Pure Land.

We must also think of the Pure Land or clearly visualize the Pure Land. This does not mean we are thinking of the external beauty of the Pure Land, or how dignified it looks. This is not what it means; it means we have to contemplate more deeply. This Pure Land is the land that Buddha Amitaba out of his great aspiration and innate wisdom accomplished. Why should we think in this way? Because ordinarily we are full of impure thoughts and impure images, which eventually will lead to undesirable fruits. We should then often envisage the virtuous Pure Land.

Moreover, we should frequently recite the mantras, especially the mantra of Amitaba, but there is also an alternative. For example, in ancient times, to have a direct audience with the king is not easy. We need to go through special connections, such as through the introduction of his officials, to be able to see the king. Similarly, through the intercession of Avalokiteshvara and Vajrapani, by reciting their mantras and visualizing their forms, it will effectively lead us to the Pure Land to have an audience with the Buddha Amitaba.

To engender Bodhicitta is also very important. Why do we have to do this? Because the Pure Land of Buddha Amitaba is the Mahayana Pure Land, so we must posses the necessary pure motivation, which is, engendering Bodhicitta.

Most people think that the Pure Land of the West is far away in the distance, or as it is described in the sutras, in a land of the infinite number of Lands. . In short, we often think the Pure Land of The West is too far away to comprehend. If we have these thoughts, the sutras say it will be very difficult for us to be reborn in the Pure Land. How then should we visualize? We can think that the place where we are right now is the Pure Land of Bliss of Buddha Amitaba. Through visualization like this, at the moment of death, it will help us to be reborn immediately without any obstacle into the Pure Land. Like those sentient beings who are going to be reborn in the formless realm, their current location is instantly transformed into the formless realm. They are not transported to another place. Similarly, at the moment of death, we can be reborn in the Pure Land of Bliss. Why? Because there are no real obstruction between here and the Pure Land.

Question: How do we keep the continuity of Bodhicitta? Also, how do we maintain Bodhicitta without regressing?

Answer: To keep the continuity of Bodhicitta is to maintain correct view, and correct knowledge thought. If we cannot sustain this in our mind for a long period, we could recite more aspiration prayers, or copy some essays on the subject of generating Bodhicitta and paste them up as a reminder to aspire to generate the right attitude. The effect of sound or speech is very powerful. For example, if someone says something rude, we will be angry immediately; a word of praise will make us very happy. Hence the effect of speech is very powerful indeed.

In addition, always maintain the correct view, and don’t be distracted. Be like a guard, constantly watching our every word and every action. The 8th Karmapa Mikyo Dorje once said: “When you are tying on your belt, watch whether your mind accord to the dharma, do not be careless, maintain the right view, sustain Bodhicitta, as you are tying on your belt.” He also added, “When you are walking up stairs, keep in mind or say quietly: I am now advancing on the great path of Bodhicitta.” Always remind yourself like this, never forget Bodhicitta.

2006/1/3

Today we will give an introduction to the Four Common Foundations:
The Precious Human Birth,
Impermanence,
Miseries of Samsara, and
Karma of Cause and Result

First I will discuss the Precious Human Birth.

(1) To understand the meaning of the Unfavorable and the Favorable

What is the Unfavorable and the Favorable? There are two parts. From the Unfavorable to discover the Favorable, from the unfulfilled to discover the fulfilled, we need to contrast these two in order to know whether we possess these conditions or not. The objects of the comparison should be less than us. Sometimes we feel that we have no leisure time, or that we do not have the right opportunity to practice the Dharma. At this time, we should compare with those who have less leisure time than we have,.

There are two ways to compare, to compare downwards with those who are suffering and less fortunate than ourselves or compare upwards with those who are happy and more fortunate than us; we are in the middle.

Most people incline to look upwards to hope and to compare. For instance if we do not possess wealth or fame, we will look upwards, hoping to have more fame, more achievement. We can’t compare upwards, because many people are much richer and have much more wisdom than us yet they are not satisfied. What’s the reason? It is because greed is without bounds. Therefore, if we compare upwards our greed increases and we will never be satisfied. Therefore when we are practicing, we must nurture a contented mind. To do this, the best method is to compare downwards. This is a practical method and also a yardstick for comparison.

Many people, like me, always complain that they don’t have enough time, and there is no time for practice. We often say this. But, do we truly lack time to practice? To really know whether we have time or not, we should compare downwards.

For example, like animals, they wouldn’t know what the Dharma is. Even if they could know, they wouldn’t understand how to practice. A cow, for example, would not know how to sit in meditation.

Not only a small number of animals, but also as we often see on television programs, thousands of animals don’t know the Dharma at all. They are born headlong into life. Looking at many of our fellow dharma friends, they all want to practice, but most of their energies are spent on the practical matters of living. As to the internal practice, they have no faith, or, to put it in another way, in their hearts they cannot generate a strong enough force or faith in the Dharma. Therefore it is not for lack of time, but they lack the habit to practice the dharma, and therefore they naturally separate the Dharma from everyday life. To them practicing the Dharma and leading a life are two different things. It is like a person living in China, but his mind is off in India. Everyday life and internal thoughts are separated, and there is no focal point. The Dharma is actually a part of life, and if you depart from it them, how would you know the correct way to practice? Moreover, how would you find the time to practice?

As we talked about yesterday, you must not think of practicing the Dharma as a comfortable, pleasant leisure to indulge in. The Dharma is in fact a special knowledge that can help us resolve many problems and alleviate the sufferings in our daily lives. Therefore, if we do not combine the Dharma into our lives, then if we encounter any difficult situation, we wouldn’t know what to do, or how to solve the problem; therefore, everything remains the same without any progress. Hence, when someone harms us again, out of habitual behavior we would still respond with hatred and anger towards him. When we say we do not have time to practice, actually it’s not we really don’t have time, but we have not yet built up the habit of o practicing the Dharma, and we do not have real faith or that we don’t believe the Dharma is real, or is good.

Whether a person can attain ultimate happiness depends on the correct view of gain or lost. This kind of wisdom is innate; however, if we do not understand the preciousness of the human birth, then this wisdom is of no use to us. It is like a person, who does not know the value of gold, and then the gold is just a piece of rock.

In this world, there are many people who inherit great fortunes such as family businesses, and they just continue to do the same businesses. Many of us are trapped in the values of the general society, helplessly living out our whole life like this. They do not realize how to seek the ultimate happiness. They wouldn’t even know how to think in this way, nor understand how to pursue, how to find this happiness. Thus, our inherent analytical ability would be a total waste. This is all due to the fact that we don’t understand the value of our mind, nor how to fully utilize our mind.

