5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

Understanding the three wisdoms and the three lineages

Kadampa Ryan 1. Reflections on doing this website/blog, 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

I am adding this post to the “about this blog” page because I think it helps clarify its nature and purpose.

Some people confuse reliance upon the spiritual guide with fundamentalism.  Venerable Geshe-la explains in Clear Light of Bliss that we should not rely on just the words of Dharma, but rather their meaning.  If we rely on just the words of Dharma, there is a danger that we can become fundamentalist in our understanding of the Dharma.  Fundamentalism arises when we become attached to the literal words of the Dharma at the expense of its meaning.  The literal meaning of the scriptures are correct when interpreted through the lens of how those words are understood by the people who live at the time they were written.  But as cultures change with the flow of time, those same words in a different cultural context produce different meanings.  Our job as practitioners who wish to carry the lineage forward is to gain an understanding of the meaning of the Dharma and carry that forward.  The words that express that meaning will vary from culture to culture and time to time, but the meaning itself is universal and timeless.  Understanding this distinction protects us against the extreme of fundamentalism.

Those who authorize themselves to contemplate and meditate on the Dharma, meaning they test the Dharma they have heard (or read) against their own experience and who develop their own examples, analogies and wordings of the meaning of Dharma, can sometimes be accused by those who remain tightly attached to the literal words of scripture of causing the Dharma to degenerate.  I respectfully disagree.  In fact, I would argue that such a literalist approach in effect causes the degeneration of Dharma because it stunts the growth of the Dharma in the minds of living beings.

To understand this, we must make a distinction between the definitive Dharma and interpretative Dharma.  The definitive Dharma is the inner meaning of the Dharma as understood validly by the minds of superior beings.  It is universal and timeless.  The interpretative Dharma is how the definitive Dharma is expressed in a given cultural-temporal context.  The meaning of the Dharma in ancient Tibet and modern New York City is exactly the same.  But its interpretative presentation can be quite different.  If we fail to make this distinction, there is a risk that we can reject and criticise a perfectly valid interpretative presentation because it doesn’t correspond with our own culturally literalist understanding of the Dharma.  In my view, Venerable Geshe-la’s greatest contribution is he has perfectly transmitted the definitive meaning of the Kadam Dharma into a completely new cultural-temporal context (the modern world).  The book Modern Buddhism is, in my view, the culmination of his efforts.  It is the crown jewel of all of his works.  This doesn’t mean all of the other books are not the transmission of the timeless wisdom of the Kadampa into the modern world, rather it means we can fruitfully interpret all of the other books through the lens of and following the presentation of Modern Buddhism.

This logic also applies at the level of an individual practitioner.  Just as there are those who criticise a modern presentation of the Dharma, there are others who accept the modern presentation of the Dharma but then make the same mistake as the literalists within the context of their own tradition.  These people misinterpret reliance upon the spiritual guide alone as meaning they are not authorized to contemplate and meditate on the Dharma.  When confronted with an insight that is not explicitly in Venerable Geshe-la’s teachings they say, “I don’t remember Venerable Geshe-la ever saying that” and they reject the insight on those grounds alone.  Likewise when they come up with their own insights through their own practice they fail to do anything with them because they are not certain they are reliable because they never heard Geshe-la explicitly say the given idea.  Such an approach to our Dharma practice is safe and good, but it is not good enough.  Taken to an extreme, such an approach can make our Dharma understanding quite rigid, and we develop within ourselves a “parrot like Dharma” not a “heart-felt Dharma.”  A parrot like Dharma is good, but it is not good enough.

To understand this, it is useful to understand the three wisdom and the three lineages.  The three wisdoms are the wisdom arising from listening, the wisdom arising from contemplation and the wisdom arising from meditation.  These three can be understood as follows.  First we listen to (or read) the Dharma and gain an understanding of the wisdom of others.  For example, when we listen to Venerable Geshe-la teach or read his books, we can become very familiar with all that he says and that understanding will give rise to a certain level of wisdom within our mind.  This is very good, but it is not good enough.  We shouldn’t stop there.

Just as there are different cultures and temporal contexts, so too each individual practitioner has a different personal mental context and experience set.  Somebody who has spent their whole life in modern America has a different mental context and experience set than somebody who has spent their whole life in modern Brazil or modern China.  Even two people who both spent their whole life in modern America will have two very different mental contexts and experience sets.  Every individual in fact has a unique mental context and experience set.  Just as the great lineage holders like Atisha, Je Tsongkhapa and (I would argue) Venerable Geshe-la took the definitive meaning of the Dharma and expressed it interpretatively in different cultural-temporal contexts, so too each individual practitioner must take (their understanding of) the definitive meaning of the Dharma and make it their own as understood through their own individual mental context and experience set.  We do this through our own contemplation of and meditation on the Dharma.

When we contemplate the Dharma we take the wisdom we have gained through listening and we test its validity in the context of our own life experience and understanding.  For example, I am an early middle-aged American economist diplomat father of five.  This is the context of my life experience, so I test the validity of the Dharma in the context of my world and experience.  When I do this, the Dharma becomes true for me.  I will develop my own examples, analogies and interpretative expressions (wordings) which generate within my own mind the actual meaning of the Dharma in my own mind.  I will have transferred what was the wisdom of somebody else (my teachers) into my own wisdom.  The Dharma will be true for me.  This is the wisdom arisen from contemplation.  Venerable Tharchin says that our own examples, analogies and reasonings developed through our contemplation of the Dharma are actually more powerful for us because they make the Dharma true for us.  This does not mean they are more powerful for others, though.  Each practitioner must develop their own understandings through contemplating the Dharma they have heard (or read).

