A Kadampa Prophecy Until the End of Samsara

February 14, 2021 Kadampa Ryan Uncategorized

I did the math between now and the end of samsara according to the Kadampa teachings. It yielded some interesting results.

First, I assumed a starting point where beings are equally distributed in the six realms plus one Buddha for all of samsara (not accurate, but some people struggle to accept that 99% of all beings are already in hell, so to humor them, I did an even distribution). I then assumed a starting rate of virtue for each type of being depending on the realm they occupy. At the end of each period beings go up or they go down a realm based on the percentage of virtue of that realm.

I then assumed a certain percentage of humans attain enlightenment in each period. To calculate the attain enlightenment/human ratio I took the total number of humans on earth divided by the number who I’m estimating attain enlightenment (7.6 billion people, 30,000 Kadampas, 2,500 of whom attain enlightenment = 0.00003% enlightenment rate). With each increase in the number of Buddhas, I assume the amount they bless the minds of living beings goes up 1%, thus increasing the rate of virtue for the human, animal, hungry ghost, and hell realms. I did not assume the virtue rate goes up for beings in the demi-god and god realms because then they get stuck in those realms and never attain a human rebirth. Presumably, Buddhas would bless their minds to take human rebirths.

In the beginning, as would be expected, almost everyone falls into the lower realms, in particular the hell realm because once you take rebirth in the lower realms, it is almost impossible to get out. But gradually over time, the number of Buddhas increases, who are then able to bless the minds of the beings in the lower realms more and more effectively. After about 23% of time between now and the end of samsara, due to all the blessings of the now more numerous Buddhas, the lower realms are emptied and almost everyone is in the upper realms. At that time, there is a big spike in the number of humans who start attaining enlightenment at faster rates, again thanks to increased blessings from the Buddhas.

We then start a very long period where we wait for Gods and demi-gods to burn up their merit to fall down into the human realm, where then a growing percentage of them attain enlightenment. At around the 75% of time mark, there is an exponential growth in the number of Buddhas who then so outnumber humans, they reach an efficiency where anybody who reaches the human realm attains enlightenment in that life.

Once that stage is reached, there are still about 700,000 remaining beings who just refuse to let go of their pleasures in the demi-god and god realms, ignoring their spiritual guides who go and visit them there. But eventually, enough of them fall back into the human realm, drip by drip, where they then attain enlightenment.

After about 100 periods, essentially all of samsara is emptied except about 12,500 of the last stragglers.

Let me know if you have suggestions on how to change the assumptions of the model. Obviously, this is all an estimate, but it does paint a pretty accurate picture of how things are likely to unfold between now and the end of samsara based upon my understanding of the Kadampa teachings.

Modern Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: Nobody is an obstacle to our spiritual practice

February 13, 2021September 2, 2020 Kadampa Ryan Uncategorized

Shantideva asked in the previous verse, what if the person is obstructing our spiritual practice? Then surely we don’t want to wholeheartedly welcome that? There are many people who seem to create obstacles to our practice, such as perhaps our partner or family who think we have joined some crazed cult and we will burn in hell, or whatever. There are those who make noise when we are trying to meditate, there are bills to pay making us have to work, etc. We might have people we need to tend to so never find time to practice. All of these things can be viewed as an obstacle to our practice. But are they really? I think they are only an obstacle to our attachment to engaging in certain forms of practice. We may long to engage in solitary retreat in the woods with only the birds as our company, or we may wish to attend every class and puja at the center, but we can’t due to our life circumstance. Then we start getting frustrated with all of these people and things in our life that prevent us from practicing in the way we want.

What does it mean to practice Dharma? The ancient Kadampas said the essence of Dharma practice was to help others as much as possible and to harm our delusions as much as possible. If we check, almost all of the things we normally consider “obstacles” to our Dharma practice, and therefore feel justified at getting angry at or frustrated with, are actually all opportunities to help others and harm the delusions arising in our mind. What is bad for our self-cherishing is actually good for us. These situations which trigger our delusions are exactly what we need to force us to train in their opponents. Just as a beggar isn’t an obstacle to the practice of giving, so too the arising of delusions in our mind isn’t an obstacle to our practice of training our mind. Quite the opposite, both are essential conditions. With the wisdom mind of patient acceptance, nothing is an obstacle to our practice of Dharma.

