A Pure Life: Abandoning Intoxicants (In particular alcohol and marijuana)

September 15, 2022May 29, 2021 Kadampa Ryan Precept Days

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

One of our Mahayana precepts is to abandon intoxicants. This includes drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, or taking drugs. This is often one of the toughest ones for us to follow. The object of this vow is obviously any intoxicant, whether it is legal or not. Some people ask the question whether caffeine counts, after all it is highly addictive and many people relate to it no differently than other drugs. And if coffee is an intoxicant, then aren’t all of the centers and festivals and World Peace Cafes constantly encouraging others to break their Pratimoksha vows?

Some people don’t like the answer I am about to give, but I will give it anyways. Yes, I think caffeine can be considered an intoxicant. I think nothing is really an intoxicant from its own side and everything can be an intoxicant for us depending on how we relate to it. Sugar is not an intoxicant from its own side, but if we adopt an addictive attitude towards it, then for us I would way it is and likewise should be brought under control. Likewise, many people get addicted to porn. This is a very common addiction in the modern world, especially with the ease of access on-line. This too can be a form of intoxicant for us depending on how we relate to it.

Some objects, like cigarettes, alcohol and drugs are in a somewhat different category because their express purpose is to alter our mind. This is the main point. If we understand that our problem is our mind and alcohol and drugs help us change our mind, then can’t we argue that with them we are at least solving the right problem? From one perspective, I guess we can say that. But it is still a completely wrong thought. Yes, we need to change our mind, but we need to change our mind with our mind. We can think of our mind as like a muscle. The more we exercise it, the stronger it gets. The more we become dependent upon other things to change our mind, the weaker that muscle becomes. Ultimately, we need a very strong mind. Further, alcohol and drugs function to render our mind uncontrolled. Our goal is to make our mind controlled. So these things may change our mind, but they do so in a way that makes our mind more uncontrolled, and thus they take us in the opposite direction of where we want to go.

Let’s talk about alcohol

Alcohol in particular generally just makes us stupid. The reason why alcohol is so dangerous is it primarily functions to undermine our inhibitions. Our inhibitions are often what hold us back from engaging in negativity. If we harbor in our heart a good deal of negative impulses, then when we consume alcohol, it erodes those inhibitions and our negativity is given free rein. We all know stories. Now, some people say that there is nothing wrong with being an occasional social drinker, especially if is done in moderation. It is true that it is less bad, but that does not necessarily make it good. It is true that it is good to be social, but how will you grow more as a person, by using the crutch of alcohol or doing the deep inner work of overcoming those delusions which prevent you from being a socially engaged person? I am now a diplomat and I attend quite a number of social gatherings where virtually everyone is drinking. I walk around with a glass of water or even orange juice in my hand. At first, I hated these gatherings because I have never liked parties. But I forced myself to learn how to become socially engaged, to let go, relax and have a good time. I learned how to be able to have a good conversation easily with anybody. The secret to this is not complicated: take a genuine interest in what others have to say. Everyone has a lifetime worth of experiences waiting to be tapped, and all you need to do is be interested in finding out what they have to say. Usually people only want to talk about themselves anyways, so it is not difficult to get the conversations started, and what you will find is because you have all of your mental faculties about you, you are better able to cherish the other person and occasionally pepper the conversation with some wisdom.

Other people object saying having a glass of red wine every day has been medically proven to be good for your health. I am not a doctor, so I cannot say whether this is true or not, but let’s just assume it is. My question is simple: isn’t moral discipline also good for your health? Let us take a wild exaggeration of the benefits of drinking a glass of wine every day and say it adds 10 years onto your human life. Surely that is extraordinary, is it not? Surely that is enough justification to do it. But every time we engage in the practice of moral discipline we create the substantial karmic cause for a rebirth in the upper realms, for example as a human. If we assume an average lifespan of 80 years, what extends our experience of human life more, the 10 years or the 80? And, just to take this a little further, if you practice this moral discipline every day from age 21 to 80, then that is 21,535 instances of moral discipline, each one of which creates the cause for at least another human rebirth of say 80 years, then keeping this vow will extend our experience of human life by 1,722,800 years! Do the math. Logic doesn’t lie.

Let’s talk about marijuana

Some people agree that drinking alcohol just makes us stupid and taking hard drugs is just too dangerous, but they then ask what about marijuana? People who have smoked almost all agree that it makes them more mellow and often gives them insights which are very similar and profound like what we realize with the Dharma. There are also a great number of medical studies about the health benefits of this drug. Let us face it, a very high percentage of Dharma practitioners have smoked pot in the past.

Here the case is much harder, but still it is not worth it. Why? First, just as alcohol functions to undermine our inhibitions, marijuana functions to undermine our desire to do anything other than more marijuana. This is true, and anybody who has smoked knows what I am talking about. Conventionally, people usually all agree that people who regularly smoke have less ambition and drive than they used to. Whenever free time arises, their first impulse is to light up. As we know from the lamrim teachings, desire is everything. All of the lamrim meditations are ultimately about building up within us an unquenchable desire for liberation and enlightenment. Marijuana deflates our desires, and the more we smoke the less we desire anything else.

Second, if we are even slightly prone to psychiatric disorders, marijuana is downright dangerous. When I was in Geneva, there were three different practitioners who were mentally completely normal prior to smoking marijuana, but they had latent potentials for psychiatric disorders, and after smoking regularly for a period of time, they all three developed very serious psychiatric issues, so much so that all three of them have spent a fair amount of time in mental hospitals. We do not know what latent potentialities we have lurking under the surface, and smoking could activate them. Perhaps we have smoked a few times without a problem and therefore think we are immune to this problem. But we never know if we are just one joint away from tripping over some invisible karmic wire we did not know was there.

Third, marijuana is a gateway drug. It is like crossing the Rubicon, and once we have done so the other drugs which before we said we would never even consider trying suddenly no longer seem that different. Marijuana seems to be OK, perhaps Ecstasy, opium, or a little blow might be OK too. Geshe-la explains in the teachings on delusions that the easiest way to stop delusions is to do so early before they have gathered up steam. Once we allowed them to run a little bit in our mind, they can seemingly take on a force of their own and become unstoppable in our mind. It is the same with drugs. Just as they say it is easier to attain enlightenment once we have become a human than it is to become a human if we have fallen into the lower realms, so too it is easier to avoid marijuana now than it is to avoid using other drugs once we have started using marijuana.