The insights we gain from our own contemplation of the Dharma, these insights that make the meaning of the Dharma come alive in our own mind, are our actual objects of placement meditation.  Just as contemplation functions to transform the wisdom arisen from listening into the wisdom arisen from contemplation, so too placement meditation on the wisdom arisen from contemplation transforms the wisdom arisen from contemplation into the wisdom arisen from meditation.  Put in more practical terms when we listen (or read) we gain an understanding of the wisdom of others.  When we contemplate we transform this wisdom into our own personal wisdom.  When we meditate we make this personal wisdom, as Venerable Tharchin describes it, “an acquisition of our personality.”  For example, first we generate an undertanding of what is compassion.  Then we generate compassion in our own mind.  Then we become a compassionate person.

Understanding the three wisdoms helps us understand the three lineages of Kadam Dharma.  The true lineage is not the words written on paper or uttered by the guru, rather the true lineage is the continuum of direct realization of the definitive meaning of Dharma from teacher to disciple.  There is probably a technical name for it, but I call the three lineages the outer lineage, the inner lineage and the secret lineage.  The outer lineage is the wisdom arisen from listening (or reading).  I call it the outer lineage because its basis is a manifest object, namely the words on paper or the words of or examples set by our lineage gurus.  The inner lineage is the wisdom arisen from contemplation.  I call it the inner lineage because its basis is a hidden object, namely the personal examples, analogies and experiences within the mind of an individual practitioner.  The secret lineage is the wisdom arisen from meditation.  I call it the secret lineage because it is only open to those who gain personal experience of the Dharma and make the realization of it an acquisition of their personality.  The definitive secret lineage is the Dharma as directly realized with our own very subtle mind of great bliss.  This lineage only arises in the minds of qualified highest yoga tantra practitioners.

How do we know whether our understandings or insights gained through contemplation or meditation are reliable?  There is of course the danger when we contemplate or meditate on the Dharma that we can generate wrong understandings and mistake them for being definitive meanings.  So how do we protect ourselves against that?  Like a good scientist testing their hypotheses, there are several tests we can perform.  First, we can ask ourselves, “does this insight or understanding contradict any known instruction?”  If yes, try again.  If no, we can apply the second test, “is this insight or understanding the natural consequence of all known instructions?”  If no, try again.  If yes, we can apply the third test, “Dorje Shugden, if this understanding is reliable may it flourish within my mind, if it is not please reveal to me how it is wrong and what is in fact correct.”  Dorje Shugden is a Dharma protector.  He does not only protect the outer pure lineage of Je Tsongkhapa, but also the inner and secret lineages.  We request him to confirm correct understandings and to sabotage incorrect understandings.  If we replace our own attachment to our own views with a faith in Dorje Shugden, he will ensure we always stay on the correct inner and secret paths.

How does all of this relate to this blog?  This blog can be understood as me putting into my own words my understanding of the Dharma.  It is my interpretative expression of the inner universal meanings I have understood.  It should NEVER be misinterpreted as me attempting to poffer definitive meanings of the Dharma.  The only truly reliable Dharma texts are those provided to us by our lineage gurus.  The meanings gained from contemplating and meditating on those are reliable.  In the spirit of Shantideva, this blog is my putting into my own words what I have understood.  For me, putting the meaning of Dharma into my own words is a method for clarifying, deepening and consolidating my own understandings.  If other people receive some benefit from it, then all the better.  But no reader should ever confuse the words written in this blog as being intended to be offered as definitive, qualified Dharma.  Rather, it is a sharing of my own experience and understanding.

My hope is simple:  If what I write in this blog is wrong, I hope others will help point out the errors of my thinking so that I can improve my understanding.  If other Kadampa practitioners are coming to similar conclusions through their own listening to, contemplating of and meditating on the Dharma, then the blog can provide a platform for the sharing of such experience.

Reflections on key requests/dedications

Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden
It is not just ’May I take my place in VGL’s mandala,’ it is “May I fulfill my role within VGL’s mandala.”
I make requests as follows:
1.  I entrust my life to you, please do with me what you wish.
2.  Please protect and guide my retreat.
3.  Please help me to be ready to leave by the end of this life.
4.  May my every action be aimed at building my pure land, so that I may guide ALB1 from the deepest hell to the highest enlightenment.
5.  May I take my place and fulfill my role within VGL’s mandala.

 

Our main practice: faith in the wisdom Buddha Je Tsongkhapa

Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

At the Summer Festival this year, Gen-la Dekyong said something astounding.  She said that Venerable Geshe-la admits to having only one realization:  “Faith in the wisdom Buddha Je Tsongkhapa.  But this is enough.”  This was a message she emphasized many times during her teachings.  It was clear that her main and indeed only practice is reliance upon her Spiritual Guide.  This is our Guru’s main practice, and so therefore all of his teachings should be viewed through this lens.

How can we understand this?  First, we must understand who is Je Tsongkhapa and second we understand how faith alone is enough.  Who is the wisdom Buddha Je Tsongkhapa?  He is the synthesis of all three jewels in Kadampa form.  He is the embodiment of all good in Kadampa form.  He is the union of all of the compassion, wisdom and spiritual power of all of the Buddhas in Kadampa form.  According to Highest Yoga Tantra he is known as Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka.  Guru means he is by nature our Spiritual Guide.  Sumati means he is the Je Tsongkhapa of Sutra.  Buddha means he is Buddha Shakyamuni.  Heruka means he is Buddha Heruka, in particular Dharmakaya Heruka.  Each of these four are aspects of one being, him.   In short, he is the embodiment of the Kadampa path of Sutra and Tantra.  For us Kadampas, he is the highest and supreme object of refuge.   Within our tradition, we view all of the different deities as being emanated by Je Tsongkhapa.  The main deities on the Kadampa path are Buddha Shakyamuni, Buddha Vajradyara, Manjushri, Avalokitehsvara, Vajrapani, Dorje Shugden, Heruka and Vajrayogini.  Reliance on Dorje Shugden deserves particular mention.  We are to very clearly understand that Je Tsongkhapa and Dorje Shugden are actually two different aspects of the same being.  So it is impossible for us to deny one and affirm the other.  Venerable Geshe-la has also made it very clear that we are to realize this dual nature of Je Tsongkhapa and Dorje Shugden.  All of the polemics with the Dalai Lama/Dorje Shugden issue can be seen in this light.

