To rely upon the teachings of Sutra. 

We need to listen to, contemplate, and meditate on the instructions of Sutra.  The simplest way to do this is to study, contemplate, and meditate on the Lamrim.

I remember when I first found Geshe-la’s books and the first time I read Joyful Path of Good Fortune.  Prior to that, I had been going to the bookstore, buying books, then coming home and trying to make sense of them.  I would then go back to the bookstore and try again.  Because every individual instruction of Dharma has value, I was definitely receiving benefit and moving in a positive direction.  But then I read about the pre-eminent qualities of the Lamrim.  In particular, the fact that the Lamrim was the condensation of all 84,000 instructions of Buddha, so by practicing the Lamrim directly I was practicing all of Buddha’s instructions indirectly.  This moved my mind so much, I literally got up off the couch and started dancing in my apartment, going “Yes!”

Let’s face it, we live in an age of no more than 140 characters.  If people have to spend more than 3-5 minutes reading something, they simply give up.  Several years ago, the average length of a New York Times op-ed column was 1,000 words.  They have since shortened it to 800 words, because beyond that people lose interest and are pulled to the next thing.  How many of us, in this modern world, have the time to wade through all 84,000 instructions and try make sense of them?  And even if we had such time, why would we do so when it has already been done for us by great masters such as Atisha, Je Tsongkhapa and Venerable Geshe-la.  We don’t need to know every street in our city, it suffices to know the streets that take us from where we are to where we want to go.  We don’t need to know every detail of a study, what matters is that we internalize the main idea.  It is better to gain deep experience of the essential than endless intellectual knowledge of every subject.

True wealth is knowing you lack nothing.  You have no need for anything else, you have everything you need.  When we understand the Lamrim we become truly spiritually wealthy.  We feel as if we lack nothing, all that remains is putting it into practice.  We feel like our search is over, we have found home.

The Lamrim directly or indirectly opposes all delusions.  Every delusion has an opponent, but since we have countless different delusions, if we oppose them one by one, we need countless different opponents.  But a systematic practice of the 21 Lamrim meditations weaves within our mind an inter-connected system of Dharma minds that functions to protect our mind against any and all delusions.  When the we train in the Lamrim, our meditation on any one single meditation functions to strengthen and reinforce all of the other meditations.  It builds a spiritual synergy where every experience we have, every new instruction we hear, makes everything else is made stronger.  With the Lamrim, we understand not just individual pieces of Dharma wisdom, but more importantly how everything fits together.  With the Lamrim, we build within our mind a storehouse for the instructions we receive that functions to have nothing be wasted and everything easily retained.  There comes a point in our training in concentration where we reach the “concentration of the Dharma continuum.”  When we reach that stage, we spontaneously remember all of the Dharma instructions we have previously received and likely forgotten.  But with the Lamrim, it can almost be as if we have a similitude of the concentration of the Dharma continuum right now.  In fact, I would go so far as to say the concentration of the Dharma continuum is the full ripening of all of our previous lamrim practice, at least at the level of “listening” to Dharma.

The Lamrim, though, is not just an intellectual framework, it is a deep personal experience of Dharma.  It naturally leads to a transformation of our deepest desires from selfishly wanting samsara’s pleasures in this life to altruistically wanting eternal happiness for all living beings in all of their lives.  It is said the quintessential butter that comes from churning the milk of Dharma is the mind of bodhichitta.  The first 19 meditations of the Lamrim are like rivers which fill the ocean of our bodhichitta.  Once we have bodhichitta, we then actualize it by improving our concentration and realizing directly ultimate truth emptiness.  With this mind, we reconstruct our karmic dream from a world of suffering into a pure world; and we do this not only for ourself, but for all living beings.

In short, there can be nothing more important to do with our life than transform it with the Lamrim.

The three commitments of the family of Buddha Amitabha

The commitments of Buddha Amitabha function to purify our aggregate of discrimination and transform it into the wisdom of individual realization.  The aggregate of discrimination is not a mind that discriminates against other people, rather it is a mind that knows the distinctions between different objects.  It is explained in Understanding the Mind that the way in which we “know” an object is by realizing its “uncommon characteristic.”  If someone were to ask, “who is John” and the reply was “the human being standing over there in that group,” we wouldn’t know who is John.  But if we said, “the bald, fat, white guy on the right” then we could clearly distinguish John from everybody else, and thus know him.

