Author: Kadampa Ryan

New Years for a Kadampa

Kadampa Ryan Uncategorized

New Year’s Day is of course preceded by New Year’s Eve.  The evening before is usually when friends get together to celebrate the coming of the new year.  Sometimes Kadampas become a social cynic, looking down on parties like this, finding them meaningless and inherently samsaric.  They mistakenly think it is somehow a fault to enjoy life and enjoy cultural traditions.  This is wrong.

If we are invited to a New Year’s party, we should go without thinking it is inherently meaningless.  Geshe-la wants us to attain the union of Kadampa Buddhism and modern life.  New Year’s Eve parties are part of modern life, so our job is to bring the Dharma into them.  Venerable Tharchin said that our ability to help others depends upon two things:  the depth of our Dharma realizations and the strength of our karmic connections with living beings.  Doing things with friends as friends helps build those karmic bonds.  Even if we are unable to discuss any Dharma, at the very least, we can view such evenings as the time to cultivate our close karmic bonds with people.  Later, in dependence upon these bonds, we will be able to help them.

One question that often comes up at most New Year’s Eve parties is what to do about the fact that most everyone else is drinking or consuming other intoxicants.  Most of us have Pratimoksha vows, so this can create a problem or some awkward moments for ourself or for the person who is throwing the party.  Best, of course, is if you have an open and accepting relationship with your friends where you can say, “you can do whatever you want, but I am not going to.”  It’s important that we don’t adopt a judgmental attitude towards others who might drink, etc.  We each make our own choices and it is not up to us to judge anyone else.  We might even make ourselves the annual “designated driver.”  Somebody has to be, so it might as well be the Buddhist!

If we are at a party where we can’t be open about being a Buddhist, which can happen depending upon our karmic circumstance, what I usually do is drink orange juice or coke for most of the night, but then at midnight when they pass around the glasses of Champagne I just take one, and without a fuss when it comes time, I just put it to my lips like I am drinking but I am not actually doing so.  If we don’t make an issue out of it, nobody will notice.  Why is this important?  Because when we say we don’t drink, they will ask why.  Then we say because we are a Buddhist.  Implicitly, others can take our answer to mean we are saying we think it is immoral to drink, so others might feel judged. When they do, they then reject Buddhism, and create the karma of doing so. We may feel “right,” but we have in fact harmed those around us. What is the most moral thing to do depends largely upon our circumstance. It goes without saying that others are far more likely to feel judged by us if in fact we are judging everyone around us! We all need to get off our high horse and just love others with an accepting attitude.

Fortunately, most Kadampa centers now host a New Year’s Eve party.  This is ideal.  If our center doesn’t, then ask to host one yourself at the center.  This gives our Sangha friends an alternative to the usual New Year’s parties.  We can get together at the center, have a meal together, do a puja together and just hang out together as friends.  We are people too, not just Dharma practitioners, so it is important to be “exactly as normal.”  If our New Year’s party is a lot of fun, then people will want to come again and again; and perhaps even invite their friends along.  It is not uncommon to do either a Tara practice or an Amitayus practice.   Sometimes centers organize a retreat weekend course over New Year’s weekend.  For several years in Geneva, we would do Tara practice in six sessions at the house of a Sangha member.  The point is, try make it time together with your Sangha family.  Christmas is often with our regular family, New Year’s can be with our spiritual family.

But it is equally worth pointing out there is absolutely nothing wrong with spending a quiet evening at home alone, or with a few friends or members of your family. Just because everybody else is making a big deal out of it and going to parties doesn’t mean we should feel any pressure to do the same. I personally have never enjoyed them party scene, even when others are not getting drunk, etc. I much prefer a quiet evening or a solitary retreat. There is nothing wrong with this, and if that is how we prefer to bring in the New Year, we should do so without guilt or hesitation.

What I used to do (and really should start doing again), is around New Years I would take the time to go through all the 250+ vows and commitments of Kadampa Buddhism and reflect upon how I was doing.  I would try look back on the past year and identify the different ways I broke each vow, and I would try make plans for doing better next year.  If you are really enthusiastic about this, you can make a chart in Excel where you rank on a scale of 1 to 10 how well you did on each vow, and then keep track of this over the years.  Geshe-la advises that we work gradually with our vows over a long period of time, slowly improving the quality with which we keep them.  Keeping track with a self-graded score is a very effective way of doing this.  New Years is a perfect time for reflecting on this.

Ultimately, New Year’s Day itself is no different than any other.  It is very easy to see how its meaning is merely imputed by mind.  But that doesn’t mean it is not meaningful, ultimately everything is imputed by mind.  The good thing about New Year’s Day is everyone agrees it marks the possibility for a new beginning.  It is customary for people to make New Year’s Resolutions, things they plan on doing differently in the coming year.  Unfortunately, it is also quite common for people’s New Year’s Resolutions to not last very long.

But at Kadampas, we can be different.  The teachings on impermanence remind us that “nothing remains for even a moment” and that the entire world is completely recreated anew every moment.  New Year’s Day is a good day for recalling impermanence.  Everything that happened in the previous year, we can just let it go and realize we are moving into a new year and a new beginning.  We should make our New Year’s resolutions spiritual ones.  It is best, though, to make small changes that you make a real effort to keep than large ones that you know won’t last long.  Pick one or two things you are going to do differently this year.  Make it concrete and make sure it is doable.  A former student of mine would pick one thing that she said she was going to make her priority for the coming year, and then throughout the year she would focus on that practice. I think this is perfect. Another Sangha friend of mine would every year ask for special advice about what they should work on in the coming year. This is also perfect.

When you make a determination, make sure you know why you are doing it and the wisdom reasons in favor of the change are solid in your mind.  On that basis, you will be able to keep them.  Making promises that you later break creates terrible karma for ourselves which makes it harder and harder to make promises in the future. We create the habit of never following through, and that makes the practice of moral discipline harder and harder.

Just because we are a Kadampa does not mean we can’t have fun like everyone else on New Year’s Eve.  It is an opportunity to build close karmic bonds with others, especially our spiritual family.  We can reflect upon our behavior over the previous year and make determinations about how we will do better in the year to come.

I pray that all of your pure wishes in the coming year be fulfilled, and that all of the suffering you experience become a powerful cause of your enlightenment.  I pray that all beings may find a qualified spiritual path and thereby find meaning in their life.  I also pray that nobody die tonight from drunk driving, but everyone makes it home safe.  Since that is unlikely to come true, I pray that Avalokiteshvara swiftly take all those who die to the pure land where they may enjoy everlasting joy.

Happy Protector Day: May the Doctrine of Losang Dragpa Flourish Forevermore

Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden, Protector Days, Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

The 29th of every month is Protector Day.  This is the last part of a 12-part series aimed at helping us remember our Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden and increase our faith in him on these special days.

