Happy Heruka Day: Enjoying An Ocean of Bliss and Emptiness

January 25, 2025 Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 7. Kadampa meaning of special days buddhism, meditation, philosophy, religion, spirituality

Today is Heruka Day, which takes place during Heruka and Vajrayogini month (otherwise known as January), and is a special day when his blessings are particularly powerful. Most of all, on this day we can recall his kindness and make an effort to bring him to life in our world.

Who is Heruka?

Heruka is the manifestation of the compassion of all the Buddhas. Out of his Truth Body, he emanates himself as a complete path from the deepest hell to the highest enlightenment. He is Keajra Pure Land, which is not some distant place but rather a different way of looking at our world. He emanates in this world as Spiritual Guides who in turn introduce us to Keajra Pure Land. We then begin to connect with it, and as we do, we are guided progressively to purer and purer states of mind. Geshe-la once said the mind of Lamrim is Akanishta Pure Land – a revealing way of phrasing things, a mind as a place. Heruka is the principal deity of Akanishta Pure Land. Our Spiritual Guides first guide us into Lamrim (Akanishta), then conventional Keajra Pure Land through generation stage, then definitive Keajra Pure Land through completion stage. Finally, we attain union with definitive Heruka, the omniscient mind of great bliss realizing directly and simultaneously the emptiness of all things. Heruka is not just this final state, he is the entire path to it. He is the compassion of all the Buddhas manifesting as the quick path to enlightenment.

My favorite description of Heruka is Chakrasambara. As Geshe-la explains in Essence of Vajrayana:

“Another term for Heruka is ‘Chakrasambara.’ ‘Chakra’ means ‘wheel,’ and in this context refers to the ‘wheel’ of all phenomena. ‘Sambara’ means the supreme bliss, which is called ‘spontaneous great bliss.’ Together ‘Chakra’ and ‘sambara’ reveal that by practicing Heruka Tantra we gain a profound realization that experiences all phenomena as one nature with our mind of great bliss. This realization directly removes subtle dualistic appearances from our mind, and due to this we quickly become definitive Heruka.”

This realization is called “meaning clear light,” and Geshe-la explains in Guide to Dakini Land that if we gain this realization, we can attain enlightenment within six months. This does not mean we can attain enlightenment in six months from the time we start practicing Heruka. It will take a long time to gain the realization of meaning clear light, but once we do, we can attain enlightenment in six months. Practicing Heruka is the quickest method for attaining the realization of meaning clear light. At a minimum, through our sincere practice of Heruka in this life, if we can die with a mind of compassion and faith in Heruka, it is definite we can be reborn in his pure land. From there, we will be able to quickly attain meaning clear light and then enlightenment. This is our incredible good fortune.

Recalling the Kindness of Heruka

The very heart of the sadhana Offering to the Spiritual Guide is the Single-Pointed Request, which can be understood as a prayer to Heruka as Keajra Pure Land.

You are the Guru, you are the Yidam, you are the Daka and Dharma Protector;
From now until I attain enlightenment I shall seek no refuge other than you.
In this life, in the bardo, and until the end of my lives, please hold me with the hook of your compassion,
Liberate me from the fears of samsara and peace, bestow all the attainments, be my constant companion, and protect me from all obstacles.

The first line reveals the vastness of Heruka. Heruka is by nature our Guru and our Guru is Heruka. All Tantric practices are fundamentally trainings in guru yoga – a special way of viewing the deity and the guru as inseparably one. Saying Heruka is our Guru and our Guru is Heruka evokes different meanings, and both are true simultaneously. Heruka is also our Yidam or our personal deity. He is the Buddha we seek to become and our ultimate role model. Christians ask, “what would Jesus do,” we ask, “what would Heruka do,” and we seek to do that. Heruka is also the Daka, which here refers to the Heroes and Heroines of his body mandala. These deities are his retinue, but also his spiritual limbs. Heruka is also the Dharma Protector. He manifests Dorje Shugden as the Protector of the Guru’s words. Conventionally, Heruka appears as the totality of his Pure Land, from the HUM at his heart to the principal deity (Yidam); to the body mandala deities (Daka); to his celestial mansion, Mount Meru, and the continents (his gross body); to the charnel grounds (his perception of samsara); to Dorje Shugden’s protection circle surrounding it all transforming whatever appears into a perfect condition for the enlightenment of all beings within Heruka’s pure land.

The second line explains how we rely upon Heruka. It begins with an understanding of both why we go for refuge to him and for how long our commitment to doing so is – namely to attain enlightenment and until we do. Geshe-la explains Heruka’s power is only unleashed within us in dependence upon our motivation of Bodhichitta, the wish to become a Buddha for the benefit of all.

The third line makes our reliance upon Heruka pure. In Joyful Path, Geshe-la explains what makes our spiritual practice pure instead of worldly is whether we are engaging in it for the sake of all of our future lives or the sake of this life. We rely upon Heruka in this life, in the bardo, and in all of our future lives. What do we request of him? That he always hold us with the hook of his compassion. The ocean of samsara is vast and it is easy to get lost at sea and drown; but out of his compassion for us, he throws us a hook we can grab onto. If we never let go, he will pull us to safety. What is this hook and how does it appear in our life? It primarily appears as our Spiritual Guide, but it also manifests as the Daka and the Dharma Protector.

The fourth line reveals Heruka’s main function; or put another way, the principal benefits of relying upon him. His aspect of the Guru functions to liberate us from the fears of samsara and peace. Peace here refers to the solitary peace of individual liberation, which is nice for us but useless for others. We pray to never get trapped in solitary peace but instead strive to probe deeper into the clear light to become a Buddha who perceives directly the union of appearance and emptiness motivated by an unstoppable compassion that works until the end of time to free others from their suffering. His aspect of the Yidam functions to bestow all the attainments. Bestow is a beautiful word as it implies the giving of something precious. In truth, we attain enlightenment by the Buddhas bestowing the realizations of their mind upon ours, like a gift. Of course, we must do certain things from our side to open up our mind to receive these precious gifts, but by nature, our future realizations of the stages of the path are actually by nature aspects of our Yidam’s mind. His aspect of Daka functions to be our constant companion. In other words, the deities of the body mandala – Heruka’s retinue – are our companions who not only bless our own channels, drops, and winds, but similarly bless all living beings as they fulfill Heruka’s wishes in this world. His aspect of Dharma Protector functions to protect ourselves and all the beings inside Heruka’s mandala from all obstacles to our spiritual practice. Nothing is an obstacle from its own side. Things only become obstacles when we relate to them in a deluded way. Dorje Shugden is first and foremost a wisdom Buddha, meaning he grants us the wisdom to be able to see how whatever arises is perfect for our spiritual training. Since his protection circle envelopes all of Keajra, from the Charnel Grounds to the HUM at Heruka’s heart, he is likewise bestowing similar wisdom blessings on the minds of all living beings. This is why for Heruka samsara appears as the Charnel Grounds. In the Charnel Grounds, even though conventionally horrific things appear, they are all understood and seen as powerful Dharma teachings propelling us towards enlightenment. When we have this wisdom, when others come to us with their difficulties, we fail to even see a problem, we see only spiritual opportunity and powerful teachings. We then share our perspective with others, empowering them to transform their life into a joyful path of good fortune.

For myself, I try to recite the Single-Pointed request with these recognitions day and night as I go about my day. It is my daily mantra, and with every recitation, it draws me closer to Heruka. For me, the single-pointed request has the same meaning as OM GURU SUMATI BUDDHA HERUKA SARWA SIDDHI HUM and vice versa. In my meditation itself, I try to gain experience for what it feels like to be Heruka in Keajra.

Bringing Heruka to Life in our World

We can sometimes feel like Heruka is not in this world and our attainment of union with him is very far off. Both of these perceptions are completely wrong. Heruka is the ultimate nature of everything in this world and attaining union with him is simply one recognition away. How can we bridge the gap between these two very different views? Through the practice of the Eight Lines of Praise of the Father. This is a special method for activating Heruka’s function in this world through us. On the basis of this feeling of accomplishing his function in this world, we simply recognize ourselves as Heruka. Through continual training in this practice, the gap between our normal perception and our enlightened perception collapses until eventually, we experience ourselves directly as Heruka in this world performing his enlightened deeds for the benefit of all. As Geshe-la says in Essence of Vajrayana, “By sincerely reciting these praises we swiftly purify our ordinary appearances and reach Heruka’s Pure Land.”

