5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

Happy Protector Day: Fulfilling our Heart Commitment to Dorje Shugden

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

The 29th of every month is Protector Day.  This is part 8 of a 12-part series aimed at helping us remember our Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden and increase our faith in him on these special days.

Commitment, fulfilling, reliance, and appropriate substances,
Outer, inner, secret, attractive, and cleansing offerings, filling the whole of space,
I offer these to the entire assembly;
May I fulfil the heart commitment and restore my broken commitments.

This refers to an offering of our practice of the Heart Commitment of Dorje Shugden.  What does this mean?  It means to not be sectarian with our spiritual practice.  If we are sectarian in our practice, it will bring the Dharma into disrepute and it will create many problems for people being able to practice the path that leads to enlightenment, so it is very important for us to not be sectarian.  Gross sectarianism is when one tradition claims to have a monopoly on the truth and all the other traditions are wrong.  Many wars and much suffering have taken place due to this.  Subtle sectarianism is when we mix and match different traditions together.  Here, instead of saying one tradition is better than another in a general sense (as in gross sectarianism) we are saying that individual instructions from one instruction are better than individual instructions from another. 

To avoid sectarianism, Geshe-la encourages us to ‘following one tradition purely without mixing, while respecting all other paths as valid for others.’  Buddhas emanate many Buddhist and non-Buddhist paths depending on the karmic disposition of beings.  Different people will respond to different instructions, and so we are happy for anybody to follow any authentic spiritual path. 

This can be understood with an analogy of being trapped in a burning room.  If we were trapped in a giant burning room and there were many doors out, what would we do?  We would find the door closest to us and head straight out.  We would not start towards one door, then change to another, then change to another still because that keeps us trapped in a room.  We would not head towards the average of two doors because that would bang us straight into a wall.  We also would not judge other doors as being wrong for somebody else who is standing right next to it, instead we would encourage them to go out the door closest to them.  In the same way, if we are all trapped in the giant burning room of samsara and there are many different spiritual doors out, what do we do?  We find the one that is karmically closest to us and we head straight out.  We do not follow one path, then another, then another because then we complete none of them and remain in samsara.  We do not mix together two different traditions because this amalgam of our own creation does not lead to an actual door out.  We do not tell people who are closest to the door of another spiritual tradition, such as a Christian, that they should abandon their Christian path and follow our Kadampa path, instead we encourage them to go out through the emergency exit closest to them.  If somebody criticizes our practices and says that their practices are superior, we should not become defensive.  We can just say, ‘I am happy for you that you feel you have superior practices.  I hope you enjoy them.’ We then continue to do what seems best for us.  This avoids all problems.

So what is the Kadampa door?  It can be summarized in one sentence:  “relying upon guru, yidam and protector, I practice the path of Lamrim, lojong and Vajrayana Mahamudra.”  If we are doing this, if we have chosen this as our path and we are following it purely without mixing while respecting all other paths as valid for others, then we are keeping our heart commitment to Dorje Shugden.  Taking such a commitment is our personal choice.  Nobody can force this on us, we do so voluntarily.   This is not a commitment of the empowerment, it has to be something from our own side we decide to do.

One of the core principles of the NKT is while respecting all other traditions, to follow one tradition purely without mixing.  This is an extremely vast subject.  Venerable Geshe-la (VGL) explains in Ocean of Nectar that we need to be careful when introducing the subject of emptiness to those who are not ready because doing so can lead to great confusion.  I would say even more so, we need to be careful when introducting the subject of following one tradition purely without mixing, as this is a special spiritual instruction that can easily give rise to much confusion and doubt, including thinking that such an approach is closed-minded, anti-intellectual and sectarian.  The attached document attempts to explain the rationale behind this instruction so that people can be happy with putting it into practice. 

To provide you with a snapshot, the attached document is organized as follows:

  1. References within VGL’s teachings on this advice
    1. On following one tradition purely without mixing
    2. On sectarianism
  1. The mind with which we examine this question
  2. How to understand this instruction
  3. Rationale for the spiritual advice to follow one tradition purely without mixing
    1. Considering valid reasons
    2. Contemplating useful analogies
  4. Refutation of objections to not mixing
a.      Objection 1.  We can gain a better understanding of a subject when explored from multiple perspectives
b.     Objection 2:  We can gain a higher and deeper understanding of universal truth through synthesizing multiple systems of thought.
c.      Objection 3 :  All religions say the same thing, just with different metaphors and means.  So what is the problem with me studying and reading other traditions.  Does that not also take me in the direction of enlightenment ?
d.     Objection 4:  OK, I agree we should not mix traditions.  I am 100% committed to VGL, I know what we are all about and I don’t want to mix.  So what is the problem with me reading other sources ?
e.      Objection 5:  But I do not have freedom because I cannot be an NKT teacher or officer of an NKT center if I still want to go to other things.  So I am not free to choose.
f.      Objection 6:  But it can be argued that just because one is in a relationship with somebody else does not mean that they cease to be friends with other people and other women.  In the same way, it is not mixing or violating my commitment to my spiritual path by reading other books, etc., as long as I am clear as to who is my Spiritual Guide.
g.     Objection 7: But we are Buddhist, so everything depends upon the mind.  Reading other sources is not from its own side mixing, it depends upon the mind with which we do it. 
h.     Objection 8:  Come on !  Certainly you are exaggerating to say it is a fault to even read or be exposed to teachings from other traditions.  Don’t be so paranoid !
i.       Objection 9:  It still seems very closed-minded to be so categorical in shunning anything that is non-NKT.
j.       Objection 10:  OK, even if I agree with all of the above, certainly it is more skilful to say nothing, since people will misunderstand and leave the Dharma as a result of this misunderstanding.
k.     Objection 11:  OK, I agree, something needs to be said.  But why do you have to do it in such a foreceful way. 
l.       Objection 12:  OK, point taken.  But what makes an action skilful is whether the action does not undermine the faith of the other person when you engage in it.
m.   Objection 13:  OK, fine !  Just tell me what I can and cannot do.
n.     Objection 14:  If that is the case, then why do different teachers have different policies and standards on this one ?
o.     Objection 15:  But how does your standard compare to that of the NKT as a whole ?  Are you more strict ?
p.     Objection 16:  Wait a minute !  I can understand why there would be an issue with Tibetan Buddhism in general, but certainly it is not a problem with Mt. Pellerin.  After all, their teacher was also a student of Trijang Rinpoche, he is friends with VGL, and they are Dorje Shugden practitioners.  Are they not basically a Tibetan version of us, and we are a Western version of them ?  So their teachings can help improve our understanding of VGL’s teachings.  We are all talking about the same thing, so there is no mixing going on.  So it should be OK.  It seems we should at least make an exception with them.
q.     Question 17:  OK, I understand all of this and it makes sense.  How practically then are we to implement all of this at the center given the sensitivities involved ?

In the next post, I will continue to explain verse by verse my understanding of the meaning of the Dorje Shugden part of the sadhana.

On Letting in the Hurt:

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 4. Practicing in Daily Life, 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

Normally we (I) try push the hurt away as soon as we feel the slightest discomfort. We cover it up, distract ourselves, run away from it, and we even misuse Dharma to repress it.

We deny, deny, deny. We deny we are hurting. We deny we have delusions in our mind. We deny we have infinite negative karma on our mind. We deny we are in real danger of falling into the lower realms. We deny we are trapped in a cycle of contaminated rebirth, convincing ourselves that somehow, just because we are a Dharma practitioner, it means we are exempt from samsara’s suffering and we will somehow wind up in the pure land or with another precious human rebirth even if we haven’t actually built the necessary refuge and realizations within our mind.

We are mostly indifferent to the plight of others, they are just strangers passing us on the street; but even for the few we do care about, we repeat all the same mistakes we do towards ourselves with them. Deny, deny, deny.

The magnitude of the horror of samsara – for both ourselves and for others – remains mostly abstract and intellectual, and when we do confront its fears, we have countless defense mechanisms so it doesn’t really touch our hearts. We jump straight to the reassuring thoughts of, “well, I’ll be OK; my cat will be OK; my kids will be OK.” Says who? It’s just way too much to let it all in, so we intellectualize it if we think about it at all.

VGL says we need to “feel others pain as keenly as our own.” Are we prepared to do that? Really let their pain into our hearts? Let the totality of the hurt of all of samsara into our hearts? It is inconceivably vast and we feel we will be crushed like a bug if we dare do so. But this is where we need to go.

We have to give ourselves permission to feel our hurt. To let it into our heart, let it pass through us, allow ourselves to feel it, not just cover it up or repress it or intellectualize it.

We need to do the same with other’s suffering. Compassion is a mind that “cannot bear” the suffering of others. While a peaceful mind, it nonetheless feels the hurt of others as keenly as our own. Are we ready to do that? Really ready to do that and let that hurt in? Allow ourselves to feel it to the point where we simply cannot bear it anymore?

That takes such tremendous courage. And faith. And a rock solid mind of patient acceptance. And deep experience with the lojong teachings of transforming adverse conditions into our heart. And a clear awareness of the sky-like qualities of our Buddha nature. And emptiness, understanding that the samsara we normally see does not exist. We need to feel ourselves as inseparable from our Guru at our heart and Dorje Shugden at our back. So many necessary conditions before we can do that.

By analogy, it is not that different than Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when the Devil basically said, “are you really ready for this?” And Jesus basically said, “bring it on,” and then the we all know what followed.

I’m not saying that is what will happen to us, not at all, but that is the mind we are talking about – a mind willing to let it all in, to take on the suffering, delusions, and negative karma of all living beings.

Of course we need to start small and gradually expand, be skillful, not take on more than our capacity allows, and all the other things about practicing skillfully. We of course need to do all that. But we need to be clear-eyed that this is where we are going. This is where we need to go. We need to let it in. Eventually all of it.