Venerable Tharchin explains that our samsaric problem is, quite simply, we have the wrong discriminations.  We discriminate objects as being inherently pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.  On the basis of this mistaken discrimination, we then experience objects as being inherently pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.  On the basis of these experiences, we then generate attachment, aversion and ignorance towards objects.  Motivated by these delusions, we then engage in contaminated actions which plant contaminated karma onto our consciousness.  When this karma ripens, it does so in the form of contaminated karmic appearances.  Due to these contaminated appearances, we then once again discriminate objects in a contaminated way, namely as inherently pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.  This cycle is samsara.  Understood in this way, we can see clearly that contaminated discriminations are the very root of samsara.  If we are to break the cycle of samsara, we must do so primarily here.  It is the weak link, it is the first domino, it is the thing we can most easily change.  By changing our discriminations, we change how we conceive of things, this changes how we experience things, this changes what minds we generate towards things, this changes the actions we engage in, which then changes the karma we plant on our mind, which finally changes the world that appears to us.  Pure discriminations lead to pure feelings which lead to pure minds which lead to pure actions which leads to pure karma which results in a pure world.

Seen in this light, all of our Dharma study and contemplation is, in effect, a systematic assault on our wrong discriminations.  It is likewise a comprehensive rebuilding of correct discriminations.  We can incorrectly view people as friend, enemy or stranger; or we can correctly view people as our kind mothers.  We can incorrectly view difficult circumstances as adversities or we can correctly view them as opportunities to grow and to train our mind.  We can incorrectly view those who criticize us as mean or we can view them as our kind benefactors who help us identify our faults and do even better.  We can incorrectly view external circumstances as good or bad; or we can view them all equally as opportunities to put the Dharma into practice.  We can incorrectly view our world as samsara or we can correctly view it as the pure land.  Correct and incorrect in a Dharma context does not means “objectively true” or “objectively untrue.”  Something is objectively true if and only if the truth of the object can be established on the side of the object itself.  But since no object exists from its own side, nothing is objectively true.  Epistemologically speaking, according to the Prasangika’s truth is established on the side of the mind, not the object.  If the mind knowing an object is a valid mind, the object known by that mind is considered an existent.  “Correct” or “incorrect” refers to whether a particular discrimination is beneficial or not.  Beneficial, in this context, means conceiving of the object in this way is conducive to our enlightenment.  Any object can be discriminated in countless different ways, each more or less beneficial.  What is conventionally true for a Prasangika, therefore, is the way of discriminating things that is the most beneficial – the way most conducive to our swiftest possible enlightenment.

In short, objects are inherently nothing, they are what we discriminate them to be.  Discriminate wisely.

To give love.

To fulfil this commitment we should try develop the thought “how wonderful it would be if all living beings could be happy.  May they be happy.  I will help them to become happy.”  We should begin by developing this thought with our friends and family and then gradually increase the scope until it embraces all living beings.

Everybody wants to be happy, yet almost nobody knows how to attain it.  Everyone is convinced that they are not happy due to some unfortunate turn of external circumstances, so they invest all of their energy into changing them.  Most people are also confused about what is happiness.  They think the pleasant feelings they get from attachment is happiness, and so they relate to external objects as if they have some power to give us happiness.  As a result of this type of thinking, people develop all sorts of addictions and dependencies on the things of samsara.  But over time, these things provide us less and less happiness, and we are left only with frustration and want.  True happiness is inner peace.  If our mind is peaceful, we can enjoy everything, even adverse conditions.  A peaceful mind is a flexible mind that is undisturbed by things going wrong.  A peaceful mind is a light mind that simply can’t be bothered.  A peaceful mind is a blissful mind, a deep inner contentment radiating from within.  We cannot truly give love if we don’t know what true happiness is.

After we know what giving love is, we must want to do so for others.  Normally we don’t care whether others are happy or not, but that is only because we think they are somehow separate from us.  On the surface, it appears that one wave is distinct from another; but in reality they are both parts of the same underlying ocean.  It is the same with ourselves and others.  At a minimum, we can develop the wish of wanting to give love by thinking of the many karmic benefits of this wish.  This wish functions to purify our past negative karma towards others (it is the opposite of wishing to harm), it accumulates within our mind vast quantities of merit, and it creates the causes for our own future happiness.

It is not enough to merely want to give love, we need to actually do so.  We must pass beyond wishing others were happy to actually dedicating our life to making that happen.  We can think, “if I don’t work to help this person be truly happy, who will?”  In reality, everyone wants to feel loved, and everybody likes to feel loved.  Geshe-la likens giving love to a magic crystal with the power to transform any community for the better.  On this basis, we can generate a personal determination to actually give them love.

Once we have the wish to actually give love, we can do so in a variety of different ways.  But generally speaking, they can be divided into the three different types of love.  The first type of love is affectionate love.  Affectionate love is a feeling of genuine delight when we see or think of somebody.  The example Geshe-la give is the delight a kind grandmother gets when she sees her grandchildren, or the delight a 5 year old has when their parents walk in the door after work.  Most of the time we are convinced people don’t like us, so it really warms our heart when somebody is genuinely happy to see us.  In the same way, we can warm the heart of those around us by expressing our delight at seeing them.  Of course we shouldn’t overdo it, making them feel uncomfortable.  Each culture will have different norms and customs when it comes to expressing our delight, and we should act accordingly, but whatever is within the scope of culturally normal, we should express our delight.  In particular, we should do so when we haven’t seen somebody for a long time.  When we see others, we should feel as if we have found a long-lost precious treasure, because in fact that is exactly what has happened.