The Eight Lines of Praise are almost like words of a magical spell, which function to invoke or activate the different functions of Heruka we are praising.

OM I Prostrate to the Blessed One, Lord of the Heroes HUM HUM PHAT

When we recite this line, we request Heruka’s body to become active in this world. His body is the form aspect of Keajra Pure Land. In Keajra, every form that appears is understood as a powerful Dharma teaching by all those who behold it. Heruka manifests as whatever living beings need to be led to enlightenment. While Keajra Pure Land is shaped like a mountain, it’s spiritual gradient is more like a funnel. No matter where you drop something in a funnel, it is eventually guided down into the center of the funnel. In the same way, no matter where you find yourself in Keajra Pure Land – from the Charnel Grounds to the principal deity’s body – you are inexorably drawn towards the indestructible wind inside Heruka’s heart chakra. By activating Heruka’s form body in our world, we are “inviting all beings to be our guests” in our Pure Land where we engage in the pleasing supreme practices of enlightenment. We then strongly believe that whatever forms appear to the minds of any living being, they are by nature emanations of Heruka’s form body, revealing the truth of Dharma and guiding all beings towards his heart.

In particular, when we recite this line, we can imagine that our body is Heruka’s majestic body. Our eyes may continue to perceive the body that we normally see, but our mind’s eyes of faith see ourselves as Heruka. In Essence of Vajrayana, it explains the symbolism of Heruka’s body. The short version is it reveals all of the essential stages of the path to enlightenment. Buddhas can manifest their inner realizations as forms. The main point is we should disregard, even forget, our body that we normally see and believe that through our recitation of this line of the prayer we perceive our body to be Heruka’s body.

OM To you with a brilliance equal to the fire of the great aeon HUM HUM PHAT

When we recite this line, we invoke/activate Heruka’s speech. In Keajra, every sound is arising from Heruka’s enlightened speech and they function to reveal the truth of Dharma. When we recite this, we imagine that every sound, even the rustling of leaves in the wind, is actually vajra songs teaching Dharma. His speech burns away the ordinary conceptions and ignorance of living beings like a great wisdom fire that radiates out and burns away all delusions. In particular, we should imagine that from this point forward all of our own speech is actually Heruka’s speech being spoken through us. Instead of saying whatever comes to our mind, we get out of the way and let him speak through us. If we are practicing this at the level of completion stage, we can recall that the nature of sound is wind, and so all sounds are actually the whistling of Heruka’s pure winds blowing through the world.

OM To you with an inexhaustible topknot HUM HUM PHAT

With this line we imagine we invoke/activate Heruka’s mind in our world, symbolized by his topknot. There are two aspects of his mind in particular worth noting. First, his mind sees all past, present, and future phenomena directly and simultaneously. He sees everything that has been, everything that is, and everything that will be as one inseparable ocean inside emptiness. This wisdom knowing the three times is extremely effective for being able to help people because we can see the karmic reasons why they are currently facing the situations they are facing and all of the different possible futures they will experience depending upon how they respond to their present circumstance. Heruka sees everything as currents and continuums, like spiritual winds blowing through time, not static pictures that seem arbitrary and bewildering. Second, his mind has the power to bestow the realizations of Chakrasambara on others, in other words, his mind functions to gather and dissolve all phenomena into the ocean of bliss and emptiness. When impure winds cease to flow, the waves of ordinary appearance subside, and the ocean of our mind settles into a blissful clarity. Heruka’s mind naturally draws all phenomena back into this original source of all purity. When we recite this line, we feel as if these two powers of his mind are now active. We start to see the three times as Heruka does and we feel all phenomena settling down into the ocean of our mind of clear light emptiness of all phenomena.

OM To you with a fearsome face and bared fangs HUM HUM PHAT

When we recite this line, we imagine we gain Heruka’s great wisdom knowing clearly and unmistakenly what are the objects to be abandoned and what are the objects to be attained, not only for ourselves, but for all living beings. Not being clear about this is our fundamental problem and the source of all of our suffering.

In Modern Buddhism, Geshe-la makes a clear distinction between our outer problem and our inner problem. If our car breaks down, normally we think, “I have a problem.” No, our car has a problem. Our problem is our inner problem of relating to this appearance in a deluded way. We need a mechanic to fix our car, and we need to change our mind to solve our inner problem. Fixing our outer problem will not solve our inner problem. If we continue to have our inner problem, we will just project it onto some other external circumstance and think now that needs to be fixed too before we can be happy. Worldly beings are convinced their problem is what is happening externally, and they expend all of their energy trying to solve all of their outer problems, but no matter how many times they do, they continue to have the same sorts of problems just with different faces or different sets of external appearance. The reason for this is they have not solved their inner problem. Heruka’s great wisdom enables us to see clearly that our own and others’ actual problem lies within. Once we are clear that our problem is our inner problem, then his great wisdom helps us see clearly our delusions as mistaken minds. It is one thing to identify that we have delusions, but if we do not see why they are wrong or deceptive, we will continue to follow them believing them to be true. His great wisdom also helps us easily know what is the correct way of looking at things that leaves our mind peaceful and calm. We not only know the wisdom way of thinking, we actually think that way – or at least believe it to be correct, even if the winds of our mind are blowing in opposite directions.

When we recite this line, we have this wisdom not only for ourselves but also for others. When others talk to us, we see clearly the difference between their outer and their inner problem, and with respect to their inner problem, we know and can explain in a way they can understand the objects to be abandoned and the objects to be attained. Traveling outer paths is accomplished through taking steps, inner paths are traveled through knowing what thoughts to believe. The great wisdom of knowing the objects to be abandoned and the objects to be attained is like always knowing which paths to travel so that we never get lost. It is like an inner GPS that is always set for the City of Enlightenment, and no matter where we find ourselves, we always know how to get to where we want to go.

OM To you whose thousand arms blaze with light HUM HUM PHAT

When we recite this line we imagine we invoke/activate countless emanations of Heruka who spontaneously burst forth from his heart of compassion to benefit living beings through acts of loving-kindness. This line refers to how Heruka is the compassion of all the Buddhas, he is the highest yoga tantra version of thousand-arm Avalokiteshvara. Some people wonder how Buddhas gain the ability to send out emanations. The answer is their compassion wishing to protect all living beings from all suffering is so great, emanations naturally burst out of their hearts in all directions, just like Avalokiteshvara spontaneously burst forth a thousand arms to help living beings with. Because they realize emptiness of all phenomena, their compassion is like blowing air into the soap of their realization of emptiness producing countless bubbles of emanations. Normally, when people come to us for help, we think, “I can’t help all of these people,” and we wish some of them would go away and stop putting so many demands on us. But a bodhisattva thinks, “I would want to help all of these beings, but right now, unfortunately, I can’t. That’s why I need to become a Buddha because then I will be able to be with each and every living being every day.” We imagine that through reciting this line, we gain this ability to send out countless emanations and to be like thousand-arm Avalokiteshvara, able to help living beings in countless ways.

OM To you who hold an axe, an uplifted noose, a spear, and a khatanga HUM HUM PHAT

With this line, we imagine we gain Heruka’s ability to engage in wrathful actions, and we invoke his wrathful actions to pervade the entire universe. What are wrathful actions? They are the ability to use force out of compassion. They are of two types: outer and inner. Outer wrathful actions are when somebody is hurting themselves or others and we can stop them through using whatever power we have (physical, our position, our speech, etc.). We do this not out of anger, but to protect the person they are harming and to protect the person committing the harm from accumulating negative karma. Our wish is not to harm the other person, but to protect them. Sometimes outer wrathful actions take the form of telling people the hard truths of their situation, such as they are acting like a jerk or the only reason why they are suffering is that they are jealous or attached to companionship, or whatever. Whether our outer wrathful actions are effective depends upon whether our mind is truly free from anger and whether the other person has enough faith in us to take well what we are saying. If either of these two conditions is not met, our wrathful actions will just be anger or they will just be self-defeating. Inner wrathful actions are the ability to be utterly ruthless with our delusions, but kind to ourselves. We can only successfully engage in them if we have truly differentiated between ourselves and our delusions and we have realized that renunciation is true self-love or self-compassion. It is loving or having compassion for our true selves, our pure potential. Inner wrathful actions of a Buddha are powerful blessings that help people see clearly the error of their ways, sometimes at an epic scale, but without inducing guilt causing the person to beat themselves up. When we recite this line, we imagine we gain the ability to engage in such wrathful actions and we imagine we invoke Heruka to engage in such wrathful actions through the appearances of this world.