Today we will use a watch as an example.

A person is wearing a very valuable watch (the Karmapa holds out his arm for everyone to see his watch. Everyone laughs).

But this person only knows how to wear it on his wrist, and is completely ignorant of the function of the watch and do not know how to tell time with it. Consequently, he is either too early or too late for work everyday. He can never be exactly on-time. He couldn’t do his job well, and finally he got fired.

One day, after he lost his job, he met an old friend who asked him how he was doing.

He replied: “All I have now is suffering, nothing else. Why am I suffering? It’s because I can’t tell the time, and so I lost my work.”

His friend told him: “Actually, you don’t need to suffer because you are wearing a watch!” He was astonished when he heard this, and said: “You mean, by using this watch I can know the time, when to go to work, and when to get off work?” Subsequently he began learning how to use this watch. At first he had to look at the watch for five minutes before he can tell the time, but as he became more familiar, he could just take one glance and know the time. His work became more stable, and he became rich, too.

Let us think carefully, the suffering when he lost his job, and after he became rich, the watch on his wrist remained the same. Why do we have two different consequences? Because just to have a watch is not enough, the important thing is to know how to tell the time. Hence to merely possess inherent analytical wisdom is not sufficient; we have to know how to use it well. Then we can truly achieve happiness and eliminate suffering.

(2) To contemplate rarity

When we look around us, we can see that in the human realm, there are many people who are physically deformed, psychologically unbalanced, or physically disabled, and so forth. Even the smallest flaw may make our lives miserable. Examining ourselves, we find that we don’t have any defect, we are physically complete, our bodies are healthy; it is almost unbelievable. We should feel overjoyed.

When we examine like this, we are not examining others, but reflecting on ourselves through looking at others. What does this mean? Imagine ourselves to be that physically deformed person, and then look back at the healthy self. Be conscious of this feeling; then you will know the rarity of our health, and will feel happy, and feel how blessed we are.

We are supposed to practice this together now, but due to the lack of time, I hope you will all spend more time practicing this contemplation later.

(3) To contemplate a life of significance

We live in a world where most of us lead the same life, or imitate someone else’s life. If we just live like this, it would be meaningless. Why? Because there are so many people all over the world leading a similar type of life. Since we have this precious human life, if we do not do anything meaningful, then an extra person would mean a waste of space and money.

But we are so used to imitate others and to follow the customs of the world. If it is so, then we are incapable of doing anything of importance.

Things of importance or things of significance does not mean having a big stomach or having a big head, this kind of external appearances, but things of real significance.

Can we really do it? Do we have the basic conditions? Yes, we do, as I mentioned before, because all of us possess wisdom. So we must look inwards, in order to develop our inherent wisdom. This is very important.

Under what circumstances can we best invoke our wisdom? When we are alone by ourselves without any supports, and can only reply on ourselves, at this moment we will seriously dig into our heart to find solutions to avoid fears. Everyone wishes to avoid suffering and obtain happiness, and at this moment we can fully engage our innder wisdom to think to attain a different, ultimate happiness. If we are willing to do this, life would be meaningful. Only the Dharma can help us attain this ultimate happiness. Hence, practicing the Dharma is a very meaningful thing.

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Death and Impermanence

Next, I will continue to discuss death and impermanence, but I will not say much on this topic as it is a striking shock to many people.

There are three main points.

(1) The certainty of death
a. Up to now, no one can live without dying.
b. The body is perishable.
c. Life can instantly decay.

(2) The time of death is unknown.
a. Lifespan is impermanent.
b. The physical body is vulnerable.
c. The causes for death are many, and the causes for life are few.

(3) At the time of death, nothing can help.
a. Riches can’t help.
b. Relatives can’t help.
c. We ourselves can’t help.

Speaking of Death and Impermanence, how should we visualize this practice? We do the practice by using a day in our life as of it were our whole life time. For instance, when we get out of bed in the morning, we can imagine ourselves being born from our mother's womb. The cleaning and washing that follows will be like a new born infant being washed, clothed and fed. We can use the activities of a day in our life to parallel that of our whole life-time. Finally, at night, when we lie in bed, we picture ourselves at the moment of death, and if when death really comes, we would prepare our last words, and our final practice. In short, we should try hard to imagine this scenario before we fall asleep. When we are asleep, this represents death. This sleep condition is comparable to the dissolution in the Bardo. This practice of visualization is the practice of Death and Impermanence, as well as the methods used to practice the Bardo at the moment of death.

The Miseries of Samsara

Next we will discuss the Miseries of Samsara, which will be divided into three parts:
1. According to one's own experience of hate and anger, contemplate the sufferings of the hell realm.
2. According to one's own experience of greed, contemplate the sufferings of the hunger of the ghost realm.
3. According to one's own experience of stupidity, confusion and ignorance, contemplate the sufferings of the animal realm.

When we consider the miseries of samsara, we often refer to sufferings in both the higher realms and the lower realms. The main sufferings discussed here are the sufferings of the three lower realms.

The most important thing is that if we cannot be sensitive to the sufferings of the three lower realms, then, however much we speak about the hot and cold sufferings of the hell realm, or the suffering of hunger of the ghost realm, or the stupidity of the animal realm, listening to this topic would only annoy us, and will not be of any use.

Now we will speak about the topic of “The Causes of the Three Lower Realms”, and the “Results of the Three Lower Realms.”

The hell realm, the hungry ghost realm, and the animal realm belong to the “Result of the Three Lower Realms.”

What is the cause or karma of taking birth in these Three Lower Realms? Or what are the sufferings of the three Lower Realms? Actually, looking at our own greed, hate, anger and confusion, we can actually feel and experience these sufferings.

It is similar to a very sick person, who can see all sorts of illusions such as being beaten up and the feeling of fear and terror. The seriously illness in the example is like the three poisons within ourselves. As the three poisons increasingly grow stronger, the images of the suffering and terror of the three Lower Realms will appear.

(1) According to one's own experience of hate and anger, contemplate the sufferings of the hell realm.