Finally, sometimes people object saying that when they smoke marijuana it gives them deep insights into the Dharma, so how can that be bad. Perhaps it is true that when we smoke up, suddenly emptiness makes sense. We see all the connections between the different Dharma teachings. Such experiences can quickly and easily be used to justify doing it some more “for valid Dharma reasons.” So again, just like with the health benefits of drinking a glass of wine every day, let us assume for the sake of argument that there are deeper insights to be had by smoking marijuana. Once again, my question is simple: isn’t have a precious human life also good for gaining spiritual insights? Every time we practice moral discipline for spiritual reasons, we create the karmic causes for an entire precious human life. So what gives us greater opportunities to gain spiritual insights, 80 years worth of a precious human life or a few hours each week for 80 years? And this is setting aside the fact that there are diminishing returns. Perhaps the first time we get high we feel the subtle vibrations of the cosmos, but do we get that same feeling the 20^th time we get high? Eventually, it starts to do very little for us. So again, let us assume you smoke once a week for your whole life. By taking this vow, you will train in this moral discipline 3,120 times (assuming you are 20 and live until you are 80). 3,120 actions of moral discipline translates into 3,120 precious human lives or another 249,600 years’ worth of precious human existence. What will give you the opportunity to gain greater spiritual insight, 250,000 years’ worth of precious human life or a few random insights from being high? Again, math does not lie.

The final thing I want to address is the situation of what happens if despite all of the above, we are ready to take the Pratimoksha vows for everything except this one related to intoxicants. We just can’t bring ourselves to do it. Should we hold off on taking the vows? I have heard some people within the tradition say yes. This is wrong, and a dangerous wrong at that. It runs exactly counter to everything Geshe-la teaches about the working gradually and skillfully with all of the vows. It makes absolutely no sense to refrain from all moral discipline just because you cannot do one act of moral discipline perfectly. How is that any better? Now it is true that we cannot take all of the Pratimoksha vows except the one regarding intoxicants, we need to work with all of the vows, but we can work with each one at different levels according to our capacity. Just as Buddha skillfully encouraged the butcher to no longer kill animals at night, so too we can skillfully promise to refrain from taking intoxicants in some circumstances, such as never do so while alone. Or not on Tuesdays, whatever. Start somewhere, and then gradually expand the scope. What matters is that mentally you understand the value of moral discipline and you maintain the intention to one day keep even this vow purely. It is better to get incomplete benefits from imperfect Pratimoksha vows than it is to get no benefit from no Pratimoksha vows. So don’t let this wrong understanding prevent you from getting started on the path of improving your moral discipline.

Happy Tsog Day: How to practise the perfection of patience

September 10, 2022January 1, 2021 Kadampa Ryan Tsog Days

In order to remember and mark our tsog days, holy days on the Kadampa calendar, I am sharing my understanding of the practice of Offering to the Spiritual Guide with tsog. This is part 37 of a 44-part series.

I seek your blessings to complete the perfection of patience
So that even if every single being in the three realms,
Out of anger were to abuse me, criticize me, threaten me, or even take my life,
Undisturbed, I would repay their harm by helping them.

Geshe-la explains in How to Solve our Human Problems, “Patience is a mind that is able to accept, fully and happily, whatever occurs. It is much more than just gritting our teeth and putting up with things. Being patient means to welcome wholeheartedly whatever arises, having given up the idea that things should be other than what they are. It is always possible to be patient; there is no situation so bad that it cannot be accepted patiently, with an open, accommodating and peaceful heart.” This definition is worth memorizing. The perfection of patience is engaging in the practice of patience with a bodhichitta motivation.

There is no virtue greater than patience and there is no evil greater than anger. Thus, if we were to take only one thing as our main practice, it should be abandoning anger and practicing patience. Because we live in degenerate times, the causes of suffering and adversity are growing. As a result, our opportunities to practice patience are increasing as well. Patience is the cause of great beauty. We may wonder why we want beauty? Geshe-la explains in Joyful Path of Good Fortune that beauty creates the causes for others to be pleasantly disposed towards us, to naturally generate faith in us, and to wish to be around us. All these help us to become a more qualified spiritual guide capable of leading many living beings along the path. Patience is also one of the most profound causes of inner peace. If we are able to accept whatever happens, then our mind remains peaceful all the time. A peaceful mind is a happy mind.

Anger is like a communicable disease that remains in this world and spreads like wildfire. When one person gets angry, they hurt others, those people in turn get angry, they then hurt others and so forth. Further, when we express anger and frustration, such as on social media, we are likewise inciting others to also get angry and generate such negative minds. Some families have deep currents of anger. There may be for example one extremely angry person in a family who then infects everyone else in the family with anger, and that becomes the only way they know how to deal with problems that arise in life. It could take many decades of difficult inner work to undo the destructive effects of growing up in an angry home. But if we apply effort to eliminate anger, we can put an end to the lineage of anger in our family. And create a new lineage of patience within our family that continues for generation after generation.

Our ability to accept difficult circumstances depends primarily upon our ability to transform them into the path to enlightenment. If we know how to transform adverse circumstances into the path, then when they arise, they will not be a problem for us, rather they will be an opportunity. This only works, however, if our primary motivation is to make progress along the spiritual path. If our worldly desire to never encounter adversity is stronger than our spiritual desire to make progress along the path, even if we know how to transform adverse conditions into the path, it will not matter and things will still be a problem for us. But if our motivation is primarily spiritual, and we possess experience on how to transform adverse conditions into the path, then nothing will be a problem for us and there will be no basis for anger.

For me, I resolve about 90 to 95% of my otherwise anger-provoking problems through my reliance upon Dorje Shugden. With a motivation to make progress along the path, I request Dorje Shugden with faith to arrange the perfect conditions for my swiftest possible enlightenment. I then am able to accept whatever subsequently arises as the perfect conditions he has arranged for me. This faith will open my mind to receive his blessings to be able to understand how and why whatever has happened is perfect for my spiritual training. I will know what I need to do and be motivated to do it. In this way, nothing is a problem for me, and there is no basis for generating anger.

Happy Tara Day: May there be the auspiciousness of her presence

September 8, 2022December 23, 2021 Kadampa Ryan How to Rely Upon Tara, Tara Days

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

Offering the mandala

When we make a mandala offering, we imagine the entire universe is transformed into a pure land. The highest offering we can make is one of our practice. For me, a mandala offering is a promise that we will work for as long as it takes before we actually transform the world we normally see into the pure land we are offering. We will not stop until all living beings have been delivered to the pure land. Geshe-la explains in many places that mandala offerings are one of the best methods for attaining rebirth in a pure land. If we are offering to deliver all living beings to a pure land, we create countless karmic potentialities to attain a pure land ourselves. Just as Tara was born from the tears of the protector of the three worlds, and arose to tell Avalokitshvara to not worry, she would help him; in the same way, when we make a mandala offering, we are telling Tara to not worry, we will help her. We share the same wish to lead all beings to the pure land, and we promise to work towards that aim.

Requesting fulfilment of wishes

O Venerable, Blessed, Compassionate Mother,
May I and all countless living beings
Quickly purify the two obstructions, complete the two collections,
And attain the state of complete Buddhahood.