The most effective way of increasing the power of our reliance is to engage in sincere dedication prayers.  When we dedicate the merit we have accumulated it is like putting our spiritual savings in the bank where they can never be destroyed and they can earn spiritual interest.  Each sadhana has a different dedication prayer which summarizes the main function of the spiritual practice.  In the case or Dorje Shugden, the dedication prayers are as follows:

By this virtue may I quickly
Attain the enlightened state of the Guru,
And then lead every living being
Without exception to that ground.

This is the first effect of this practice.  This is the explicit strategy of Je Tsongkhapa’s tradition for emptying samsara.  Je Tsongkhapa is a spiritual guide who trains others to also become spiritual guides.  These new spiritual guides then train others still and so on.  In this way, generation after generation, the beneficial effects of Je Tsongkhapa’s deeds continue forever.  This is the “great wave of Je Tsongkhapa’s deeds.” 

The person who got me into spirituality was a close friend in college.  He opened the door for me and encouraged me to step through.  After several years of practicing, I thought back to the fact that without the kindness and encouragement of this one friend I would not have a spiritual life at all.  When I later saw him, I asked him, “how can I pay you back?”  His answer was a very powerful teaching:  he said, “do the same for others.  And when others ask you how they can pay you back, give them the same answer.  In this way, the kindness keeps going forever.”  Venerable Tharchin says that the highest spiritual goal to aspire to is to take our place in the lineage.  At some point, we will be the lineage guru whose responsibility it is to carry forward the lineage.  We must prepare ourselves for that responsibility in much the same way people prepare themselves for big missions or assignments.

Through my virtues from practising with pure motivation,
May all living beings throughout all their lives
Never be parted from peaceful and wrathful Manjushri,
But always come under their care.

This is the second effect of this practice.  If beings are never separated from peaceful and wrathful Manjushri, in other words Je Tsongkhapa and Dorje Shugden, then their enlightenment is just a question of time.

The following two verses, known as the Prayers for the Virtuous Traditon, were actually written by a previous incarnation of Dorje Shugden, and we recite them after every practice. 

So that the tradition of Je Tsongkhapa,
The King of the Dharma, may flourish,
May all obstacles be pacified
And may all favourable conditions abound.

This should be fairly self-explanatory by now.  It is the essential meaning of the entire Dorje Shugden part.

Through the two collections of myself and others
Gathered throughout the three times,
May the doctrine of Conqueror Losang Dragpa
Flourish for evermore.

The two collections are the collections of merit and wisdom, and the three times are the past, present and future.  In other words, we mentally invest all of the merit every accumulated into the flourishing of Je Tsongkhapa’s Dharma (Losang Dragpa is another name for Je Tsongkhapa). 

To summarize, the practice of Dorje Shugden can be reduced to the following:

  1. We renew our motivation as a spiritual being – we realize that the only thing that matters is the causes we create because they are the only things we can take with us.
  2. We request with infinite faith that Dorje Shugden provide us with perfect conditions for our swiftest possible enlightenment.
  3. We then accept with infinite faith that whatever subsequently arises is the perfect conditions for our practice that we requested.
  4. We then practice in these conditions to the best of our ability.  It doesn’t matter what appears, what matters is how we respond.  So we try to respond well.

If we do these four things, I guarrantee that we will be gradually lead to enlightenment.  It will just be a question of time.

There is much much more to say about the practice of Heart Jewel, but I wanted to keep things simple.  I strongly encourage everyone to read again and again the book Heart Jewel, which Geshe-la has said is his most important book.  We should also take advantage of the opportunity to speak with some senior practitioners about how to establish a daily practice and we should request teachings and empowerments on this practice from our local teacher.

I dedicate any merit I accumulated from doing this series of posts so that every living being joyfully establishes a daily practice of Dorje Shugden.  I pray that everything that happens to every living being is perfect for their swiftest possible enlightenment.  I request the wisdom to be able to understand how whatever happens to anybody is perfect for their enlightenment and I request that all of the conditions be arranged for me to share this perspective with others in a way that they can accept it.  In this way, we can all happily accept everything that happens in our life and swiftly make progress to enlightenment.  OM VAJRA WIKI WITRANA SOHA!

Vows, commitments, and modern life:  Give, give, give

Kadampa Ryan Vows, commitments and daily life

Not giving wealth or Dharma

In this post I will discuss not giving wealth, and in the next post I will discuss not giving Dharma.

This vow says if someone asks for material or spiritual help, and we are in a position to oblige but, out of miserliness, refuse we incur a root downfall.  When Geshe-la would send Gen-la Losang to India to learn something, he would always give him some money so that he could give it to the beggars.  I try remind myself of this when I walk along the street and see beggars myself. 

There have been many studies which have shown that American social attitudes towards poverty are quite different than they are in Europe.  In the U.S., the attitude is very simple to understand:  it’s all the poor person’s fault.  Americans reason, “they are lazy or they made stupid choices and so now they must suffer the consequences.  If I help them out, I am not actually helping them, rather I am creating incentives for them to continue to be lazy and make bad choices.  Let their suffering be the encouragement they need to get to work and make different choices.”  There are, of course, people in Europe who think in similar ways.  The point is such thinking is a major obstacle to our practicing the perfection of giving and this mentality is likewise a major contributor to our incurring this downfall the bodhisattva vows.

My father, when I was growing up, would always tell the story of “give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for life.”  There are three problems with this argument.  First, usually the people who say it also don’t teach the man how to fish.  They instead do nothing but make this statement.  Second, if the man dies of starvation before he learns how to fish, then it won’t work.  And third, this argument presupposes that work is available for all those who are willing to take it.  Since I am an Economist by training, I want to just say a few words about this last point because it is something many many people believe, and based upon this wrong understanding of Economics, we use that as ipso facto proof for our original hypothesis that the only reason why the person is poor is because of their own bad choices.  On the basis of this conclusion, we feel justified in not giving. 

Why is this wrong?  There is a fundamental axiom of macroeconomics which most people don’t understand, and it is this:  your spending is my income and my spending is your income.  When a recession hits, like the one after the 2008 financial crisis, then people spend much less.  When they spend less, they buy less things and so the people who sell things lose their jobs.  But who are these people who sell things?  It is all us.  We each are contributing in some way to the economy (selling something, usually our services) and we are all buying in some way.  If everybody starts spending less, then thousands and indeed millions of jobs simply disappear.  People who were working can no longer find work, even though they very much want to work.  It is not these people’s fault that the economy slipped into recession, but they suffer the consequences nonetheless.  People who were living just above the poverty line suddenly find themselves below it, people who were barely off of the streets suddenly find themselves homeless.  And generally speaking, the first jobs to go are those held by the people who are most economically vulnerable.  In Europe, there is a safety net, but in America there is basically none.  Whole families can find themselves on the street, met by a country that blames them and shuns them.  They then feel helpless and desperate, turn to crime or drugs, and then get blamed for that too.  If we understand that the business cycle is no different than the weather (though more unpredictable), we realize there is a growing season and there is a dying season, and sometimes there is a dark, cold winter.  We can hardly blame the most vulnerable in our society for an economic cycle completely beyond their control. 