(6.103) If, because of my own shortcomings,
I do not practise patience with my enemy,
It is not he, but I, who prevent me from practicing patience,
The cause of accumulating merit.

(6.104) My enemy is the cause of my accumulating the merit of patience
Because without him there is no patience to practise,
Whereas with him there is.
So how does he obstruct my virtuous practice?

(6.105) A beggar is not an obstacle
To people practising giving
Any more than an Abbot is an obstacle
To those wishing to ordain.

(6.106) Indeed, there are many beggars in this world,
But people who harm me are extremely rare.
In fact, if I had not inflicted harm on others in the past,
There would be no one to inflict harm on me now!

If patience is not just an important part of our spiritual training but an essential one, then clearly we need opportunities to practice patience. But perhaps we still feel that other parts of our spiritual training are more important. We think there are other virtues greater than patience, and we feel other people can get in the way of our other trainings? We think of some of the other aspects of our spiritual training, people get in the way. People do get in the way, obstructing our spiritual training, obstructing our virtuous practices. For example we may feel that our family or the people close to us are obstructions to our spiritual training. The fact that we need to care for them is an obstruction.

But what is the real obstruction? Surely one of our greatest obstructions is anger – impatience, anger, hatred in our mind. If we are to remove obstructions to our enlightenment then we must practice patience. Patience is the opponent. We need to use it. And who provides us with the opportunity to practice patience, to apply this opponent, directly and indirectly? The difficult people in our life. If the people in our life were always well-behaved then then we’d be stuck, wouldn’t we, we’d be left with no objects of patience.

What we would like is for everything and everybody to be perfect. Others will never be perfect if you look at them with an imperfect mind. Everybody can be perfect just the way they are if you look at them with a perfect mind of patience. It is perfect for me that you are as screwed up as you are! Ha ha Because we are looking at people in a perfect way, they forge us into perfect Spiritual Guides. How wonderful! It is only difficult people that can forge us into such teachers, not well-behaved people.

Happy Tsog Day: Motivation for doing series

February 10, 2021January 1, 2021 Kadampa Ryan Tsog Days

In Guide to Dakini Land, Geshe-la explains Heruka said, “Practitioners who sincerely practise the tsog offering without missing the two ‘tenth’ days of each month will definitely be reborn in Dakini Land.” A tsog offering is, in effect, an enlightened party. When ordinary beings throw a party, they gather their friends and enjoy objects of delight. In a tsog offering, we generate ourself and others as the Guru-deity, gather together, and collectively accumulate vast merit that is in turn dedicated to gaining Dharma realizations and accomplishing spiritual goals for the sake of all living beings.

Once we take rebirth in the pure land, we will be able to receive teachings and empowerments directly from Heruka and Vajrayogini and be able to swiftly complete our spiritual training. A pure land is like a bodhisattva’s training camp, and once reborn there we will never again take an uncontrolled samsaric rebirth. If we wish to help those we love, we can send emanations – almost like drones or avatars in a video game – into the realms of samsara, but from our perspective, we remain safe in the pure land. Once we reach the pure land, our eventual enlightenment is guaranteed. Geshe-la explains many different ways to guarantee that we attain the pure land, such as reaching tranquil abiding on the generation stage object, reaching the fourth mental abiding on the Mahamudra, or dying with a pure mind of compassion. But the easiest and most certain way of reaching the pure land is to maintain our commitment to practice the tsog offering without missing the two tenth days of each month. Heruka himself explained this. Thus, practicing the tsog offering is like an insurance policy for attaining the pure land. What could possibly be more important than this?

The “tenth” days here refers to the 10^th and 25^th of every month when Kadampa practitioners traditionally engage in a “tsog” offering in the context of the practice Offering to the Spiritual Guide. If we miss a tsog day, we can just make it up on the weekend. If we cannot do it at the center, we can just do it at home on our own. If we cannot do it with physical offerings, we can just do it with imagined ones. If we do not have time to do it and our other daily commitments, we can just imagine our tsog puja indirectly fulfils our other commitments. If we do not have time to do it, we can just do it more quickly. If we cannot do any of that, Venerable Geshe-la says we can just double our normal daily mantra commitment. The point is, we should try find a way to remember tsog days.