Why is faith in him enough?  We can understand this by understanding the relationship between faith and realization.  Faith begins with believing faith.  Believing faith is we believe in an object of Dharma based on valid reasons.  Valid reasons derive from logic and our own personal experience of the truth of Dharma.  When we have believing faith of an object of Dharma, such as cherishing others is the root of all happiness and cherishing ourself is the root of all suffering, then we naturally come to admire that object of Dharma, marveling at how incredible it is!  This is admiring faith.  When we admire something, then we naturally want that thing for ourself, for example wanting to have the realization that sees the truth of cherishing self and others.  This wishing faith then naturally leads to effort in our practice to gain this realization.  From our effort comes the actual attainments, in this case our realization of exchanging self with others.  So the meaning here is faith alone sets in motion this chain of events, which fall naturally and automatically like dominos.

So why is faith in the wisdom Buddha Je Tsongkhapa alone enough to assure the final attainment of enlightenment?  Because the wisdom Buddha Je Tsongkhapa is the very embodiment of the Kadampa path.  By generating believing faith in all of his amazing good qualities of body, speech and mind we will later naturally and automatically eventually attain all of the attainments of wisdom Buddha Je Tsongkhapa within our own body, speech and mind.  The book Great Treasury of Merit is our root text for generating believing faith in all of his good qualities.  From this it is clear that faith alone in the wisdom Buddha Je Tsongkhapa “is enough.”

It is quite significant that our Spiritual Guide has admitted to only one quality.  He is doing so to reveal to us that this is the most important thing.  It is not unlike Christians whose main practice is faith in Jesus.  Since Western and modern culture are profoundly influenced by Christian norms and values, it seems only natural that the adaptation of Kadampa Buddhism to the modern context would function best when faith in the supreme object of refuge of the path is the main and sufficient practice. Realizing this fully will take the tradition light years ahead in terms of being able to seamlessly integrate Kadampa Buddhism into modern life.  Gen-la Dekyong said that the mission of the tradition is to attain the union of modern life and Kadampa Buddhism.

This has helped me recall that reliance upon the Spiritual Guide is the sole activity on the path.  But more than this, it has deepened this understanding tremendously because it provides exact specificity as to how we are to do it – namely by generating faith in the wisdom Buddha Je Tsongkhapa.  Thus I am going to make this my main practice at least between now and Portugal.  I’m excited to get started!

The importance of receiving teachings

Kadampa Ryan 4. Practicing in Daily Life, 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

Another fundamental thing I was reminded of at this Summer Festival is the importance of receiving teachings.  Unfortunately, due to the absolutely crazy karma that I have had over the last several years, about January 2010 I stopped doing my correspondence FP classes.  I have consistently been on FP or TTP since 1995, so this marked a major milestone on my spiritual path.  If I check honestly, I stopped for two reasons – one valid, one not valid.  The valid reason for stopping was given all that I had going on, I simply couldn’t keep up with it, even at a very slow pace.  Sometimes this may happen in life, but if we are lucky it will only be for very small patches of time.  The not so valid reason is since I felt like I could successfully transform my every day into a teaching through my “faithful mind of a student” (to the extent that I had one), I didn’t feel like I needed it any more.

The problem with this second reason is it is very short-sighted.  The only reason why I didn’t feel like I needed it was because I was riding high on the mountain of merit and blessings I had accumulated and received from the previous 15 years of intensive study.  But how did I get that merit and those blessings in the first place?  By receiving teachings and putting into practice what I was learning.  Eventually this merit will exhaust itself and the blessings will dissipate and then I will fall back.

Additionally, when you are not receiving new teachings, you are not being exposed to new ideas and points of view on the Dharma.  What happens then is new experiences bounce around the structure of Dharma you have already built within your mind, revealing new things about the interactions of what you know, but it doesn’t take you beyond your narrow understanding of the ocean of Dharma that has been revealed to us by our Spiritual Guide.  When we are exposed to new ideas and points of view on the Dharma, the structure of Dharma within our mind not only deepens it broadens.  So without new teachings, it is very easy to stagnate on the path.

Further, in general new understandings of the Dharma only arise in our mind in dependence upon oral transmission blessings. The importance of these is often under estimated.  We think, yeah, they are important, but they are not that big of a deal.  This view is not correct.  We can understand why by considering the emptiness of receiving Dharma teachings.  The Dharma is transmitted mind to mind, like a Vulcan mind meld, almost.  Literally, at a profound level, what is happening when we receive teachings is the teacher is transferring/transmitting their own personal experience of the Dharma into the minds of the students.  Conventionally this happens through “listening”.  The mental realizations of the teacher take on a grosser form of speech.  When the student “listens” to the teachings (as opposed to merely hearing them), the realization then gets transferred into the student’s mind.  The more faith the student has, the more fully and deeply they “listen”.  When we don’t listen to Dharma teachings, we don’t receive these oral transmission blessings, and as such we are largely on our own without a teacher.  We might think that if we have a faithful mind of a student we can receive teachings directly from our guru through our daily lives.  This is true, we can do this.  But surely the teachings of our Spiritual Guide pass through “the sound of Dharma” more fully than they do through other sounds (due to their nature being pure).  So receiving teachings through our daily life is good, but it is no substitute for receiving traditional teachings.