So the answer to my father’s parable is simple:  teach a man to fish, and while he is learning, feed him a fish.  In other words, give.  Now it is true that we need to be skillful that we don’t make our giving create a dependency.  There is some truth to the argument above, and unskillful giving can lead to the problems the critics cite.  But just because giving can be done unskillfully does not mean we shouldn’t still strive to give to others in skillful ways.  Again, teach the man to fish, and while he is learning, feed him a fish. 

Why are there some unbelievably rich people in the world?  The reason is because these people have given a lot in the past and that karma is ripening now.  It is no coincidence that two of the most famous rich people, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, are as rich as they are.  Both of them basically give away all the wealth that they make.  Why are they rich now?  Because they gave before.  Why will they be rich again in their future lives?  Because they are giving now.  Those who are rich and not giving will know terrible poverty in the future.  Those who are poor now but give extensively from what little they have will be incredibly rich in the future.  I know somebody who is quite rich and gives in absolute terms quite generously, but in percentage terms they give almost nothing.  I know somebody else who has almost nothing and gives in absolute terms very little, but in percentage terms they give a tremendous amount.  Our karma doesn’t care about the absolute value of our giving, it responds only to the percentage of our giving.  There is no doubt who is karmically speaking giving more, and who will enjoy such fruits in the future. 

One of my teachers once provocatively said, “when you give, you should give so much it hurts.”  Some might call this extreme, but I call it wise.   How can we do this without falling into an extreme?  Gen Tharchin explains that having control over and possession of material things is irrelevant.  The question is whether we impute “mine” on any of them.  If we do, then our control over or possession of these things will burn up our merit like a blazing karmic bon fire.  If instead we impute “others’ things” onto the things we have control over or possession of, we will accumulate merit as vast as space.  In other words, we can mentally give away everything we have to others by simply changing our imputation regarding our possessions, namely we think they now belong to all others.  This will change our relationship with everything we have in our life.  Some things we will realize we have no valid reason to hold on to and we will see how others can better use out of these things than we can, so we actually physically give them away.  Some things we will see we need for our basic survival, but we consume these things to keep us alive and healthy so that we have the strength to be of service to others.  Some other things we will see how by us keeping them now we will be able to give even more to others in the future, and so out of a wish to do so we will maintain control over the thing.  Some other things we will have to change our reasons for doing them or buying them so that we are doing it for the sake of others.  There will be some things for which we are very attached and it will be hard to even mentally impute “others’ things” onto them.  There, we have to do some work.

But the point is, there is nothing we can’t at least mentally give away today.  My house, I mentally give to my family.  My money, I mentally give to the store owners when I buy things.  My body, I can give it to my employer 10 hours a day, to my kids several hours a day, and to all living beings when I engage in Dharma practices.  My mind, I can give it to the beneficiaries of my every action.  My time, I can give it to those I serve.  When I take the time to learn new things, I am giving my time to all those in the future I will help with my newly acquired skills and knowledge.  Any power we might have, we can give it to those we can protect with it.  If we never impute “mine” on anything under our control, we can be phenomenally wealthy and powerful and yet still be only giving.  In fact, our becoming richer and our becoming more generous become exactly the same wish and exactly the same action.

Happy Tsog Day: Dedication for Series

Kadampa Ryan Tsog Days

In order to remember and mark our tsog days, holy days on the Kadampa calendar, I am sharing my understanding of the practice of Offering to the Spiritual Guide with tsog.  This is the last part of a 44-part series.

Gathering and dissolving the Field of Merit

Due to my making requests in this way, O Supreme spiritual guide,
With delight, please come to my crown to bestow your blessings;
And once again firmly place your radiant feet
On the anthers of the lotus at my heart.

At this point we can train in the practice of Vajrayana Mahamudra, the actual completion stage meditation, according to the commentary.

As explained above, the practice of Offering to the Spiritual Guide is a preliminary practice for our training in Vajrayana Mahamudra. We engage in Mahamudra practice at this point in the sadhana, after we have dissolved our spiritual guide into our heart, and we imagine that our mind mixes inseparably with his mind. There are two main reasons why we always dissolve the Guru into our heart before we engage in whatever is our main practice. The first is by mixing our mind with his, we can receive his powerful blessings to help us engage in our actual practice. We do not know how to find our objects of meditation, but he does. By mixing our mind with his, we can request that he bless our mind and gradually guide us to our final and correct meditation objects. The second reason is more profound. The spiritual guide’s mind is fundamentally not separate from our own mind. The two are equally empty. This means it is possible for us to change the basis of imputation of our “I” from an ordinary mind without these realizations to our spiritual guide’s mind that possesses all these realizations. This is very similar to generation stage practice. We quite literally identify with our spiritual guide’s mind knowing that it already possesses all the stages of the path to enlightenment. By doing this, the duality between our spiritual guide’s mind and our own completely dissolves until eventually we are directly imputing our “I” onto all his realizations. Once we have completed this transfer of basis of imputation of our “I” to his enlightened mind, we ourselves attain enlightenment.

There are many different methods for engaging in Vajrayana Mahamudra practice. In general, we can say there are two lineages differentiated by which doorway we penetrate the central channel. According to the tradition of Naropa, we penetrate our central channel at the level of our naval; and according to the Ganden Oral Lineage, we penetrate our central channel at the level of our heart. The first method is explained in detail in the book Clear Light of Bliss; the latter method is explained in detail in Tantric Grounds and Paths and in Oral Instructions of Mahamudra. The five stages of completion stage according to Heruka practice possess seven main meditations – the first two stages each have two parts. Thus, it is possible to engage in the entire cycle the five stages of completion stage according to Heruka practice every week, doing one meditation per day in a cycle much in the same way as we do our Lamrim meditations on a 21-day cycle. Once we have gained some familiarity with doing these meditations once a day, we can then do them on a seven-week cycle, and then on a seven-month cycle. In this way we gradually deepen our experience of each stage of our completion stage practice. Practicing in this way enables each meditation to reinforce all the others.

Eventually, we should pray to be able to engage in a three-year retreat on Vajrayana Mahamudra according to the Ganden Oral Lineage. Is my deepest wish that myself and everyone who has read this commentary is able to do so.