To help mark the tsog days myself, and hopefully help others do the same, I am writing this 44-part series of blog posts which I will post on every tenth day over the next two years. During January, which is Heruka and Vajrayogini month, I will post separately on the 10^th and 25^th since they are Vajrayogini and Heruka day respectively, hence 44 parts instead of 48 parts. This series will share my personal thoughts and reflections on engaging in the Offering to the Spiritual Guide sadhana with tsog. Geshe-la encourages us to “make our own commentary” to our practices to try deepen our understanding of them. When Shantideva wrote Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, he said his purpose in doing so was to consolidate his own thinking about the bodhisattva’s path, and if others received benefit from his explanations, then all the better. In the same way, I do not pretend that this explanation is in any way definitive – for that, we have the book Great Treasury of Merit – rather, I will share what my current understanding is of the practice. I write it to help consolidate my own experience and understanding of the practice, and if others also find benefit, then all the better.

In my mind, writing and posting this series of posts is my tsog offering to my spiritual guide. By writing it, I offer my practice, my faith, and my effort to try help the Kadam flourish in this world. I pray that those who read this will be inspired to always engage in tsog offerings every tenth day for the rest of their life, and thereby guarantee that they take rebirth in Keajra Pure Land. Once there, may they quickly complete their spiritual training and begin liberating all living beings from the vast, terrible ocean of samsara’s sufferings.

Happy Tara Day: Why we turn to Tara

February 8, 2021January 1, 2021 Kadampa Ryan 7. Kadampa meaning of special days, How to Rely Upon Tara

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

Going for refuge

I and all sentient beings, until we achieve enlightenment,
Go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. (3x)

Je Tsongkhapa explains the primary causes of going for refuge are fear and faith. Fear of lower rebirth, samsaric rebirth, or solitary peace; and faith in the three jewels to provide us protection from these fears. When we engage in Tara practice, even though the refuge prayer we recite is the same as in so many of our other practices, we should mentally generate a specific faith in Tara, understanding her function. In particular, Tara promised Atisha that in the future she would provide special care for all of his followers. Atisha is the founder of the Kadampa tradition, and all Kadampas take his Lamrim as our main practice. Tara is, in many ways, the Buddha of Lamrim. Her mantra reveals that her main function is to bestow upon our mind the realizations of the initial, intermediate, and great scope of Lamrim, thus protectingus from lower rebirth, samsaric rebirth, and solitary peace. Viewing her as our spiritual mother and the Buddha of Lamrim, we go for refuge to her with deep faith.

Generating bodhichitta

Through the virtues I collect by giving and other perfections,
May I become a Buddha for the benefit of all. (3x)

The way we generate bodhichitta is different for each practice we engage in, even if the words we recite are exactly the same. Of course, our compassionate wish to become a Buddha for the sake of all living beings is the same, but the specific flavor of the bodhichitta we generate will depend upon the practice we are doing. The difference is identified in how the practice we are about to engage in contributes to our enlightenment based on its uncommon function. Tara helps us in ways that are different than say Manjushri or Avalokiteshvara, and so generating bodhichitta for Tara practice is different because it is informed by how she helps us. The more clearly we understand her function, the more precisely we will understand how reliance upon her will help move us towards enlightenment, giving our bodhichitta prayers a unique Tara-like flavor. What is Tara’s function? She is our spiritual mother, she helps us gain Lamrim realizations, and she swiftly helps us dispel all fears. We need a spiritual mother, the lamrim realizations, and fearlessness in order to progress swiftly towards enlightenment. Wanting these things and understanding her power to help us attain them, we generate bodhichitta.

Generating the four immeasurables

May all sentient beings possess happiness and its causes,
May they be free from suffering and its causes,
May they never be separated from the happiness that is without suffering,
May they abide in equanimity, without feeling close to some out of attachment or distant from others out of hatred.

As with bodhichitta practice, our practice of the four immeasurables should also have a Tara-like flavor when we recite them. To do so, we should not just generate the four immeasurable wishes in a generic sense, but we should try align ourselves with Tara’s four immeasurable wishes for all living beings. How Tara feels and experiences these four immeasurable wishes will be informed by her own understanding of her function and how she helps people realize these four wishes. If we are to align ourselves with Tara’s blessings, we need to not only generate faith in her, but we need to align our motivation with hers.