The second way we can give love is to cherish others.  What does it mean to cherish others?  It means to consider their happiness and well-being to be something important.  We naturally work for whatever we consider to be important.  We of course think our own happiness is important, and so we work for our happiness.  In exactly the same way, because we consider other’s happiness as something important to us, we naturally work to secure it.  At a very practical level this means we make no distinction between whether some problem is happening to us or happening to somebody else, we seek to resolve it all the same.  We make no distinction whether some happiness or good fortune is happening to us or happening to somebody else, we seek to sure it all the same.  When making decisions, we consider the well being of all concerned, and pursue the outcome that provides the greatest benefit for the greatest number of people.  In short, we cease working only for ourself and we begin working only for others.  Working only for others does not mean we neglect ourself, we still seek to improve ourself and our capacities so that we are able to serve others even more effectively.

The third way we can give love is to take personal responsibility for others happiness.  Anybody who becomes a parent knows the profound difference between being a good friend, and being responsible for the welfare of somebody else.  Geshe-la gives the example of seeing somebody drowning in a river, those with compassion in their heart will wish fervently that the person is saved; those with superior intention (also known as personal responsibility) will dive in themselves to save them.  We realize it is not enough to just consider other’s happiness to be important, we actually need to take personal responsibility to do something.  If we understand emptiness correctly, we realize that ultimately all of the problems in the world are parts of our own karmic dream.  If thousands were killed in a battle in last night’s dream, who is responsible for those deaths?  Surely our own conflicted mind.  In the same way, if this entire world is nothing more than a karmic dream of our waking mind, then who is responsible for all of its sufferings?  Surely, our own contaminated mind.  Through correct mental actions, in particular our tantric practices of generation and completion stage, we can literally karmically reconstruct our dream from a world of suffering into a world of eternal joy.

In short, we should give love to others in every way we can every opportunity we get.

To give fearlessness.

We give fearlessness by protecting others from fear and danger.  If we cannot do anything directly to protect others, at least we should make prayers and dedicate our merit so that others may become free from fear and danger.

Giving fearlessness and compassionate action are synonymous.  Compassion is the wish to protect others from suffering, fear and danger.  We live in samsara, and so are surrounded by fears and dangers.  It is the very nature of samsara.  People are in constant danger of losing what they have, be it their money, their position, their reputation or their enjoyments.  People around the world face dangers from others threatening their lives, livelihoods or freedoms.  In schools and in the workplace, the weak or the different are bullied and shunned.  Those with great power manipulate the political system to enrich themselves at the expense of everybody else.  Those with great knowledge deceive those with less, effectively swindling them out of all they have worked so hard to build.  Those with powerful speech judge and condemn those weaker than them, using others as scapegoats for their own failures.  Those with no scruples will lie, deceive and make false allegations against the innocent.  Governments will terrorize and steal from their own people to maintain their hold on power.  Even those in society whose job it is to protect us are often sources of fear and danger.  Doctors may prescribe medical treatments or perform tests just so they can make more money off of our illness.  Lawyers may keep our conflicts going so they get more in fees.  Police may abuse their power to extort money or carry out their racist visions.  Our political leaders may stoke fear and discord in an attempt to gain electoral advantage.  If we check, there is no safety to be found anywhere in samsara.

As Kadampas and as bodhisattvas in training, our job is to protect and to serve wherever possible.  Power is very much like wealth, just with a different causal chain.  We all know that giving creates the cause of wealth.  We want wealth so we have even more to give.  In exactly the same way, protecting others creates the cause for power.  We want power so we have even more ability to protect others.  While it is beyond the scope of this blog to do so, a Dharma reading of the rise and fall of great powers is one of the protecting and then exploiting of others.  The same is true at the level of individuals.  The more we protect others, the more power we will accumulate.  Not all power is formal, indeed most of it is informal.  It doesn’t depend on the ability to coerce, rather it primarily depends on the ability to inspire.  It does not depend on our position, it depends on how much others respect and trust our intentions and opinions.  The Kadampa finds the person in the greatest need, and helps them first.  They find the protectorless, and brings them under their wing.  If they hold any power or influence in the world, they use it to protect the weak.  They wield their power for the common good, not their own narrow self-interest.  When we take our tantric vows we vow to “deliver those not delivered, liberate those not liberated, give breath to those unable to breath, and lead all beings to a state beyond suffering.”

It is of course good to wish to protect people from the effects of suffering, it is even better to wish to protect others from the causes of suffering, namely their own delusions and negative actions.  We easily generate compassion for the rape victim, but do we equally (if not more so) generate compassion for the rapist?  It is easy to condemn those who commit harm, it is hard to help them do right.