When we do, we will feel – in our hearts – the urgency of the Lamrim. Our renunciation will be almost instantaneous. Our compassion will be so strong, we simply won’t be able to remain in samsara even if we wanted to. It will simply be too much to bear. Our appreciation of our precious human life, our Guru, the path he has provided us, and the Ganden Oral Lineage instructions will bring us to tears.

All of our petty concerns and preoccupations will fall by the wayside. We will find clarity of purpose, iron will of determination, and – despite it all – joy knowing by some miracle we have found not only the doorway out but a method by which we can bring countless living beings with us. And nothing can stop us from completing the path if we never give up. We have a clear shot, we just have to go for it and never look back. We won’t want to.

In short, the Dharma will touch our hearts. We will have finally found our object of meditation. We will reverse what Geshe-la calls in Mirror of Dharma our sad situation.

Let it in.

Happy Protector Day: Tapping into Dorje Shugden’s Power

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

The 29th of every month is Protector Day.  This is part 7 of a 12-part series aimed at helping us remember our Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden and increase our faith in him on these special days.

The remainder of the sadhana is largely making requests to Dorje Shugden.  Before we get into the specifics, I want to now explain some general advice on how to increase the power of our making requests to him.  These apply equally to the meditation break as well as the meditation session. 

First, the extent to which he can help us depends on the degree of faith we have in him.  If our faith is weak, his protection will be weak.  This is not because he is holding back it is because our mind remains closed so he has few points of entry for bestowing his blessings.  If our faith is indestructible and infinite, then his protection of us will be infinite.  If we understand this we will realize that our primary training in the practice of Dorje Shugden is increasing our faith in him.

Second, he can help us to the extent that our motivation is pure.  When our motivation is pure, it is like we align the crystals of our mind perfectly with the light of the deity.  To improve our motivation, we need to train sincerely in Lamrim.  The main function of Lamrim is to change our heart desires from worldly ones into spiritual ones.  Once we get our motivation right, everything else naturally falls into place.  It is the mental factor intention that determines the karma we create, so intention is the most important.

Third, he can help us to the extent that we realize that he, ourselves and everything else are empty.  The main point is this:  Dorje Shugden isn’t anything from his own side.  He is as powerful as we construct him to be.  We can construct him as an ordinary being or as an infinitely powerful protector.

After the invitation to Dorje Shugden, which has already been explained, we then make offerings and requests as follows:

HUM
Respectfully I prostrate with body, speech and mind. 

Here we imagine that from ourself and from all the beings we previously put within the protection circle, we emanate all of our past and future bodies.  Then with all of these past, present and future emanations of ourself, we prostrate.  This creates special merit with him so that he can provide us protection in all our past, present and future lives.  How Dorje Shugden protects us in our present and future lives is easy to understand.  But how can he provide us protection in our past lives when they have already passed?   He can bless our mind so that everything that happened to us in the past also becomes a cause of our enlightenment. We view our past differently in such a way that it teaches us lessons of Dharma.  In this way, no matter when we start our practice, even if it is when we are very old, it can be as if we effectively have practiced our whole life.  When we go to normal psychological therapists, they help us process our past so that it is no longer a drag on us.  In the same way, by requesting Dorje Shugden to transform our past experiences into a cause of our enlightenment, we receive special blessings to view these events differently.  We may even come to view our greatest past trauma as our greatest life blessing.  Such is the power of Dorje Shugden and the truth of emptiness.

I offer a mass of inner and outer offerings, blissful tormas,
Alcohol, tea, cakes, milk, and curd,
Both actually set out and mentally imagined, filling the whole of space.

The basic idea is this:  whatever we offer to Dorje Shugden, he can then use for our swiftest possible enlightenment.  For example, if I offer my house to him, then everything that happens in my house will be emanated by him for my practice, etc.  So mentally, we offer everything because we want to use everything for our attainment of enlightenment. 

Dorje Shugden’s Path for Me

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

I think I need to allow myself to rebuild a completely new relationship with the Dharma.

I have had other rounds of this earlier in my life. The first iteration was from when I found the Dharma in 1994 to about 2000, I got as far as I could relying upon my ordinary intellect for understanding the Dharma, but then I couldn’t go any further. My teacher at the time encouraged me to rebuild from scratch by relying, which eventually led to a new framework of “rely upon the Guru’s mind alone.” This lasted until about 2009 and saw me through my time as a Resident Teacher, the birth of my first three children, etc.

I then had to also completely rebuild my practice after I experienced an external sequence which wiped out entirely the external conditions supporting us remaining in Geneva and me remaining a Resident Teacher – from a major landslide at our house which cost us all our money, losing the tuition for the schooling of our kids, to the birth of my twin sons. This period lasted until essentially my 50th birthday this year and my pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya.

I now also feel I need need to completely rebuild after everything I have been through the last five months in which my family relationship structure as I previously understood it got completely obliterated. I feel like “going with the flow while relying upon Dorje Shugden, together with taking and giving for whatever is going on and creating the space in my mind to both not be OK myself and to be OK with those I love not being OK” is how I will rebuild this next phase. This is my new framework for this next phase of my Dharma life. Integrating the insights I gained in my retreat and after it into my life and simply putting into practice what I have realized is how I will rebuild. This is, I think, how I start to move back deeper into the tradition after having been a bit in the wilderness since 2009. This new phase is how I will prepare for my three-year retreat which I hope to do when I retire from my work in about 8-9 years. After my three year retreat, I hope to once again become a Resident Teacher and dedicate the remainder of my days to largely loving my family and helping the Dharma flourish.