OM To you who wear a tiger-skin garment HUM HUM PHAT

This refers to Heruka’s ability to pacify anger and conflict. There is no evil greater than anger. Almost all of the harm in this world is caused by anger. Hell realms are the nature of anger, and those who remain consumed by anger in life wind up taking rebirth in hell after death because that is the nature of their mind. Anger prevents us from accepting samsara as it is, making us wish it was different. It leads to frustrations, great and small, leaving us always internally uncomfortable, agitated, and unhappy – sometimes enraged like a wild fire. Guilt is anger directed at ourself and is a major obstacle to our ability to view Dharma as refuge instead of a mirror we perceive to be judging us for all of our failures and shortcomings. Conflict in the world ranges from large-scale wars to spats between siblings, but it leaves a wake of pain wherever it goes. In Eight Steps to Happiness, Geshe-la says the mind of cherishing others is like a magic crystal that has the power to heal whole communities. In Toronto, he said, “love is the real nuclear bomb that destroys all enemies.” Heruka’s compassion is his magic crystal and his love is his nuclear bomb that ends all conflict. We imagine by reciting this line, we activate this power and it functions to pacify all anger, all guilt, and all conflict, not only in our own lives but in the whole world. We feel as if his love radiates out, pulsing peace into the world. In Transform Your Life Geshe-la says, “without inner peace, outer peace is impossible.” We imagine through Heruka’s blessings, we bestow inner peace on all living beings, resulting in universal peace for all. When our mind is at peace with all in the world, we are already experiencing ourselves world peace.

OM I bow to you whose smoke-coloured body dispels obstructions HUM HUM PHAT

In Essence of Vajrayana, Geshe-la explains:

“In the Condensed Root Tantra it is said that just by seeing a sincere Heruka practitioner we purify our negativities and attain liberation; just by hearing or being touched by such a practitioner we receive blessings and are cured of sickness; and just by being in the presence of such a practitioner our unhappiness, mental disturbances, delusions and other obstacles are dispelled. Why is this? It is because the actual Deities of Heruka abide within the body of the practitioner and therefore seeing the practitioner is not so different from seeing Heruka himself.”

When we recite this line of the Praise we recall this special quality of Heruka that makes merely being in the presence of a pure Heruka practitioner a cause of liberation for others. There are two types of obstructions – the obstructions to liberation, or our delusions; and the obstructions to omniscience, or the karmic imprints of our past delusions. Merely being in Heruka’s presence dispels both of these, just as being exposed to the sun will melt ice cream. When we recite this line with faith, we imagine that our Heruka body attains these qualities and when others are merely in our presence, it functions as a cause of their enlightenment – even if we are doing nothing other than watching football together. We further imagine that Heruka’s body pervades all phenomena; and while our ordinary eyes may perceive the things we normally see, our wisdom eyes see Keajra Pure Land, which is nothing other than Heruka’s pure form body. By being Heruka in this world, the two obstructions of all living beings are dispelled away, all ordinary appearances and conceptions dissolve, and all beings awaken into a world of pure wonder.

Through continuously engaging in the Eight Lines of Praise, we will gradually purify our mind and samsara will gather and absorb into the clear light, like clouds into a clear blue sky. We will feel Heruka as Keajra Pure Land become increasingly manifest and we will realize it is not far away, but actually the true nature of all things. Having activated these eight abilities of Heruka and feeling them work through us, we will have no difficulty generating a qualified divine pride thinking we are Heruka. As our experience with these verses deepens, the duality between ourselves and our Yidam will dissolve away until we experience union with this marvelous being. In this way, we will fulfill all of our own and others’ pure wishes.

Heruka day is a particularly auspicious day when Heruka’s blessings are especially powerful. The karma we create familiarizing ourselves with Heruka in our life and drawing closer to him on this day will pay dividends for aeons to come. If we have not yet memorized the Eight Lines of Praise, today is a perfect day to do so. Once we have learned it, we can then practice it day and night and swiftly move out of samsara and into Keajra Pure Land!

Vows, commitments, and modern life: Don’t abandon the Mahayana or steal from the three jewels

January 18, 2025December 24, 2022 Kadampa Ryan Vows, commitments and daily life

Abandoning the Mahayana.

This downfall is incurred if we reject any Mahayana scripture claiming that it is not Buddha’s teachings. It also occurs if we propagate views that contradict the Dharma and encourage others to practice such false teachings.

For most of us, it is highly unlikely that we would reject some Mahayana scripture claiming that it is not Buddha’s teachings. We have been explained the lineage of the teachings, and either we believe it or we think it is some elaborate lie Geshe-la has concocted. To my knowledge, despite all the criticism that has been lodged against the NKT over the years, nobody has ever disputed the lineage of the teachings.

But we are far more susceptible to the other means of breaking this vow, namely propagating false views and encouraging others to practice them. Every time I hit submit on this blog, I run the risk of doing this! Every time a teacher teaches, they run the risk of doing this. Every time any one of us speaks about the Dharma, we run the risk of doing this. Understanding this, some people fall into the extreme of thinking the only safe thing to do is to repeat exactly what Geshe-la said, and they get very nervous anytime somebody says something that they can’t directly trace back to some direct quote by Geshe-la. This is an extreme because we are encouraged to contemplate and meditate on the Dharma, not just parrot it. We need to transform what we read and listen to into our own understanding and personal experience. If Geshe-la didn’t want us to express the Dharma in our own words, then why would he have us discuss the Dharma in our centers or why would he train people to be teachers instead of just make available on the internet his books and teachings?

If we understand being a Dharma parrot is an extreme, how do we protect ourselves then against falling into the other extreme of inventing our own lineage? I think the answer is implicit in the way this vow is worded “…not contradict…” I once had a lengthy conversation with a few other teachers about this question in between sessions at an ITTP one year. What I am about to say should in no way be considered any sort of official answer to this question, but it is an accurate representation of our best faith answer to the question. We said when we have some understanding of the Dharma that we haven’t read anywhere in Geshe-la’s books, and we are not sure whether our new understanding is correct or not, we can perform the following tests:

Does this new understanding contradict in any way any known instructions?
Does this new understanding naturally and logically follow from contemplating the interactions and implications of all known instructions?
Have we made over a sufficiently long period of time a request to Dorje Shugden, our Dharma Protector, “If this new understanding is not correct, please sabotage it thoroughly within my mind”?
Does this new understanding take us “up the mountain” (as opposed to being a correct, but ultimately distracting side path)?
Does this new understanding survive spiritual debate with Sangha friends we respect?

If any new understanding can survive these five tests, then we can have a pretty high degree of confidence that it is at least not wrong for taking the next step. Geshe-la explained the meaning of the oral instructions are revealed primarily through blessings. He encourages us to “make our own commentary.” We contemplate the teachings, receive blessings, and come to some “understanding” of the meaning. We then work with those meanings, refining them over time, receiving more blessings, contemplating more deeply, and gradually refine our commentary until it is exactly perfect. This is our understanding of the meaning. We actually never stop this process until we are a Buddha, and even then, we may adapt our commentary to the changing karmic dispositions of how people process received information. If we do, however, share our new understandings with others we should make explicitly clear that what we are saying is our own personal understanding after having contemplated the Dharma and made clear that others should not consider what we think to be definitive in any way. They should investigate matter for themselves. Of course it would grow tiresome to say this in front of every sentence, so it is really more an issue of our “style” in how we present things. If we pretend we are some great scholar or yogi and make definitive proclamations about the “truth”, then we are in grave danger of making a right-darned fool of ourselves! But if instead, we say things like “it seems to me,” and “from my perspective,” or “I don’t know if this is right, but…” etc., then there is little danger of people misunderstanding.

A final way, of course, we can abandon the Mahayana is to stop practicing or to put some sort of explicit limitation on who we will generate love, compassion and bodhichitta for. This doesn’t mean we are breaking the vow if we have not yet generated a qualified universal compassion, but it does mean we break the vow if we say “I will attain enlightenment for all beings except this person.”

Stealing property from the Three Jewels.