When Tara thinks may all sentient beings possess happiness and its causes, she does so as a spiritual mother would. When she thinks may they be free from suffering and its causes, she does so as somebody who has the power to dispel all fears would. When she wishes everyone never be separated from the happiness without suffering, she does so as somebody who has the power to bestow the lamrim realizations of freedom from lower rebirth, samsaric rebirth, and solitary peace would. When she wishes everyone abide in equanimity, she does so as a mother would who loves equally all her children and wishes only that they also love each other. As you engage in the four immeasurables, ask yourself, “how would Tara feel these wishes,” and then try to feel them in the same way she would. This will make your practice particularly powerful and align your mind more precisely with her blessings.

Inviting Arya Tara

From the supreme abode of Potala,
Born from the green letter TAM,
You who liberate migrators with the light of the letter TAM,
O Tara, please come here together with your retinue.

Potala is her Pure Land. Definitive Potala is the clear light Dharmakaya of all the Buddhas. An enlightened mind is the union of the completely purified wind and mind. The completely purified very subtle wind is the vajra body of the Buddha, and the completely purified very subtle mind is the vajra mind of the Buddha. When bodhisattvas are progressing along the Tantric grounds, they imagine that out of the Dharmakaya their vajra body (or illusory body) emerges out of the Dharmakaya. Their very subtle wind takes the form of a seed letter of the future Buddha they are to become. For Tara, her seed letter is the green letter TAM. Once a Buddha attains enlightenment, they send out countless emanations and blessings to help all living beings – these are their emanation bodies. Taken together, this verse means from her inner pure land of Dharmakaya Potala, she emerges as her enjoyment body in the aspect of a letter TAM, which then sends out infinite light rays in all directions ripening and liberating all living beings, who then appear in the aspect of countless Taras surrounding her and the twenty one Taras.

Prostration

Gods and demi-gods bow their crowns
At your lotus feet;
O Liberator from all misfortune,
To you, Mother Tara, I prostrate.

Typically, gods and demi-gods bow to nobody thinking themselves superior to all, but when they are in Tara’s presence, they spontaneously bow their crowns out of respect a her lotus feet. They do not do so out of fear or political loyalty, but deep respect understanding her to be the Holy Mother of all the Buddhas. When we recite that she is the Liberator from all misfortune, we understand that she has the power to liberate all beings who are now around us in the aspect of Taras, and we imagine that all beings spontaneously bow down to her out of love and respect to her as our spiritual mother.

The feeling this evokes for me is like in Game of Thrones with Daenerys Stormborn liberated countless slaves from their masters, and tens of thousands of them spontaneously started calling out to her as Mhysa, their liberating mother. Tara is our Mhysa, and we imagine all living beings surrounding us feel the same loving respect.

Modern Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: Becoming fearless

February 6, 2021September 2, 2020 Kadampa Ryan 2. Modern Bodhisattva's Way of Life

Here, in the chapter on patience, Shantideva is highlighting the connection between the worldly concerns and our anger. We need to abandon the worldly concerns as triggers of our anger. Who helps us to overcome our attachment to worldly concerns? Of course, we can say our spiritual guide, holy beings, enlightened beings, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas. True. True. But what about those who obstruct our worldly happiness? Those who obstruct our worldly happiness, those who damage our good reputation, those who do not acknowledge us in any way, or when they do speak to us they criticize us: these are the people we need in our lives. They help us as spiritual practitioners to overcome our attachment to worldly concerns. So we should develop deep appreciation for them.

Please read the section in 8SH where Geshe-la gives the commentary to the verse “Even if someone I have helped, and of whom I had great hopes, nevertheless harms me without any reason, may I see him as my holy spiritual guide.” These people are like Buddhas teaching us the spiritual path. We should see them as such. They are emanations of my Spiritual Guide. Geshe-la gives several examples of people acting like Buddha, supreme spiritual guide, blessing our mind to purify our negative karma, blessing our mind to develop renunciation, blessing our mind to increase our patience, yeah, and in this way leading us along liberating paths. It is mainly the difficult people in our life that will help us to become holy beings. The people who are kind to us, who are always happy and never make problems are actually generally only helpful for feeding our worldly concerns; it is the difficult people in our life who are our real spiritual benefactors. They basically force us to practice, and if we are honest, without them pushing us as they do, we would quickly become lazy and practice much, much less. They will help us become the perfect teachers that our spiritual guide wants us to be. Rather than getting angry with them, why cannot we learn to appreciate them? Why cannot we learn to appreciate how important, how necessary they are for our spiritual development.