How do we experience the sufferings of the hell realm through anger and hatred? First of all, the main sufferings of the hell realm are hot and cold sufferings. Now we examine ourselves: when anger arises how do we feel? When anger arises, there is an uncontrollable rage. This is exactly the same situation as the hot hell realm. Now when the anger and hate subside, we will feel remorse, which is like the situation of the cold hell realm. Sometimes beings in the hell realm are described to be pierced through by a forest of swords. Again, when the emotion of anger and hate arises, our heart feels as if it were stabbed. Hence, through the experiences of hate and anger, we can comprehend the sufferings of the hell realm. At the same time, we can imagine how horrible our face looks when being angry. Our own face would even frighten ourselves, and which can make us wonder why it happens like this. Hence through this practice of using the method of reflecting upon our own anger and hate, we can experience the sufferings of the hell realm.

Using this method of reflection, we know that hate and anger definitely cause small or great sufferings. Therefore, when we realize that hate and anger is the hell realm itself, we will find a way to eliminate and distance ourselves from hate and anger.

(2) According to one's own experience of greed, contemplate the sufferings of the hungry ghost realm.

What does a hungry ghost look like? It has a stomach of the size of Mount Meru and a throat as thin as a needle. Think about this: When greed arises, a person’s generosity then becomes as thin as a needle whereas his greed grows to the size of Mount Meru. When he sees other’s riches, his envy burns like fire, just like the flames that the hungry ghost spew out of their mouths. Nothing can satisfy our greed, just as the hungry ghosts can’t swallow anything, nor digest any food, and the food would turn into poison. We therefore must practice by using our greed to vicariously feel the sufferings of the hungry ghosts.

(3) According to one's own experience of stupidity, confusion and ignorance, contemplate the sufferings of the animal realm.

Needless to say, an animal cannot make plans for the future; it cannot even cope with the immediate dangers before it. Although we think we are clever, but often times we can’t even manage nor avoid many situations. Sometimes we even give ourselves trouble. This is stupidity. Through experiencing our own stupidity, we can understand the sufferings of animals.

That is probably why Buddha said, “Ignorance is suffering.” (The Karmapa jokes in Chinese “Not knowing Chinese is also quite a suffering.”)

Cause, Result and Karma

(1) The differences

Karma is the Sanskrit sound, which means “karma.” From perspective of the cause, there are body, speech, and mind three aspects; from the perspective of results, there are three kinds: positive karma, negative karma and neutral karma; from the perspective of time, before an action takes place the motivation behind is call “karma of the mind”. From “karma of mind”, actions of body and speech are invoked, and they are called “self generated karma.”

(2) Self generate

For instance, I am making a lot of facial expressions as I speak. At the instant of speaking, I am creating is the karma of the speech, and my moving hand gesture is creating the karma of the body. Hence, positive or negative karma are decided by us.

(3) Karmic Results

If our thoughts are pure, respectful, and kind towards others, this will result in positive karma. If our motivations are arrogance, jealousy and negative intentions, then this will become negative karma. What we know as karma is not only what we did in past lives, but every action we perform at this very moment.

Some people may question that although Buddhism does not talk about a creator, but to say that everything is dependent on karma is very similar to the idea of having a creator. However, these two concepts are not the same. When we talk about a creator, we are in his control, and we have no choice at all. But when we talk about karma, not everything is controlled by karma; we can change it, or at least we have the ability to change some aspects of karma. Hence, the concept of a creator and karma are totally different.

For instance, when we are going abroad, we first go to the airport and buy a plane ticket. At this point we can decide whether to board the aircraft or not. Then we check in, we walk towards the boarding gate. At this instant we can still decide not to go. Even when we are on the plane, sitting in our seat, and just even before the door closes, we can still decide whether to get off or not. But as soon as the door closes, and the plane takes off, then the action of flying is settled. In short, whether karma can be changed is in our own hands, and is not decided by karma itself.

Especially during this era, the power of the mind has become much stronger. Therefore, the force of karma will ripen much faster. As soon as thoughts are born they become mature.

Take the example of a singer in a performance: if he has a loving and joyful heart, then thousands of people in the audience can feel this and instantaneously become his friends. This is unbelievable, total strangers can become old acquaintances in a second.

Actually we are creating karma continually. A life-time is not countable by years or by days, but we can say that each minute is a life-time. That is why every action at any moment becomes an important event in our life. We should be very mindful, less we slight a small thing and it will give us a life time of unhappiness.

(4) Small karma brings big results.

We can cite an example of a husband and wife who began an argument one morning over just a couple of words, which made them miserable the whole day: nothing went right at work, couldn’t concentrate and drove crazily. Finally they turned their backs on each other, went to court and were divorced. This whole painful incidence started that morning with just a few minutes and a couple of words. That is why we say that a small cause changed their whole life.

In fact, at least 70-80 percent of our life is in our own hands. Only 20-30 per cent is decided by fate. To a person who believes in the doctrine of cause and result, it doesn’t matter whether there is an external savior or not. He can protect himself, and can become his own savior.

I’m going to tell you a story about myself. Once, I was invited to a monastery. There were a lot of things in the room that they prepared for me. Since they prepared this room especially for me, I thought that looking around was alright. I found a DVD which was new. I picked it up and wanted to take it home to see what the contents were. There was nobody else in the room and certainly there shouldn’t be any surveillance camera. I asked myself, “Do you really need to watch it? Is there no opportunity to watch it later?” Finally I realized that I shouldn’t take it. Because I wanted to be an honest person, so I put the DVD back into its original place in the drawer, and said “I’m sorry. Good-bye!” Although it was only a small incident, I was truthful to my future destiny.

If we understand the doctrine of cause and result, I believe we will think differently. The Buddha once said, “You are your own savior; every thing is in your hands.”

The sutras cite two kinds of beneficial friends: one is an internal one, and the other is an external one. The external beneficial friend is the teacher who preaches the Dharma accurately and truthfully. The internal beneficial friend is you yourself who practice the true Dharma. Although observing and relying on an upright beneficial friend is very important, but more important is our internal self who can practice the Dharma correctly and according to the sutras. A guru who can teach his disciple the true methods of practice is a guru who can be the most beneficial to his disciples. To rely on a guru is to practice truthfully and correctly, not just looking at the guru, or offering homage or following him around.

Finally His Holiness said a few concluding remarks:

“Under the guidance of the honorable teachers, lay friends in the dharma, we have this auspicious karma to be in this holy land of the Buddha, Varanasi, chanting mantras, and listening to the dharma. To me, it is especially meaningful because I can use Chinese to share the dharma with all of you. This opportunity has fulfilled one of my important aspirations. I will never forget this. You are like bodhisattvas in giving me this kindness, and your loving-compassion fills my heart. I truly thank all of you.

From the depth of my heart, I sincerely wish you and your loved ones good health, great success, and the increase of fortune and wisdom. In the unexpected conditions of the future, if there are no great changes, sure we will meet again. Perhaps at that time, I can speak more Chinese to you. Amitaba!"