We incur this downfall if we steal anything that has been offered to the Three Jewels. Besides the obvious meaning of embezzling funds or actually stealing something from a Dharma center or some practitioner, this vow has many more subtle implications.

While it is true that all Dharma centers say, “nobody will be refused for an inability to pay,” if we do make a commitment to pay a certain amount and then fail to follow up on that commitment, it is stealing. The administrative directors of all centers will say the same thing, “do what you can afford, and don’t worry.” All we need to do is discuss our situation with them and reach an agreement about what we can commit to, even if it is only $1 or nothing, but we will help clean up afterwards, something. But if we fail to do this and sneak in hoping we can get away with not paying, and then afterwards think we got lucky that nobody stopped us, then this too is stealing. If we copy correspondence recordings we don’t have a right to and didn’t pay for, this too can be stealing. If we use any property (physical or intellectual) of the three jewels without asking their permission and if we could reasonably suspect that they wouldn’t want us to do so, then this too is stealing. If we are in doubt about this and are not willing to ask if it is OK for us to use their property because we are afraid they might give us an answer we don’t want to hear, then this too is a form of stealing.

Stealing from the three jewels is really a foolish thing to do. Since the three jewels use everything they have for the sake of all living beings in all their lives, stealing from them is karmically equivalent to stealing from all living beings in the worst possible way, namely stealing, even if only on the margin, their access to the Dharma.

A Pure Life: Motivation for Series

January 15, 2025December 31, 2024 Kadampa Ryan Precept Days

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

Normally we think of our vows and commitments as an afterthought at best or as chains at worst. We have all taken our vows many times when we receive empowerments or when we engage in our daily practice, but most of us still have not started to take our practice of them seriously. We often swing from either the extreme of not even giving our vows a second thought to the extreme of beating ourselves up with them out of guilt for all the different ways we fall short. We swing from the extreme of over-interpreting the words “do your best” to mean “don’t even bother trying” to the extreme of thinking in absolutist terms about what they mean and imply. We quite often view them as rules or restrictions imposed from the outside, or we view them as constraints on our having any fun in life. To us, vows and commitments seem to restrict our freedom, but perhaps we accept we have to take them because we want to go to a given empowerment. Perhaps for our first few empowerments, we take them seriously; but later perhaps we scarcely give it a second thought that we are retaking them or that it means something. But the reality is, perhaps most of the time we rarely think about them and we make almost no effort whatsoever to train in them.

This series of posts will attempt to reverse our attitude towards our vows and commitments, in particular with respect to the Eight Mahayana Precepts. Instead of viewing them as restrictions on our freedom and fun, we can come to view them as an internal GPS guiding our way to the blissful city of enlightenment where the party never stops. If we wanted to go to a particular city, we program our GPS, hit go, and start driving. We happily follow the directions without feeling like we are being deprived of all the wonders on the side streets we could be exploring. When we miss a turn, we usually say a curse word, but then the GPS plans a new route, and we happily continue on our way. When we arrive at our destination, we think to ourselves, “this thing is great. How did I ever get around without one?”

It is exactly the same with our vows. We want to go to the city of enlightenment (our good motivation), the Eight Mahayana Precepts are like the directions the GPS gives us along the way to keep us on our chosen route, and if we follow them happily but persistently, they will definitely deliver us to our final destination. If we get lost or take a wrong turn, we don’t need to worry, because the GPS gives us new directions which we then follow. No matter how lost we become, no matter how many wrong turns we make, we always know if we just keep following the directions it gives us, we will eventually get there. It may take longer than what was originally planned (wrong turns), or there may be unexpected traffic (negative karma we need to purify), but if we just keep at it, we will get there.

I know some people think their GPS gets upset at them when they make wrong turns. But this is just our own anger at ourselves projecting our frustration onto the GPS voice. But nowadays, we can program our GPS with all sorts of different voices to choose one more pleasant. I actually know somebody whose GPS has the option of choosing the voice of a Porn Star (turn right, baby…)! In the same way, we need to make an effort of giving the Eight Mahayana Precepts “the right voice” within our mind. When we remember them or but up against them, we need to have them speak to us with the loving, understanding voice of our Spiritual Guide. We need to hear him chuckle and say, “don’t worry, be happy, just try.” The chuckle is important. The sign that we have proper renunciation is we are able to have a good laugh at ourselves and our delusions. It is OK and it is normal that we make a hash out of it. When we make mistakes, we learn from them and move on. We think beating ourselves up with guilt motivates us to do better, but it does not. Guilt is anger directed against ourselves. It destroys all joy in our training, and when we lose the joy, we lose our effort (effort is taking delight in engaging in our practices). Without effort, we have nothing. We might do our practice every day for aeons, but if we do not enjoy ourselves while trying, we actually have no effort and will therefore experience no results. If we want, we can give the Eight Mahayana Precepts the seductive voice of Vajrayogini calling us to join her at her place!

Our conception of freedom is completely wrong. Freedom is the ability to choose. But being a slave to every whim of our delusions is not freedom, it is bondage of an eternal order. True freedom is the ability to choose to pursue what we know is actually good for us. The Eight Mahayana Precepts run in exactly opposite of the direction our delusions want to go. Since we are still fooled by the lies of our delusions, we think if we follow them they will lead us to happiness. The reality is all delusions share the same final destination – the deepest hell. They all eventually lead us to the same place, but they trick us by painting an image of an illusory paradise just over the horizon. Duped again and again, we run towards suffering and away from true freedom.

There are three main reasons why we should train in the moral discipline of the Eight Mahayana Precepts. First, doing so creates the karmic causes to maintain the continuum of our Dharma practice without interruption between now and our eventual enlightenment. Second, doing so strengthens the power of our mindfulness and alertness, which are the two most important muscles for strong concentration. And third, moral discipline is the substantial cause of higher rebirth. We seek the highest rebirth of all – enlightenment – but getting there is often like climbing many, many flights of stairs. But it is a joyful climb, because the higher we go the more blissful we feel. And it is certainly better than the alternative of falling down the stairs…

In this series of posts, I will first explain a skillful attitude to adopt towards our training in the Mahayana Precepts, then explain how we do so with a bodhichitta motivation, then I will provide a brief commentary for how to actually take our precepts on Precepts Day, and finally, I will provide some practice suggestions for how to practice to each of the Eight Precepts. I will post these on the 15^th of every month as a way of marking Precepts Day and a reminder/encouragement for people to take this practice to heart. My hope by explaining all of this I might improve my own understanding and practice of the Precepts and then enjoy all the spiritual fruit that flows from this. If others are also able to benefit from these explanations, then it is all the better.

Vows, commitments, and modern life: Accept others’ apologies.

January 11, 2025December 24, 2022 Kadampa Ryan Vows, commitments and daily life

Not accepting others’ apologies.

This vow means if someone who has harmed us later apologizes and we refuse to accept their apology, preferring to harbor a grudge, we incur a root downfall. Accepting other’s apologies is a fundamental component of defusing anger in this world. Anger is our greatest enemy. It destroys everything that is good, and it has the power to seize our heart and never let go. We have so little time in this world with a precious human life that we can’t waste even a moment of it harboring anger. When other’s apologize and we fail to accept their apology, then the heart of the other person hardens and their anger returns. If we accept their apology and then offer our own, it enables them to let go of their anger. This is an act of supreme compassion, and one that both Jesus and Ghandi praised highly.

Sometimes people will apologize to us without using words. It can sometimes just be glancing at us in a certain way or sending a smiley face through the internet.

One common mistake a lot of people make is they judge other people’s apologies as inadequate, and so therefore don’t accept them. We ask questions like, “you say you are sorry, but what exactly are you sorry for?” And if the other person doesn’t give the answer we seek, we then don’t accept their apology. Many times people will say, “I’m sorry” with an angry tone, and they are not really sorry about what they did, they just wish there wasn’t this problem with you and they want it to go away. We often fail to reject such apologies out of hand. But once again, if we don’t accept even this most meager of apologies, the other person will quickly revert back into their anger. If, instead, we accept such apologies and once again offer our own, then it gives the situation an opportunity to defuse itself.