Dedication

I dedicate all the pure white virtues I have gathered here
So that I may accomplish all the prayers
Made by the Sugatas and Bodhisattvas of the three times,
And maintain the holy Dharma of scripture and insight.

Through the force of this, throughout all my lives,
May I never be separated from the four wheels of the Supreme Vehicle
And Thus, may I complete the paths of renunciation,
Bodhichitta, correct view, and the two tantric stages.

Auspicious prayers

Through the force of all the pure white virtue in samsara and nirvana,
Henceforth may there be a celestial treasury of temporary and ultimate goodness and joy,
Free from all stains of inauspiciousness;
And Thus, may there be the auspiciousness of enjoying magnificent delight.

May the Dharma Centres of all-knowing Losang Dragpa
Be filled with hosts of Sangha and Yogis
Striving to practise single-pointedly the three pure trainings;
And Thus, may there be the auspiciousness of Buddha’s doctrine remaining for a very long time.

Abiding in the blessings of Losang Dragpa,
Who from the time of his youth made requests to the supreme Guru-Deity,
May we effortlessly accomplish the welfare of others;
And Thus, may there be the auspiciousness of Losang Dorjechang.

May desired endowments increase like a summer lake,
May we find uninterrupted birth with freedom in stainless families,
May we pass each day and night with Losang’s holy Dharma;
And Thus, may there be the auspiciousness of enjoying magnificent delight.

From now until I and others attain enlightenment,
Through the virtues we have already created and will create,
May there be the auspiciousness of the Venerable Guru’s holy form
Remaining like an immutable vajra in this world.

I dedicate all the merit that I have accumulated through writing this series of blog posts so that all Kadampas become motivated to engage in the tsog offering every 10th day for the rest of their life. Through doing so, I pray that they create the causes to guarantee to take rebirth in the pure land where they can complete their spiritual training. May all those who need this commentary find it. May I never forget but always put into practice the instructions that I have received from my spiritual guide. May we meet him again it again in all our future lives without interruption between now and our eventual enlightenment, and when we meet him, may we continue to have deep faith, a pure heart, and a strong wish to put his instructions into practice.

Christmas for a Kadampa

Kadampa Ryan 7. Kadampa meaning of special days

For those of us who live in the West, or come from Western families, Christmas is often considered the most important holiday of the year.  Ostensibly, Christmas is about the birth of Christ, and for some it is.  For most, however, it is about exchanging gifts, spending time with family and watching football.  Or it’s just about out of control consumerism, depending on your view.  Kadampas can sometimes feel a bit confused during Christmas time.  It used to be our favorite holiday as kids, but now we are Buddhists, so how are we supposed to relate to it?

It’s true, Christmas time has degenerated into a frenzy of buying things we don’t need.  It is easy to criticize Christmas on such grounds.  Of course, as Kadampas, we can be aware of this and realize its meaninglessness.  We can correctly identify the attachment and realize it’s wrong.  But certainly being a Kadampa means more than being a cynic and a scrooge.  Instead, we should rejoice in all the acts of giving.  Giving is a virtue, even if what people are giving is not very meaningful.  There is more giving that occurs in the Christmas season than any other time of the year.  Yes, the motivations for giving might be mixed with worldly concerns, but we can still rejoice in the giving part.  Rejoice in all of it, don’t be a cynic.

Likewise, I think we should celebrate with all our heart the birth of Christ into this world.  Why not?  Our heart commitment is to follow one tradition purely while appreciating and respecting all other traditions.  Instead of getting on our arrogant high horse mocking those who believe in an inherently existent God, why don’t we celebrate the birth of arguably the greatest practitioner of taking and giving to have ever walked the face of the earth?  The entire basis of Christianity is Christ took on all of the sins of all living beings, and by generating faith in him, believing he did so to save us, we open our mind to receive his special blessings which function to take our sins upon him.  He is, in this respect, quite similar to a Buddha of purification.  By generating faith in him, his followers can purify all of their negative karma.

Further, he is a doorway to heaven (his pure land).  If his followers remember him with faith at the time of their death, they will receive his powerful blessings and be transported to the pure land.  In this sense, he is very similar to Avalokiteshvara.  Christ taught extensively on being humble, working for the sake of the poor, and reaching out to those in the greatest of need.  Think of all the people he has inspired with his example.  Sure, there are some people who distort his teachings for political purposes, but that doesn’t make his original intent and meaning wrong.  In many ways, one can say he gave tantric teachings on maintaining pure view, and bringing the Kingdom of Heaven into this world.  Who can read the Sermon on the Mount and not be moved?  Who can read the prayers of his later followers, such as Saint Francis of Assisi, and not be inspired?  Think of Pope Francis.  You don’t have to be Catholic to appreciate his positive effect on this world and the church.  All of these things we can rejoice in and be inspired by.  A Bodhisattva seeks to practice all virtue, and there is much in Jesus’ example worth emulating.  Trying to be more “Christ-like” in our behavior is not mixing.  If we can see somebody in our daily lives engaging in virtue and be inspired to be more like them, then why can we not also do so for one of the greatest Saints in the history of the world?  Rejoicing in and copying virtue is an essential component of the Kadampa path.

Geshe-la has said on many occasions that Buddhas appear in this world in Buddhist and non-Buddhist form.  Is it that hard to imagine that Christ too was a Buddha who appeared in a particular form in a particular place in human history for the sake of billions?  Surely all the holy beings get along just fine with one another, since they are ultimately of one nature.  It is only humans who create divisions and problems.  Geshe-la said we do believe in “God,” it is just different people have a different understanding of what that means.  Christians have their understanding, we have ours, but we can all respect and appreciate one another.

Besides celebrating Christ, Christmas is an excellent time for ourself to practice virtue.  Not just giving, but also patience with our loved ones, cherishing others, training in love and so forth.  It is not always easy to spend time with our families.  The members of our family have their fair share of delusions, and it is easy to develop judgmental attitudes towards them for it.  It is not uncommon for some of the worst family fights to happen during the holiday season.  Christmas time gives us an opportunity to counter all of these delusions and bad attitudes, and learn to accept and love everyone just as they are.

When I was a boy, Christmas was both my favorite time of year and my worst time of year.  My favorite time of year because I loved the lights, the songs and of course the presents.  It was the worst time of the year because my mother had an unrealistic expectation that just because it was Christmas, everything was supposed to work out perfectly and nothing was supposed to go wrong.  This created tremendous pressure on everyone in the house, and when the slightest thing would go wrong, she would become very upset and ruin the day for everyone.  This is not uncommon at all.  People’s expectations shoot through the roof during the Christmas season, and especially on Christmas day.  These higher expectations then cause us to be more judgmental, to more easily feel slighted, and to be quicker to anger.  We can view this time as an excellent opportunity to understand the nature of samsara is for things to go wrong, and the best answer to that fact is patient acceptance and a good laugh.