The 17th Karmapa's Talk on Vegetarianism

2007-03-01T16:04:00.000+08:00

The 17th Karmapa's Talk on Vegetarianism

Translated Simultaneously, by Ringu Tulku Rinpoche
Date: January 3rd, 2007
Place: Bodhgaya India, during the 24th annual Great Kagyu Monlam

Since I have about a half an hour, I wanted to talk about being vegetarian. It's not easy to talk too much about being vegetarian, to give up meat eating. I think it's very important to know how to think about eating meat and how to put it into practice.

Generally regarding those who are ordained, if you ask if meat is allowed for the monks or not, some people say that it is not allowed because if there are people who are eating meat, then there will be people who will kill those animals, and if there is no one eating meat then there would be no one will make the meat. So therefore eating meat is very much related to killing and therefore the negative deed of killing is very much caused by eating meat. Now whether that is true or not is something different….If there are people who are using the pearls, then these people who use the pearls cause the killing of the shellfish. And also those people who wear certain kind of dresses, people who wear brocades—silk is also made by certain animals or certain insects—so anybody who is wearing these clothes or anything that is coming from animals [is also killing animals].

And also if there is nobody who eats meat, then because of eating things like grains and so forth, also this causes lots of insects under the earth to come up on the earth and then all those beings living on top of the earth go below and therefore cause a lot of beings to die.

Because there are sheep, there will be people who are killing the sheep. So therefore, being a sheep is also a problem, a kind of source of the negative deed. Therefore just being one cause cannot be the same as being the actual deed of negative things.

There was once a person in China who used to butcher pigs. Each day he used to kill a pig and he used to make his sword red. Sometimes he thought, “Why should I do this? Each day I'm killing a pig.” And he thought, “It's not because I want to kill the pig but because other people want to eat it and need the pig and therefore that's why I'm doing it,” and so he was consoling himself that it's not too bad.

There was a monastery nearby and in the monastery there was a big bell and every morning when the bell rang he got up and went to kill the pig. One morning, he overslept and woke up late and when he went late to kill his pig, the pig that he was supposed to kill already had 10 piglets. Then, because that morning there was no bell rung, he went to the temple and he asked the head monk why was it that this morning there was no bell. And the head monk told him that he had a dream last night and in the dream he met ten beings and they came and asked the monk, “Please save ten of us.” And then the monk asked, “How do I save you piglets?” And the piglets said, “The only thing you need to do is not to ring the bell this morning and then you will save all of us.” And then the monk said to the butcher, “Therefore, I didn't ring the bell.” When the butcher heard this he was very moved and stopped killing any pigs from that time onward.

What I'm saying is that ringing a bell became a cause for killing the pigs, and so therefore, sometimes it may also happen that we should not ring a bell because someone might kill a pig. So only being one condition cannot become the real cause of the problem. That is not logical, but whether the Buddha allowed the monks to eat meat or not….in the Vinaya it is mentioned that that there are certain ways of being able to eat meat, and certain kinds of meat cannot be eaten and it is also mentioned that those kinds of meat that cannot usually be eaten, can be eaten in some circumstances: there are things like that.

But generally it is very important, I think, in the Mahayana, not to eat meat. In the Vinaya they talk about the three kinds of pure ways of making meat, that if it should be free from three kinds of conditions, then it is allowed to be eaten. For instance, if it is not killed for yourself and things like that. But because you are so attached and have so much craving for the taste of meat, you [may not] know whether this meat is specially dedicated for you or not. Sometimes people are so attached to meat that they go and ask people, "Please give me some meat."

When I was young, I was also very attached. I liked meat very much. The meat finished very quickly. The Labrang's meat finished very quickly but sometimes the monk's meat was still there because the monks were more careful. Then I went and asked them to send some meat from the monk's kitchen. Because I was eating meat, therefore I also influenced other people to eat meat. If I like meat, then people around me are influenced by me, because I give meat. I said, “I would like some momos; let's go and get some meat momos.” And then other people eat meat momos.

So therefore the Buddha said that the Bodhisattvas should not eat any meat. Because we have such strong attachment and aptitude or tendency to eat meat, therefore, for the beginner Bodhisattvas it is very good not to eat meat. When you go to the restaurant and say, “Give me some chicken,” then you don't know whether they already have some chicken prepared or they have to kill the chicken. Therefore it is said that a Bodhisattva should not eat meat. That's how it is said.

And when we talk about Bodhisattvas here, we are not talking about the great Bodhisattvas like Chenrezig or Chana Dorje, and great kinds of Bodhisattvas who are in higher bhumis, but just ordinary Bodhisattvas like ourselves who can be called Bodhisattvas who wish to work for the benefit of sentient beings. According to the Bodhisattvayana, it is said that, even if [meat] is pure from the three ways as allowed in the Vinaya, even those kinds of meat, the Bodhisattvas or the beginner Bodhisattvas should not eat. Because of our having too much attachment to the taste, therefore, unknowingly we will kind of commit mistakes, thus it is not good to eat meat.

Therefore it has been prohibited to eat meat in the Bodhisattva's Way of Life . When you say this, it is not that because meat is allowed in the Vinaya: that doesn't mean that the Vinaya is not good. It's not like that. Rather we have to see every being as our own son or our own child, and therefore when we eat meat, it is like, just for our food we are giving up the sentient beings who are supposed to be dear to us, like our own child. So therefore, this way of using the meat for our food, is a little bit like, not only something that is prohibited or looked down upon from the Bodhisattva's point of view, but is also something that is regarded as not good from the Shravakayana point of view.

Meat that you have either seen or heard or you are doubtful about whether or not the animal is killed for your consumption: that is not pure. Meat that is not killed for you, as we said before,--the three reasons--even if it is not killed for you and you either have not seen nor heard and have no doubt that it was not killed for you, even then it's not permitted to eat it from the Bodhisattva's Way of Life . But in Tibet of course, we usually eat the meat that's dedicated for us. In Tibet, if a big lama or some lama goes to a village, they [in the village] will immediately kill a sheep or kill a yak and then the Lama says some mantras and thinks that's okay. That is not good. Even if the Lama is very good and thinks that it's okay, it is not okay because the Buddha said that one should not eat any meat that has been specially dedicated for you or specially killed for the consumption of yourself.