And this points to an important relationship.  One one hand, we have the extreme of thinking that we can only receive teachings through attending traditional teachings.  This view arises from a limited understanding of how the guru can reveal the Dharma to us.  On the other hand, you have the extreme of thinking you don’t need any traditional teachings at all.  This view falsely derives from the observation that it is possible to receive teachings through everything, therefore thinking that because that is the case I no longer need teachings.  But just as the sound of Dharma carries more Dharma than non-Dharma sounds, so too the entire experience of attending teachings teaches more Dharma than our non-teaching experiences.  The middle way between these two extremes is to attend as many traditional teachings as your karma allows while maintaining the faithful mind of a student in all of our daily activities so as to receive teachings through everything.

In my personal case, this means attending as many of the major festivals as my karma allows and starting up again my FP studies.  I was fortunately able to make it to this Summer Festival.  I can’t do the Summer Festival next year because I will be back in Washington on a mandatory training.  But, since I will be in DC next Fall, I should be able to take maybe 2-3 days to attend the Fall Festival in Portugal where Venerable Geshe-la will be granting the Prajnaparamita empowerment and giving an “oral transmission” of the his new book, “The New Heart of Wisdom.”  So I should really do everything I can to try attend, especially since this very well might be the last teaching Venerable Geshe-la gives before he passes on.  This is a must.  As far as my FP studies are concerned, what I can do is substitute one day of my normal daily practice with listening to a teaching by correspondence.  This I should normally be able to do.  I can also use this time I have this Summer when the family is in the U.S. to listen to as many teachings as I can.  I feel very fortunate in that I am able to receive teachings from Venerable Tharchin, arguably the most experienced meditater in the tradition.  For those who don’t know him, he teaches the entire tradition how to do retreat.

The point is this:  each one of us has our own karmic circumstance.  All of us, however, can follow the same principle – namely we receive as much traditional teachings our karma allows while viewing the rest of our experiences as teachings being revealed to us through our daily lives.  This, to me, seems to be the middle way.

The importance of reconnecting with Sangha

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

I just got back from the Summer Festival.  I have been going to Summer Festivals every year since 1995, but due to all of the karmic changes in my life over the last few years, for the first time I wasn’t able to make it in 2010 and 2011.  I tried to go to Brazil, had bought my ticket, taken my vacation time, but stupidly didn’t bother to check whether or not I needed a visa until it was too late.  So this is the longest I have gone without being at a festival and reconnecting with my global spiritual family.  It was so nice to be able to go to the festival, reconnect with old friends and receive live teachings.

It is amazing how at a festival Dorje Shugden manages for you to have a personalized festival meeting up with everyone you need to and having the conversations you need to have.  Some of the highlights for me were as follows:

  1. I was able to meet Venerable Tharchin, who I consider to be my main teacher for more than a decade now.  Normally when I meet with him, I just babble on and never listen.  So this time I said I was going to talk little so that I can listen more.  In fact, I even told him that in the meeting as a joke, but I made a new mistake this time!  I didn’t walk into the meeting with a question in my heart.  So when I told him I want to listen, I stopped talking and then he just stared at me in silence…  It was a very powerful teaching in and of itself, namely whenever we go for refuge, be it a meeting with your teacher, a live teaching or in your prayers, we should always have a question in our heart.  How can we receive answers if we don’t have questions?
  2. I was able to meet with one of my old teachers.  She is now the Resident Teacher at Manjushri.  I haven’t really spoken with her much in a few years, and like me, she has been in a period of karmic flux over the last few years.  It was very nice to speak with her.  She started out the meeting by saying we don’t really give advice any more, rather we share our experience and people take from it what they want.  For about the next hour, she then proceeded to tell an elaborate tale about jealousy, how attachment to what other people think of you prevents the flourishing of the Dharma, and how her job now is to just love people.  She had an amazing ability to see deeply into the hearts of others, see what their core problem is, and bring it to the surface so that we can work through it.  Even though she was just “telling a story” for me, it functioned as a very powerful teaching about something deep in my heart.  Amazing!  It was really great to see her again.
  3. I was able to have good, long conversations with two very dear friends from my time when I was in Paris about 14 years ago.  We have seen each other at various festivals over the years, but never really had the opportunity to have a real deep conversation about how each was doing and what we have been working on in our practice.  One friend has basically spent the last decade in hell, but through sincere reliance has managed to change himself completely.  He said what enabled him to change was realizing that “identifying our delusions is itself a spiritual practice, and even if we spend our whole life doing just that, it is a well used spiritual life.”  Because he didn’t realize this before, the more he would study Dharma the more he would see his faults, and therefore the more he would beat himself up over being inadequate.  So far from making him happier, he would feel worse and worse about himself robbing him of any joy.  But when he realized becoming aware of our faults is itself a spiritual training he was able to accept where he was at and therefore create the space to change himself as opposed to beat himself up.  With another friend, I was able to realize I have had all sorts of jealousy, competitiveness and insecurity towards him, but through talking we were able to both have a good laugh at our respective delusions and reestablish that vajra brother bond.
  4. I was able to spend a good deal of time with my fellow Kadampa in the blogosphere, Vide Kadampa, author of the blog “Daily Lamrim” (in the links section).  It was truly amazing how much we have in common in terms of our outlook and approach to the Dharma.  We discussed the benefits and potential pitfalls of doing a blog (also subject of a future post), but mostly we talked about starting on the Tantric path.  He has laid a fantastic foundation of Lamrim, and we discussed how to integrate our lamrim practice into our Tantric practice.  He too is a Kadampa Working Dad, and somebody I cherish very much as a close Dharma friend.