I think it will go in waves like this, where there will be various times where I need to completely rebuild based upon new frameworks, this will take me a certain distance until I reach the limits of what that framework can support. It will then collapse on itself in some way, signaling it is time to “die and then rebuild again.” And that’s totally OK, it is just the cycle. No problem. It will still be painful, sure, but it will slowly take me where I need to go.

This is Dorje Shugden’s path for me. I made a pact with him long ago, “please take me to enlightenment as quickly as my karma will allow,” and this is what he is doing. This is Dorje Shugden’s path for me.

Don’t be a Wuss: In Praise of Wrathful Actions

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

People see many benefits to anger. They think it reveals where our needs are being violated, it gives us strength or a backbone, it protects us from being taken advantage of, it deters others from harming us or those we love, and it is sometimes an effective method for getting what we want. And to a certain extent, all these things are true. So when we Kadampas say, “anger is bad” and “there is no evil greater than anger,” people think we are being extreme and they reject the Dharma. They think anger is a natural human reaction and we are just repressing or becoming doormats.

For me, the core distinction is anger is motivated by self-cherishing, disturbing our own mind; and it inflicts harm on others, creating negative karma for ourselves. But wrathful actions are motivated by compassion. Externally, it may even be almost exactly the same, but internally it is quite different. We can get all the “benefits” of anger through wrathful actions, without disturbing our own inner peace or creating negative karma for ourselves.

I sometimes think as a community (or at least me), we have become so averse to anger that, excuse my sexist language, we can become a bunch of pu$$ies! We sometimes fail to stand up for ourselves or others. We sometimes fail to intervene to stop abuse or harm taking place. We fail to tell the hard truths that people will hate us for saying but they need to hear. We fail to set protective boundaries, for both ourself and for others. We set an example of enabling others to abuse us. We see others protecting themselves with anger and we tell them that is wrong, but we don’t provide them with an alternative. People see this and they say, “if this is Dharma, I don’t want that.” This helps nobody.

Geshe-la fearlessly showed the example of engaging in wrathful actions with the protests against what the Dalai Lama was saying about Dorje Shugden. Sure, lots of people misunderstood what we were doing as us being angry and we received a lot of criticism for it, but we kept doing it – round after round. Those who had the good fortune to participate in the protests recall how joyful and happy we were as we shouted, “stop lying!” We called him out on his bull$hit, to put it in modern terms. We were protecting our tradition and trying to protect him and his followers from continuing to create negative karma for themselves. Geshe-la also showed this example when he would ruthlessly fire even very senior teachers for what seemed to be small transgressions. He did this to protect the tradition, the teachers themselves, and their students.

I think we need to start learning how to engage in wrathful actions ourselves, or again, at least I do. Yes, we patiently accept, but we don’t just take it. We show a backbone, we show a spine, we push back, we call others out on their wrong behavior, we don’t say it was all us when it wasn’t, and we don’t allow others to abuse us. As a very dear Sangha friend once told me years ago, “we need King-like bodhichitta, not Smurf-like bodhichitta.” Heruka, Vajrayogini, Vajrapani, and our beloved Dharma protector Dorje Shugden all show wrathful aspects. We need to be fearless.

Sure, when we first start trying to engage in wrathful actions, we’ll make a hash out of it and it will be mixed with anger. No different than our pacifying, increasing, and controlling actions being mixed with attachment. But we learn. We gradually get better. We gradually start showing a better example. People then don’t think being a Dharma practitioner means being a push over, but they realize it is their delusions that make them a wimp and enable abuse. Wisdom and compassion gives tremendous strength and power that we learn to fearlessly wield.

Our tradition is extremely pure and threatens the very foundations of samsara and all those beings who have a vested interest in preserving it. We do get attacked by maras, and sometimes our family gets attacked by them as well. We can’t just sit there and do nothing. Yes, we need to mobilize Dorje Shugden’s vast assembled retinue, but we also need to stand up and fight back ourselves – not with anger, but sometimes also with compassionate wrath.

In short, we all know the Dharma teaches us to not be a dick. But it also teaches us to not be a pussy either.

Happy Protector Day: Protector of the Bodhisattva’s Path

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

The 29th of every month is Protector Day.  This is part 6 of a 12-part series aimed at helping us remember our Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden and increase our faith in him on these special days.

And on his head he wears a round and yellow hat.