All living beings have Buddha nature. This means that if we purify our Buddha nature of everything that is not enlightened, our natural Buddhahood will emerge. In some respects, we don’t need to construct our Buddhahood, we just need to uncover it. Our very subtle mind, once completely purified, transforms into the enlightened mind of a Buddha. There are two obstructions on our very subtle mind – our delusions and their imprints. Every action creates four karmic potentialities: a tendency similar to the cause, an effect similar to the cause, a ripened effect, and an environmental effect. The first is a tendency to generate delusions again – basically our bad mental habits to respond in deluded ways. These are our delusion obstructions. The other three are the imprints of our past delusions, also known as obstructions to omniscience. They are so called because they ripen in the form of ordinary appearances – things appearing to exist from their own side. Another way to think about this is there are two types of karma: contaminated and non-contaminated karma. Contaminated karma is of two types: negative and positive. Negative karma ripens in lower rebirth and positive karma ripens as upper rebirth in samsara. Non-contaminated karma, or pure karma, ripens as a pure rebirth outside of samsara. To close the door on lower rebirth, we need to purify all of our negative karma. To close the door on our personal rebirth in samsara, we need to purify all of our negative karma and all of our delusion obstructions. To attain full enlightenment, we need to purify all of our contaminated karma. Tara can accelerate the rate at which we do all of this.

The two collections refer to the collection of merit and the collection of wisdom. The collection of merit arises primarily from our practices of the vast path (all of the Lamrim meditations up to bodhichitta), and the collection of wisdom arises primarily from our practices of the profound path (specifically the meditation on emptiness). According to highest yoga tantra, the collection of merit also includes generating the very subtle mind of great bliss that we use to meditate on emptiness. Once we have completed the collection of merit, we attain a Buddha’s form body. Once we have completed the collection of wisdom, we attain a Buddhas mind, or truth body. The union of these two is full enlightenment. Since Tara is the Buddha of Lamrim, she can help us complete both collections. Understanding this, when we recite this verse, we generate a strong wish to rely upon Tara understanding she can help us from where we are now all the way to full enlightenment.

Throughout all our lives before we reach Buddhahood,
May we attain the supreme happiness of humans and gods;
And so that we may accomplish the omniscient mind,
Please quickly pacify and eliminate all interferences,

It is said that it is easier to attain enlightenment once born human than it is to attain a human rebirth if we have been reborn in the lower realms. There is no guarantee we will attain enlightenment in this lifetime. Therefore, it is vital to ensure that we do not fall into the lower realms. If we do, there is a danger we may not re-find the spiritual path for countless eons. All of the beings who we would have otherwise been able to help if we had attained enlightenment earlier will have to continue to suffer for all that time. Not to mention the fact that we ourselves will have to experience all of the sufferings of the lower realms. Sometimes we think generating fear of lower rebirth is a meditation for beginners. We want to engage in higher meditations, and indulge ourselves in the fantasy that we are somehow exempt from lower rebirth. Geshe-la explains in Oral Instructions of Mahamudra that the main reason why we have not yet generated qualified refuge is because we lack fear of lower rebirth. If we do not have even qualified refuge, it goes without saying we have no chance of gaining higher realizations. Geshe-la further explains we should be as terrified of lower rebirth as we would be if we were trapped in a circle of fire. Understanding this, we should generate a very strong fear of lower rebirth and then, with faith in Tara’s ability to protect us from lower rebirth, we request her protection. In dependence upon this, if at the time of our death we remember Taro, she will bless our mind and we will avoid lower rebirth, and remain in the human and god realms until we reach Buddhahood.

Evil spirits, hindrances, epidemics and sickness,
As well as the various causes of untimely death,
Bad dreams, ill omens, the eight fears
And all other forms of danger.

Samsara is a dangerous place. In the Oral Instructions of Mahamudra, Geshe-la says Samsara is like a vast ocean of suffering and at any point we can be eaten by the sea monsters of the Lord of Death. We never know what sea monster may arise and pull us down into the deep ocean of suffering. Even if we avoid death for awhile, we are nonetheless buffeted by the violent waves of suffering. There is no safety anywhere in samsara. Nobody saw the Coronavirus coming, but in a very short period of time, it changed everything. It is just a question of time before we wind up with some incurable sickness. Tara can protect us from all of these dangers. How? First, by generating faith in her, we open our mind to receiving her blessings which prevent the negative karma already on our mind from ripening. Second, she can help us purify our negative karma directly, much in the same way Vajrasattva can. And third, if adversity does strike (which is inevitable), she will bless us with the wisdom to know how to transform it into causes of our enlightenment.

May all mundane and supramundane collections
Of good fortune, happiness, goodness and excellence increase,
And may every beneficial purpose without exception
Be effortlessly and spontaneously accomplished.

Supramundane collection, I believe, refers to spiritual collections as opposed to worldly ones. Normally we differentiate between worldly vs. spiritual, the former referring to things of this life and the latter referring to our future lives. For example, if we engage in our spiritual practice for the sake of this life, it is said to be worldly; but if we are training for the sake of our future lives, it is said to be spiritual. In other contexts, supramundane refers to virtues attained by superior beings – those who have attained a direct realization of emptiness. Regardless, this verse clearly calls for all good things to increase. When we rely upon Tara, for us, it will be an increasing time when spiritual development comes easily, even if for the world it remains a degenerate time, when bad things come effortlessly.

Happy Protector Day: Fulfilling our Heart Commitment to Dorje Shugden

August 29, 2022December 23, 2021 Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden, Protector Days, Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

The 29^th 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:

References within VGL’s teachings on this advice
1. On following one tradition purely without mixing
2. On sectarianism
  - From Joyful Path
  - From Clear Light of Bliss

The mind with which we examine this question
How to understand this instruction
Rationale for the spiritual advice to follow one tradition purely without mixing
1. Considering valid reasons
2. Contemplating useful analogies
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 ?

Conclusion

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.

Happy Tsog Day: How to practise the perfection of moral discipline

August 25, 2022January 1, 2021 Kadampa Ryan Tsog Days

I seek your blessings to complete the perfection of moral discipline
By not transgressing even at the cost of my life
The discipline of the Pratimoksha, Bodhisattva, and Secret Mantra vows,
And by gathering virtuous Dharmas, and accomplishing the welfare of sentient beings.

Moral discipline is the primary cause of higher rebirth. The perfection of moral discipline is engaging in moral discipline with a bodhichitta motivation. Every time we engage in an action of moral discipline motivated by a spiritual determination, we create the cause for some form of higher rebirth. If we do so with an initial scope motivation, we create the cause to be reborn in the upper realms. If we do so with the motivation of renunciation, we create the cause to attain liberation from samsara. If we do so with a bodhicitta motivation, we create the cause to attain full enlightenment.