I have much more I will write about my experience at the Summer Festival, but an additional resolution I have made is to make my blog postings shorter and more readable.  So I will sign off here for now.  The main point is the virtual world is great for being able to maintain your connection with your global Sangha family, but it is no substitute for reconnecting with your spiritual family live.  While sometimes our karma may not allow it, in our heart we should always maintain the wish to be with them and to reconnect with them every opportunity we get.  In my view, this is vital for our continued spiritual progress and has the added benefit of creating the causes to meet once again our spiritual tradition in all our future lives between now and our eventual enlightenment!

Reflections on reliance upon Dorje Shugden

Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden
Dorje Shugden is my real Sangha now.  I need to surrender my life entirely to him.  I need to surrender my retreat to him and his control.  He emanates exactly what I need to work on, and my job is to practice Dharma in the face of whatever arises.  He has the power to harness my virtuous and negative karma for my enlightenment.  
 
Ultimately, I need to completely surrender myself to DS and see what happens.
 
The request for this life can be ‘please help me to be ready to leave at the end of this life.’  This eliminates the pride of it is a given while still keeping the value of having made a definitive decision to leave at the end of this life.  It also specifies what I must do between now and then, namely get ready.
 
It is also a good idea for me to start doing the full Dorje Shugden part because it is by wishing for the Dharma to flourish and be protected in the world that I create the causes for it to flourish in my mind and in my world.  My whole world (whole mind) need to be freed, not just me.  For this to happen, the whole world must have pure spiritual teachings and wish to follow them.  For myself, I apply effort to gain realizations so that I can later help others with them.  If I gain realizations with this intention, then the conditions will arrange themselves for me to be able to share them.  For others, I pray to Dorje Shugden that he cares for them in the most appropriate ways according to their karmic dispositions.  I am currently quite limited in what I can do directly for others, but he is without limit.  They are my spiritual children, but I lack the ability to care for them.  I must entrust them into his care.  To not do so is to neglect them.  What good parent neglects their children?
 
These are some of the dedications/requests I make to Dorje Shugden:
 
1.  I offer you every atom in my body, every thought in my mind, every appearance in my world, please use them all for the enlightenment of all beings.
 
2.  I entrust my life completely to you.  Please do with me whatever needs to be done.
 
3.  Please purify everything that stands in the way of you completely taking over my life, internally and externally.
 
4.  Please protect and guide my retreat.
 
5.  Please do not let me arrive at death not being ready to go to the pure land.
 
6.  May my every action be dedicated to building my pure land.
 
7.  Please help me to take my place within VGL’s holy mandala.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I should request Dorje Shugden, “I entrust my life to you, please be my enlightened Game Master.”
 
If you engage in the mental action of recognizing everything that appears as having been emanated by Dorje Shugden, this mental action plants the karma on your mind to have this actually be the case in the future, where everything that does arise is indeed emanated by him.  This mental action gives him the karmic material to work with.  Further, by adopting this recognition now, he enters into every appearance that appears now, and through this you receive his wisdom blessings.  His blessings function to bestow upon you the wisdom to understand how everything that does arise is indeed perfect for your enlightenment and that of all living beings.  With this understanding, there is no basis for generating delusions with respect to anything that arises.  
 
I need to have DS take over my entire world, not only for me but for all of the beings in my dream.  The pure world I am building has him as its govenor.  I request him to manage and govern this world, so that everything that karmic ally arises is perfect for the swiftest possible enlightenment of each and every living being.  I request that he takes all the beings of my dream into his loving care and protection.  That everything that arises to the mind of every being function as a powerful cause of their enlightenment.  I request that things not be uncontrolled by the SC mind, but controlled by him.  By me making these requests and maintaining this recognition, it will become the reality of my dream.  In the short run, in the form of wisdom blessings; and in the long run, in the form of karmic emanations arising from these mental actions.  I will gain the wisdom to be able to understand how anything that happens to anybody is actually perfect for their enlightenment, then I simply share my perspective with them.  They can then come to see how it is perfect for them as well, and then they can happily relate to their adversity in this way.  Then we can use the suffering generated by SC as a means of destroying it.  Also, by making these requests, I create the causes for him to take over my life and to protect me.
 
Dorje Shugden is not limited to managing what externally arises, but he is more powerful at managing what internally arises.  I have weakly relied upon him for that.  He is even more powerful for what secretly arises.  I have not relied upon him at all for that.  Much of my motivation of late has been aimed at whatever is best for these external changes.  This is good, but it is largely a worldly motivation.  I need to not lose sight of the bigger picture.
 
 
My requesting DS to take over the management of your karmic dream, requesting him to use every appearance for the enlightenment of all beings, and then adopting the view that this is now the case, everything is indeed arising in this way (believing faith) then you will gain the wisdom that sees how this is in fact the case.  Then nothing will be a problem for you, and you will have the wisdom necessary to help others see things the way you do and thereby they will not have a problem with anything either.  In this way, you transform your samsaric world into the experience of being in the pure land.  Then, in dependence upon this view and these mental actions over a long period of time, you plant the karma on your mind so that this becomes your living reality.  Then you are actually in the pure land.