As I have grown older, Christmas has given rise to new delusions for me to overcome.  When I was little, I used to get lots of presents.  Now, I get a tie.  Not the same, and it always leaves me feeling a bit let down.  I give presents to everyone, yet nobody seems to give me any.  As a parent, I cannot help but have hopes and expectations that my kids will like their presents, but then when they don’t I realize my attachment to gratitude and recognition.  During Christmas, even though I am supposed to be giving, I find myself worrying about money and feeling miserly.  I find myself quick to judge my in-laws or other members of my family if they don’t act in the way I want them to.  Since I live abroad, far away from any family, I start to feel jealous of the pictures I see on Facebook of my other family members all together and seeming to have a good time while we are alone and forgotten on the other side of the planet.  When kids open presents, they are often like rabid dogs, going from one thing to the next without appreciating anything and I can’t help but feel I have failed as a parent.  Trying to get good pictures is always a nightmare, and getting the kids to express gratitude to the aunts and grandmas is always a struggle.  The more time we spend with our family, the more we become frustrated with them and secretly we can’t wait until school starts again and we can go back to work.  None of these are uncommon reactions, and these sorts of situations give rise to a pantheon of delusions.  But all of them give us a chance to practice training our mind and cultivating new, more virtuous, habits of mind.

Christmas is also a time in which we can reach out to those who are alone.  Suicide and depression rates are the highest during the holiday season.  People see everyone else happy, but they find themselves alone and unloved.  Why can we not invite these people to our home and let them know we care?  Make them feel part of our family.  There are also plenty of opportunities to volunteer to help out the poor and the needy, such as giving our time at or clothes to homeless shelters.  People in hospitals, especially the old and dying, suffer from great loneliness and sadness during the Christmas season.  We can go spend time with them, hear their stories, and give them our love.

Culturally, many of us are Christian.  People in the West, by and large, live in a Christian culture.  Geshe-la has gone to great lengths to present the Dharma in such a way that we do not have to abandon our culture to understand the Dharma.  Externally, culturally, we can remain Christian; while internally, spiritually we are 100% Kadampa.  There is no contradiction between these two.  On the whole, Christmas time gives us ample opportunities to create virtue, rejoice in goodness and battle our delusions.  For a Kadampa, this is perfect.

Vows, commitments, and modern life:  Don’t praise yourself and scorn others

Kadampa Ryan Vows, commitments and daily life

The Bodhisattva vows include extensive advice on how we should conduct our daily lives by transforming all our actions into the Bodhisattvas way of life.  By putting them into practice we shall gradually complete the Bodhisattva’s training and eventually attain the supreme bliss of Buddhahood.

Just as the refuge vows primarily function to maintain the uninterrupted continuum of our Buddhist practice between now and when we attain enlightenment, and the pratimoksha vows primarily function to maintain the uninterrupted continuum of our path to liberation, so too our practice of the Bodhisattva vows creates the karma to enable us to maintain an uninterrupted continuum of our Mahayana path between now and our eventual enlightenment.  In other words, we create the causes to again and again refind a pure Mahayana path without interruption until we attain the final goal.  If we have wisdom, we realize the biggest thing we should fear it not non-virtue and delusion (though those are terribly scary), but our biggest fear should be the fear of losing the path.  If we keep refinding the path in life after life, we can gradually purify all our negativities.  But if we don’t refind the path, we will be lost for what could be incalculably long periods of time where our suffering will know no bounds.  If we genuinely fear this, we will realize just how precious our vows are, and how precious our Bodhisattva vows are in particular. 

If we incur a root downfall we actually break our Bodhisattva vows.  To incur a root downfall (except for the 9th and 18th) four binding factors must be present:

  1. Not regarding the action as wrong
  2. Not wishing to abstain from the action in the future
  3. Rejoicing in the action
  4. Having no sense of shame or consideration for others.

Praising ourself and scorning others. 

This downfall is complete only if someone hears and understands our words.  We incur this if we praise ourself with the motivation of deceiving others so that we might receive gifts or to enhance our reputation.  It also is incurred if we criticize others with the wish to hurt them.

This is something many of us do all the time.  In modern times, it is actually quite rare for us to physically harm others – there are too many social conventions against such behavior.  I do wonder, though, whether we have compensated for this with an increase in the amount of hurtful speech we engage in.  If our minds are just as critical and angry as they have always been (and a case can be made why in degenerate times it is actually worse), and we can conventionally no longer express this mind physically, it only stands to reason that there has been a corresponding increase in the amount of our hurtful speech.

And we see this everywhere we go.  A large number of the shows on TV these days are “reality TV shows.”  What makes for good reality TV is outrageously hurtful speech among the contestants.  Virtually all the news programming we see on TV or hear on the radio these days is one constant stream of critical and scornful speech.  In political discourse now, there is almost no discussion of the merits of the different policy options, everything is about personal attacks on the other person.  In many of our social circumstances, the price of entry into a given social group is agreeing with the dominant negative view of that group towards others.  We say hurtful things to show these people we are with them, and when we do, they then accept us into their group.  We so want to belong to other groups, that we are ready to commit all sorts of hurtful things just to feel like we belong.  This is very foolish.  It is better to be a group of one but think and say nothing bad about anybody than to belong to a group where what binds them is their mutual hatred or cynicism of another. 

Why is all this negativity so popular?  Because it reflects how our mind naturally works.  Psychologists have estimated that a negative opinion of someone or something will spread 10 times faster than a positive opinion.  In our own speech, we are constantly putting other people down in one way or another, at work, at home and in our social life.  When others around us say critical things of others and we agree, or even just nod our head, we are contributing to this storm of negativity.  When we laugh at jokes made at other people’s expense or agree with the rhetorical broadsides lodged against those around us, karmically it is the same as us using such hurtful speech ourselves.  Venerable Tharchin explains that just as rejoicing creates the causes to acquire the good qualities we rejoice in, so too being critical, scornful or judgmental of others creates the causes to acquire the bad qualities we criticize!  Seen in this way, our negative attitude is sowing the seeds for us to, quite frankly, be a horrible person.  We see a world filled with horrible people now, if we don’t change our ways, in the future we will be the sum of all horrible-ness we see.