There are many different types of moral discipline. The one we practice most frequently and find the most difficult is the moral discipline of restraint. For the most part, the habits of our mind tend to move in a negative direction. When we observe this, we can consider the karmic implications of acting upon our negative tendencies. Realizing that we do not want to go down that road, we make the decision to not listen to and not follow our negative tendency. And instead, we choose to listen to and follow our Dharma wisdom encouraging us to go in the other direction.

It is very important that we make a distinction between the practice of the moral discipline of restraint and repression. Because we are desire realm beings, we have no choice but to do whatever it is that we desire. Repression is when we want to engage in the negativity, but then think we shouldn’t and therefore we use “will power” to stop ourselves. This can work for a little bit, but our desire remains to engage in the negativity, and eventually this desire will grow and grow until eventually we give in. The practice of the moral discipline of restraint, in contrast, actively dismantles our negative desires by recognizing that in fact we do not want to go down that road and we do not want to follow the bad advice our negative tendencies are giving us because we understand the karmic consequences of doing so. We consider the karmic benefits of practicing moral discipline, and therefore want to do that instead. In short, we change our desires. When we do this, we are not repressing, but we are in fact practicing the moral discipline of restraint.

Sometimes people feel very guilty when they observe how often their mind looks to move in a negative direction, for example wishing to steal, wishing to lie, wishing to harm, and so forth. They can then develop guilt and self-hatred and become very discouraged thinking that they are accumulating all sorts of negative karma and they cannot stop themselves. This is wrong. Just as we need an annoying person to practice patience and we need those in need to practice giving, so too we need negative tendencies in order to practice the moral discipline of restraint. The fact that a negative tendency arises is not the creation of new negative karma, rather it is the exhausting of existing negative tendencies similar to the cause that remain on our mind. It only becomes a new action of negativity if we assent to the validity of the negative tendency and choose to follow it. If instead, at that time, we dismantle our negative desires, cultivate virtuous desires, and then act upon those, we are practicing the moral discipline of restraint. If over the course of an hour we have one hundred negative tendencies wishing to engage in some compulsive negative behavior, but each time we managed to dismantle that desire and choose to not follow it, we just created the causes for attaining one hundred precious human lives. Far from creating a host of negative karma, we just won the spiritual lottery.

The most important moral discipline we have is maintaining our vows and commitments. Breaking our vows causes us to lose the spiritual path. Maintaining our vows creates the causes to remain on and re-find the spiritual path in all our future lives. The reason why we need to take vows is because the tendencies of our mind move in the wrong direction. If we could maintain all our vows perfectly, we would not need them. It is because the natural tendencies of our mind are to move in opposite directions that we are given the vows to provide us with an opportunity to redirect the trajectory of our mental continuum. Keeping our refuge vows creates the causes for us to re-find the Buddhist path in all our future lives without interruption until we attain enlightenment. Keeping our pratimoksha vows creates the causes for us to find a path to liberation in all our future lives without interruption. Maintaining our bodhisattva vows creates the cause to re-find the Mahayana path, and maintaining our tantric vows creates the cause to re-find the Vajrayana quick path to enlightenment. If we are able to maintain the continuum of our Dharma practice between now and our eventual enlightenment, then our eventual enlightenment is guaranteed, and we will not suffer too much along the way. Thus, simply making the decision to apply efforts to maintain our vows and commitments is the same as essentially guaranteeing our enlightenment. Seen in this way, we can understand there is nothing more important in our life than our vows and commitments.

Sometimes people relate to their vows as a restriction of their freedom. They want to do things, but all their vows and commitments prevent them from doing so. This way of thinking is exactly backwards. The truth is as long as our mind is under the influence of delusions, we know no freedom. We are forced to do whatever it is our delusions require of us. The only way to truly become free is not to indulge in whatever our delusions want, but rather to overcome all our delusions. A mind that is free from all delusions is truly free – in fact, it is liberated.

A Pure Life: Abandoning Lying

August 15, 2022May 29, 2021 Kadampa Ryan Precept Days

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

The objects of lying are mostly included within the eight: what is seen, what is heard, what is experienced, what is known; and what is not seen, what is not heard, what is not experienced, and what is not known. The intention requires that we must know we are lying, unintentionally providing mistaken information is not lying. We must be determined to lie, and we must be motivated by delusion. Lies can sometimes take the form of non-verbal actions such as making physical gestures, by writing, or even by remaining silent. The action of lying is complete when the person to whom the lie is directed has understood our meaning and believes what we have said or indicated. If the other person does not understand, then our action is not complete.

Of all the precepts, I think we transgress this one most frequently. Most of us lie all of the time, directly or indirectly, in big and in subtle ways. A very fun way of seeing this is to rent the movie Liar Liar with Jim Carey. In the movie, I cannot remember why, but he has to always tell the exact truth. This helps show us the many different ways we lie throughout our day because we see how we would likely lie in those situations. In a similar way, it is a very useful exercise to at least once a month take an entire day to focus on just this one aspect of our practice of moral discipline. Make a concerted effort to pay attention that you never mislead people, even slightly, and like Jim Carey you have to always tell the truth no matter what the consequences.

Will this get us into trouble with others when they hear what we really think? Yes, it will. So we might say, “then wouldn’t it be better to not say anything to them so as to not upset them?” In the short run, that might be true, but that is not a good enough answer. The correct answer is we need to change what we think about others so that we can tell everyone what we really think, and instead of that making them upset it makes them feel loved and cared for. We can always tell the truth if we only have loving kindness in our heart.

I think it is also useful to make a distinction between lying and speaking non-truths. The difference usually turns around whether there is delusion present in our mind or not. Not telling your kids what you got them for Christmas, or even telling them something that is not true, is not lying. Failing to mention that you are going to the Dharma center or to a festival to your relative who thinks you have joined some cult and you know saying something would just upset them is not lying, it is being skillful. Ultimately, there is no objective truth, so the question arises what then is a valid basis for establishing the truth. Geshe-la, Venerable Tharchin, and Gen-la Losang all say (in one manner or another) that “what is true or not true is not the point, what matters is what is most beneficial to believe.” For example, we might say strongly believing we are the deity or that we have taken on all of the suffering or living beings or that we have purified all of our negative karma are lies because they are not true. This is not the point. The point is what is most beneficial to believe. Believing these correct imaginations is how we complete the mental action of generation stage, purification practice, or training in taking and giving. Venerable Tharchin explains that from a Dharma point of view, what establishes what is true is “what is most beneficial to believe.” So if it is beneficial to believe something, it is truth. It may not be objectively true, but it is a belief that moves in the direction of ultimate truth. In other words, believing any idea that takes us in the direction of ultimate truth can be established as “truth,” and so saying or thinking it is not lying. Helping others believe these things is not lying, it is wise compassion.