A mind of spiritual adventure

Kadampa Ryan 4. Practicing in Daily Life, 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

The nature of samsara is uncertainty.  Why is this?  The teachings on emptiness explain that the world is created by our minds.  All things are mere karmic appearances of mind.  At present, our mind is under the influence of delusions.  Delusions function to render our mind uncontrolled – we never know what it is going to do and we have little to no control over how it reacts or operates.  An uncontrolled, uncertain, unpredictable mind creates, then, an uncontrolled, uncertain and unpredictable world.

Given that we have not yet purified our mind of its negative karma, this is a very dangerous state of affairs.  At any point, our mind could do something stupid, this will then trigger or activate the negative karmic potentialities on our mind, giving rise to karmic situations we would rather avoid, situations that we experience as suffering – in simple terms, problems!  Not wanting problems, we then become anxious and worry about what could happen.  So uncertainty in our lives creates a good deal of mental suffering.

So what is the solution to this?  Until we gain perfect control over our minds (which might take awhile…), we cannot eliminate uncertainty in our lives.  Instead, what we need to do is find a more constructive way of relating to this inevitability.  How can we do this?  By adopting the mind of spiritual adventuring.

There are many people in this world who love adventure.  America grew out of this mind – trekking out into the unknown, uncertain about what we will find, but relishing the opportunity to explore and grow through the challenges we will find.  Many people today pack their backpacks and fly out to other countries to go explore.  Millions of young people today spend countless hours playing adventure-related video games in interactive virtual worlds.  The desire for adventure is likewise a fundamental aspect of the human psyche.

What kills this mind of adventure is worry about whether what happens will be ‘bad’ for us.  To keep, then, the mind of spiritual adventure alive we need some protection to make sure whatever happens on our adventure is good for us and for those we love.  In other words, we need controlled, protected adventure.  So how can we get that?  By relying upon Dorje Shugden – to go further, by surrendering all of our karma into his care.

Dorje Shugden’s job is to provide us with the perfect conditions we need for our practice of the stages of the path.  He does not provide us with the perfect conditions for our laziness and attachment.  These are two fundamentally different things.  His constraint in helping us is the karmic material he has to work with on our own mind.  He cannot magically emante things for us if we have not created the karma to have things appear to our mind.  But what he can do is activate karmic seeds on our mind giving rise to certain appearances.  Our mind of faith in him then opens our mind to receive his wisdom blessings which helps us understand how what appears to our mind is in fact perfect for our practice.  Then we don’t worry anymore.  It may be a challenging situation, but we know it is one that has been activated by him and so is therefore within our capacity and contains the mental challenges that we need to take the next steps along the path.  Life is still uncertain, but this uncertainty is not worrisome.  Rather, it is our spiritual adventure led and simulated by our Dharma protector.
 
Your turn:  Explain how something unexpected in your life can be viewed as part of your spiritual adventure.
 

What it feels like to be Heruka in Keajra

Kadampa Ryan 4. Practicing in Daily Life, 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

My main job is to build my pure land, to literally transform myself into Keajra. A qualified self-generation is not just a picture, but is rather a feeling of being Heruka engaging in Heruka’s actions in Keajra, his pure land, for the benefit of all living beings.

The first thing is there is no feeling or trace whatsoever of our ordinary self. To the extent to which there is is the extent to which our self-generation is not qualified.

The following is what each aspect of the mandala feels like.

1. The nature of the mandala. The nature of the mandala is the clear light Dharmakaya. It feels like my mind is one giant Dharmakaya play-dough which can be shaped in any shape. The clear appearance is the aspect or shape, but the thing itself is my mind of great bliss appearing in this aspect to accomplish the function of leading all beings from the deepest hell to the highest enlightenment. It feels like I am a source of light and the clear appearance is a translucence through which I shine wisdom light.

2. The nada. The nada feels simultaneously like the synthesis or condensation of the entire mandala and the doorway through which we directly absorb into the Dharmakaya. It is like the singularity of the big bang from which all things pure emerge. It is like my root mind, or the mental engine powering the entire mandala.

3. Lama Tsongkhapa. It feels like I am the supreme Kadampa Spiritual Guide for the entire universe. I guide each and every being along the path from the deepest hell to the highest enlightenment. I emanate everything else. It is like the story of the person who mistakenly prostrated to his Yidam and not to his Spiritual Guide who was emanating it all. It feels like the condensation of all of Great Treasury of Merit. It feels like being Resident Teacher for a universal Dharma center. All of my experience of having been RT of Atisha center, this is what it feels like.

4. Heruka Father and Mother. Heruka is the Spiritual Father of all beings. He cares for them, provides for them, protects them, sets a good example for them, leads them along correct paths. All of my experience of being a father is aimed at helping me gain the feeling of what it is like to be Father Heruka.

5. Heruka, the Chakravatin King. Heruka is the Chakravatin king of the entire universe/pure land. He is a good king who dedicates himself to serving and empowering his people. All of my experience that I will gain as a diplomat is aimed at helping me gain this feeling of what it is like to be a benevolent Chakravatin King. Keajra is my realm, and I use my power and abilities for the benefit of my people.

6. Heruka, the indestructible drop. Heruka Father and Mother are by nature the indestructible drop. The goal is to gather all winds into this drop where they can be completely purified. The drop feels like a purifying spa for all impure winds.

7. Heruka, the principal of the body mandala. This has a feeling of being the supreme spiritual doctor/surgeon who, with the help of the nurses of the other deities of the body mandala, is moment by moment healing the subtle body of all beings. All physical illness comes from mental illness, all mental illness comes from delusions, all delusions come from imbalances or illness within the subtle body. Heruka and the Body Mandala function to heal all imperfections within the subtle body. So it feels like I am healing and repairing the subtle bodies of all living beings so that their winds can flow effortlessly into the indestructible drop (see #6).