We might object, “but the other person isn’t really sorry, so if we accept their hollow apology it lets them off the hook and they never then generate real regret for their past deeds.” Here we need to be skillful. First, it is not up to us to play God and try manipulate the other person into thinking certain things. All we can really do is look at our own mind in the mirror or Dharma and try to overcome our own delusions. It is not up to us to withhold the virtue of not accepting somebody’s apology because we think they were not sincere enough. Second, if we do accept their apology, then it helps disarm the tension and it opens up the space for them to look deeper within their own behavior. Third, often times it is precisely because their apology was hollow that our sincerely accepting it as genuine will have such a big effect because the difference between where their mind is at and where our mind is at is so great.

If we truly think it is counter-productive to them to accept their apology the way it was given, then at a minimum we can acknowledge that the other person regrets the fact that you are fighting about whatever the issue is. You can say something along the lines of, “I am sorry that we are fighting,” or “I am sorry for my contribution to this being a fight.” It can happen that the other person is completely wrong on the substance of the issue, but that should not distract us from our own role in transforming the disagreement into a fight.

Just as it is important to accept people’s apologies, it is also important to know how to accept others’ apologies. Generally speaking, when we accept somebody else’s apology we should make sure three things are present: (1) we express thanks to the other person for having the maturity to apologize, (2) we make some expression of regret for our own mistakes in the situation, especially those things that we think trouble the other person the most, and (3) we offer a shared laugh with the other person about how absurd we sometimes get. All three of these are very important. When we express appreciation for the effort the other person has made by apologizing, we reinforce that tendency and so make it more likely that the dynamic can continue in a positive direction. When we admit and apologize for our own mistakes it enables the other person to let go of their anger towards us for what we have done wrong. This is really important because most people are not perfect, so when they make the effort to apologize they expect us to do the same. Perhaps they shouldn’t have such expectations, but it is quite a normal expectation to have. When we fail to also apologize, then their anger can quickly return and they wind up walking back the apology they just made. Having a shared laugh with the other person is in many ways the most important step because it eliminates any last residuals of resentment and it creates the space for things to get back on good footing.

Happy Vajrayogini Day: Becoming the Vajra Queen

January 10, 2025January 10, 2025 Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 7. Kadampa meaning of special days

Today is Vajrayogini Day, which takes place every year on the first tsog day of Heruka and Vajrayogini Month. On this day, we can remember her amazing good qualities and try to ripen them within ourselves. By doing so, we can draw closer to her and eventually become her.

Our Vajra Queen

Within the Kadampa tradition, our highest yoga tantra deities are Heruka and Vajrayogini. Heruka is great bliss inseparable from emptiness and Vajrayogini is emptiness inseparable from great bliss. Ultimately, they are the same person, differing only in aspect and emphasis. Practically, they are our spiritual guide’s truth body inseparable from our own pure potential. By relying upon Heruka and Vajrayogini, we can quickly ripen our Buddha nature and attain union with their enlightened state. Our highest yoga tantra deity is also known as our “yidam,” which essentially means it is the actual Buddha we want to become. Gen Tharchin explains we design our own enlightenment by the specific type of bodhichitta we generate. In our tradition, we take Heruka and Vajrayogini as our yidam.

Vajrayogini is known as the Vajra Queen because she is the highest of all the female enlightened deities for us. Many people, both in movies and in real life, develop tremendous loyalty and respect for their political queen, willing to dedicate their lives to fulfilling the wishes of their noble queen. How much more respect and devotion should we feel towards our Vajra Queen who leads us beyond samsara?

Understanding our Partner as an Emanation of Heruka and Vajrayogini

Gen Tharchin once told me, several years before I married her, that my girlfriend at the time was an emanation of Vajrayogini. He explained this to me at my very first Heruka and Vajrayogini empowerment. Of course, she is not inherently so since she is inherently nothing, but he was unambiguous that I should view her in this way. I then asked him again several years later if he meant it that she was an emanation of Vajrayogini, and he said, “without a doubt, for you, she is.” When we got engaged, the ring she gave me had seven diamonds in it, and she said, “like seven lifetimes.” She had never read Guide to Dakini Land where it explains by relying upon Vajraygoini, an emanation will enter our life within seven lifetimes to lead us to Dakini Land, yet I was flooded with a clear recognition that was the meaning of her engagement ring to me. For me, she has been my spiritual muse – learning how to relate to her purely, learning how to help her, and overcoming all of the delusions her behavior would provoke in me.

Sometimes, people can get confused about viewing their spouse or partner as an emanation of Heruka or Vajrayogini. Does that mean we should do whatever they say? Does that mean we should ignore their appearing faults and harmful behavior, pretending they are not appearing? Does that mean we can never modify or end the relationship if it becomes unhealthy for us or our partner? It means none of these things. Conventionally, we relate to conventional appearances exactly as normal. Emanations that take the form of conventionally normal people should be related to exactly as is conventionally normal. They are appearing in a normal aspect to teach us how to relate to conventionally normal forms in Dharma ways.

But at a deeper level, Heruka or Vajrayogini are our eternal partners. Sometimes they appear as the person we are married to (or are with). Sometimes our relationship with the appearance of our ordinary partner ends, but our relationship with Heruka or Vajrayogini does not end with that. It continues, just in different aspects. It is like before and after Venerable Geshe-la passed away. Prior to his passing, we tended to think our spiritual guide was Venerable Geshe-la, but when he passed he revealed clearly to all of us that our spiritual guide was never the appearance of Venerable Geshe-la, it was Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka all along. He was just temporarily appearing as Venerable Geshe-la so we could develop a relationship with him. But when Venerable Geshe-la passed, we realized we don’t need the appearance of Venerable Geshe-la to preserve our daily living relationship with our spiritual guide because Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka is still with us. In the same way, we thought our partner was the person we married, but in truth our partner has been Heruka or Vajrayogini all along. They appeared temporarily as our partner so we could develop a relationship with them. Sometimes our relationship with the person we thought was our partner ends (they die, the relationship ends, etc.), but that’s just the karma of that appearance exhausting itself. Our relationship with Heruka or Vajrayogini as our partner continues. It is eternal. Sometimes it will remanifest as some other ordinary appearance and sometimes it will shift into an internal relationship like the one we now have with Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka. It is hard to say. But the point is Heruka and Vajrayogini have always been and always will be our eternal partner. What that looks like according to conventional appearance and where the locus of our relationship is with them may shift, but this fact is always true. In the end, we will find ourselves with them in Keajra and realize in truth we have been there with them all along – we were just mistakenly seeing what has always been. When we realize this, we will have a great laugh with them and reminisce about all the adventures (both good and bad) we had along the way, but we will see it all as exactly what we needed at different points along our path to Keajra. It’s all good, we just haven’t woken up to it yet, but we’re getting there. So even if our relationship with somebody who we thought was an emanation of Vajrayogini for us ends, it doesn’t mean that they weren’t Vajrayogini for us then and it also doesn’t mean they are not still Vajrayogini for us. They still are, but their conventional appearance is pushing us in a different direction. Just as the appearance of Venerable Geshe-la passed, so too the appearance of a specific person as our partner in this life can pass. But our partner has always been Varjayogini and always will be. She appeared in the form we needed for the time we were together and now she is appearing in different ways, but she remains an emanation for us – just encouraging us to practice in different ways. The fact that our relationship with them may be over doesn’t mean they weren’t an emanation of Vajrayogini for us. They brought us to where we are now, and our relationship with Vajrayogini continues, just now in a different form. Perhaps a new conventional emanation will appear as our partner or perhaps our relationship with her will become primarily internal like it is with Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka, we don’t know our karma. We learned so much being with our partner and that is all due to the blessings of Vajrayogini. The fact that our partnership with the mistaken appearance of the conventionally appearing emanation may have ended doesn’t change who has always been and who always will be our partner – namely Vajrayogini.

Vajrayogini’s Uncommon Qualities

Vajrayogini practice has many uncommon qualities that surpass even Heruka practice. First, her three-OM mantra is the king of all mantras. Geshe-la explains in Guide to Dakini Land:

“By reciting this mantra we can help others to fulfill their wishes and gain peace, good health, long life, and prosperity. We gain the ability to avert others’ diseases, such as cancer, strokes, and paralysis, as well as all physical pain and dangers from fire, water, earth, and wind. Some practitioners who have a strong karmic link with Vajrayogini, through their daily practice or by merely reciting this mantra attain outer Dakini Land before their death, sometimes even without engaging in close retreats or intense meditation. Some attain Dakini Land in the bardo by remembering as if in a dream their daily recitation of the mantra, thereby enabling Vajrayogini to lead them to her Pure Land. In Dakini Land these practitioners are cared for by Heruka and Vajrayogini and, without ever having to undergo uncontrolled death again, they attain enlightenment during that life. It is for these reasons that the three-OM mantra of Vajrayogini is called the `king of all mantras’.”