This symbolizes his ability to help us gain the correct view of emptiness, the ultimate nature of reality.  We can understand how all things are like a dream, and how if we change our actions, we can change our karma and that will change the dream that appears to our mind.  In this way, we can become the architect of our own destiny, and cause this world of suffering to cease and the pure world of the Buddhas to arise.  If ever we have difficulty understanding emptiness, we can recall his hat and request that he bless our mind to be able to gain a correct understanding of emptiness.  We then imagine we receive his blessings and return to our Dharma book (or the teaching we are receiving) and try again.  If we still do not understand, we once again request blessings and repeat the cycle.  We can continue like this for as long as it takes.  Eventually, through the power of his blessings, we will understand. 

His hands hold a sword and a heart of compassion.

This symbolizes his ability to help us engage in Lamrim meditation, in particular the union of the vast and profound path.  The vast path is all of the Lamrim meditations for developing a good heart, leading up to bodhichitta, the wish to lead all beings to enlightenment.  The profound path refers to the wisdom realizing emptiness, that everything is like a dream.  Just as we did with trying to understand emptiness, when we are having difficulty with our Lamrim practice, we can recall this function of Dorje Shugden, request his blessings, receive his blessings and then try again.  Practicing in this way dramatically increases the power of our Lamrim meditation. 

To his followers he shows an expression of delight, but to demons and obstructors he displays a wrathful manner.

This symbolizes Dorje Shugden’s ability to love and care for us while destroying our delusions.  We need to make a distinction between ourselves and our delusions.  Just as a cancer patient is not his cancer, we are not the cancer of our delusions.  Many people fear Dorje Shugden because they know he can be quite wrathful, but this fear only arises because they identify with their delusions.  So when their delusions are challenged, they feel like they are challenged.  Whenever we have a delusion arise strongly in our mind, we can immediately remember Dorje Shugden and request his blessings to be able to happily accept our difficult circumstances understanding that what is bad for our delusions is good for us. 

He is surrounded by a vast, assembled retinue,

Such as Kache Marpo and so forth.

Dorje Shugden is like the general of a vast army of Dharma protectors, each of whom accomplishes a different function.  These can be understood from the explanation of the nature and function of Dorje Shugden in the book Heart Jewel and the Praise to the five lineages of Dorje Shugden explained in the extensive Dorje Shugden sadhana Melodious Drum Victorious in All Directions.  It is customary for large Dharma Centers around the world to practice Melodious Drum on every Protector Day, or at least once a year.  We can do so on our own at any time, including every Protector Day.

The five lineages of Dorje Shugden refer to the five principal deities of his mandala.  Each one corresponds with one of the five Buddha families, the five completely purified aggregates of a Buddha, and the five omniscient wisdoms.  Each of the principal deities is like a specific protector for each one of the five Buddha families, and through relying upon them we will be led to attain the five purified aggregates and the corresponding five omniscient wisdoms.

The principal deity is Dorje Shugden himself, who is the protector of the Akshobhya family, will guide us to completely purify our aggregate of consciousness and attain the wisdom of the Dharmadhatu.  The wisdom of the Dharmadhatu is an aggregate of consciousness completely purified of all our past contaminated karmic potentialities (also known as the two obstructions) and that knows directly and simultaneously all phenomena as manifestations of bliss and emptiness.  Vairochana Shugden is the protector of the Vairochana family.  Through relying upon him, we will completely purify our aggregate of form and gain mirror-like wisdom, which sees directly all phenomena as manifestation of bliss and emptiness.  Pema Shugden is the protector of the Amitabha family.  Through relying upon her, we will purify completely our aggregate of discrimination and attain the wisdom of individual realization, which is able to discriminate all objects individually as manifestations of bliss and emptiness.  Ratna Shugden is the protector of the Ratnasambhava family.  Through relying upon Ratna Shugden, we will purify completely our aggregate of feeling and attain the wisdom of equality, which experiences all phenomena equally as bliss and emptiness.  Karma Shugden is the protector of the Amoghasiddhi family.  Through relying upon Karma Shugden, we will purify completely our aggregate of compositional factors and attain the wisdom of accomplishing activities, which enables us to use a Buddha’s completely purified and developed mental factors as if they were are own.  For a more in depth understanding of the five aggregates, see How to Understand the Mind.

Dorje Shugden is also surrounded by the nine Great Mothers, the eight fully ordained monks, and the ten wrathful deities.  The nine mothers arrange the secret conditions necessary for our Dharma practice.  They are comprised of Lochanna, Mamaki, Benzharahi, and Tara which arrange the earth, water, fire, and air elements respectively for our practice; and the five offering goddesses who transform all of the various forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile objects into conditions for our practice.  The eight fully ordained monks arrange the inner conditions necessary for our practice.  They are the eight main bodhisattvas, including Vajrapani, Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri, and Maitreya.  They manifest whatever is needed to tame disciples and protect those with commitments like their only child.  The ten wrathful deities arrange all of the outer conditions for our Dharma practice.  They subjugate the malevolent and guard all directions with various guises.  Kache Marpo is like the commander of the Dharma protector special forces who directs all the oath-bound attendents (spirit kings, wealth gods, nagas, celestial spirits, and so forth) who perform a host of actions to help arrange the mundane conditions for our Dharma practice. 

Light rays from my heart

Instantly invite the wisdom beings
From the sphere of nature
And from all the different palaces where they abide.
They become inseparable from the commitment beings.