There was once a lama in Amdo, a Jonang Lama, and one man came to bless the chang (chang means alcohol). This man came to the lama with some alcohol and asked him to bless it because he thought that if you bless it then you can drink it. The lama said, “I don't know how to do that. I don't know how to bless it.” Then the lama said that if that is the case, you know in Tibet sometimes they kill the yak by suffocation, and he said if you suffocate the animal and then bless it, doesn't it die? So in the same way, he said, I cannot bless the alcohol in such a way that you can drink it without having any problem. And therefore, whether it's in Tibet, whether this lama or the person is very highly realized, even then one has to act according to the law or the precepts that have been prescribed by the Buddha.

There are many great masters and very great realized beings in India and there have been many great realized beings in Tibet also, but they are not saying, “I'm realized, therefore I can do anything; I can eat meat and drink alcohol.” It's nothing like that. It should not be like that. According to the Kagyupa school, we have to see what the great masters of the past, the past lamas of Kagyupas, did and said about eating meat. The Drikung Shakpa Rinpoche, master of Drikungpa, said like this, “My students, whomever are eating or using meat and calling it tsokhor or tsok, then these people are completely deserting me and going against the dharma.” I can't explain each of these things, but he said that anybody that is using meat and saying it is something good, this is completely against the dharma and against me and they completely have nothing to do with dharma. He said it very, very strongly.

Other great masters also said this. And each of them said that if somebody eats meat and thinks that it's allowed, you can't even dream like that because it is something that is never right and never good. In some places it is said that if someone has a great method by which they can liberate the being whose meat he eats, only then might that person eat it, according to the Vajrayana. Otherwise, other than that, you cannot eat meat.

According to Karme Chakme Rinpoche, we talk about using the five meats and five amritas: if someone is completely realized, then only can one eat meat. And then if you say that many things are mentioned about this in the Vajrayana--in Vajrayana, lots of things are mentioned about the five meats and five amritas, what is this? He said that that is only for the most advanced people. For instance if you put some shit and some urine on the altar, it's very bad. We don't like it and we feel like vomiting.

Making offerings—it's not for the fullfilment of the great masters, that they are hungry and thirsty and then we have to give things to them. It's not like that. Why we have to offer is in order to accumulate positive deeds for us.

The 8th Karmapa Mikyo Dorje also said, that if you offer meat during the guktor and things like that, for the Mahakala puja if you put some meat or you put some alcohol or things like that--he very strictly prohibited that. He said if you do that, I'm not your lama. You are not my disciples, or my followers, completely not. In all the monasteries, the Kamtsang, the Karmapa said, you don't have to make any offerings of meat and alcohol. Maybe you can put some fruits. I've heard that in Sikkim, during the guktor or Mahakala puja, you must put some meat. If Mahakala himself comes, maybe he will eat some meat; maybe that's okay. But if we do that for Mahakala, put [or eat?] an offering of meat or alcohol, that's completely useless. That's not good.

Again, Mikyo Dorje said, in Tuton Gyaltsa, that there are eight things to be given up by the monks, like meat, alcohol, weapons and things like that—I can't remember all of them—because this is what has been described in Do Palmo Che. Most important about this is the meat, alcohol and weapons. These you can't even look at, he said. If you don't give up these eight things, then you don't belong to Kagyupa, he said. Then you [should] just go away, or sit somewhere else, that's how it is said. If you eat meat you aren't not included in Kagyupa. So we don't know if we are Kagyupas or not.

Jamgon Kongtrul, before he died, said again and again, that he is always praying that he will be reborn as someone who would not eat meat anymore. There are lots of things to read. There are lots of quotations. We should put it into action. How to put it into action: [name of the first sutra mentioned is unclear], Do Lanka Shepa, Na Nyen Le Depa Do, in all of these sutras, eating meat has been clearly prohibited. And even those places when eating meat was just merely allowed, it was not that it was encouraged to eat meat. Nobody said that eating meat is good or that eating meat was no problem. It was just said that those people who have too many difficulties to not eat meat, then eating meat was kind of merely allowed. It was said like that.

Then in Tibet, among the Kagyu, Nyingma, Sakya, Gelung, and Jonang—I haven't read too much about Bonpo—in all these places, eating meat was strongly prohibited.

There is something that I want to tell about myself personally. When I was young, about 11 or 12, someone who did palmistry looked at my palm [and said], “When you are 23 or 24 there will be a big obstacle." But I was young and I did not think about it. I forgot about it. Then it's been about five or six years it happened after I came to India. Then I had a dream. A lama in my dream said that someone in palmistry also "told you that there is an obstacle. Don't you remember?" I said, "I remember." Then he said, "There is an obstacle for your life." Usually, I'm not very afraid of death. I'm a Khampa so I pretend to be a little bit brave. In that dream I was very scared. When I woke up my heart was beating very fast. That was a dream, [however] I feel also that there is some obstacle.

Also people like me, if I live long, I don't know if it is much use or not, but from eight years of age until now, I have been raised by the monasteries and the dharma and my only intention is to be able to serve, a little bit, the dharma and the sangha and the monasteries. All of my intentions and actions have not been too negative so far. If everything goes well I aspire to serve the dharma and the beings. To get rid of this obstacle I feel that the most important thing is to save lives and therefore not to eat meat. So I feel that is the most important thing.

Whether you look at it from the general point of view or the specific point of view, it is very important not to eat meat. And also, this year or next year, the obstacle year of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is happening. Especially last year he completely prohibited wearing the skins of wild animals and things like that. Now it's very important to do these things.

I have some proposals: First, breathe out strongly. If you are Kamtsang, whether you are a nun or monk or layperson, you should not do business in meat, through buying animals and killing them and selling the meat. So never use selling of the meat as a business. That's one thing; that's very important. That's not only those who are in India, there are lots of people in Tibet who are doing this. I have heard that some even tulkus in Tibet are doing this kind of business.

In Tsurphu monastery, everything kind of got destroyed but the slaughterhouse is still there; that still remains. There should not be a slaughterhouse. We should make every effort that there is no slaughterhouse wherever there is a Kamtsang monastery. I usually think about the whole Kagyu but first thing we have to talk about is Kamtsang. So there should not be a slaughterhouse in the compound or which is belonging to the monastery. That should not be. That is not only for the monks and nuns but anybody who is claiming to follow the Kamtsang tradition, everyone should take this into mind.

Now for the monks and nuns....also [do not] cook meat in a big way….I was looking at a western magazine and I saw about ten monks cutting meat. And it looks as if they are making so much meat and cooking so much meat. Sometimes you have to do a little bit, but to cook a lot of meat for big gatherings, especially wearing the robes, this should not be done. That doesn't look good also. Usually we say that there is no being who has not been our father or mother….And then, [regarding] going to the slaughterhouse wearing the robes to buy meat—when you go to slaughterhouse, the only reason is to buy meat. We should lessen going to slaughterhouse.