Sometimes circumstances require us to stand up and fight against some injustice.  Our doing so must be motivated by compassion.  Compassion not only for the victims, but also for the perpetrators.  Ghandi clearly showed that the best way to fight oppression is to appeal to the oppressors own ideals, and show how their actions contradict their own values.  The Prasangikas clearly show that the best way to oppose wrong views is to expose their contradictions through penetrating questions.  It is not an attack on somebody to request them to live up to their own ideals, it is an act of wrathful compassion.  Most people, even the most destructive people, in their own mind view themselves as fundamentally good people.  Nobody wants to be a bad buy, everyone strives to be the good guy.  Instead of calling somebody bad, invoke them to live up to their own standards of good.  In the short run, this may lead to conflict with the other person, but in the long run it helps free them from continuing to create causes for their own future suffering.

To give Dharma.

Here the commitment is to remember six times every day that it is our duty to help others through giving Dharma.  Even if we cannot give formal Dharma teachings we can take every opportunity to help others by giving them spiritual advice in skillful ways.  We should likewise dedicate our spiritual practice to others, imagining we are practicing on their behalf.  Finally, we can practice the yoga of purifying migrators.  These will now be explained in turn.

Skillfully giving Dharma advice.

Giving material things is good, but ultimately the benefit we can provide by doing so if quite limited.  At most, we can help people in this life alone.  Just because it is limited in scope does not mean we shouldn’t still do it, but we should not stop there thinking it is sufficient.  Giving Dharma advice helps people not only in this life, but it helps them in all of their future lives.  It not only helps them reduce their problems, but it gives them a chance to become permanently free from them.  In reality, there is no more beneficial form of giving possible.

If our giving of Dharma is to truly be beneficial, we must do so in a skillful way.  If we give Dharma unskillfully, even if we give perfectly pure Dharma and give the other person exactly the advice that they need, others will reject what we have to say.  Far from helping them, we will actually harm them because they will now create the karmic habits of rejecting the Dharma.  Therefore, it is vital that we strive to be increasingly skillful in how we give Dharma advice.

In my view, the number one rule of skillfully giving Dharma advice is, “if others aren’t asking for your advice, don’t give it.”  Others do not have to formally ask, but we need to use our judgment to assess whether the other person is at least implicitly seeking our counsel or perspective.  The second rule is we should have no attachment whatsoever to the other person following our advice.  If we believe our happiness depends on the other person following our advice, then they will feel our giving advice is actually us trying to manipulate or change them.  All of us naturally resist when others try to manipulate or change us.  Instead, we should feel that the other person not changing actually suits us just fine because of all of the opportunities it gives us to work on our own mind.  The third rule in skillfully giving Dharma is we should only explain the general Dharma principle, but leave it up to others to determine for themselves how to apply that principle in their own lives.  We can tell stories about past experiences of ourselves or others we know, we can affirm certain Dharma truths, but we leave it up to others to form their own conclusions about what it all means for them and their situation.  The reason for this is simple:  when it is their conclusion that they reached themselves, they own it and they will follow it.  Dharma only works when we put it into practice from our own side knowing it is good for us.

Dedicating our practice for others.

Dedication is essentially the means by which give away the merit we have accumulated through our practice.  Philanthropists make money so that they can give it away.  We accumulate merit so that we can give it away.  Giving away our merit is like creating within our mind an inexhaustible fountain of good karma.  The more we give, the more we accumulate, and then the more we can give.

If we check, making dedications and making prayers are essentially the same thing.  Perhaps that is why they are called “dedication prayers.”  It is of course good to dedicate that people are freed from their troubles, cured of all illnesses, unencumbered by obstacles, etc.  But it is even better to dedicate that peoples troubles, illnesses and obstacles become causes of their swiftest possible enlightenment.  Troubles, illness and obstacles are only problems when we lack the means to transform them.  If we possess the wisdom and strength of mind to transform them, such adversities are actually the strongest fuel we have pushing us along the path.  The highest thing we can pray for is that the Dharma flourish in the minds of living beings.  Only Dharma realizations can provide us with lasting protection from all suffering, only Dharma realizations can survive death.

Engaging in the yoga of purifying migrators.

If last night we dreamt of somebody in a wheelchair, we should ask ourselves, “who put them there?”  Surely, since it is our dream, we did.  In the same way, if the entire waking world is nothing but a karmic dream, who created all of this suffering?  Surely, since it is our dream, we did.  Realizing this incorrectly can lead to a crushing form of guilt, realizing this correctly can lead to a vajra-like confidence that all of our bodhichitta wishes can be realized.  If we can make a world of suffering, then we can also unmake it.  In fact, we can karmically reconstruct this world of suffering into a pure land.  The method for doing so is the yoga of purifying migrators.

When we mentally transform somebody else into a Buddha several things happen.  First, the Buddhas enter their mind, blessing them to move in the direction of enlightenment.  Second, we counter our own ordinary appearances and conceptions of the person, thus producing within our mind only virtue when we relate to them.  Third, since they are nothing more than a mere karmic appearance to mind, by viewing them in this way we plant the karma on our mind that will ripen in the future in the form of them directly appearing – even to themselves – as a Buddha.  In this way, little by little, we karmically reconstruct the world into a pure land.