But if we are misleading others for selfish reasons, or out of anger, fear or attachment, then there is no doubt we are lying. We need to know the difference.

It is helpful to consider the example of Donald Trump. Love him or hate him, no one can deny that Donald Trump was a serial liar. Virtually everything he said was a lie in one form or another. All of his lies were ultimately motivated by what best served his interests. Many people shared his interests, and therefore excused his lying as what was necessary to accomplish their desired policy goals. But many people wound up believing his lies. Because of the nature of his position, his lies would reach virtually everyone on earth. It is said that the karmic effect of our actions is multiplied by the number of living beings affected by them. He essentially lied to 7 billion people many times every day. Certainly all of these people did not believe all of his lies, but millions did. They would then repeat these lies as if they were truth and on and on the deceptions would spread causing people to lose touch with conventional reality.

What are the karmic effects of such behavior? First, it is clear that he will virtually never hear the truth again for a very, very long time in his future lives. Because he has deceived so many people, he will himself be deceived that many times in return. Insanity is losing touch with conventional reality. He will no doubt spend countless eons in a state of complete insanity. All the insanity he created in society he will experience in return. Second, he will continue to have the tendencies on his mind to lie again and again in the future causing such suffering to continue. And his lies had real effects on the lives of others. Those adverse effects will be the environmental conditions of his future lives. Further, every negative action also comes with a ripened effect of some form of rebirth in the lower realms. Animals exist in a state of great confusion, so it stands to reason that the ripened effect of lying is most frequently rebirth as an animal. I know a lot of people have profound hatred for Donald Trump for all of the harm they perceive him to have caused in the world. But it is perfectly possible to acknowledge such harm but to nonetheless feel great compassion for him when we consider all of the suffering that will come as a result of his actions. Was any of it worth it? The price he will pay will be terrible. He is a worthy object of compassion and so too are all of those who he has deceived and those who have perpetuated his lies.

Nowadays, many people have been sucked into the vortex of conspiracy theories which weave all sorts of elaborate stories trying to make sense of the unknown. What is always shocking to me is how the people who believe in conspiracy theories actually think they’re the ones who are being open minded and it is everybody else who has been deceived by these elaborate lies elites have told them. And when you challenge them on their views, they simply grasp even more tightly onto them. It is almost impossible for someone subsumed by such misinformation to escape. Why do some people fall prey to such misinformation and others see it so clearly as nonsense? Karma. The karmic effect of having successfully deceived others. Because they successfully deceived others in the past, they are now easily deceived in the present. Many of the conspiracy theories people believe in are often harmless, but some of them are not. Some of them have real-world effects that function to cost lives or destroy cherished democratic institutions.

I have been surprised actually at the number of Kadampa practitioners who have been sucked into such ways of thinking. Perhaps even they misinterpret the teachings on emptiness to think there is no conventional truth these are just different ways of looking at the same observable data. Emptiness does not deny conventional truth. There are things that are conventionally true and conventionally false, even though both are ultimately empty. We can consider the difference between unicorns and horses. A unicorn is something that can be believed in but is conventionally nonexistent. A horse is also something that can be believed in but is a conventionally existent. Both unicorns and horses are equally empty. In the same way, believing lies is like believing in unicorns. It is believing in a conventionally false or nonexistent thing.

So how then should other Kadampas respond when they speak with a Kadampa who has been sucked into misinformation? I don’t pretend to have a good answer, but I do have some experience in dealing with this. First, it is almost always counterproductive to call them out on their wrong views because this just causes them to grasp even more tightly onto them.

The definition of delusion is a mind projects something false and exaggerated that we believe to be true. This is a pretty good definition of somebody who believes in misinformation and conspiracy theories. To know how to deal with this, I think we should try divide their wrong views into two categories: those that are harmful and those that are harmless. For those that are harmless, it is probably better to just say nothing and leave them with it. For those that are harmful, it seems we have an obligation to help them return to conventional reality in the same way we would somebody believing any other delusion. For the harmful wrong views, I believe the best method is to ask questions that forced them to grapple with the contradictions of their wrong views. Kadampas our Prasangikas. A Prasangika is called a consequentialist. It is a form of reasoning where are the Prasangikas point out the absurd consequences of the wrong views held by others, but then they leave others to come to their own conclusions based upon contemplating these consequences. It is an extremely skillful way of dismantling wrong views without directly challenging them in a way that is going to provoke people grasping even more tightly onto their views.

Sometimes this form of questioning will work and sometimes it will not. If it does not, then unless the view is particularly harmful, it really doesn’t matter what they believe or how they perceive the world to exist and function. What matters from a Dharma perspective is that they generate virtuous minds with respect to how the world appears to them. So if the world appears to them in a false way, but they respond to that false perspective of the world in a virtuous way, then it’s OK and not that bad. They will be creating virtuous karma and engaging in virtuous actions despite the fact that their perception of the world is itself distorted. When we think about it, it is not that different than ourselves since we to grasp on to all sorts of distortions created by our delusions and other mistaken appearances and conceptions.

But from a personal point of view, we should use our observation of how others have been sucked into lies to reinforce our determination to purify all of our negative karma associated with having live in the past and to make the firm decision that we will abandon lying.

Happy Tsog Day: How to Give Everything to Others

August 10, 2022January 1, 2021 Kadampa Ryan Tsog Days

Blessing the offerings to the spirits

At this point we can send out the left-over substances to the spirits.

HUM Impure mistaken appearances are purified in emptiness,
AH Great nectar accomplished from exalted wisdom,
OM It becomes a vast ocean of desired enjoyment.
OM AH HUM (3x)

Next in the sadhana comes the practice of the perfection of giving. To emphasize the practice of giving, we offer the tsog offering to all the spirits. Who are the spirits? For the most part, we can say that they are the spirits of the hungry ghost realm. Geshe-la explains in Joyful Path of Good Fortune that the only food hungry spirits are able to find is that which is dedicated to them by Dharma practitioners. Besides this, they are unable to find any food or drink. This is why it is customary for Dharma practitioners to leave one bite of food remaining on their plate at the end of every meal that they then mentally offer to all the spirits. When we do the dishes after a meal, there is often a good deal of wasted food. It is a good idea to have a special garbage can where we put all our uneaten food. We can then offer all this food to the hungry spirits. If we live in the city, we can sometimes recycle this extra food by placing it in special bins. If such bins do not exist, we can still mentally dedicate the food, and then put it in the regular trash. If we live in the countryside or in the suburbs, we can create a compost heap where we put all our unused food. This compost heap can become our offering to the hungry spirits and later become excellent fertilizer for our yard. Even when we put it down as fertilizer, we can imagine that we are creating a rich ecosystem for all the insects who live in our yard. In addition to offering food to the spirits, it is also important to offer food to the poor or the homeless. Every person we encounter is a karmic mirror of a future life we are likely to have. By giving food to these people now, we create the causes for others to give food to us when we are in similar need.