We likewise are constantly praising ourselves.  If we check, we will see that virtually every time we put somebody else down or judge somebody else even in the slightest way, we are at the same time – even if only indirectly – affirming that we are not like what we are criticizing.  We are implying by our speech that we are somehow better than the person we are criticizing.  So even if we are not directly making boastful statements about ourselves, every time we put others down, we are indirectly doing so.  At work or at home, we quite often try to take credit for our good deeds, and even sometimes the good deeds of others.  When recounting what we do, we quite often exaggerate how hard everything was to create the impression that we have done such amazing work.  We easily feel put aside when others don’t appreciate the value of our contributions.  On Facebook, we check and see how many ‘likes’ our comments get and we compare it to others.  Even when we put ourselves down, we often exaggerate what we say in a sub-conscious effort to get the other person to say, “no, no, you are not that bad.”  If I am honest, almost everything I say is directly or indirectly saying how or why I am so much better than everyone else.  And we all do this.  How can I say this?  Because we all suffer from a terrible sense of our own self-importance.  If this is what we think, then our speech is going to reflect this one way or the other. 

Praising ourself doesn’t in any way increase our good qualities.  Most other people are not stupid and they are not fooled by our boasts, in fact they often think how pompous we are.  When we see people who think too highly of themselves and of their accomplishments, we may be polite to their face, but inside we are being quite critical and generating the wish to knock the other person down a peg or two.  A very common thing in Dharma circles is for somebody to mention somebody else in a positive light, and we will say, “yeah, that person is great,” but inside we are thinking “yeah, but…” and then our mind immediately races to something negative about the other person.  We almost never have a genuine good thought about another person.  I would say that karmically speaking praising ourself actually depletes our merit and good qualities. 

So what should we do?  In my own speech, I try live by three rules:  First, never say anything bad about anyone ever.  I don’t always succeed at this, but I do try.  My Grandmother, who lived to be 105 years old, basically never says anything bad about anybody.  The closest I have heard her say anything bad about anybody was during the first Iraq war, and she said, “Saddam Hussein, ehhhh, …”  And then she cut herself off.  Second, I try to never make any comparisons – ever.  When I make any comparisons between people, invariably I am putting somebody down.  When I make comparisons between myself and others, I invariably develop pride, competitiveness, or jealousy.  But if I never compare, then these minds don’t have as much occasion to arise.  Third, I try to never miss a chance to praise somebody for some quality I see in them.  Of course we have to be skillful with this.  Your compliments should be genuine and well grounded.  If somebody doesn’t actually have a good quality and you praise it, they usually know you are not being sincere and it just makes things worse.  Likewise, you can’t do this too much where it becomes obnoxious or uncomfortable for the other person.  But even though you might not be able to say all the compliments you would like to, mentally you can still think them. 

The bottom line is simple:  if criticizing others creates the causes for us to acquire the faults we criticize and praising others creates the causes for us to acquire the qualities we praise, it is pretty clear what we need to do.

A Pure Life: Abandoning Meaningless Activities

Kadampa Ryan Precept Days

This is the last part of a 12-part series on how to skillfully train in the Eight Mahayana Precepts.  The 15th of every month is Precepts Day, when Kadampa practitioners around the world typically take and observe the Precepts.

The actual precept here is to abandon wearing ornaments, perfume, etc, and singing and dancing and so forth. Like with the precept about not eating after lunch, the purpose of this practice is not to say wearing ornaments, perfume and so forth are inherently negative, rather it is an opportunity for us to recall all of the negative karma we have accumulated with respect to pursuit of these things and to view our training in the precept as a practice of purification for that negative karma.  More broadly, this precept is advising us to abandon all meaningless activities.

What sort of negative karma have we created with respect to wearing ornaments? This refers more broadly to the negative karma we have created in the pursuit of wealth. Attachment to wealth and resources is one of the eight worldly concerns. Beings in samsara create all sorts of negative karma in pursuit of wealth. For example, the vast majority of wars are directly or indirectly related to the pursuit of resources. In business, people lie and cheat all the time in an effort to get more wealth from others. Criminals lie and steal trying to get wealth. Wealthy people who are jealous of other wealthy people engage in all sorts of divisive and hurtful speech towards those they are jealous of.  The demigod realm and the hungry ghost realm are both pervaded by negative actions engaged in in pursuit of wealth.  We ourselves have created all of this negative karma and it still remains on our mind unpurified.

We have also engaged in all sorts of negative actions with respect to wearing perfume.  This can be interpreted more broadly as negative actions we have engaged in with respect to pursuit of our sexual attachment. People wear perfume to make themselves more attractive to others, which is quite frequently motivated by an underlying sexual attachment. Sexual attachment is one of the primary causes of negative actions. Once again, people lie, cheat, steal, say hurtful things, or divisive things, they covet other people’s partners, etc, etc, etc. Look at how many spiritual or political leaders have lost everything due to some sort of sex scandal. We see similar behavior in the animal realm and the demigod realms. Once again, all of this negative karma remains on our mind because we have not purified it.

Singing and dancing in this context refers more broadly to engaging in meaningless activities. This is not to say that singing and dancing per se are meaningless or negative activities.  An activity becomes meaningless if we engage in it with a meaningless mind. If we engage in singing and dancing with a virtuous motivation, then such actions are virtuous; but if we engage in them out of attachment, then such actions and activities are meaningless. What is wrong with engaging in meaningless activities? Fundamentally, doing so creates the habits of failing to seize and appreciate our precious human life. It is like idle chatter amongst the 10 non virtuous actions. Idle chatter is not a terribly non virtuous action, but if engage in it repeatedly, it can become a habit and then we wind up wasting our precious human life. We would all find it to be an incredible waste to use $100 bills to build a bonfire. Using the moments of our precious human life in a meaningless way is even more wasteful, and for this reason, it is non-virtuous.

When we take the precepts, we are in essence making the promise to abandon all negative actions associated with the pursuit of wealth, sexual attachment, or meaningless activities. When the temptation arises in our mind to do these things, we can recall all of the negative karma we have created with respect to these activities, and use our training in the precept as our opponent forced to purify this negative karma. We then promise to no longer engage in such activities in the future. In this way, we can purify the negative karma we have created with respect to these activities.

In short, the training in the eight Mahayana precepts is not simply a promise to refrain from engaging in these eight specific sorts of activities, but rather it is a more general promise to refrain from any form of negative action. By learning how to spend an entire day without engaging in any negative actions, we can counter the deluded tendencies on our mind that want to engage in negative karma and thereby weaken them so they have less hold over us in the future. We likewise create tendencies similar to the cause of believing in the wisdom of living a pure life. This karma will gradually build up momentum within our mind until eventually we refrain from non-virtuous actions and engage in virtuous actions not simply one day of the month, but every day of the month, every month of the year, every year of our life.