Understanding all of this, it is clear there is no higher form of giving than skillfully giving Dharma.

Vows, commitments and modern life:  Give everything you have to others

The four commitments of the family of Buddha Ratnasambhava

The four commitments of the family of Buddha Ratnasambhava function to purify our aggregate of feeling and transform it into the wisdom of equality.  When we have cultivated this aggregate within our mind, then our every experience of every object will equally be the feeling of great bliss.

To give material help. 

The commitment is to develop the thought to give material things six times every day, and then when we are out of meditation to give as much as we are able.

Giving, quite simply, creates the cause to receive.  Whatever you give, you create the cause to receive.  The only reason why we have anything is because in the past we gave these things.  We may think it is because we worked hard, earned money and bought these things.  Surely, that is a circumstantial cause, but the substantial cause of us having anything is our past practice of giving.

Very often we have enormous resistance to the idea of giving material things, especially our money.  When we see beggars, we tend to walk on by and try not to look at them.  When there are fund raisers at work or at our Dharma center, we are quick to become skeptical and find all sorts of excuses why we can’t give.  We feel like our material needs are not being met, and we need whatever money we have for the things we want to buy.  We keep storage closets stuffed to the brim with old and unused things that we are keeping just in case we might one day need it.  Miserliness is an all pervasive aspect of our personality.

I always find it useful to consider the example of Bill Gates.  He is by far one of the richest people in the world, and he essentially gives away everything he has made.  He single handedly gives more aid to others than the vast majority of entire countries.  Why is he so rich?  Because he gave extensively in his past lives.  Why does he give so much now?  Because he has built up within his mind the mental habit of giving.  What will his future be?  He will be even richer.  I also find it useful to consider the example of my mother in law.  She has essentially nothing.  But virtually everything she has, she gives away freely and happily to her children and grandchildren.  She almost never spends money on herself, but instead gives everything away.  More important than the fact that she gives more in absolute terms than far richer other relatives, the percentage of her things she gives is near 90%.  Who amongst us does that?

To counter our miserliness, we can adopt some very simple rules.  First, we should adopt a policy of giving something every single time we are asked.  Throughout life, there are all sorts of instances when we are asked to give, but if we check they are not that frequent.  But we should tell ourselves that every time we are asked, we will give something.  It doesn’t matter how much we give, what matters is how often we generate the mind of giving.  It was said before that it is karmically vastly superior to generate the mind of giving one penny one hundred times than it is to generate the mind of giving one dollar only once.  Give a little if you have to, but give something every time.

Second, we should go through everything we own and anything we haven’t used in over a year, unless we have a VERY specific purpose in mind that we know we are keeping the thing for, we should just give it away.  If you haven’t used it in the last 12 months, it is unlikely you will use it in the next 12 months.  Instead of sitting in your closet or garage, better to give it away to somebody who might need it.  Some people try sell their old things on eBay or in a garage sale, but from a karmic point of view this is quite foolish.  If we sell our things, we might make a few dollars (while spending a lot of time selling it, shipping it, etc., but in the end, what will we have to show for it?  Nothing.  If instead, we give it away, then we will create the causes to receive things we need in the future, and more importantly we will reinforce our mental habit of giving.

Third, Venerable Tharchin advises us to quite simply ban the word “mine” from our set of mental imputations.  When we impute “mine” on anything, then for as long as we maintain that imputation, we are burning up our merit.  If instead, we impute “others” onto everything, then even if we maintain possession of the object, instead of burning up our merit, we will continuously be creating the karma and mental habits of giving.  For example, we can view our house as the thing we are giving our family to live in.  We can view our clothes as the courtesy we give to others so they don’t have to behold our unbecoming naked body.  We can view our money as belonging to whomever we will eventually give it to when we buy something with it.  The fact that they also “give” us something at the same time doesn’t mean we can’t mentally view our paying for things as an act of giving.  We can view our body as belonging to others, we are their servant.  We can view our time as the thing we give others when we help them.  If you check, we have no need to ever impute “mine” on anything.  Everything can be mentally given to others.  We may remain custodian of certain things until a later time, but we never consider the things in our possession, “mine.”

If we train in these ways, we can train in the practice of giving material things every moment of every day.

To rely sincerely upon our Spiritual Guide.

Since all the attainments of Secret Mantra depend upon receiving the blessings of our Vajra Master, relying sincerely upon him or her is the most important practice for Secret Mantra practitioners.  Therefore, we have a commitment to remember our Spiritual guide at least six times every day so as to increase our faith in him or her.