Vajrayogini’s body mandala is also unequaled. Again, Geshe-la explains in Guide to Dakini Land:

“In the practice of Heruka’s body mandala, Deities are generated at the outer tips of the twenty-four channels, at the twenty-four inner places. In Vajrayogini’s body mandala, however, the Deities are generated at the inner tips of the twenty-four channels, inside the central channel at the heart channel wheel. This is the main reason why Vajrayogini’s body mandala is more profound than those of other Yidams.”

Finally, Vajrayogini practice has an uncommon yoga of inconceivability, which is the most profound practice of self-powa in existence, enabling us to transfer our consciousness to the pure land where we can complete our spiritual training without ever having to take another samsaric rebirth. Through this practice, Geshe-la explains:

“The uncommon yoga of inconceivability is a special method, unique to the practice of Vajrayogini, whereby we can attain Pure Dakini Land within this life without abandoning our present body.”

By contemplating these incredible benefits of Vajrayogini practice, we can generate a strong faithful wish to rely upon her in this and all our future lives.

How we can activate Vajrayogini’s good qualities in our life

We do not consider the good qualities of Vajrayogini to simply think how amazing she is, the goal is for us to generate wishing faith, wishing to acquire these good qualities ourselves. At first, it can seem like her good qualities are so far away that knowledge of them is more academic than anything else. But there is a method for activating her good qualities within us right now, where we quite literally start to become her and fulfill her function in the world. How? Through faithful recitation of the Eight Lines of Praise to the Mother.

Becoming Vajrayogini is not like an on-off switch but is rather like a volume knob – the more we rely upon her, the more we come to embody her good qualities until eventually we gradually become her. In our practice of divine pride, we train in imputing our “I” onto Vajrayogini, thinking, “I am Vajrayogini.” If we impute “I am Vajrayogini” onto our ordinary samsaric body and mind, this is not only a mistaken imputation, it might land us in a psychiatric hospital! For an imputation to be valid, the basis of imputation must be valid. For an imputation to be valid, the name, aspect, and function must all be in alignment. A tennis racket may be used to strain spaghetti noodles, but we would not call it a strainer. In the context of Vajrayogini practice, her aspect is the beautiful red Dakini, her function is to bestow the qualities of her mind, and her name is Vajrayogini. If we impute our I onto these three – her name, aspect, and function – we can validly say we are Vajrayogini.

Oftentimes, especially in our early years of Vajrayogini practice, we tend to place primary emphasis on the “aspect” of Vajrayogini, imputing our “I” onto this mere image. But this rarely works to generate much feeling of actually being Vajrayogini. In contrast, when we feel like this aspect is performing the function of Vajrayogini in our mind, then when we impute our I onto Vajrayogini engaging in her enlightened deeds, it is very easy to generate a qualified feeling of divine pride being Vajrayogini leading all beings to freedom.

For me at least, the supreme method for generating a feeling of Vajrayogini accomplishing her function is using the Eight Lines of Praise as an invocation for her to accomplish her special function through us. When we do this, we will feel her enter us and accomplish these eight special functions through us; and on this basis, it is easy to generate a qualified divine pride.

We can understand how to do this as follows:

OM I prostrate to Vajravarahi, the Blessed Mother HUM HUM PHAT

To prostrate means to wish to become, it is a form of wishing faith. Vajravarahi refers to her function of destroying ignorance, recognizing her as the essence of the perfection of wisdom that destroys ignorance. Blessed Mother means she is the mother of all the Buddhas, both in the sense of all Buddhas are born from bliss and emptiness (definitive Vajrayogini), but also in the sense of the actual mother of all the Buddhas in that they arise from her. In this sense, she is simply the highest yoga tantra version of Mother Tara. When we recite this line, we imagine we invoke this power to destroy the ignorance of all living beings and give birth to all the Buddhas, requesting that this function be accomplished within our mind.

OM To the Superior and powerful Knowledge Lady unconquered by the three realms HUM HUM PHAT

Superior means she can see directly the ultimate nature of all phenomena; powerful Knowledge Lady means she has the power to bestow great bliss; and unconquered by the three realms means she has the power to overcome all delusions of the desire, form, and formless realm. When we recite this line, we imagine we invoke her to bestow bliss on ourselves and all living beings, which bestows a direct realization of emptiness on the minds of all, enabling them to completely abandon all the delusions of the three realms. We feel as if this is actually happening inside our mind.

OM To you who destroy all fears of evil spirits with your great vajra HUM HUM PHAT

Nobody is an evil spirit from their own side, they only become evil spirits for us if we relate to them in deluded ways. It is our delusions that create all evil spirits in our life, and we can say from one perspective all evil spirits are really just our delusions so condense that they take on a life or personality of their own and function like they are an “evil spirit.” But through Vajrayogini’s blessings, we can come to experience all beings and all phenomena as manifestations of her mind of bliss and emptiness. In this way, what was previously experienced as an evil spirit in our life is now experienced as the dance of bliss and emptiness. Instead of harming us, we receive blessings. All fear is destroyed because they are now seen as bliss and emptiness, and indeed we can say all “evil spirits” themselves are destroyed, not in the sense of they are killed, but in the sense that there is no longer a valid basis for imputing “evil spirit.” When we recite this line, we imagine that we come to see all phenomena as manifestations of bliss and emptiness, and so we fear nothing and nobody has the power to harm us in any way. We strongly believe our view of everything has changed and now we fear nothing because we experience it all as great bliss.

OM To you with controlling eyes who remain as the vajra seat unconquered by others HUM HUM PHAT

Vajra seat here means she is always in union with Heruka who is eternally filling her with great bliss as she bestows the realization of emptiness on his mind. Her controlling eyes can subdue negative behavior simply by looking at others, much in the way a mother’s firm stare brings her children in line without saying a word. When we recite this verse, we imagine that while in union with Heruka – being filled with bliss and bestowing upon him the realization of emptiness – we can look out onto all living beings subduing all of their negative behavior in an instant. We feel this compassionate power coursing through us and that this function is actually being accomplished.

OM To you whose wrathful fierce form desiccates Brahma HUM HUM PHAT

This refers to Vajrayogini’s ability to subdue the pride of all living beings, even the highest gods. Geshe-la explains that pride is the death of all spiritual learning. If we are free from pride, we can use the Dharma to overcome all our other faults; but if we are consumed by pride, we cannot overcome any of our faults. Subduing our pride is, in this sense, a prerequisite for all spiritual progress. Vajrayogini does not merely subdue our pride, she desiccates it, which means to drain of emotional or intellectual vitality. We generate pride when we observe some uncommon characteristic we have and then think that somehow makes us better than others. Perhaps a candle in a dark room provides some light but standing next to the blazing of the sun its luminescence is humbled. In the same way, we may think we are special in some way, but standing before the Vajra Queen we are stripped away of all pretension and are drained of any emotional or intellectual basis for thinking we are special in any way. Vajrayogini’s mere presence has this humbling effect on all living beings, opening their mind to generate faith in the spiritual path. When we recite this line, we feel as if the pride of ourselves and all living beings has been thoroughly desiccated and everyone now bows down with humble faith in her magnificence, ready to learn from her.

OM To you who terrify and dry up demons, conquering those in other directions HUM HUM PHAT

This refers to the ability of her wisdom blessings to burn up the inner demons of ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions of all living beings. According to Sutra, the root of samsara is self-grasping ignorance, but according to Tantra, the root is ordinary appearances and conceptions. Ordinary appearances are, essentially, the things that we normally see – all of which appear to exist from their own side, independent of our mind. They appear to have some objective existence that we believe our mind merely observes accurately. Ordinary conceptions are believing these appearances to be true. We think everything really does exist in the way that it appears. Due to ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions, we remain trapped in the nightmare of samsara, and the same is true for all other living beings. The fire of Vajrayogini’s wisdom blessings has the power to burn through all ordinary appearances and conceptions like the fire at the end of the aeon, stripping away samsara from everyone and enabling them to see directly pure worlds. Samsara is nothing more than a dream that need not be. Vajrayogini has the power to burn it all away. When we recite this verse, we imagine we invoke the fire of her wisdom blessings to radiate out like a spherical burst in all directions stripping away the ordinary appearances and conceptions of all living beings, and then we strongly believe that as a result of this enlightened action all beings are now able to see directly her pure world, Keajra Pure Land.