If you really, really need to buy some meat you should ask some other people to buy it. For monks going to the slaughterhouse and buying meat looks very bad. And then we should lessen the eating of meat. Generally we eat three times a day and so we should eat meat only once a day and not all the meals, or something like that. Or we should say that “I will eat meat only once a month,” or something like that. Tibetans usually think that kind of special days are very important like the full moon day or new moon day or Chotrul Dawa or Saka Dawa. There are people who don't eat meat on those days.

Some people give up meat altogether, but some people cannot. But at least, one should reduce it. Because in the society, if everybody is eating meat then it is very difficult to give up meat, but if there is a society and the whole environment is not eating meat then it's easy not to eat meat. But if everyone is eating meat then it is not easy to stop eating meat. In the next session I will ask you, how many of you will eat meat for only one meal and not in the two other meals. So those who will do that, should raise you hands. I don't have to see all of them but you must make the promise to yourselves. Then [I'll ask] how many of you would like to give up meat on special days and how many of you would give up meat for all the time. So you have to think. However, there's nothing much to think about. You just have to decide. Thinking too much is not really useful; you just have to decide.

Another thing I've forgotten is that any monastery that belongs to Kamtsang Kagyu, the monastery kitchen cannot and should not make any food with meat. And if you bring meat and cook it in the monastery kitchen then that means that you are not taking me as your teacher, you are not belonging to Karma Kagyu. And there is nothing to discuss about that. That's finished. That is very important.

Especially in Tibet, before it was very, very difficult, but now because of the kindness of the Chinese it's not so difficult. It's not that there is only meat you can eat, there are some other things also, there are vegetables and things like that. You have to think, eating meat is not good, eating meat is dirty and bad for your health —this kind of way of looking has to be cultivated. It's good for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and also for Apo Gaga. You can use my name also. If you want Apo Gaga to live longer, it's useful not to eat meat. And your own Root Guru and all the great beings, if you want them to live long, the best method to do is to reduce meat or not eat it.

In the next session, once you make the commitment you should really keep it. If you make the first commitment very clearly and very strongly, then the second commitment will be good and the third also good, so the first commitment should be very strong and you should not make the commitment unless you can really do it and have the mind to do it.

2006-10-19T18:43:00.000+08:00

17th Gyalwang Karmapa -- Happy New Year 2006

2006-10-18T12:47:00.000+08:00

HH the 17th Karmapa Speech on Karmapa Khenno

The mantra "karmapa chenno" does not solely represent the black crown Karmapa. It also represents all Buddha activities of ten directions. Hence, all rinpoches & lamas who are involved in the propagation of Buddha activities can be considered as karmapa. The mantra is the name of all Bodhisattvas and Buddhas and hence it is beneficial and meaningful to recite it.

Translated by Sophie

HH the 17th Karmapa speech on protecting life

2006-10-18T11:23:00.000+08:00

HH the 17th Karmapa speech on protecting life

Whether it is life protection or life liberation, there are many ways to do it. It doesn't mean that this is the only way and there are no other means to do it. There will be fewer obstacles if we could use more means to protect or liberate lives.

When comes to life liberation, different people share different views and there are both positive and negative views about it. Some believe that it can benefit a lot of sentient beings while others think that it will cause more harm to them. What does that mean? For example, an animal will be spared today if you liberate it when it is just about to be slaughtered.

However, though you have saved the life of this animal, you may also cause harm to the next animal indirectly as it will be slaughtered earlier than usual to replace the one that you have liberated. Hence, some people will contemplate it this way and they will feel that there are no perfect ways to benefit all sentient beings completely as you may still harm some while saving others.

No matter what, Karmapa feel that the best way to protect and liberate lives is to adopt a vegetarian diet because sentient being will be slaughtered as long as there are people who eat meats. Hence, in present situation, be it life protection or life liberation, Karmapa think that the best way will be to adopt a vegetarian diet.

Translated by Sophie

HH the 17th Karmapa Speech on Karmapa Khenno

2006-10-17T14:21:00.000+08:00

HH the 17th Karmapa Speech on Karmapa Khenno

Date:2006/06/
Place:Gyuto Monastery, India

The mantra "karmapa chenno" does not solely represent the black crown Karmapa. It also represents all Buddha activities of ten directions. Hence, all rinpoches & lamas who are involved in the propagation of Buddha activities can be considered as karmapa. The mantra is the name of all bodhisattvas and buddhas and hence it is beneficial and meaningful to recite it.

Supplication for the long life of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso

2006-09-30T23:04:00.000+08:00

Supplication for the long life of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso
----------------------------by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa

You are endowed with the glory of discipline, field of all qualities,
For you an ocean of Dharma's meaning appears clear and distinct,
In all ten directions, you sing melodious songs of the profound view and meditation,
Genuine spiritual friend, may you always remain.

This supplication for the long life of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, the unequaled spiritual friend, I make out of my own devotion to this genuine master, and also in response to the repeated requests of many groups of his Eastern disciples, who possess the jewel of faith. On the topmost floor of the Gyuto Ramoche Temple in the noble land of India, the one fortunate to receive the healing nectar of his excellent teachings, Karmapa Orgyen Trinle Palden Wangi Dorje, makes this supplication with a clear mind, and may its aspiration be realized in precisely the way it has been made.

Translated by Ari Goldfield.

Official Chinese Website of HH the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa

AN ASPIRATION FOR THE WORLD-----by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa

2006-09-13T18:00:00.000+08:00

AN ASPIRATION FOR THE WORLD

World, we live and die on your lap.
On you we play out all our woes and joys
You are our parental home of old.
Forever we cherish and adore you.

We wish to transform you to the pure realm of our dreams.
We wish to transform you into a land for all creatures, equal for all and free from prejudice.
We wish to transform you into a loving, warm, and gentle goddess.
Our hope in you is ever so resolute.

So please be the ground on which we all may live
So that all these wishes may come true.
Do not show us the dark side of your character, where nature’s calamities reign.
In every section of our world’s land

May there thrive a fertile field of peace and joy,
Rich with the leaves and fruits of happiness,
Filled with the many sweet scents of freedom.
May these fulfill the countless and boundless wishes we have made.