But before we can offer the tsog offering to the spirits, we first need to re-bless the offerings. A long time has passed since we blessed the offerings earlier, and we may have forgotten their purity. For this reason, we re-bless the offerings.

Actual offering to the spirits

HO This ocean of remaining tsog offering of uncontaminated nectar,
Blessed by concentration, mantra, and mudra,
I offer to please the assembly of oath-bound guardians.
OM AH HUM
Delighted by enjoying these magnificent objects of desire,
EH MA HO
Please perform perfect actions to help practitioners.

We offer the tsog offering to the spirits in exactly the same way as we do all the other beings in the field of merit. We imagine that countless offering goddesses emanate from our heart, scoop up the offering, bring it to the spirits who then partake of the offering through straws of vajra light. We then imagine that they are fully nourished and experience great bliss. We then request them to help practitioners. By befriending the spirits in this way, they can become powerful allies for us in our spiritual path. They can help us arrange conditions for our practice and dispel obstacles from obstructive spirits.

In the practices of Dorje Shugden, we imagine that he enlists the help of all the spirits into countless armies of Dharma protectors who work to protect living beings and their spiritual practice. This is one of the kindest things we can do, because by virtue of “giving them a job” as Dharma protectors, they will come under the care and protection of all the Buddhas as well as create the karma for themselves to be able to find the Dharma in the future.

Send out the offering to the spirits.

HO
O Guests of the remainder together with your retinues
Please enjoy this ocean of remaining tsog offering.
May those who spread the precious doctrine,
The holders of the doctrine, their benefactors, and others,
And especially I and other practitioners
Have good health, long life, power,
Glory, fame, fortune,
And extensive enjoyments.
Please grant me the attainments
Of pacifying, increasing, controlling, and wrathful actions.
You who are bound by oaths please protect me
And help me to accomplish all the attainments.
Eradicate all untimely death, sicknesses,
Harm from spirits, and hindrances.
Eliminate bad dreams,
Ill omens, and bad actions.
May there be happiness in the world, may the years be good,
May crops increase, and may the Dharma flourish.
May all goodness and happiness come about,
And may all wishes be accomplished.

By the force of this bountiful giving,
May I become a Buddha for the sake of migrators
And through my generosity may I liberate
All those not liberated by previous Buddhas.

These verses describe the different ways in which we request the spirits to help create favorable conditions for our own and others’ Dharma practice and for the fulfillment of all their wishes. It is very difficult for beings in the lower realms to engage in virtuous actions. Animals occasionally do when they care for their young. Beings in the hell realms almost never engage in any virtuous actions. Hungry spirits for the most part also engage only in negativity because they are constantly so deprived of resources. We can understand this by looking at areas of extreme poverty in the world today. They are often ghettoized into small areas, left with virtually no resources, and naturally a war of all against all begins to take place. But through pure dedications and prayers by Dharma practitioners, we cannot only give spirits food and nourishment, we can also provide them with opportunities to create virtue for themselves by enlisting them to become Dharma protectors in the ways described above.

How to practise the perfection of giving

I seek your blessings to complete the perfection of giving
Through the instructions on improving the mind of giving without attachment,
And Thus, to transform my body, my enjoyments, and my virtues amassed throughout the three times
Into whatever each sentient being desires.

Giving is the cause of receiving. The perfection of giving is giving with the bodhicitta motivation. There are four types of giving: giving material things, giving love, giving fearlessness, and giving Dharma. We give material things when we provide others with what they need. We give love primarily through giving our time and helping other people feel like they matter to us and we are willing to work for their well-being. We help others feel good about themselves. We give fearlessness by helping others overcome their fear or protecting them from dangers. The ultimate way to give fearlessness is to help others realize no matter what happens they can transform it into the path, and so therefore there is nothing to fear from anything. And we give Dharma anytime we give others good advice. It does not have to take the form of Dharma teachings, it can even just simply be showing a good example. Dharma advice is different than ordinary advice. Ordinary advice explains to people what they should do to change their external circumstance. Dharma advice explains to people how they can change their mind with regards to whatever is happening. It takes as is starting point that our problem is our mind; and this is distinct from our outer problem, which is whatever is happening in the world.

Venerable Tharchin explains one of the best ways of practicing giving is to abandon completely the conceptual thought “mine.” If we do not impute mine on anything and instead consider everything as belonging to others, then we are able to give away absolutely everything. When we think mine with respect to some object, we burn up our merit of having the thing. If we impute “others’” and mentally give it away to them, then we accumulate merit by having those things. A doubt may arise if we give away everything how will we take care of ourselves? The answer is we can practice the giving of keeping. Sometimes the best way to give to others is to keep something in our protection or custody until we are able to give it to others or they are ready to receive it. For example, we can view our home as something we are temporarily maintaining so that we are able to give it away to others later. Even if we later sell our home, we can do so with the intention of giving the money away, using it for the benefit of others, or maintaining our precious human life so we can attain enlightenment for others. We can keep our body so that we can offer it in service to others. We can gain Dharma wisdom with the intention of giving it away to others. Even when we attain an enlightened body, we do not have to think it is ours but rather something we are using to be able to benefit others. In banking, there is something called having a fiduciary responsibility. While they are managing others money, they are supposed to do so for the benefit and for their sake of their clients. In exactly the same way, we can view ourselves as having a fiduciary responsibility to all living beings and manage everything we own for their sake.

Happy Tara Day: Bringing our seven-limb prayer to life

August 8, 2022December 23, 2021 Kadampa Ryan How to Rely Upon Tara, Tara Days

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

Prayer of seven limbs

To Venerable Arya Tara
And all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
Residing in the ten directions and the three times,
I prostrate with sincere faith.

Actual prostration is an inner wish to become just like whatever we are prostrating to. When we prostrate to the good qualities of Buddhas, we are not trying to flatter them, rather we are humbly acknowledging that they have qualities we aspire towards, and our prostration is a commitment that we will rely upon them until we gain these same qualities ourself. When we recite this verse, we should imagine that all of the countless Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of all three times are joining us in prostrating towards Arya Tara, our common spiritual mother. Every Buddha and every bodhisattva is different, but we all share a common respect for our kind spiritual mother, and we pay respect to her wishing to become just like her. We might wonder why Buddhas need to prostrate to other Buddhas since they have already attained every good quality. They do so for two reasons, as a sign of respect recognizing all of the good that Tara does and to show a good example to everybody else by reaffirming that she is the spiritual mother of us all.

I offer you flowers, incense, lights,
Perfumes, foods, music and other offerings,
Both actually set out and mentally imagined;
Please accept these, O Assembly of Aryas.