(6.102) “Don’t they obstruct your virtuous practice?”
No! There is no virtuous practice greater than patience;
Therefore, I will never get angry
With those who cause me suffering.

I think it’s good to imagine actually what transformation would take place in our mind if we stopped pushing things away out of anger or hatred, if we stopped pushing things out of our mind. Imagine what transformation would take place if we stopped distancing ourselves, separating ourselves from objects of anger, objects of hatred. What transformation would take place if we were to accept wholeheartedly everything we presently find difficult. Welcoming into our heart not just the good but the bad too. Equally. We can imagine and then we could ask ourselves, what do I need to protect myself from? I think now we can understand how it really does function to weaken our self-cherishing, to weaken our self-grasping. What would we need to protect ourselves from? Self-cherishing serves to protect our I.

Can you imagine if we were to welcome wholeheartedly, welcome into our heart without any hesitation, without any resistance, all things that we presently find difficult? So how can there be any virtuous practice greater than patience? “Therefore I will never get angry with those who cause me suffering but I will welcome them.”

When people are worried about something bad happening, the normal reaction is for people to say, “that is unlikely to happen” as a way of consoling ourselves or others. It is true, all worry and all anger tend to exaggerate the so-called bad, and part of that often involves exaggerating the probability of something bad happening. Different people process risk in different ways, and for some, even a 1% chance of something happening is experienced as if it is a 100% certainty to happen. To helping reduce the perceived likelihood of something bad happening does indeed lessen our worry. There is nothing wrong with that.

But is that good enough? No, because we still think, “but it might happen,” and worry. Why do we still worry? Because we are still grasping at the thing we are worried about as being inherently bad – if this happens, it would be “bad.” Patient acceptance is the opposite way of thinking. It stares straight into the abyss saying, “even if XYZ happened, it is not only not bad, it is something I would welcome wholeheartedly.” We can welcome it wholeheartedly, we feel no need to push it away, because we know we will be able to transform its arising into a cause of our own or others’ enlightenment. It is not a bad thing, it is rocket fuel for our spiritual progress. So we don’t fear it happening, we can accept it wholeheartedly without feeling any need to push it away. If we have this mind, then all worry disappears. Yes, it might happen, but that is OK too. No problem. We fear nothing.

Modern Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: How to develop equanimity with respect to worldly concerns

January 30, 2021September 2, 2020 Kadampa Ryan 2. Modern Bodhisattva's Way of Life

(6.98) Praise and so forth distract me from virtue,
Weaken my disillusionment with samsara,
Cause me to envy others’ good qualities,
And undermine everything that is beneficial.

(6.99) Therefore, those who conspire
To prevent me from being praised
Are really acting to prevent me
From falling into the lower realms!

(6.100) I, who seek liberation, have no need for wealth or a good reputation
For they only keep me bound in samsara;
So why should I get angry
With those who free me from this bondage?

(6.101) Those who cause me suffering
Are like Buddhas bestowing their blessings.
Since they lead me to liberating paths,
Why should I get angry with them?

At present, we do not yet have equanimity about the eight worldly concerns (or at least I don’t). We know we prefer happiness to suffering. We prefer wealth to poverty. We prefer praise to criticism. We prefer a good reputation to a bad reputation. Who doesn’t? What is the result of this preference in our mind? We remain worldly. As was mentioned in an earlier post, as long as we’re concerned with such things our Dharma practice will not be a pure Dharma practice. We will be distracted from spiritual paths, pure spiritual paths. We won’t really be interested in liberation. Rather, we will continue to make or try to make our daily samsaric life work better. We’ll invest the majority (if not all) of our energy trying to make it enjoyable and comfortable, to get on the right side of the worldly concerns, and continue to push away and reject our suffering. As long as we have preference for worldly concerns, we are not going to get out of samsara, instead we will seek to make ourselves more comfortable in it. A Bodhisattva doesn’t need to do this because they can transform and embrace their suffering. They have no preference for a happy day, because they realize that happy days are deceptive and difficult days are blessings.