We visualize a vast array of mundane and supermundane Dharma protectors filling the whole of space, all working tirelessly under the direction of Dorje Shugden to arrange all the outer, inner, and secret conditions for our Dharma practice.  As Heruka, we then imagine that light rays radiate from our heart and invite the wisdom beings – the actual deities of Dorje Shugden’s mandala – to enter into the commitment beings (those we have visualized). We then strongly believe that all of these protector deities are actually in the space in front of us and filling the universe accomplishing their special function.

Being of Many Minds

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

I’ve been giving some thought to how we have many minds, how we can be of many minds. We sometimes grasp at our mind as this singular entity that somehow remains constant observing everything. But in How to Understand the Mind, Geshe-la explains how we have countless different minds depending upon the combinations of mental factors we have. For example, towards somebody in my life, I can view them as my biggest trigger (anger) or my biggest attachment or as an emanation of Vajrayogini. So who is this person? Are they the trigger, the attachment, or the emanation? They are actually not one of them, not the three of them, nor the collection of the three of them. But if you took away each of them there would be nothing there remaining that is the other person. If we can see how there are many different minds we have towards the same ‘person,’ then we can see very clearly how all phenomena perceived by that mind are also empty. In this way, by realizing the emptiness of our mind directly, we indirectly realize the emptiness of all phenomena that will ever be perceived by our mind.

OK, so they are empty, but what do we nonetheless conventionally choose to follow – trigger, attachment, or emanation? Our delusions of anger and attachment make our mind uncontrolled. So if we don’t ‘choose’ emanation, then we are allowing our mind to remain under the influence of anger or attachment. But we have to apply effort to ‘choose’ emanation when our anger and attachment are pulling our mind so strongly in the direction of believing one of their distortions.

Gen-la Dekyong has been talking a lot in recent times about mistaken vs. unmistaken appearance. We all know what mistaken appearance is, but Venerable Geshe-la specifically uses the term ‘unmistaken appearance.’ Basically, this is our guru pointing to us and saying, “look, this is the unmistaken reality. Focus your mind on this and you will move into this reality.” Pure view – the four purities – is the only unmistaken appearance. To see anyone as anything other than pure is a mistaken appearance.

If we realize this, it will automatically cut ALL of our delusions in their tracks. All of our delusions and problems with other people come from viewing them with deluded minds, but if we see them as all the Buddhas emanated for us by our Spiritual Guide with whom we have an incredibly close karmic connection it would be absolutely impossible for us to generate any delusions towards them. This is the sort of faith we need. This is the view we need to choose to adopt. This is the unmistaken appearance our Spiritual Guide is pointing us to.

So what is the correct answer to the question of ‘who is this person?’ is they are an emanation of a Buddha sent by our spiritual guide. That’s who our family is. That is who our friends and work colleagues are. Basically because we have a mind of faith in our holy Spiritual Guide, that is true for basically everyone we meet in our life. They are all emanations of Buddhas sent by our spiritual guide.

So I think what I need to do to one day completely heal all the stuff that has been going on is to choose to adopt this view, to focus my mind on that reality. This is what is most beneficial for them because wherever I imagine Buddhas, Buddhas go; and wherever Buddhas go, they accomplish their function which is to bestow blessings. So maintaining this pure view is an act of compassion. But it is also beneficial for me because then instead of generating delusions towards them, I will generate all sorts of Dharma minds to work through whatever arises with them.

Sometimes what arises might be really hard, but why is that a problem? Are we not willing to endure a few hardships on our path to enlightenment? Sometimes working through our deeper stuff is hard, but it needs to be done, so we need to put on our Dharma armor and head into battle.

Typically, because we are lazy – or at least I am – if my life is going well, my burning need to practice Dharma quickly dissipates. But when I’m thrown into a crazy crisis or situation, then it kicks up all sorts of delusions in my mind, and I then have to use the Dharma to work through those delusions. Then, I really practice. So my experience is not so much I courageously head into battle against my delusions, but more a desperate struggle for survival, but I have been given the sharp swords of Kadampa wisdom, so I’m forced into battle because I’m surrounded and being attacked on all sides.

And this is why refuge is so important. We can’t just always be battling Rambo style all alone. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being fully united with all the Buddhas, all the Dharmas, and all the Sanghas. Sometimes we can even go within the ‘refuge’ of our community and just focus on our mind and our practice, and others do the battling for us.

That’s Dorje Shugden’s job!!! His vast assembled retinue is like our elite Dharma army with the perfect power to transform whatever samsara might throw at us into something that is absolutely perfect for our swiftest possible enlightenment. All we need to do is generate faith in him, request him to arrange everything so that it is perfect for our practice, and then accept whatever arises as the completely perfect conditions we need for our swiftest possible enlightenment. In other words, they are not just emanations of our spiritual guide, they are emanations of our spiritual guide in the aspect of Dorje Shugden’s vast assembled retinue.

Anyways, sorry, I got a little away from myself. I love Dorje Shugden so much he does that to me.