Gen-la Losang said in reality there is only one spiritual practice, and that is reliance upon the Spiritual Guide.  All of our other practices are actually just different aspects of our main practice of reliance.  According to Sutra, we can understand this on a couple of different levels.  First, every instruction we practice comes from the Spiritual Guide, so by relying upon them we are relying upon the Spiritual Guide.  Second, we rely upon the Spiritual Guide’s blessings to be able to realize within our mind the different realizations of Dharma.

According to Tantra, our reliance on the Spiritual Guide is much more robust and profound.  The simplest way of understanding it is in Sutra, it is like we are trying to create a Buddha from scratch by gradually building up within our mind all of a Buddha’s qualities through our own effort.  In Tantra, we say, “the Spiritual Guide has already attained enlightenment, all we need to do is ‘download’ his enlightened mind into our own mind, and then we ‘install’ that enlightened mind into our own mental operating system.  Downloading his mind into our mind is accomplished through the generation of the deity with faith within our mind, and we install his mind in our mind through our training in divine pride of imputing our I onto the pure aggregates we have generated.  The software on the server and the software on our computer are exactly the same, just operating on two different computers.  In the same way, the software of the Guru’s enlightenment in the server of his mind and the software of his mind in the computer of our own mind are exactly the same, just operating in two different mental continuums.  Where did the Guru get his enlightenment?  By downloading it from his Guru’s mind, and so forth back to Buddha Shakyamuni and Buddha Vajradhara.

In Sutra, when we train in lamrim we go through all sorts of different contemplations to bring our own mind to the conclusions of the lamrim, and then we try hold these conclusions for as long as possible to consolidate them within our mind.  In Tantra, we say that every realization of the path, from the realization of our precious human life up to the Mahamudra realization of meaning clear light, are all different aspects, or parts of, our Guru’s enlightened mind.  And when we train in Lamrim, what we are actually doing is making manifest within our mind this aspect of our guru’s mind.  Just as we can download the deity body and mandala, so too we can download in the same way our guru’s realizations of the lamrim.

In Sutra, when we meditate we do so with our own powers of mindfulness, alertness, concentration and discriminating wisdom.  But these are extremely weak and ineffective tools.  In Tantra, we realize we can literally meditate with our Guru’s powers of mindfulness, alertness, concentration and discriminating wisdom.  These are like nuclear enriched power tools for realizing the stages of the path.

In Sutra, as we go about our day, we try to be like the Buddhas, trying to be patient, giving, compassionate and so forth.  In Tantra, we try to become an empty conduit through which the Buddhas work through us in this world, helping living beings, giving perfectly reliable advice and spreading love.  Just as there is no point where we can say the sun stops and its rays begin, in the same way for the Tantric practitioner, there is no point where we can say the Guru stops and his rays of his actions working through us begin.  Eventually, we lose any sense of there being an “us” he is working through – there is just him working in this world, and we are him and he is us, and both are true simultaneously and without contradiction.  We become completely non-dual with him.  Viewed in this way, our enlightenment is quite simply the culmination of our practice of reliance.

To generate ourself as the Deity. 

To overcome ordinary appearances and conceptions, which are the root of samsara, Vajradhara gave us a commitment to generate ourself as our Deity six times every day.  Ideally we should maintain divine pride and clear appearance 24 hours a day.  We should always do this with a bodhichitta motivation.

In Sutra, we say that the root of samsara is self-grasping ignorance.  Self-grasping ignorance is believing an object is one with its inherent existence.  The inherent existence of the object appears in the aspect of the object.  In Tantra, we say that the root of samsara is ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions.  These are usually best defined in the negative.  Ordinary appearances is any appearance other than seeing the object as a karmic reflection of the emptiness of our mind of great bliss.  Ordinary conceptions is any conception of the object other than conceiving the object as a karmic reflection of the emptiness of our mind of great bliss.  Because we see things in an ordinary way, we generate delusions, which we then act on, creating contaminated karma, which then gives rise to ordinary appearance of things.  In this way, samsara continues without interruption.

To counter this, we train in pure appearances and pure conceptions.  A pure appearance is an appearance that appears to us directly to be a karmic reflection of the emptiness of our mind of great bliss.  A pure conception is conceiving of observed objects as karmic reflections of the emptiness of our mind of great bliss.  Because we see things in a pure way, we generate pure minds, which we then act on, creating pure karma, which then gives rise to pure appearance of things.  In this way, our enlightenment continues without interruption.

Tantric practice can be divided into two main stages, generation stage and completion stage.  Generation stage is like making the outline of our enlightenment, and completion stage is like filling in all of the color.  In generation stage, our main practice is self-generation of ourself as a deity.  Self-generation practice opposes both ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions.  It opposes ordinary appearances by generating within our mind pure appearances of ourself as the deity, our environment as the pure land, and all beings as Heroes and Heroines.  It opposes ordinary conceptions by mentally recalling that these things are the emptiness of our mind of great bliss in the aspect of the self-generated mandala.  These very simple recognitions cut right to the heart of samsara.