Buddhas do not need offerings from their own side since they already have everything they need. We, however, need to make offerings because we need the merit, or good karma. Gaining Dharma realizations depends primarily upon three conditions: a mind free from negative karma, an abundance of merit, and a steady flow of blessings. This can be likened to sea lanes free from obstacles, good sails, and plenty of wind. When we recite this verse, we should imagine that ourself and all living beings surrounding us all fill the entire universe with countless breathtaking offerings. We should imagine that the assembly of Taras accepts our offerings out of delight, knowing that we are now karmically closer to her and our minds our rich with merit she can subsequently bless.

I confess all negative actions,
The five heinous actions and the ten non-virtues,
That I have committed since beginningless time
Through my mind being overcome by delusions.

The strength of our purification depends upon the extent to which we generate the four opponent powers. The power of regret is admitting that we have made mistakes and recognizing that if we do not purify, we will suffer the karmic consequences – not as a punishment, but more an issue of spiritual gravity. This primarily purifies the effects similar to the cause. The power of reliance means we turn to the three jewels for purification of our negative karma and to seek their help so that we can change our ways. This primarily purifies the environmental effect of our negative karma. The power of the opponent force is some virtuous action we engage in to counteract or oppose the negative karma we previously created. Venerable Tharchin explains that negative karma is like tiny vibrations on our very subtle mind, but if we send an opposite wave towards it, we can neutralize our past negative deeds. This primarily purifies the ripened effect, or the substantial cause of future lower rebirth. The power of the promise is a personal commitment that we will not repeat our past mistakes, but instead do something positive. This primarily purifies the tendency to engage again in negative actions. If all four powers are assembled, we can quickly purify all of our negative karma, but if we fail to generate these four causes, then our purification will be incomplete. Any virtuous action can be an opponent force if performed motivated by regret.

To purification in this context, we should first generate regret for all the negative karma that remains in our mind which can result in lower rebirth, create obstacles to our practice of Lamrim, and interfere with our ability to generate pure faith in Arya Tara. We then recall the assembly of Taras in front of us and generate faith and reliance in them. When we engage in the opponent action of confession, we are coming clean with our mistakes acknowledging them as mistakes, without our typical rationalization or minimization for why they don’t matter. Understanding them clearly as the wrong way to go, we then commit to both ourself and Guru Tara that we will change our ways. We can then imagine that countless purifying nectars stream down from Tara’s heart, filling our heart and purifying all of our negative karma.

We can sometimes confuse Buddhist confession with Catholic confession. In Christian traditions, we confess our wrong deeds in the hopes that God will forgive us. In Buddhism, we do not need some outside power to forgive us, but we do need to receive purifying blessings. Receiving Tara’s purifying blessings does not depend upon her forgiving us, rather they will spontaneously come down every time the conditions for them to occur arise, just like sunlight will flood in each time we open the blinds without the Sun having to decide to fill our room with light.

I rejoice in the merit of all the virtues
Collected throughout the three times
By Bodhisattvas, Solitary Conquerors,
Hearers, ordinary beings and others.

When we rejoice in virtue we create a similitude of the virtuous karma we are rejoicing in, as if we engaged in the virtuous action ourself. Since Tara is the Lamrim Buddha and she has committed herself to protecting the followers of Atisha, when we engage in this practice, we should particularly rejoice in all of the virtue of the Kadam lineage gurus and the millions of old and new Kadampa practitioners. All of these virtuous deeds are inspired by Tara and rejoicing in these Kadampa virtues aligns us with not only her blessings, but the karmic current of the Kadampas. We can then ride the “great wave” of their deeds all the way to enlightenment.

Please turn the Wheel of Dharma
Of the great, small and common vehicles,
According to the different wishes
And capacities of living beings.

Buddhas appear in countless Buddhist and non-Buddhist form depending upon the karmic dispositions of different disciples around the world. We don’t in any way need more Buddhists per se, we are content with anybody moving in virtuous directions depending upon wherever they are starting from. But here, since this is a practice of Tara, in particular we request the turning of the wheel of Kadam Dharma, the Kadam Lamrim. Geshe-la says everyone needs Lamrim, whether we are Buddhist or not. Lamrim is inseparable from living with wisdom. If we look at the world and social media, we can find countless examples of Lamrim-like wisdom appearing in a variety of different forms that are acceptable to different audiences. This is a wonderful thing, and is the direct result of Kadampa practitioners praying for the turning of the wheel of Kadam Dharma. Likewise, Milarepa said he does not need Dharma books because everything reveals to him the truth of Dharma. Part of the Buddhas turning the Wheel of Dharma includes blessing the minds of living beings to learn Dharma lessons from whatever arises in the world. When we recite this verse, we should strongly request Tara continue to pour down the wisdom of the Kadam Lamrim in this world in whatever form living beings can accept – which usually means Facebook quotes or funny memes!

For as long as samsara has not ceased,
Please do not pass beyond sorrow;
But with compassion care for all living beings
Drowning in the ocean of suffering.

A Buddha is a deathless being. They have quite literally conquered death and have the ability to remain in this world, life after life, gradually guiding living beings along the path to enlightenment. They can do so without ever being subject to samsara’s sufferings. Their emanation bodies will be born, age, get sick, and eventually pass away, but the actual Buddha remains in this world forever. When we recite this verse, we pray that Buddhas emanations continue to appear forever. Buddhas are everywhere, but whether they can help living beings depends upon whether they appear or not. Them appearing helping living beings is a dependent arising, dependent upon our creating the karma for them to appear. When we recite this verse, we create the karmic causes for them to continue to appear. It is important that when we recite this verse we do so for the sake of others. We can sometimes think, “well I’ve already found the Dharma, so why do I need to pray for this?” The answer is (1) other living beings matter too, and (2) by praying that emanations continue to appear for others we create the karmic causes for them to continue to appear to us in all of our future lives.

May all the merit I have collected
Become the cause of enlightenment;
And before too long may I become
The Glorious Guide of migrators.

Dedicating our merit is like investing our money. We put it away in for a particular cause and then it continues to work towards the fulfillment of that cause. There is a big difference between investing our money and spending it on our present needs. Here, we dedicate all our merit to our swiftest possible enlightenment so we can then help others attain the same state. In this way, we ourselves become part of the great wave of Tara’s family.

Happy Protector Day: Tapping into Dorje Shugden’s Power

July 29, 2022December 23, 2021 Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden, Protector Days, Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

The 29^th 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.

Happy Tsog Day: Generating a Supreme Good Heart

July 25, 2022January 1, 2021 Kadampa Ryan Tsog Days

How to meditate on superior intention and generate bodhichitta

Through love, compassion, and superior intention,
And the magical practice of mounting taking and giving upon the breath,
I seek your blessings to generate the actual bodhichitta,
To free all migrators from this great ocean of samsara.