Composed by His Holiness Ogyen Drodul Trinley Dorje, The Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa

©2005 by His Holiness Ogyen Drodul Trinley Dorje, The Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa
Translated with assistance from The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche by Tyler Dewar

Official Chinese Website of the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa
http://www.kagyuoffice.org.tw

New Codes of Discipline for Kagyu Monlam

2004-07-28T13:47:00.000+08:00

New Codes of Discipline for Kagyu Monlam

By His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa
　
Date: 2004/07/28
Place: Gyuto, India

The reason why I invited the Uchos and representatives from 19 Kagyu monasteries of Nepal and India here is to express my thoughts on future planning of Kagyu Monlams.

Firstly about myself, I have spent my childhood like an ordinary child in my country. Later the Kagyupas gave me the grand name of Karmapa. My responsibility became quite heavy and my concern about Kagyupa flows naturally.

Frankly speaking, it will not be possible for me to compete with the kindness and the activities of previous Karmapas but timely change is important.

Coming to the point of talking on Kagyu Monlam, this is not an inovation after we reached India. This was initiated three hundred years back, by the 7th Karmapa Chodrak Gyatso, the 8th Karmapa Mikyo Dorje, the 9th Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje, and the 10th Karmapa Choying Dorje. During those days, although it was not called Kagyu Monlam specifically, but all Kagyupas gathered to appreciate the kindness of Gautama Buddha and to pray for peace in the world, just like today's Kagyu Monlam.

Similarly during the 7th Karmapa Chodrak Gyastso, the tradition of celebrating the four major festivals associated with the life of Buddha and especially celebrating the Chotrul Duechen, on the first month of the lunar calendar existed then.. During the festival, the precious relics of the garchen, yellow gold, dark gold and many other offerings never heard and seen in Tibet used to be displayed and changed daily. Karmapa Chodrak Gyatso would prostrate in front of the offerings.

In the mornings, he would himself recite the Great Aspiration prayer, which is one of the most important prayers today, with great respect. In the evenings the stories of the great masters of India and Tibet would be performed in wonderful song and dance drama.

Chotrul dawa coincides with Buddha’s festival and the Tibetan New Year. Normally, Karmapa Chodrak Gyatso did not grant long audiences to his faithful, but when tea is served to the Sangha the public was granted very short audiences. However during the relatively long morning prayer session the public would come just to have a glimpse of the Karmapa. According to the records the general public would come to watch the Garpa Losar performance of the year.

Since we have to try to follow the footsteps of our past masters as closely as possible, it is very important to understand and study the great deeds of these noble masters, and practice the true Dharma even in these degenerate times.

I myself have consistently studied the history and deeds of our past masters, and I hope that the Monlam ceremony should not just be good, but should be excellent in all respects.
　

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Aspiration Prayer Rituals

Although there is nothing wrong in reading from the compilation of the Kagyu Monlam prayer book which is red in color, but there is also The 20 Chapter Aspiration Prayers composed by the 7th Karmapa Chodrak Gyatso. During the great masters’s time, this prayer used to be read during the Gar-Ki Chotrul Monlam.

I have received such a prayer book, and it is a very good one. It is Sutra rituals which are the teachings of the Buddha. There are also other compilation of prayers of each particular lineage of Buddhism which therefore often cause inconvenience to many who attend the Monlam from other lineages, such as Sakya, Nyingma and Geluk.

Since Buddha’s teachings are universally respected and beyond any doubts, I feel that it would be most suitable if we can recite these prayers as compiled by Karmapa

Chodrak Gyatso . I am presently compiling and editing this prayer book.

The 20 Chapter Aspiration Prayers was first recited during the Lhabab Duechen which is on the 15th day of the 9 th month. Thereafter, whenever there is a major Buddhist festival these prayers are chanted with sincere aspiration vows, and as recorded in the Chojung Khe-pai and Kamtsang Chojung texts, miraculous incidents would occur, such as the appearance of rainbows, the raining of flowers, in Kongpo district where eagles are rarely seen, many eagles are seen circling the skies, the ground covered with fresh flowers, and fragrant rain.

Therefore, we will base our prayers on this compilation. It is also necessary to add some supplements, such as the popular prayers composed by ancient Indian masters in praise of Buddha, Kyebar Phagto, Lha le phuljung, Ngag wo ngag to, and Topa Gya Nga chupa. I think it will be very good if we recite these prayers.

Normally when we recite the long life prayers, we only recite Kamtsang prayers, which is necessary. Earlier this was known as Kamtsang Monlam but now it is called Kagyu Monlam, a very grand name. So the prayer compilation has to match the grand name. Otherwise the name and the fact may not match.

We started this Kagyu Monlam for the development of Buddha dharma in general and Kagyu teachings in particular. We should also recite the prayer for long life of the great masters of Drikung Kagyu, Drukpa Kagyu and Taklung Kagyu. Otherwise it will be biased, and will harm the unity of Kagyu. Similarly since Rumtek and Sherabling are the two major monasteries of Kamtsang, the chant masters of these two monasteries should lead the daily prayers alternately. Since the recitation of the prayers this time is slightly different from before, I will explain them in detail later on.
　

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Prayer Ceremony Rules of Conduct

As we all are followers of Buddha so we must follow the three advices of Buddha. If one is an ordained monk, he must obey the precepts of the Rabjung. If one is a Buddhist layman he must obey the precepts the Ge-nyen. Although both Gelong and Ge-tsul monks attend the Kagyu Monlam, yet many of them lack some of their required possessions.

For example some Gelongs don't have Namjar, some don't have Thango and Lhungsey. Many things are lacking. According to the ancient by laws of Kagyu monastery, all Gelong must have the three possessions: the three dharma robes, a begging bowl and a sitting mat. It was compulsory to have them.

According to regulations in the Karma Shungluk Ling, laid down by the 8th Karmapa Mikyo Dorje it was stressed that in this institution of monks the three robes, sitting mat and bowl are absolute requirements. Therefore, in our Kagyu Monlam, even if we could not provide for the all Getsuls, but at least we must provide for all the Gelongs as soon as possible. The crescent-shaped cape is also necessary because mornings and evenings in Bodhgaya is cold. Wearing a coat or wrapping the shawl (gsan) on the head is not correct so the crescent-shaped cape is both comfortable and acceptable by rule.

The three dharma robes are skirt(thango), shawl (lago, chogo), and shawl(namjar). Since these are important, I have given a small amount offering to the representatives of the monasteries to provide the required robes for the monks. Actually an under-garment beneath the present skirt is necessary, so we thought a lighter under-garment would be better. The color also must be the three permissible ones. I will give a sample of the colors tomorrow.