During the meditation break, we likewise constantly try to maintain pure appearance and pure conceptions.  This is a bit more difficult because an ordinary world still appears to us.  The way we can train correctly can be understood as follows.  I was in Frankfurt once and I went to the Modern Art Museum there.  One of the exhibits was a room and what was being projected onto all of the walls were images a perfectly calm and pleasant tropical beach.  So if you only looked, you would think you were on a beach.  But the sound that was playing in the room was that of a terrible and destructive hurricane.  So if you only listened, you would think you were in the middle of a great storm.  The two together created a very peculiar feeling, but due to our mind’s power to naturally integrate our different awarenesses into one experience, the sights and sounds somehow fused into one experience.  In exactly the same way, during the meditation break what will appear to our sense awarenesses will be the world that we normally see, but with our mental awareness we will be generating, and thus seeing with our mind’s eye, pure appearances and conceptions.  Yet since both are happening at the same time, the power of our mind will somehow integrate the two together into a wisdom experience of the world.  For me, it feels like I am centered in the pure world appearing to my mind, but I am moving and operating in another layer of reality that is appearing to the beings of that other layer of reality as the ordinary world appearing to my sense awarenesses.  It is like I see everything as pure, but I simultaneously see how my activities are appearing to everyone else within the realms of samsara.  Another analogy is it is like I am an undercover Buddha operating in the world, and my disguise is my ordinary appearance of myself.  I am in this world, but I am not of it.

Some people misunderstand generation of ourself as a deity as like the crazy person who thinks he is Jesus returned.  Others confusedly think it is an exercise in supremely arrogant pretension.  In reality, it is none of these things.  Proper self-generation is not a Jesus complex because the reason why we self-generate is because we are fully aware of the limitations of our ordinary body and mind, and so we dissolve it completely into emptiness and generate anew a new pure version of ourself.  It is not supremely arrogant pretension because we don’t think we actually are already the deity, rather we train in being the deity by trying to live up to that role.  Our motivation for engaging in self-generation is aspirational, we wish to become a Buddha because we realize we are not, but we know by training in being like one we will gradually become one.  While it is subtle to understand, we do mentally choose to believe we are the deity not because we grasp at ourself as inherently being so, but rather because the mental action of believing we are the deity completes the karma which will ripen in the future in the form of us becoming one.  The same karmic logic applies to our practice of taking and giving, for example.

To keep a bell to remind us of emptiness.  There are two types of bell:  outer and inner.  To remind us of the meaning of the wisdom directly realizing emptiness we are advised to keep an outer bell, or a picture of one.  Through gradually training in great bliss and emptiness, eventually we shall attain the union of great bliss and emptiness, which is the very essence of Secret Mantra.  The bell also symbolizes the practitioner’s personal deity and mandala.  Realizing this we should regard it as an object of the field of merit and make offerings to it. Just as with the vajra, the real meaning of this vow is to attain the inner bell, which is the realization of emptiness.

A bell is helpful for reminding us of emptiness because just as a bell’s sounds arise from echo like waves moving through space, so too all phenomena are echo-like karmic waves moving through emptiness. Sounds also remind us of emptiness because although they appear to our ear awareness, they do not truly exist and cannot be found anywhere.

While of course the logical reasoning establishing emptiness is necessary to realize it, sometimes people mistakenly understanding training in emptiness to be some exercise in philosophical abstraction.  Our training in emptiness is actually quite different from this.  During our meditation sessions, we do all sorts of different visualizations.

As we do these visualizations, I find it most helpful to view things in one of two ways.  The first is to view everything I am visualizing as mental holograms generated in the space of emptiness.  There is nothing actually there other than the mental holograms I am generating.  I can generate this awareness by thinking, “though it appears, it does not truly exist.”  I have programmed my mind where when I recall these words, I am able to see my visualizations in this light.  It is like I take a step back out of the world of appearances and instead view the appearances from the perspective of emptiness.  Yet, I am still aware that they have been generated intentionally by my mind through effort.

The second way is I view the emptiness of my mind like a giant clear light play dough, and when I do the different visualizations, I feel as if I am molding the play dough of my mind into the aspect of the different visualizations.  Physical yoga is a process of putting our body in all sorts of strange physical shapes and positions, and we cycle through different positions in a defined sequence, and doing so functions to untie the knots and obstructions in our body.  Tantric practices are often called “yogas.”  The meaning here is the same.  Through engaging in the sadhana, we cycle our mind through different mental positions in a defined sequence, and doing so functions to untie the knots and obstructions in our subtle body and mind.  By engaging in different visualizations, we are putting and holding our mind in different mental positions.  We are literally reshaping our mind, and by doing so we karmically reshape the world.

There are a couple of different methods we can use to combine bliss and emptiness together in our meditation.  First, Kadam Bjorn said, “bliss is what emptiness feels like.”  In other words, when our aggregate of discrimination realizes emptiness, our aggregate of feeling naturally “feels” bliss.  These two together then combine into a single primary mind of bliss and emptiness in the same way that our ear awareness and our eye awareness combine into a single experience of a bird chirping.