We need to train gradually over a long period of time to develop genuine equanimity with respect to each of the eight worldly concerns. But we need to be clear what this means. At present, we prefer happiness, wealth, praise, and a good reputation, viewing all of these as causes of our happiness. We then hear we need to have equanimity towards the eight worldly concerns, and we think about how we can transform suffering, poverty, criticism, and a bad reputation into the spiritual path. Assuming we can do so, have we actually developed genuine equanimity with respect to the eight worldly concerns at that point? Shantideva with these verses clearly tells us no. Equanimity doesn’t mean we still have attachment towards the “good” stuff, and transform into the spiritual path the “bad” stuff, we need to equally transform both the “good” and the “bad” stuff into the spiritual path to have genuine equanimity towards the eight worldly concerns.

To do that, we need to transform happiness, wealth, praise, and a good reputation from being objects of attachment into objects of lamrim. In many ways, this is harder than transforming the unpleasant side of the worldly concerns into the path because we want to transform suffering into the path to make it tolerable, we don’t want to transform pleasant things into the path because we are worried we will then lose our enjoyment of these things in the process – and we don’t want to do that. With these verses, Shantideva helps us shatter our attachment to these things by showing how each one of them – if related to as an object of attachment – is actually a cause of lower rebirth, not happiness. In many ways, as long as our mind is controlled by attachment, these things are actually dangerous!

We need to be crystal clear, pleasant feelings, wealth, praise, and a good reputation in and of themselves are neutral (technically, they are nothing in and of themselves). They are not intrinsically good, bad, objects of attachment, or objects of lamrim. What they are for us depends entirely upon our mind. Geshe-la explains in Heart Jewel that Great Wisdom is understanding clearly and unmistakenly what are the objects to be abandoned and what are the objects to be attained. Such wisdom can distinguish between wealth as an object of attachment and wealth as an object of lamrim. Wealth is not an object of abandonment, but wealth as an object of attachment is.

So how do we transform each of these “good” things into objects of lamrim? We can view each thing through the lens of initial scope, intermediate scope, great scope, and tantric practice. If we use wealth as an example, attachment to wealth can cause us to engage in all sorts of negative actions, which propel us into lower rebirth. Attachment to wealth can prevent us from becoming disillusioned with samsaric existence, and thus apply no effort to get out. Attachment to our wealth can make us miserly and selfish, thus interfering with developing the mind of giving – one of the six perfections. Attachment to wealth makes us grasp at inherently existent causes of happiness, thus strengthening our ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions (the main objects of abandonment on the tantric path). All of these show the disadvantages of attachment to wealth. But how can we view wealth in a virtuous way? Wealth can however also be very helpful because with it we feel less need to steal. We can use our wealth to fund engaging in our Dharma practice or retreats to escape ourselves from samsara. Wealth can be used to engage in the practice of giving, including to spiritual causes, such as funding Dharma centers. Wealth can also be viewed as an offering to ourselves or others generated as the deity. We can use the same way of reasoning to understand how happiness, praise, and a good reputation can be transformed from being objects of attachment to objects of lamrim.

Happy Protector Day: Introduction to series

January 29, 2021January 10, 2021 Kadampa Ryan Protector Days

The 29^th of every month is Protector Day, when we emphasize our reliance upon the Dharma Protector for the New Kadampa Tradition. In order to strengthen our connection with him, increase our faith in him, and learn how to practically rely upon him, on the 29^th of every month, I will explain my understanding of how to rely upon Dorje Shugden, our Dharma protector. All of Dharma essentially has one purpose: to bring the mind under control. Delusions are that which make our mind uncontrolled. For me personally, I overcome about 90% of my delusions “merely by remembering” Dorje Shugden. In this series of posts I will explain how.

Our ability to rely upon Dorje Shugden depends primarily upon one thing: are we a worldly being or a spiritual being. If we are a worldly being, reliance on Dorje Shugden will not work. If we are a spiritual being, reliance on Dorje Shugden will change everything for us – we will never be the same again. All fear, all anxiety, all grasping will vanish. Our mind will become smooth, balanced, flexible and peaceful all of the time.

There is one question we need to ask ourself: what kind of being do I want to be, a worldly being or a spiritual being? A worldly being is somebody who is primarily concerned with securing happiness in this life. Their actions are aimed at securing worldly happiness in this life. A spiritual being is somebody who is primarily concerned with securing happiness of future lives. Their actions are aimed at laying the foundation for happiness in future lives, up to the supreme happiness of full enlightenment.