My point is we need to choose which mind we follow, and the only unmistaken choice is emanation. That’s true for everything.

Happy Protector Day: The nature and function of Dorje Shugden

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

The 29th of every month is Protector Day.  This is part 5 of a 12-part series aimed at helping us remember our Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden and increase our faith in him on these special days.

In this post, I will explain the nature and function of Dorje Shugden.  In the subsequent posts I will explain how to rely upon him outside of formal meditation and then I will explain how to rely upon him during the formal meditation session. 

What is the nature and function of Dorje Shugden?  In short, his nature is the same as our Spiritual Guide, but in particular he is by nature the Wisdom Buddha Manjushri.  Manjushri assumes two forms, Je Tsongkhapa to lead us along the path and Dorje Shugden to arrange the conditions for our practice of the path.  His function is to arrange all the outer, inner and secret conditions necessary for our swiftest possible enlightenment.

To understand this in more detail, we can consider the meaning of the invitation prayer to Dorje Shugden that we recite every day in the context of our Heart Jewel practice.  The Sadhana beings by saying,

HUM, I have the clarity of the Yidam.

With HUM we dissolve everything into the clear light Dharmakaya and recall that the definitive nature of Dorje Shugden is the Truth Body of our Spiritual Guide.  ‘I have the clarity of the Yidam’ means we engage in our Dorje Shugden practice self-generated as our personal deity.  We do this for two reasons.  First, it is more effective.  Heruka is much closer to Dorje Shugden than we are, so by requesting Dorje Shugden as Heruka we tap into their close karmic connection.  It is similar to knowing somebody who knows somebody very powerful.  We may not know the powerful person ourselves, but if we know somebody who does know them, if they ask the powerful person to fulfill our wishes on our behalf, it is far more likely we will get the response we want.  The second reason why we do this is the practice of Dorje Shugden can be engaged in for the sake of ourself or for the sake of others.  When we eventually become Buddha Heruka our work is not finished – we will still need to lead all other beings to enlightenment.  At that time, we will need powerful allies who can help living beings, such as Dorje Shugden.  Training in the practice of Dorje Shugden while maintaining divine pride of being the deity is a very powerful method for having Dorje Shugden accomplish his function for all those that we love.

Before me in the center of red and black fire and wind.

Here, we imagine that encircling all the living beings we are visualizing around us is a large proection circle of Dorje Shugden made out of five-colored wisdom fires.  It is like a giant sphere which completely envelopes all of these beings and the entire universe.  I like to imagine that all living beings are now inside of the protection circle and everything that happens to them is perfect for their swiftest possible enlightenment. 

On a lotus and sun trampeling demons and obstructors is a terrifying lion powerful and alert.

The function of Dorje Shugden’s lion is to dispel all fear.  It is a bit like in the movie Narnia, when people were in the presence of Aslan, they knew they were safe and they had nothing to fear.  If ever we are in a situation where we are afraid, we can remember the protection circle of Dorje Shugden and we can remember his lion and strongly believe that we are protected and that we receive his blessings which pacify all of our fear. 

Upon this sits the Great King Dorje Shugden, the supreme heart jewel of Dharma protectors.

Dorje Shugden is the principal deity of the visualization.  There are a couple of different analogies we can consider to get a feeling for who he is.  He is our karma manager.  Rich people give their money to money managers to manage their money in an optimal way.  In the same way, Dorje Shugden is the supreme karma manager.  He will manage our karma in an optimal way for our swiftest possible enlightenment.  He is also our personal spiritual trainer.  When people want to get their bodies in shape, they go to a personal physical trainer who gives them the specific exercises they need to get in the peak of physical health.  In the same way, Dorje Shugden is our personal spiritual trainer who gives us the specific exercises we need to put ourselves in the peak of spiritual health, full enlightenment.  He is our spiritual father.  Our father protects us from danger and provides us with everything we need.  In the same way, Dorje Shugden is our spiritual father, who will protect us from all danger and provide for us everything we need to accomplish our spiritual goals.  He is the director of our spiritual life.  When people make movies or plays, there is a director who organizes and puts together all the appearances.  In the same way, Dorje Shugden is the director of our spiritual life, who will create a play of appearances around us for the rest of our life that are perfect for our spiritual path.  In a future post, I will explain how he has the power to help us not just in this life and right now, but in all our past and future lives as well.  Yes, we can go back within our past and transform what happened into a cause of our enlightenment!

His body is clothed in the garments of a monk.

This symbolizes his power to assist us with our practice of moral discipline.  We all have bad habits we are trying to abandon, such as smoking, getting angry at people, and so forth; and vows we are trying to keep, such as our refuge, pratimoksha, bodhisattva, and tantric vows, but we are not very successful in doing so.  Dorje Shugden can give us the strength and wisdom we need to abandon these bad habits.  Whenever we feel tempted to break our moral discipline, we can recall Dorje Shugden in front of us dressed in the garments of a monk and request his special blessings to give us the strength to keep our moral discipline. 