OM To you who conquer all those who make us dull, rigid, and confused HUM HUM PHAT

This refers to her ability to protect us from evil spirits who would interfere with our spiritual practice by making our minds dull, rigid, or confused. There are countless evil spirits who would interfere with our practice, and we have all experienced the effects of their interference in our practice. Vajrayogini can subdue these spirits in four ways, the first of which was already explained above by viewing them as manifestations of bliss and emptiness. The second is just as would-be attackers are deterred through knowing they are outmatched, so too evil spirits know they stand no chance against Vajrayogini and so they keep their distance. The third is through the wisdom fire of her protection circle, the basis for any negativity is burned away as it approaches, and thus cannot even enter like a magical shield that disarms all those who would enter her realm. Negativity simply can’t get through. The fourth way is through the power of her love and compassion for evil spirits who would do harm. Just as Buddha Shakyamuni under the Bodhi tree defeated all the spirits through the power of his love, so too Vajrayogini’s unconditional love defeats the evil intentions of all those who would interfere with our practice. As Geshe-la famously said, love is the real nuclear bomb that destroys all enemies. When we recite this verse, we imagine we invoke Vajrayogini to dispel all interference from evil spirits in these four ways, and strongly believe as a result all interference is permanently subdued.

OM I bow to Vajravarahi, the Great Mother, the Dakini consort who fulfills all desires HUM HUM PHAT

This refers to Vajrayogini’s ability to fulfill all the pure wishes of living beings. Buddhas do not fulfill our worldly wishes – nothing can since samsara is by nature contaminated. But they can fulfill all our pure wishes. Like a loving mother who helps fulfill all the pure wishes of her children, Vajrayogini works tirelessly to fulfill all the pure wishes of all living beings. What are pure wishes? They are spiritual wishes, such as wishing to abandon lower rebirth, escape from samsara, and gain the ability to lead all beings to enlightenment. They also include any wish to overcome our delusions, purify our negative karma, or gain any of the realizations of the stages of the path. Vajrayogini is the real wish-fulfilling jewel who possesses the power to fulfill all the pure wishes of all living beings. When we recite this verse, we strongly imagine that she does so in an instant and everyone is spontaneously born into the pure land.

We can recite these Eight Verses anytime, both in meditation and out of meditation. We can also recite specific lines of the eight verses as targeted prayers for specific situations we find ourselves in. The effectiveness of our recitations depends primarily upon the purity of our motivation, the depth of our faith, the degree of our single-pointed concentration, and the extent of our realization of emptiness of all phenomena. The more we improve these four conditions, the more we will begin to feel Vajraygoini entering into us and accomplishing her function through us in the world. With deeper experience, it will almost feel like she takes on a life of her own inside of us, spontaneously accomplishing her function in this world. Once we have a taste of this experience, generating qualified divine pride both in and out of meditation is easy.

May we all come under Vajrayogini’s loving care and behold her sublime face. May we become empty vessels through which she may accomplish her enlightened deeds in this world, bringing benefit and happiness to ourselves and all living beings in the process. May she burn away all ordinary appearance and conception until we see ourselves directly as the Vajra Queen.

Happy Tara Day: Getting to know our spiritual mother

January 8, 2025January 8, 2025 Kadampa Ryan How to Rely Upon Tara, Tara Days

The eighth of every month is Tara Day. Geshe-la once said during a commentary to Tara practice that, “we should make our own commentary” based on our experience. As my offering to her and to help celebrate her day and to deepen my own relationship with her, over the next twelve months, I will provide my own understanding of the practice Liberation from Sorrow. Nothing I say should be taken as definitive in any way, I am simply sharing my personal experience of this practice. I hope others might also share their own experience and understandings of the practice in the comments. Then, we can all learn from each other.

In the introduction to the Sadhana, Geshe-la says:

Tara is a female Buddha, a manifestation of the ultimate wisdom of all the Buddhas. Each of the Twenty-one Taras is a manifestation of the principal Tara, Green Tara. Tara is also known as the ‘Mother of the Conquerors’.

The ultimate wisdom of all the Buddhas is the wisdom directly realizing the emptiness of all phenomena. Sometimes we think of emptiness as a state that somehow exists on it’s own – everything is empty – but in reality, it does not exist without a mind realizing it. Emptiness is also dependent upon the mind realizing it, and so is also empty. Tara is a being who has imputed her “I” onto the ultimate wisdom of all the Buddhas – she is this ultimate wisdom. She appears in the aspect of the twenty-one Taras, just like a single diamond can have twenty-one facets to it. All other Buddhas arise from her ultimate wisdom, just as waves arise from an ocean. In this sense, she is the Mother of all the Buddhas – they literally emerge from her, she gives birth to them all.

Tara is our common mother, our Holy Mother. When we are young we turn to our worldly mother for help. She protects us from immediate dangers, provides us with all our temporal needs, and guides and encourages us in our learning and personal development. In the same way, during our spiritual growth we need to turn to our Holy Mother, Tara, for refuge. She protects us from all internal and external dangers, she provides us with all the necessary conditions for our spiritual training, and she guides us and inspires us with her blessings as we progress along the spiritual path.

Our spiritual life can begin at any point in our life, sometimes when we are young or sometimes when we are older; but in either case, Tara is our spiritual mother. She cares for us in the earliest stages of our spiritual life, nurturing it to make sure we eventually ripen into an independent, functioning spiritual adult able to sustain our practice on our own for the rest of our life. This is why it is especially important for new practitioners to take Tara practice as their main deity practice. Establishing an early relationship with Tara will ensure that we ripen onto the path in a mature and stable way. All we need to do is put our faith in her and request that she nurture our spiritual life into spiritual adulthood.

In some New Age circles, they talk about us choosing our parents in this life. Generally speaking, according to the Kadampa teachings at least, we are trapped in samsara, which means we necessarily take uncontrolled rebirth. We did not “choose” our parents, we were karmically thrown into rebirth as their child. It is true that we may have generated attachment for our mother as she was engaging in intercourse with our father, but that is quite different from “choosing” our mother. Despite this, through reliance upon Tara in this life, we can choose to have her as our spiritual mother in all of our future lives. The paths of future lives are very uncertain and samsara’s distractions and deceptions are endless, but our spiritual mother can care for us and guide us to the spiritual path, help us enter it, and then once again ripen us into spiritual adulthood. People buy insurance policies all the time to protect themselves against eventualities. Reliance upon Tara is like a spiritual insurance policy for making sure we once again find and enter the path in all of our future lives until we attain enlightenment. I sometimes pray, “May Guru Tara be my eternal mother in all my future lives.”

Tara’ means ‘Rescuer’. She is so called because she rescues us from the eight outer fears (the fears of lions, elephants, fire, snakes, thieves, water, bondage and evil spirits), and from the eight inner fears (the fears of pride, ignorance, anger, jealousy, wrong views, attachment, miserliness and deluded doubts). Temporarily Tara saves us from the dangers of rebirth in the three lower realms, and ultimately she saves us from the dangers of samsara and solitary peace.

There is a close relationship between the eight outer fears and the eight inner fears – indeed, the eight inner fears create the eight outer fears. The eight outer fears are not just literal lions, elephants, snakes, and so forth. Rather, these animals are symbolic of types of outer circumstances which give rise to fear. Through relying upon Tara, we pacify the eight inner fears, and as a result we no longer fear the eight outer fears.

For example, pride is a mind that thinks we are better than we actually are, or that takes some characteristic we have about ourselves and generates a feeling of superiority over others due to this trait. Lion-like outer fears are situations that call our exalted view of ourselves into question. We fear others criticizing us or discovering that we are a fraud. We try to exert our domination or superiority over others and feel threatened by those who challenge our authority or position. All of the outer things we fear as threats to our status, reputation, or position are fearful to us only because we have the inner fear of pride.