It is important to understand whether our life is a worldly one or a spiritual one does not depend on what activities or job we do, rather it depends on what mind we do these activities with. Sometimes we think that our families, jobs, vacations and so forth are necessarily ‘worldly’, but this is not the case. They are only worldly if we engage in them with a worldly mind. If we engage in these same activities with a spiritual mind, then they become spiritual activities and part of our spiritual life.

What does it mean to live our life with a spiritual mind? It means what we are looking to get out of a situation is different. For example, I have a close friend who is a very successful businessman. He views everything through the lens of the business opportunity. We went to Magic Mountain together once (Magic Mountain is an amusement park with very big roller coasters, etc.). For my friend, because he looked at things through the glasses of a businessman, what he took home from his trip to Magic Mountain was lessons in business.

For a worldly being, what they are looking to get out of a situation is external happiness in this life. Their actions are aimed at improving their reputation, increasing their resources, receiving praise and experiencing pleasure (and avoiding the opposite of these things). For a spiritual being, what they are looking to get out of a situation is opportunities to train their mind and create good causes. They view situations from the perspective of the opportunity they afford the person to train their mind and create good causes for the future. To be a spiritual being doesn’t mean we do not care about this life, rather it means we also care about future lives. We include future lives in our calculations for how we use today and how we use this life.

Before we can actually become a spiritual being, we have to have at least some belief in future lives. Without such belief, it is difficult to view our life as a preparation for them. So how can we develop some conviction, or at least some virtuous doubt, about the existence of future lives? The definitive reason which establishes everything in the Dharma is emptiness. Emptiness explains that all phenomena, ourselves included, are mere karmic appearance of mind. ‘Mere’ means they are like appearances in a dream, and ‘karmic appearance’ means that these appearances arise from karma. This life and all its appearances are just mere karmic appearances of mind that were triggered by previous minds. The quality of our mind determines the quality of the karma activated. Every karmic seed has a certain duration, and when it exhausts itself the appearance supported by that karma will cease. It is just like during a dream.

The nature of the mind is clarity and cognizing. Clarity means our mind itself is without form, shape, color, etc. If our mind had a color, for example, then everything that appeared to our mind would be that color. It is because it lacks any color that it can perceive or know any color; because it lacks any form, it can know any form and so forth. Cognizing means it has the power to know objects. Lacking form alone is not mind – there are many things that lack form, but do not know. Only something that both lacks form and knows is a mind. Our mind is like a formless field of knowing. It is like a giant container in which new karmic appearances are projected. Think back to two hours ago. What is appearing to our mind now is completely different. What used to appear no longer appears at all, yet our mind itself remains clarity and cognizing. In the same way, when the appearances of this life and this body cease, our mind itself will remain clarity and cognizing, it will just know new appearances.

If none of these ideas work for us, then it is useful to consider even if we are not sure, it is nonetheless better to live our life as if there are future lives. Why? If there are future lives, but we assume there are not, then we won’t be prepared for them when they come and our future will be uncertain. It is like somebody denying that there is a tomorrow. If there are not future lives, but we assume there are, then we will at least be able to have the happiest possible life during this life because a spiritual outlook on life is simply a happier way to relate to the world. Why is this so?

Why is it a good idea to adopt a spiritual way of life? Doing so can make every moment of our life deeply meaningful. Our lives are as meaningful as the goals towards which we work. If our goal is to lead each and every living being to the complete freedom of full enlightenment, then since this is the most meaningful goal, our life in pursuit of this goal will be felt to be full of great meaning. We can find a true happiness from a different source – the cultivation of pure minds.

External happiness, if we check, is really just a temporary reduction of our discomfort. Even if it does provide us with temporary moments of happiness, we have no control over it and so our happiness is uncertain. We feel we cannot be happy without our external objects. In Buddhism, we have identified a different source of happiness – a peaceful mind. If our mind is peaceful, we are happy, regardless of what our external circumstances are. The cause of a peaceful mind is to mix our mind with virtue, such as love, compassion, etc. When we engage in the actions of mixing our mind with virtue, we plant the karmic seeds on our mind which will ripen in the form of the experience of inner peace. Understanding this, we have an infinite source of happiness just waiting to be tapped. When our mind is at peace, we can then enjoy all external things, not just the ones we like.