This verse explains how all the previous verses combined together into the practice of generating bodhicitta. Love refers to the mind of cherishing others, considering their happiness and freedom to be important. Compassion is the wish to protect other living beings from their suffering. Superior intention is the mind that assumes personal responsibility to protect others from their suffering. The magical practice of taking and giving up on the breath is a method for ripening our bodhicitta by bringing the future result of liberating all living beings into the path. In this verse, we request blessings from the spiritual guide to generate the actual bodhicitta in our mind. Bodhichitta has two wishes. The principal wish is to free all migrators from the ocean of samsara. The assistant wish is the wish to become a Buddha so as to be able to fulfill our principal wish. Geshe-la gives the analogy of wishing to have a cup of tea. Our principle wishes to have a cup of tea, and the assistant wish is to get a cup. If our principal wish is strong, we naturally get a cup without giving it much thought, and certainly without forgetting our principal wish to have a cup of tea. Our principal wish is not to get a cup, it is to drink tea. We need the cup in order to do so. In the same way, our principal wish is to free all living beings from samsara. Since this wish is so burning within us, we naturally attain enlightenment because that is the only means of being able to do so.

An often overlooked ingredient of generating the mind bodhicitta is accepting our present inability to help others. As our compassion grows, we naturally want to protect others from their suffering, but as a result we come face to face with our current inability to do so. This can cause us to become frustrated and discouraged. This discouragement or frustration comes from our failure to accept that for as long as beings remained in samsara, they will continue to suffer. The mind of compassion wishes that living beings not suffer. The mind of attachment to others not suffering has the same wish. But these are two fundamentally different minds. The former is motivated by cherishing love, wishing others to be happy; whereas the latter is motivated by attachment, wishing ourselves to be happy while thinking that others need to be happy in order for us to be happy. We need to abandon our attachment to others being happy and free from suffering in order to generate authentic love and compassion for others. This depends upon us being able to fully accept beings will continue to suffer for as long as we do not attain enlightenment. We have to come to peace with this fact before we will then be able to not be crushed by the suffering around us. What enables us to be at peace with the fact that others suffer is the knowledge that we have found a final solution that will enable us to in the future once and for all free all living beings from all their suffering. Seen in this way, accepting our present powerlessness and helplessness is an essential foundation for the exalted mind bodhicitta.

Sometimes we also doubt it is possible for a being such as ourselves to become a Buddha. Bodhichitta simply becomes words we say, not something we feel in our heart. We struggle to even get through the day, much less take on their personal responsibility to free all living beings. We see how despite having been around the Dharma for many years, we remain highly deluded. This causes us to doubt our ability to become a Buddha, and if we do not think it is possible to become one, it will be impossible for us to generate authentic bodhicitta. To overcome this doubt, we need to have unshakable faith in our pure potential. Geshe-la explains in Oral Instructions of Mahamudra that our indestructible wind and our indestructible mind at our heart are our indestructible body and mind. They are our deathless body and mind that go with us from life to life, and will eventually transform into the body and mind of a Buddha. The ultimate nature of this indestructible wind and indestructible mind, in other words the emptiness of these two, is our naturally abiding Buddha nature. Because it is empty, it can become anything. If we create the karma to become a Buddha, we will. All it takes is sufficient patience and perseverance to continue for as long as it takes. We all have experience of having changed ourselves a little. If we can change ourselves a little, we can change ourselves completely. It is only our attachment to results and our impatience with wanting to be farther along than we are that causes us to become discouraged. We need to accept where we are at and then grow from there. This is the well-balanced mind of a steady practitioner.

How to take the vows of aspiring and engaging bodhichitta

I seek your blessings to strive sincerely on the sole path
Traversed by all the Conquerors of the three times –
To bind my mind with pure Bodhisattva vows
And practise the three moral disciplines of the Mahayana.

Once we have generated the wish to become a Buddha, we then need to do something to become a Buddha. The foundation of the Mahayana path is the practice of the bodhisattva vows. These vows and commitments provide us with guidelines for how to ripen our Buddha nature and to put into practice our bodhichitta wish. An extensive explanation of the vows the body sought for vows could be found in the book The Bodhisatta Vow. You can also read about how to integrate these into our modern life through the series of posts I did earlier. Every Buddha attained enlightenment independence upon generating the mind of bodhichitta, maintaining their bodhisattva vows, and practicing the six perfections.

It is important to renew our vows daily. In general, we can say we only break our vows if we make the decision to no longer follow them. But practically speaking, if we do not remember them, we will not be able to practice them. It is also not sufficient to generate the intention to observe the bodhisattva vows once, we must become deeply familiar with this wish. For this reason, we should retake our bodhisatva vows every day. In Oral Instructions of Mahamudra, Geshe-la explains how to do this in the context of the practice Hundreds of Deities of the Joyful Land according to Highest Yoga Tantra. Each time we retake our bodhisattva vows, we should strongly believe that we have purified all the negative karma associated with transgressions of our vows, and that we have received fresh vows upon our mental continuum.

It is particularly important to die with fresh vows upon our mind. As explained before, our vows function to maintain the continuum of our Dharma practice without interruption between now and our eventual enlightenment. When we are on our deathbed, it is important to refresh all our vows – our refuge vows, our pratimoksha vows, our bodhisattva vows, and our tantric vows. We can restore our refuge vows and our bodhisattva vows with the practice of Hundreds of Deities of the Joyful Land. We can restore our pratimoksha vows with the short sadhana for doing so. And we can restore our tantric vows through engaging in self-initiation. In order to engage in self-initiation we have to have previously completed a close retreat of either Heruka or Vajrayogini. Once we have engaged in a close retreat, we can retake our tantric vows anytime we wish. This is one of the principal advantages or reasons for engaging in a close retreat. When one of Venerable Tharchin’s students was about to die, he went to the hospital and engaged in self-initiation with the person so that they could die with fresh tantric vows on their mental continuum. Within the context of the self-initiation practice, we can retake all our vows. I pray that all Kadampas are able to engage in self-initiation just prior to the moment of their death. If we are able to do so, we can be guaranteed to find once again the tantric path to enlightenment in our next life.

Kadampa Working Dad

Unifying our spiritual, professional and personal lives into the path

7. Kadampa meaning of special days

A Pure Life: Abandoning Intoxicants (In particular alcohol and marijuana)

Happy Tsog Day: How to practise the perfection of patience

Happy Tara Day: May there be the auspiciousness of her presence

Happy Protector Day: Fulfilling our Heart Commitment to Dorje Shugden

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.

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 ?

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 ?

Happy Tsog Day: How to practise the perfection of moral discipline

A Pure Life: Abandoning Lying

Happy Tsog Day: How to Give Everything to Others

Happy Tara Day: Bringing our seven-limb prayer to life

Happy Protector Day: Tapping into Dorje Shugden’s Power

Happy Tsog Day: Generating a Supreme Good Heart

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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.

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 ?

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 ?

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