To avoid lower rebirth, we must purify all the negative karma that remains on our mind and engage only in virtuous actions in the future. If we do this, it is karmically guaranteed we will avoid a lower rebirth. This is important not simply because lower rebirth is so horrific, but rather we do not want to take the risk of losing the continuum of our spiritual practice.  If we fall into the lower realms, it will be almost impossible for us to engage in the spiritual path and we can quickly become lost for countless eons. But if we can maintain the continuum of our precious human life, in life after life, there is great hope that we will soon escape from samsara. Our training in the eight Mahayana precepts, therefore, as an indispensable friend ensuring that we remain on an uninterrupted path out of samsara.

I dedicate all of the merit that I have accumulated by writing this series of posts so that all living beings may become determined to purify all of their negative karma and engage only in virtuous actions. May they realize that non-virtue is the cause of suffering and virtue is the cause of happiness, and therefore realize if they wish to be happy they must embark upon a pure life.

Vows, commitments, and modern life:  You ain’t as great as you think you are

Kadampa Ryan Vows, commitments and daily life

Not to pretend to have good qualities or hide our faults without a special, pure intention.

There was a time within the tradition when it was quite common for people to pretend to be better than they actually were, especially if they were teachers or key officers in a center.  Many many people did this for what seemed like a good reason.  They allowed others to refer to them as “Buddhas,” and “having miracle powers,” etc., because they thought doing so helped the student develop faith, and with faith they would then gain more realizations.  So they allowed such views to develop among the students.  The results of this were predictably disastrous.

For the students, it tied them in all sorts of really strange knots where the teacher would be making some fairly obvious mistakes, but the student would have to try say it was actually correct because they needed to “maintain pure view.”  This caused students to repress their criticisms of their teacher, which far from increasing their faith served as a cancer gradually destroying any and all faith.  For the teachers, this was likewise terrible because they had to keep up this charade of being some holy being so they too had to repress their delusions (which just made them worse) and it deprived them of having any refuge of being able to go to their sangha friends when they had problems.  There were quite a few very high profile teachers who self-destructed due to this dynamic.  For those who were neither teachers nor regular students, this all seemed very strange and cult-like.  They were not fooled by the teacher’s pretentions so they had no faith, and seeing the slavish and strange sychophantry of the students made people think they had found some cult. 

Probably a good 20 years ago, Geshe-la tried to put an end to this bizarre dynamic.  He explained that our local teachers should be viewed as Sangha jewels, not Buddha jewels.  This was a monumental change, because up until that time it was standard practice to try view our local teachers as Buddha jewels.  He explained that when our teachers appear to make mistakes, we should go speak with them explaining our view with an open mind, and then through a healthy discussion either the teacher would realize their mistake or the student would develop a better understanding by seeing the teacher’s actions through a different lens.  There is still within the NKT some residual of this old way of doing things, but it is quickly fading away.  Now we are all practitioners doing our best and having a good laugh at ourselves and our own delusions.

This wrong view emerged from a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to maintain pure view.  Pure view does not mean we view everything as perfect on the side of the object itself, rather it means we learn how to view everything – the good, the bad and the ugly – in a perfect way.  Good, bad, and ugly are still good, bad and ugly, but no matter what is appearing it can be perfectly beneficial for our practice.  Viewing everything, even mistakes, as teachings enables us to receive perfect benefit from whatever appears.  This is viewing things in a perfect way.  So we can still call a spade a spade (say what is wrong is in fact wrong), but identifying it as wrong is not a problem for us because it teaches us something valuable.  If we view everything in a perfect way, then for us everything will be perfect, not because what is happening is perfect on the side of the object but because we know how to receive perfect benefit from whatever arises.  Pure view exists only on the side of the mind (or at least it starts there). 

Happy Tsog Day: How to Prepare for our Future Lives

Kadampa Ryan Tsog Days

In order to remember and mark our tsog days, holy days on the Kadampa calendar, I am sharing my understanding of the practice of Offering to the Spiritual Guide with tsog.  This is part 43 of a 44-part series.

The way to practise the ritual of the transference of consciousness if, having meditated, we have received no signs

If by the time of my death I have not completed the path,
I seek your blessings to go to the Pure Land
Through the instruction on correctly applying the five forces,
The supremely powerful method of transference to Buddhahood.

While it is possible to attain full enlightenment in this lifetime through the teachings of the Ganden Oral Lineage, it is not guaranteed that we will do so. Remaining anywhere in samsara is extremely dangerous because we can easily become distracted and lose the path. If we attain rebirth in the pure land, then we can complete our spiritual training there and never risk another samsaric rebirth. From a practical point of view, it will be as if we have attained liberation, even if technically we have not yet done so. The pure land is like a tantric bodhisattva’s training ground. We were able to receive teachings directly from the Buddhas and everyone in the pure land is likewise a tantric practitioner engaging in the stages of the path. Once we attain that pure land, we are able to send emanations into the realms of samsara to help the beings still trapped there, but we ourselves always remain in the pure land. The meditations on the three bringings and the nine mixings create the karma to be able to purify the death process and take a controlled rebirth in the pure land. Each time we engage in these practices, we gradually carve a path in our mind to the pure land. It is as if we are tunneling through death to the pure land.

In order for us to take rebirth in the pure land, however, we need to be able to die with a pure mind. The quality of mind we have at the time of death determines the type of rebirth we will take. If we die with a negative mind, we will take rebirth in the lower realms; if we die with a positive mind, we will take rebirth in the upper realms of samsara; and if we die with a pure mind, we can attain rebirth outside of samsara – either in a pure land, Nirvana, or full enlightenment. A powerful method for ensuring that we die with the pure mind is to engage in the practice of powa. Powa is a special tantric technology for transferring our consciousness to the pure land at the time of our death. We can train in this before our death to create ample karma that can be blessed at the time of death, and we can train it at the time of our death itself. Through the practice of Offering to the Spiritual Guide, we can engage in powa for ourselves, powa for the sake of others, or simply create the karma we will need at the time of death. How to do so is explained in Great Treasury of Merit. A more detailed explanation of powa practice can be found in the book Living Meaningfully, Dying Joyfully.

How to offer prayers to be cared for by our spiritual guide in all future lives

In short, O Protector, I seek your blessings so that throughout all my lives
I shall never be separated from you, but always come under your care;
And as the foremost of your disciples,
Maintain all the secrets of your body, speech, and mind.

O Protector, wherever you manifest as a Buddha,
May I be the very first in your retinue;
And may everything be auspicious for me to accomplish without effort
All temporary and ultimate needs and wishes.

Ensuring that we attain enlightenment is simply an issue of guaranteeing that we continue to meet our spiritual guide in all our future lives without interruption and that we continue to have faith in him. We do not know how long it will take us to attain alignment, but if these two conditions are met, it is guaranteed we will eventually reach our final goal. Thus, in many ways the most important spiritual attainment is to ensure we continue to meet our spiritual guide in all our future lives.