8. The Great Bliss Wheel. This has two aspects, the deities and the objects of offering. The deities function principally to balance the four inner elements. Most illness comes from imbalance, and these deities do the final balancing of the four inner elements, giving rise to a feeling of full healthfulness (spiritual, mental, physical, etc.). The objects of offering represent the five completely purified objects of desire which I offer freely like a blissful banquet to all living beings.

9. The deities of the Mind, Speech and Body wheels. While by nature aspects of my Dharmakaya mind, and so therefore part of me, they feel like two main things: first, they are my spiritual nurses who each specialize in healing a specific aspect of the subtle bodies of all living beings. It feels like we are in the process of healing all of their subtle bodies. They are also the supreme Sangha friends. Again, the feeling of Atisha center. We had a feeling of being a real family and true friends of one another. All of the body mandala feels like a good Dr.’s office where the doctor and all of the staff are focused sincerely and single-pointedly on taking good care of all the patients. Imagine what a good Dr.’s office should be like, and this is what it is like. All of my experience with my father’s office helps me get a feeling for what it feels like.

10. The deities of the commitment wheel. They represent principally the sense doors of all living beings, they function to purify their sense doors so that everything they perceive is the completely pure mandala. It feels like I am bestowing upon them this sight, this perception, this point of view. It is like an eye surgeon or somebody who provides people with new, pure, sense powers through which they can forever perceive only the purity of Keajra.

11. The Celestial Mansion. This feels like the temple at Manjushri, only more transluscent and stupendeous. It is a school, a temple, in which I teach to all living beings the Kadampa path. At the summit of the temple within the Vajra are the essence of Joyful Path and Essence of Vajrayana, the victory and other banners represent Understanding the Mind, Ocean of Nectar and Great Treasury of Merit, the offering goddeses around represent Meaningful to Behold, etc.

12. Mount Meru. This feels like a series of different levels of pure land that I am emanating for living beings of different capacities and levels of attainment. Within these pure lands are all of the other pure lands of all of the other Buddhas. It also feels like the hill upon which the celestial castle sits from which the lord of the land is able to see his entire realm that he cares for.

13. The continents. These feel like the completely purified versions of the three thousand worlds. It feels like the pure village and community surrounding the celestial castle. All living beings may abide there, within complete purity. It is like the pure abodes for all beings, the universal city of enlightenment.

14. The protection circle. This is like the protective community walls, within which everything is pure and safe. It is like the border of Keajra itself, where everything inside is pure. Nothing impure can even enter. It is like a purifying force field that purifies everything that passes through it. It feels like a giant sphere of transluscent wisdom fire that surrounds everything described so far.

15. The Charnel Grounds. These feel like the surrounding communities outside the castle walls. They are still within the influence and control of Heruka, but they are a bit more wild country. They feel like training grounds emanated by the Chakravatin King and the Supreme Spiritual Guide for the inhabitants of Keajra to go out and train in the path. It is like a simulated samsara where they can practice training their mind in lamrim, lojong, clear appearance and pure conceptions. Everything within them is by nature Dharmakaya Heruka, but their function is to provide situations for training in the path. My ordinary world should feel like this. When I go out into my ordinary world I should correctly see it as the Charnel Grounds. I never leave the pure land, rather I am just in a different part of the pure realm for a different purpose.

16. The realsm of samsara. From the perspective of ordinary living beings, they see the charnel grounds as the six realms of samsara, but I know better. I know they are just seeing things incorrectly and in reality they are the Charnel Grounds. It feels like I am emanating countless emanations into the realms of samsara, but they do not see me as who I really am, they see me as other ordinary beings. But I see how their perception is mistaken. The beings they see appear according to their karmic dispositions, they are like my emanation bodies appearing within their minds/worlds. The literal translation of Avatar is emanation body of God. They are my Avatars through which I lead each and every being towards the center of the mandala from wherever they are, even the pits of the deepest hell.

17. Dorje Shugden’s protection circle and Dorje Shugden himself. Dorje Shugden is like the Prime Minister for the entire pure land. He emanates and organizes everything. He manifests all situations and pervades every apsect of everything. He arranges everything so that it is all perfect for the swiftest possible enlightenment of each and every living being. The Chakravatin King provides the policy, but it is the Prime Minister of Dorje Shugden that implements it in the daily lives of everyone. Everything is emanated for everyone for their enlightenment, he arranges everything so that it is perfect for training our mind and advancing along the path (not perfect for our laziness and attachment!).

18. The space like Dharmaka. All of Keajra floats within the clear light Dharmaka like an infinite space of clear light. It is simultaneously within the Dharmakaya and the nature of the Dharmakaya. Everything else is completely ‘still’ at peace, reverberating great bliss.

Understanding Spiritual Power

Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

Spiritual power is the power to overcome the objects to be abandoned (in particular our delusions), either within ourself or within others.

So what are causes of power?

1. The mind of contentment. Power follows the principle of need. All objects of abandonment promise some fruit of samsara. Samsara has power over us to the extent to which we feel we need its fruit. When we have no need of its fruit, it has no power over us. Delusions convince us that we need the objects of our delusion, therefore to cut their power we need to realize that we do not. In this context, the one who is the most content with whatever arises is the one with the most power. We can be content with what we have by knowing how to transform everything into the path and wanting only spiritual development. We essentially ‘need’ nothing from anybody nor anything. We have within ourselves all that we need, therefore noone or nothing or no delusion has any power over us. A true conqueror.

2. Empowering others. If we empower others, we create the cause to grow in power ourselves.

3. Protecting others. When we protect others in any way (external or internal) we grow in power because people assent to our authority and position.