The proper way of wearing the three dharma robes must be according to the prescribed rules. According to Karmapa Mikyo Dorje, the three dharma robes should be worn around from the top of the shoulders and should not cover the face or twisted in a casual manner. Especially the under-garment and skirt should reach up to the ankles and not any longer than that. The vest (tongaks) must be neatly tucked under the belt.

Vinaya rules also prescribed blessing for the possessions. Therefore, the fully ordained monks must have their robes (Namjar) duly blessed.

I hope that during the Kagyu Monlam, all fully ordained monks will take the Mahayana vows (Bodhisattva's vow) every morning. Those Getsuls and laypersons, who wish to take vows may also do so and abstain from taking evening meals.

On the first day of sojong, four senior fully ordained monks from this congregation will deliver the Mahayana vows and bless the possessions.

While attending the assembly, the fully ordained monks will wear the skirt (thangsham) and under-garment (thangsham san), wrap the dharma robe(lago, chogo), and the shawl (nulsan) around the shoulders, drape the shawl(namjar) on the shoulder, wear the crescent-shaped cape (dhakham) on the back, yellow hat and begging bowl in hands, prostrate three times and proceed to their seats in an orderly way.

When the master lama is seated the hats must be held in the hands to show respect, and put on the right side when seated.

While coming to attend the teachings, one need only drape the shawl(namjar) on the shoulders and the dharma robe(lago, chogo) wrapped around the shoulders, but there is no need to carry the bowl, the hat and the crescent-shaped cape (dhakham).

According to tantra, it says that during the assembly and teaching if some one has to leave the room they must prostrate three times before leaving as a form of seeking permission and three times before sitting down as a form of apologizing.

The multi-color hat that we wear used to be called meditation hat and perhaps only great mediators(sgom-chens), used to wear them. Karmapa Mikyo Dorje said, in the rules for monasteries, that the yellow hat(tse sha) must be worn, and that in most large monasteries it was the custom to wear this hat.

The seating posture in the assembly, as laid down in some ancient rule texts, must be in accordance with the Sevenfold posture of Vairochana(Nam nang Choe dun) which is not easy. Therefore, a similar style such as legs crossed in vajra asana, hands in meditation posture(chag nyam shag), and backbones straight like an arrow, chin slightly bent down, eyes focused on the tip of nose, and meditate and recite prayers without diverting the mind from compassion and Mahamudra.

Even if this is not achievable, while reciting prayers, at least we should refrain from talking or looking around casually. Otherwise such recitations are neither prayer nor meditation and one is only fooling oneself and others. This rule for prayer is not only for fully ordained monks but also applicable to novices and layperson.

Moreover, one must sit in the assembly in an orderly manner.. Rows must be uniform and enough spaces left in between for tea servers and disciplinarians to walk around. The seating order must be according to Vinaya rules duly respecting seniority.

The fully ordained monks must, before taking tea and offerings recite with folded hands the mantras for purification of the offerings, namo baghawati sumeru kalpa rajya tathagataya aryate samnyag sambudhaya, tyatha om kalpe kalpe maha kalpe kalpepari shodhani swaha. After reciting they must with respect and folded hands receive the offering. Fully ordained monks must recite these mantras by heart and recite to purify offerings.
　

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Seats

Thirdly talking about seats, during the Kagyu Monlam, which used to be held at the time of Karmapa Chodrak Gyatso, who always preferred to sit on a mat and not on the throne. Therefore, when we come here and pray at the great site of Buddhism, in Bodhgaya and, in front of the great stupa of Buddha, it is not proper to sit on a high throne. Hence, in keeping with the deeds of the former Kagyu masters all of us will sit on a low mat. However, during the teaching, a throne is allowed to highlight the teacher and to show respect for his great teachings.

It is possible that some people may argue that the teachings of Kagyu must flourish and therefore, sitting without a throne is not proper. We have seen that earlier when our Kagyu lineage was at its peak, great masters preferred low seats. Therefore, this will be in accordance with the great deeds of the ancient masters of abandoning greed and pride. To follow this path will definitely help spread and glorify the Kagyu teachings and not harm it. We should have no doubts about this.

Similarly the disciplinarians(ge kos), of the monasteries have a heavy responsibility. If they sit at one place then they will not be able to see the situations in other parts of the room. Therefore they must walk around the assembly.

To begin with, the disciplinarians and their assistants must check the list of the monks and see that they are all present at the assembly. Otherwise many monks are absent from the assembly and wander around in markets. They must concentrate on the discipline at the assembly. If somebody violates the rules then they must be advised and not punished immediately. It is not proper to admonish the monks in public places.

Also these days many monks wear fancy shoes, which look odd, and not a good example. We must, therefore, also wear proper simple shoes. All the monks must shave their heads frequently.
　

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Conclusion

To conclude, please bear in mind seriously what I have said above. I also consider all previous Karmapas as my masters and I have never in my life been arrogant of the fact that I am the Karmapa. My responsibility is to contribute to the great deeds of the past masters and to preserve, protect and promote the pure teachings of the past masters during this degenerate time. This is not only my responsibility but everyone else’s as well.

Therefore, you must all strive hard with pure motivation for the development of the Kagyu lineage. Especially during the Monlam, as a Bhikshu, your every thought and conduct must be in accordance with that of Buddha’s aspirations, and they must not even for a moment be delayed or postponed. We must not sit back and blame the degenerate times but must be courageous enough to face it.

All of us Kagyupas must take up the cause of the Kagyu lineage as a personal responsibility and must strive hard for the advancement of the Dharma.

It is not right to hold the narrow opinion that your Kagyu is the true Kagyu and others as non-Kagyu; then you are abandoning the Dharma, a disgrace to the Kagyu and not an honor to the lineage.

Generally speaking all the lineages of Tibetan Buddhism are interconnected with each other and have their roots in Vajradhara. To provoke differences among each other will weaken the samaya bonds between them.

In the future, I have great confidence that all the other masters of Kagyu will join us in the coming Monlam. Perhaps some of you may consider my view as childish. I am an ordinary being and therefore, doubtful whether all my activities are true to the dharma. But I have with the best of intentions and will do my utmost for the Dharma.

I hope this will not displease some of the masters, and hope that this will set a good example for all the future devotees of Kagyupa. Thank you.

　

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Translated from the Chinese text (a direct translation from the Tibetan text) by the translation group of Hwa Yue Foundation, Taipei, Taiwan, November 2005. With grateful reference to the English translation by Jamyang Dorje for Dharma Nectar, January 2004.