Ignorance has two types, conventional ignorance of not knowing what to do and ultimate ignorance of not knowing how things truly exist. People’s lives are plagued by the elephant of insecurity and uncertainty. We don’t know what the day will bring, and we have no idea what karma will ripen. To try control against these fears, we try gain control and reduce uncertainty, and we fear anything that could increase our insecurity or uncertainty. All of our outer fears associated with insecurity and uncertainty come from the inner fear of conventional ignorance. If we knew clearly what objects are to be abandoned and what objects are to be attained, we would not fear an uncertain world because we would always know what to do and how to respond. We would have confidence in the laws of karma that if we responded wisely to whatever arises, our karmic circumstance would definitely get better, so we would fear nothing. Further, ultimately, the only reason why we fear anything is because we still grasp at things existing from their own side, independently of our mind as causes of our happiness or suffering. But if we understood that everything depends upon how we look at it and everything can be transformed into a cause of our enlightenment, we would quite literally have nothing to fear at all. Thus, eliminating the inner fear of ignorance removes all of our outer fears.

All of the other outer fears are likewise born from the inner fears of anger, jealousy, wrong views, attachment, miserliness, and deluded doubts. We can think about all of the things that give rise to our anger, jealousy, wrong views, attachment, miserliness, and deluded doubts. Normally we view these things as our “problems” because they give rise to unpleasant feelings in our mind. But if we eliminated these delusions from our mind, then we would no longer have outer fears.

If we rely upon Mother Tara sincerely and with strong faith, she will protect us from all obstacles and fulfil all our wishes. Since she is a wisdom Buddha, and since she is a manifestation of the completely purified wind element, Tara is able to help us very quickly. If we recite the twenty-one verses of praise, we shall receive inconceivable benefits. These praises are very powerful because they are Sutra, the actual words of Buddha. It is good to recite them as often as we can.

The power of any Buddha to help us depends almost entirely upon the strength of our faith. Faith is like electricity for our spiritual life. The entire modern world would come to a screeching halt without electricity, in the same way our spiritual life is inert without the electricity of faith. Faith can also be likened to our sails, and the Buddhas blessings to winds filling our sails. If our sails are raised and aligned with the pure winds of the Buddhas, we will be blown swiftly towards enlightenment. Tara is the completely purified wind element, which means the winds of her blessings are particularly powerful and swift. Through generating faith in her, we will enjoy all of the benefits and protections explained in the sadhana. Through faith in her, we will come to feel her presence in our life and enjoy her protection, which will increase our faith further in her in a self-fulfilling cycle of enlightenment.

Vows, commitments, and modern life: The greatest giving is of Dharma

January 4, 2025December 24, 2022 Kadampa Ryan Vows, commitments and daily life

We continue our discussion of the downfall “not giving wealth or Dharma.” In the last post, we discussed not giving wealth, in this post we turn to not giving Dharma.

In terms of giving the Dharma, as bodhisattvas, we should be no different than the greatest philanthropists of history, like Bill Gates. The difference is we become spiritual philanthropists. We actively seek to acquire as much inner spiritual wealth of realizations as we possibly can because we are so eager to give it away. The mind of bodhichitta is almost no different than the mind of a philanthropist, the only real difference being the type of wealth we seek to acquire. With such a mind, we start to view our lives completely differently. We develop a new bottom line for our life. When we are confronted with the various challenges of life, we see them as opportunities for us to learn the wisdom necessary to navigate through such situations. We think of all the others who confront similar situations but don’t know what to do, and so we apply ourselves fully to learn how to navigate through the situation with wisdom with the intention to then share that wisdom with others on the other side.

Venerable Tharchin explained that our gaining realizations with a wish to share them with others actually creates the causes for those who have similar problems to come into our karmic orbit so that we can help them. He said growing Dharma centers, for example, is no mystery. If the people in the center gain the realizations for knowing how to transform the typical daily lives of the people in a given region, then those realizations will act as a karmic magnet attracting people to find the center. Of course we still conventionally have to get the publicity out there, but whether that publicity works depends on whether or not those seeing it receive blessings to be inspired to come. These blessings karmically radiate out from the collective realizations of the Sangha in the center. This does not necessarily mean that there will be large numbers of people who come, but what it does mean is large realizations will be transferred. Venerable Tharchin also said that every person who comes into a Dharma center should correctly be viewed as the future holder of the lineage. There will come a time in the future of each of us when we ourselves will be the lineage holder, when we ourselves will be the portal between this world and the pure worlds of the Buddhas. So even if only one person comes, that person has standing behind them all living beings. Mark Zukerberg, the founder of Facebook, said every person on earth is no more than seven friends away (friend of a friend of a friend, etc.). We are all quite close to one another. Through each person, we ripple outwards quite quickly to everyone. Infusing even one person with realizations literally heals the whole world, even if only on the margin. Again, Venerable Tharchin says for every step we take towards enlightenment, we bring all beings with us in proportion to their karmic connection to us. Every being is only at most seven friends away…

Our giving of the Dharma is not limited to those who are Dharma teaches and it is not limited to helping out people in the Sangha. George Takei (formerly Sulu on Star Trek, but now a social media icon) said something to the effect that social media is “folk wisdom and pictures of cats.” People are starving for wisdom. People know wisdom when they hear/read it, and it naturally speaks to their heart. We may acquire our wisdom through the language of Dharma, but we are by no means limited to the language of Dharma for expressing the wisdom we realize. Just as there are different languages in the world, such as English, French, and Chinese, so too there are different cultural dialects for understanding the world. Economists understand the world through the language and concepts of economics, physicists understand the world through the language and concepts of physics, musicians and artists understand the world through the language and concepts of music and art, etc. People in the South have their own values, idioms and cultural references which is different than those in the North, but they all have different language sets and patterns for making sense of the world.

If we are to give the Kadam Dharma our Spiritual Guide has given us to the people of this modern world, we need to learn all these different languages, and more importantly we need to learn how to express the wisdom of the Kadam Dharma using the languages and cultural dialects that people speak and use. If the Dharma is true, it must be true in all circumstances, so a football game can teach the lamrim just as well as anything else. What discussion of politics can not be concluded with the disadvantages of self-cherishing? If we have Dharma realizations in our mind, and we learn the about the world around us, we will then be able to express the Dharma through the myriad languages (linguistic and cultural) of the world and thereby give the Dharma to all the people of this world. By finding the Dharma in everything, whether it is sports, politics, movies, our work environment, our family, our school, whatever, then we will learn how to express the wisdom of the Dharma on the field, in politics, at the movies, at work, in our family, and at our schools. And we will be able to do so without being all weird and awkward starting every sentence with “Geshe-la says” and others thinking we are some religious fanatic. But if we lack the ability to transmit wisdom using non-Dharma words and examples, then we may know a lot of Dharma, but those realizations are nearly useless except for the few others who happen to speak the same “language.”

Every day we should request Dorje Shugden, “please forge me into the Buddha I need to become.” Dorje Shugden knows who we have the karma with to be their spiritual guide. He knows what realizations they need us to gain so that we can help them. So we request him to emanate a life for us that is a representative reflection of the life of those for whom we are destined to help. We request him to give us their problems now so that we can learn how to use the Dharma to overcome them. We then dedicate that the conditions be arranged for us to share the wisdom we have gained. This is Dorje Shugden’s job. This is what he does. This is what he can do for us, if only we ask. Once we make this request, our life transforms itself into the actualization of bodhichitta. We view every situation as emanated for us to learn what we need to learn to be able to help others with similar problems in the future. Dealing with a difficult boss or helping our spouse in their battle with cancer all start having a higher purpose and a higher meaning. They will still be difficult to go through, but we will do so with the courageous mind of a bodhisattva knowing that the harder it is, the more people we will help in the future with the wisdom we gain. Our life becomes a meaningful one full of giving Dharma, regardless of whether or not we are a Dharma teacher. How wonderful!

New Years for a Kadampa

December 31, 2024December 12, 2023 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

December 29, 2024December 12, 2023 Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden, Protector Days, Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

The 29^th 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:

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.
We request with infinite faith that Dorje Shugden provide us with perfect conditions for our swiftest possible enlightenment.
We then accept with infinite faith that whatever subsequently arises is the perfect conditions for our practice that we requested.
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

December 28, 2024December 28, 2024 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.

Kadampa Working Dad

Unifying our spiritual, professional and personal lives into the path

Author: Kadampa Ryan

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Vows, commitments, and modern life: The greatest giving is of Dharma

New Years for a Kadampa

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

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

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