4. Being a good example. Within Western socieities, most power is referrent power, meaning people want to be like you, they want to emulate you. For this to happen, you need to transform yourself into somebody worth emulating. You need to have control over your own mind, delusions and life. In this sense, a successful family life and career are important.

5. Be a source of useful wisdom. It is meaningless to know useless information, but mastery over useful wisdom gives you real power as people come to you for advice. Useful wisdom is that which helps people solve their real problems. Principally, this means their internal problems, but not exclusively so. You also need to know practically how to solve our outer problems since people are initially preoccupied with those and they still grasp at them as being the real problem.

6. Mastery (or at least skill) with the four actions of pacifying, increasing, controlling and wrathful actions. From our own side, we have no power with these. Our ability to complete the four actions depends almost entirely upon the strength of our faith and reliance on Dorje Shugden. The stronger our faith and reliance upon him, the more we can invoke his four actions.

7. A pure motivation. Everything depends upon a correct motivation. With a good motivation, people naturally trust us and we align ourselve with the power of all of the Buddhas. The scope of our motivation determines the power of our purpose. The highest motivation of great compassion and bodhichitta gives unlimited power to all of our actions.

8. Respecting those in positions of authority, in particular our mentors or teachers. When we respect those in positions of authority and work to fulfill their wishes, we create the causes for others to do the same for us in the future. Since our purposes are pure, we seek assistance to fulfill our pure wishes. In particular, showing this respect to our mentors and teachers is important since the primary basis of power within a Western context is referrent power. By showing respect to our teachers and mentors, we create causes for others to show us similar respect when we are their teacher or mentor.

9. Understanding emptiness. When we understand emptiness, we understand that the only thing that needs to change is our own mind. Our mind is the creator of all, therefore if we change our mind, we can change everything. If we have the power to change our mind, we have the power to change everything.

Living in the pure land now

Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

Of course our goal is to attain liberation and enlightenment in this lifetime. But that goal seems so far off and so unattainable (this I need to work on), that sometimes it is not a very motivating goal because it seems undoable. In contrast, getting to the pure land when I die (or before) definitely seems something that is doable, and VGL has said that it is possible for me (and I have received other signs). So for me, this seems quite doable, and as such it drives me. Reaching the pure land itself has almost the same effect as liberation and enlightenment, because once we reach it, we are free from uncontrolled rebirth, our enlightenment is guarranteed, and all of our experiences are pure.

In reality, reaching the pure land is not as hard as it seems. We do not have to die to reach the pure land, rather it is just an issue of completely changing our conceptions of what appears with unshakable and self-reproducing convictions. If I have complete, 100% conviction that I am in the pure land, I actually am in the pure land. A pure land is, in essence, a tantric bodhisattva training ground. In a pure land everything teaches us the truth of Dharma and everything functions to bring us closer to enlightenment. This is what makes a pure land a pure land.

So how can we abide in the pure land now. It is an issue of firmly believing in a few key views. First, if I believe that everything that arises is emanated by Dorje Shugden and in fact the entire universe has forever and always been emanated by him, then he enters into everything. I see everything as emanated by him. This means I strongly believe that everything that arises is a perfect condition for the enlightenment of myself and others. With this conviction, I will then be blessed with the wisdom blessings to understand how this is the case. I will know not only that it is perfect for the enlightenment of myself and others, I will know how and why. I will know what I need to practice and I will see the conditions I have as perfect for practicing exactly what it is that I need to practice. Experientially, I will be in the pure land.

Additionally, the world I normally inhabit is a question of view – nothing more. Viewed from an ordinary point of view, it is samsara. When I maintain this view, I suffer from what appears. If, instead, I view what normally appears as the charnel grounds, strongly believing everything to be part of Keajra, then for me, that is what it will be. Ordinary beings view this as samsara, I choose to view it as the charnel grounds. If I maintain absolute conviction in that conception of things, again, Heruka will enter into everything. I will then receive his blessings through everything. I will see how everything either teaches me some aspect of Dharma or gives me an opportunity to practice something I need to practice. From the point of view of my experience, I will be in the pure land.

Finally, the key to building and maintaining this experience is to be able to transform whatever I experience into the path. There are two things I normally experience: suffering and pleasure. Normally, when I experience suffering I generate aversion and anger and when I experience pleasure I generate attacment. Instead, when I experience suffering, I use all of the practices for transforming adverse conditions into the path (we do this most of the time since most of our experiences in samsara are of suffering). And when I experience pleasure, I need to transform this with the practices of tantra. I need to spend some time contemplating the different ways in which I can transform pleasant experiences into the path. I have less expereince of that, even at the conceptual level. So I need to do some work here. But the point is there are many ways of doing so, most notably in the tantras. If I can master both of these – transforming unpleasant experiences with lojong and transforming pleasant experiences with tantra, then I will be able to transform whatever I experience into the path. Everything I experience will push me closer to enlightenment. Again, I will make it to the pure land.

I, of course, need to practice all three of these methods simultaneously, but I also think there is a certain sequence to them. First, that it is all emanated by Dorje Shugden or taking place within his protection circle. Then I see things as the charnel grounds. Then, within this conception of my reality, I will experience things. As I experience these things, I transform them with lojong and tantra. If I do all three of these things, for all practical purposes, I will experience my reality as being the pure land. Just as the pure land is not technically liberation and enlightenment, but practically has the same function; so too, with these convictions I may not technically be n the pure land, but practically it will have the same function. By gaining more and more experience with these three, I will always be happy (since I will feel as if I am already in the pure land) and I will very quickly transport myself to the actual pure land.

In short, the pure land is not another place, it is rather another point of view.