We are all going to die, and the only things we can take with us are the causes we have created for ourself. Everything else we have we need to leave behind. The only riches we can take with us into our future lives are the karmic causes we have created for ourself. When we think about this carefully, we realize that only they matter. The rest of this life is not guaranteed to happen, but our future lives are, and they are very long. Now is the time to assemble provisions for our future lives. We do not know when we are going to die.

Happy Heruka Day: Enjoying An Ocean of Bliss and Emptiness

January 25, 2021October 12, 2020 Kadampa Ryan 7. Kadampa meaning of special days

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 become a Buddha who 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 his 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. We then share our perspective with others, empowering them to transform their life into a joyful path of good fortune.

For myself, I 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. 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 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 it functions 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. This wisdom knowing the three times is extremely effective for being able to help people because we can see the karmic 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 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.

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. 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. 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 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. 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.

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 which makes merely being in their presence 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 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!

Modern Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: It doesn’t matter what others think

January 16, 2021September 2, 2020 Kadampa Ryan 2. Modern Bodhisattva's Way of Life

(6.92) For the sake of fame and reputation,
People give away their wealth and even sacrifice their lives;
But what good can a few dry words do when we die?
To whom can they bring any pleasure?

(6.93) When people lose their reputation,
They become despondent, like a child
Who cries when the sandcastle he has built
Is washed away by the tide.

Who cares if we have a good reputation or not? We do. We’re very concerned, aren’t we, about what others think of us. It matters, a good reputation matters to us. Why? We need to check what our reasons are to see if they are good reasons. There are two extremes when it comes to what others think of us: We are attached to what they think of us. We think our happiness depends on others liking us and thinking/feeling good about us. Then, we become obsessed with what they think, etc. There is so much suffering with this. The other extreme is not caring at all what others think. Whatever they think is their problem. This also leads to many problems, because then we may act in all sorts of unpleasant ways, say things others aren’t ready to hear, cause others to lose faith in us, etc. The middle way is care what others think for valid Dharma reasons, but not be attached to what anybody thinks. There are many valid reasons for wanting others to think good of us, so we need to be careful to manage our reputation. We want others to be pleasantly disposed towards us so that they respect what we have to say and seek out our advice. We want people to rely upon us to escape from samsara, and they won’t do so if think poorly of us. But ultimately, our own personal happiness, should not depend in any way on what others think of us. We know how to transform whatever others appear to be thinking about us into the path. The best way to ensure that others think well of us is for ourselves to always think well of others.

There are valid reasons for being ‘interested’ in having a good reputation, namely our ability to help people. So we should make an effort to be on good terms with everybody and try to be understood as a good person.

It is worth considering ultimately what are others thinking about us? The answer is ‘nothing.’ There is no other person there thinking anything. It is just our dream arising from our karma. There is a mere appearance of others thinking something about us, but ultimately there is no one there thinking anything. Conventionally speaking, though, yes, there is an appearance of what others think and this does have an effect on our conventional existence. So what are others conventionally thinking about us? What they are karmically determined to do. What they think of us is a karmic echo of how we have thought about others in the past. If we are surrounded by people who think poorly of us it is because in the past we have thought poorly of everyone else. If we want to change what they think about us, we need to change our karma. We can think only good things about others, and gradually others will think only good things about us. We can imagine that when others see us they think Buddha, in this way we can provide real benefit to them.

We should be concerned simply with improving ourself by practicing Dharma purely, and thereby helping others to improve themselves by practicing Dharma. Then we will become a holy being who is naturally respected. We know such people have some power, but we will be using that power in such beneficial ways. We will be helping ourselves. We can improve the quality of our spiritual life, we can improve the quality of others’ lives, spiritual lives, and we can help to further our tradition, this pure tradition that flourishes throughout the world.

Happy Vajrayogini Day: Becoming the Vajra Queen

January 10, 2021January 1, 2021 Kadampa Ryan 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 the 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. Venerable 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?

Venerable 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.

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 the 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, and the extent of our realization of emptiness of all phenomena. The more we improve these three 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.

Kadampa Working Dad

Unifying our spiritual, professional and personal lives into the path

Author: Kadampa Ryan

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Modern Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: It doesn’t matter what others think

Happy Vajrayogini Day: Becoming the Vajra Queen

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