My Thoughts Before the Digital Spring Festival Starts

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

Spreading the pure Kadam Dharma now makes the pure Kadam Dharma appear in our future. This is how we find each other again and again in our future lives.

The conversations we have and the bonds we create with each other here on Facebook are the threads pulling the Kadampa world together into the emerging digital society.

Our friendships matter for future of the living beings in our world. The whole world is moving increasingly into a digital society where people spend more and more of their lives inside the worlds created by technology.

Geshe-la said we need to go to where the people are. The people are moving digital, so as Kadampas we need to go there too. That’s why I think the Kadampa digital presence is so important. We need to make it feel like a Kadampa community. We are a digital community of Kadampas.

And this is why the Festivals are so important. Geshe-la has said that gathering together at the Festivals is the method for maintaining the tradition for generations to come. This is what he asked us to do – to make a commitment to attend every Festival. In this sense, I’m so grateful for COVID because it enabled the NKT to make the decision to make the Festivals available digitally from our homes. I have VERY difficult karma when it comes to being able to attend the festivals. So being able to attend them digitally was like a huge gush of fresh air to be able to attend all the Festivals as I had done for the years I was in Geneva. I was worried that they wouldn’t continue with the policy after COVID, but I think they realized there are just many people who don’t have the karma to be able to physically make it to the festivals but in their speech and minds they really wanted to be there, and it is possible to transform our personal environment of our room or home into the festival experience. So now they are letting it continue. I honestly think I would have tried to lead a mass petition making the case to continue to allow us to attend the festivals digitally!! But fortunately, that protest moment may be put off to another day!!! Haha.

Regardless, I’m really excited to have a festival dedicated to the Liberating Prayer and our International Refuge Ceremony. Just think about that – we do Liberating Prayer before every group puja, and then we do a refuge ceremony all together simultaneously. Think of the power of that. I can’t ever remember doing an international refuge ceremony of this scale. Gen Tharchin said when we do puja together, we create the karma to refind the same people doing the same practice again in the future.

Think about this, we are about to do an international refuge ceremony – the entire global Kadampa community getting together at the same time to go for refuge TOGETHER as a community. That’s AMAZING. Think about the karma that creates for us – to find each other again in the future engaging in the same practice, namely an international refuge ceremony, which will again launch the same karmic cycle forever until we and all living beings are freed from samsara!!!

And the Librerating Prayer is our primary prayer to Buddha Shakyamuni. When you think about it, we don’t pay a lot of attention to our Spiritual Guide in the aspect of Buddha Shaykamuni, we are usually focused on his Je Tsongkhapa form or his Heruka form. But here, we are paying particular tribute to the Buddha Shakyamuni part of Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka. Buddha Shakyamuni was the founder in this world, he then later appeared as Lama Tsongkhapa and our other lineage gurus, but deeper down, it is Buddha Shakyamuni.

Deeper down than Buddha Skakyamuni is Heruka, and inside Heruka is the HUM, and inside that is the Dharmakaya – our definitive Spirtual Guide. The Spiritual Guide is OUR karmic bridge between where we are now and the minds of all the Buddhas. Indeed, he is the minds of all the Buddhas appearing in forms that can be seen by living beings according to their karmic dispositions. For us, our Spiritual Guide who has emanated everything for us in the so-called ‘modern’ world is Venerable Geshe-la. He has made the Kadampa world available to us without losing a drop of it’s purity in making the cultural transition from Feudal Tibet to the modern world.

We are pure, 100% Kadampa teachings, without being mixed with ANYTHING. We are the pure deal, the undilluted form, or rather we are a distinct flavor. The Kadampa teachings include the Ganden Oral Lineage, through which we can attain enlightenment in one lifetime, even three years! That’s what we are! That is our instruction. That is our uncommon characteristic. Geshe-la has presented the Ganden Oral Lineage appears directly to millions and eventually billions in the modern world. He has made this precious gem from the heart of Je Tsonkghapa available to the people of the modern world.

And who protects our tradition? Dorje Shugden! Our Dharma Protector. How can we know without the slightest doubt that those who misunderstand Dorje Shugden are wrong? Because we know what Dorje Shugden protects us so pure. Only a completely pure being could protect a completely pure Dharma jewel.

And now that Venerable Geshe-la has passed, how does he continue to appear in this world? As the teacher of every Festival. Some people in the future may lament wishing they were able to attend teachings directly with Geshe-la, but I say we all have this opportunity every year for the Spring, Summer, and Fall international festivals. What appears to our eyes may be this Gen-la or that one, but for us we see it is Venerable Geshe-la teaching the festival through everyone and everything related to the festival (not just the teachings).

So even though those of us in the digital world are only getting the recordings 48 hours later, there is nothing preventing us from believing we are at the festival right now. It is happening right now, just appearing to us as whatever is our daily appearance. That’s our festival.

This is what I’m thinking when the festival has already started, but I’m not yet able to attend the teachings. For us in the digital world, this means our festival actually winds up being longer. We get to go until the videos are no longer available. I think this is why they make the vidoes only available for a limited period of time – to ‘force’ us to come together in time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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