Second, using the play dough analogy, we can feel as if the emptiness if our mind is like our body of bliss, and we shape it into the aspect of our visualization.  It is like a liquid metallic creature from some Hollywood movie, where the substance is the liquid metal (of bliss), but the aspect is the shape of the creature (or deity). During the meditation break, we can train in emptiness by viewing everything as a karmic dream, or like a karmic movie unfolding in the space of the emptiness of our mind.  We don’t need to do elaborate logical syllogisms, just view the world through the wisdom glasses of seeing everything as a karmic dream.

We can consider any number of other analogies, such as karmic waves on the ocean of our mind, or karmic echoes moving through the space of emptiness, mental holograms dancing around us.  It suffices to just recall one of these analogies, and then choose to “view” or “see” the world through this lens.  When we do so, we are able to easily recall emptiness and carry our realization of it with us throughout the day.  We can combine bliss and emptiness during the meditation break in the same way explained above that we do for the meditation session.

To keep a vajra to remind us of great bliss. 

There are two types of vajra:  outer and inner.  To remind us that the development of the inner vajra of great bliss is our main practice we keep an outer vajra (a metal ritual object, or at least a picture of one).  The vajra also symbolizes the attainment of the five omniscient wisdoms of the five Buddha families.  Realizing this we should regard it as an object of the field of merit and make offerings to it.

The point of this vow is not to go to the Dharma shop in our local center, buy a vajra and put it on our shrine.  While of course we need to do so, the real point is to remember the vajra of great bliss all of the time.  The actual physical vajra is merely an external representation to help us remember.

People sometimes get very confused about great bliss.  Because our only basis for the experience of bliss is sexual orgasm, most of society equates Tantric practice with strange sexual practices.  Open any newspaper, and you can find a menu of options to choose from in terms of “Tantra classes” and the only requirement for attending them is loose fitting pants.  Needless to say, this is not what is meant by qualified Tantric practice.

The essential point of tantra is to generate the most powerful, subtle mind possible, and then to use that mind to mediate on the most powerful, subtle object of meditation possible.  If we do this, we will attain enlightenment the most quickly possible.  Our mind has three levels to it, gross, subtle and very subtle.  Roughly speaking, our gross mind refers to the level of mind we normally have while we are awake; our subtle mind refers to the level of mind we normally have when we are dreaming; and our very subtle mind refers to the level of mind we normally have at the last moment of death, when all the appearances of this world completely re-absorb.  All of our gross minds originate from our subtle minds, and all of our subtle minds originate from our very subtle mind.  Our very subtle mind, our root mind, and the mind of great bliss are synonymous.

The fundamental mechanism by which Dharma works is by placing the wisdom of Dharma deeper within our mind than the delusions we suffer from.  If we can do so, we effectively uproot and remove that particular delusion from our mind.  To use arbitrary numbers to illustrate the point, if we have a delusion which reaches down to level 4 in our mind, and we only place the Dharma down to level 3, then the Dharma will cut off the tops of the delusion but it won’t remove the roots of the delusion, and it is just a question of time before the delusion grows back.  It is like pulling weeds, but not doing so by their roots.  If instead we place the Dharma down to level 5 within our mind, then the Dharma will completely uproot and remove that particular delusion within our mind.  Meditation, quite simply, is a method for planting the Dharma more deeply within our mind.  The more powerful our meditating mind, the deeper we plant the Dharma.  The deepest level of mind of all is our very subtle mind.  If we can place the Dharma at that level of our mind, then it literally gets underneath all of our delusions, and indeed their past karmic imprints, and uproots all of them directly and simultaneously.  The most powerful mind is the very subtle mind of great bliss, and the most powerful object is ultimate truth emptiness.  But we do not seek to just realize emptiness with our very subtle mind, we seek to realize all of the lamrim meditations with this mind.

How do we actually generate the mind of great bliss?  To answer this, we must first know what is a qualified mind of great bliss.  Sexual bliss is an agitated, grasping mind.  Great bliss is completely different.  The best way of understanding it is take a feeling of inner peace that comes from your lamrim practice, then take that feeling of peace to its ultimate extreme – a mind so peaceful, it feels blissful.  It is a fully satiated mind that lacks and wants for nothing.  It is a feeling of sublime calm that radiates from the inside out, melting everything into a supreme contented joy.  The primary means by which we generate this mind is, through the force of meditation and assisted by blessings, we cause our inner winds to gather, dissolve and absorb into our central channel, in particular at our heart.  All of our tantric meditations of generation and completion stage are, in fact, methods for gathering our inner winds (and removing the obstructions to them gathering).  The more they gather, the more our mind becomes peaceful, and the more peaceful it becomes, the more blissful it becomes.  Pursuing this experience day and night is the real meaning of the vow.