I once asked Geshe-la to please provide me with a guaranteed method for being able to meet him in all my future lives without interruption. He replied, “concentrate on practicing Dharma and always keep faith.” When we practice Dharma, we create a karmic connection between our self and the spiritual guide who gave us the instructions. This creates the cause for us to once again find the source of those instructions in our future lives. By maintaining faith in this life, we create the tendencies similar to the cause in our mind to once again have faith in him when we find him again in our future lives. Through the karma we create by concentrating on practicing Dharma and always keeping faith, and through making heartfelt prayers and requests to always meet our spiritual guide in all our future lives, it is guaranteed that we will meet him and eventually attain all our spiritual goals.

This verse begins with “in short,” which indicates that everything that we have learned and practiced up until now is all synthesized down into this very last practice of requesting that we meet our spiritual guide and that he cares for us in all our future lives. This is the true conclusion and essence of the practice of Offering the Spiritual Guide.

Happy Tara Day: May there be the auspiciousness of her presence

Kadampa Ryan How to Rely Upon Tara, Tara Days

This is the final installment of the 12-part series sharing my understanding of the practice Liberation from Sorrow.

Dedication

By this virtue may I quickly
Become Arya Tara,
And then lead every living being
Without exception to that ground.

The dedication of any sadhana indicates the practice’s main function.  By engaging in the practice, we create the karmic causes for the ends we dedicate towards in the dedication.  Then, when doing the dedication, we “seal” the karma we have created through doing the practice so that it continues to work without interruption until the dedication is realized.  For me, the best analogy is dedication is like putting our savings into a retirement account, where it will continue to accumulate interest until eventually we have reached our retirement goals.  Geshe Chekhawa says there are two activities:  one at the beginning and one at the end.  In the beginning, we establish our motivation for engaging in the practice; and in the end, we dedicate our merit towards the accomplishment of our desired spiritual goals.  As Mahayanists, our motivation and our dedication are the same – we wish to become a Buddha for the sake of all living beings and then we dedicate at the end towards the same end.  Thus it is important that we recall our bodhichitta motivation for having engaged in the practice, and now we solidify it by dedicating our merits towards the same goal.

Sometimes it is easy to get lazy and distracted with our dedications, but this is a big mistake.  By the end of our practice, we are tired and we are also anticipating everything that we will have to do once our practice is over.  Our mind is already positioning itself for what comes after.  Shantideva explains that anger can quickly destroy all undedicated merit, but dedication functions to protect our merit from subsequent anger.  Given how easily we get angry, it is safe to say that any merit we have not dedicated has already been destroyed by our past anger.  In other words, the only merit we have left on our mind is that which we have dedicated.  Whenever good karma ripens, we should recall that the only reason why we are able to enjoy our present good circumstance is due to our past practice of dedication.

Here, we dedicate to become Arya Tara and to lead all living beings to the same ground.  We are Kadampas, so it is only natural for us to wish to become a Lamrim Buddha just like Tara.  Her special power is to bestow Lamrim realizations and her uncommon mission is to care for all Atisha’s future disciples.  We wish to do the same. 

Through the virtues I have collected
By worshipping the Blessed Mother,
May every living being without exception
Be born in the Pure Land of Bliss.

Here, we specifically recall that she is our blessed spiritual mother, who cares for and nurtures our spiritual life to maturity.  When we recite this dedication, we should mentally generate the wish that she be our spiritual mother in all of our future lives until we attain enlightenment.  Geshe-la once said that the mind of Lamrim is Akanishta Pure Land.  In other words, if we transform our mind into Lamrim, the world which will naturally appear is Akanishta Pure Land.  When we help others develop Lamrim minds, we are in fact bringing them into our Pure Land.  We do not have to wait until others die for them to be reborn in the Pure Land of Bliss, they can do so now through generating Lamrim minds.

Auspicious verse

You, who having abandoned all bodily faults, possess the signs and indications,
Who having abandoned all verbal faults, possess a heavenly voice,
Who having abandoned all mental faults, realize all objects of knowledge;
O Lady of blessed, glorious renown, may there be the auspiciousness of your presence.

This verse reveals how we should rely upon Tara in the meditation break.  We generate faith by considering the good qualities of a Buddha, but sometimes we forget to connect that to our own life.  In this verse, we bridge the gap by praying that we always be in the living presence of Tara and experience firsthand her good qualities.  A Buddha’s body is not just their form, such as a Green Deity with an outstretched leg; rather, their body pervades the entire universe and we can correctly view all things as her emanations.  With the first line, we pray that we “see” her in every form we encounter, and that we understand what we see as the signs and indications of her presence in our life.  To strengthen this experience, during the meditation break, we should take the time to view everything that appears to us as her bodily emanations in our life.  In particular, we can view the food we eat, the home we live in, the clothes we wear, etc., all as provided by our spiritual mother caring for us.

With the second line, we pray that every sound we hear – even the rustling of the leaves in the wind – is recognized by us as her heavenly voice teaching us the Kadam Lamrim.  During the meditation break, we hear countless sounds, but whether those sounds teach us Lamrim depends upon our familiarity with the Lamrim teachings and the blessings we receive from the Buddhas.  By practicing pure view recognizing every sound as Tara’s heavenly voice, she will enter into every sound and our mind will be blessed to hear everything as Lamrim teachings.  Then, day and night, it will be as if we are in her holy temple at her lotus feet.

With the third line, we pray that every thought that arise in our mind arise from her omniscient wisdom.  Thoughts arise in our mind like bubbles from the bottom of the sea, but the majority of them are contaminated, deluded views.  If we can unite our mind with Tara’s, then every thought we have will be a manifestation of her omniscient wisdom arising in our mind.  Gen Tharchin says a blessing is like a subtle infusion of a Buddha’s mind into our own.  When we feel the presence of Arya Tara’s mind within our own, then we will receive a steady stream of her blessings.  Throughout the meditation break, we should recall Tara has mixed inseparably with our root mind at our heart, and view every thought that arises as her quick wisdom.  By maintaining this view, she will enter every thought we have and bless us to have a Lamrim perspective with respect to every appearance.  In this way, everything that arises, both externally and internally, are all viewed as Tara.  In short, our practice during the meditation break is to always remember we are in her presence in these three ways.

Dedication:  I dedicate all of the merit I have accumulated through sharing my understanding of Tara practice so that in all our future lives she remains our spiritual mother, who gives birth to us as Kadampas and nurtures us to spiritual maturity on the Kadampa path.  Through her blessings, may our every experience give rise to Lamrim minds, and may we always feel ourselves to be in her holy presence.  May every person who reads this series of posts make the firm determination to engage in the Liberation from Sorrow practice the 8th of every month for the rest of their lives, and may Tara appear to them at the time of their death and lead them to her Pure Land.