Happy Tsog Day: How to Give Everything to Others

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 35 of a 44-part series.

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.

Gen 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.

Vows, commitments, and modern life:  General advice on training in vows and commitments

Kadampa Ryan Vows, commitments and daily life

Most of us know the teachings Geshe-la has given on the correct attitude to have towards our vows and commitments, but sadly we don’t ever seem to really believe him when he explains it.  We still tend to think of them in absolutist, black and white terms, when in reality each vows has many, many different levels at which we can keep it.  We think in terms of our ability to “keep” our vows instead of viewing them as trainings we progressively engage in over the course of our lives.  When we go to the gym, there are all sorts of different exercise machines.  Each one works out a different muscle, and each person who uses the machine uses it at a different level (different amounts of weight, different number of repetitions, etc.).  But everyone in the gym uses the same equipment.  It is exactly the same with our vows.  Each vow is something we train in, not something we are already expected to be able to do perfectly at the maximum.  Each vow focus on strengthening different mental muscles, but doing all them strengthens the whole of our mind.  We each train in the vow at different levels according to our capacity, but we know the more we train the more our capacity will grow.  Everyone in the spiritual gym trains with the same vows regardless of our level.  In almost every way, the correct attitude towards a physical exercise regimen is exactly the same attitude we should cultivate towards our spiritual exercise regimen of our vows and commitments.  I often find it helpful to read the sports training literature, especially that of long-distance tri-athletes.  Our journey is very long and will require almost unthinkable stamina, but we must recall every Iron Man Champion was once a baby who couldn’t even lift their head. 

Geshe-la explains there are four main causes of the degeneration of our vows and commitments.  These are known as the ‘four doors of receiving downfalls.’  He says to close these doors we should practice as follows:

  1. Closing the door of not knowing what the downfalls are.  We should learn what the downfalls are by committing them to memory.  We should learn how they are incurred.  We should make plans to avoid such situations.  In this series of posts, I will try explain all these things for each vow.
  2. Closing the door of lack of respect for Buddha’s instructions.  We can protect ourselves from this primarily by training in the refuge vows.  Refuge is not a difficult concept.  When we have a toothache, what do we do?  We turn to the dentist.  When we have a legal problem, what do we do?  We turn to a lawyer.  When we have an internal problem with our mind, what do we do?  We turn to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.  Dentists can fix our teeth and lawyers can solve our legal problems, but only the three jewels can help us with our inner mental problems.  Geshe-la said we should contemplate as follows:

“Since Buddha is omniscient, knowing all past, present, and future phenomena simultaneously and directly, and since he has great compassion for all living beings without exception, there is no valid reason for developing disrespect towards his teachings.  It is only due to ignorance that I sometimes disbelieve them.”

  1. Closing the third door of strong delusions. For our Pratimoksha, and Bodhisattva vows, we should principally try to overcome our delusions by practicing Lamrim.  If by practicing Lamrim we are always able to maintain a good intention, there will be no basis for incurring Pratimoksha or Bodhisattva downfalls.  At the end of the day, our Pratimoksha vows come down to one simple concept:  do no harm (to ourself or to others).  Likewise, our bodhisattva vows come down to one simple concept:  put others first.  If we do these two – do no harm and put others first – then we will be directly or indirectly practicing all our Pratimoksha and Bodhisattva vows.  For our tantric vows, if by practicing generation stage and completions stage we overcome ordinary appearance and ordinary conceptions, there will be no basis for incurring Tantric downfalls.  Again, to keep things simple, what does this mean:  It means we ask ourselves one simple question, “what would Heruka do?”  Heruka sees everyone and everything as pure, not because they objectively are pure but because maintaining this view functions to draw out the purity in everything until eventually it becomes our living reality. 
  2. Closing the fourth door of non-conscientiousness.  We should repeatedly bring to mind the disadvantages of incurring downfalls, and the advantages of pure moral discipline.  These have been explained in the previous post, and the specific karmic benefits of each vow will be explained in the explanation of each vow.

In brief, Geshe-la explains, we prevent our vows from degenerating by practicing the Dharma of renunciation, bodhichitta, correct view, generation stage, and completion stage. 

It is important to be skilful in our approach to the vows.  We should not have unrealistic expectations or make promises we cannot keep.  It will happen to all us in the early stages of our Dharma practice that when we are at some festival and feeling very inspired, we make these outlandish vows that we (at the time) intend to keep our whole life.  Then we get home, try at first, but eventually are forced to abandon the vow.  Venerable Tharchin says when making promises, we should ask ourselves, “what can I do on my absolute worst day?”  We promise only to do that.  On any given day we will most likely do better than our promise, but then we won’t actually break it.  It is a bad habit to make spiritual promises which we later break.  We will all make all sorts of what I call “beginner’s errors” with this one.  It doesn’t matter.  When you break the promise, realize your mistake, recalibrate your promise and try again.  Eventually you will get the right balance. 

We should adopt the vows gradually, as each can be kept on many levels.  In this way, we can gradually deepen the level we are able to keep the vows.  If we are a teacher, we should explain the vows well and not encourage our students to promise to keep them all perfectly from the start.  Getting the correct attitude towards our vows is well over half the battle.  But keeping the vows gradually does not mean that we can temporarily put to one side the vows that we do not like.  We have to work with all the vows, gradually improving the way we observe them.

Finally, Geshe-la says we should begin to practice all the vows as soon as we have taken them.  Then we practice them to the best of our ability.  Geshe-la says we should never lose the determination to keep the vows perfectly in the future.  He says by keeping the intention to keep them purely in the future we keep our commitments, even if along the way we repeatedly fall short.  I can’t remember who, but some wise person once said, “the day you can keep all your vows and commitments perfectly is the day you will no longer need them.  It is because you can’t keep your vows and commitments perfectly that we do need them.”  This is useful to always keep in mind.

On Overcoming the Final Hurdles for Generating Bodhichitta in Our Heart

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

It doesn’t have to be hard. I guess for me what makes it hard is my attachment to those I love being OK – I’m OK when they are OK, I’m not OK (my inner peace is disturbed) when they are not OK.

What has happened is I now mostly just cherish the happiness of those I love and am mostly working for their benefit, but then I see both them suffering a lot and that I’m quite limited in how I can help. But since I’m attached to their well-being (I think my happiness depends upon them being OK), their suffering has turned into my suffering and worry – like a mother who always worries about her children, and sometimes when their suffering is great, it tears her apart or breaks her.

Intellectually, I understand what I need to do.

First, I need to let go of my attachment to them being OK (not suffering) without falling into an indifference towards their plight. I need to be able to keep my deep concern, but not have it disturb my inner peace when they suffer.

Second, I need to accept (become at peace with the fact) that at present there is very little I can do to change the fundamental trajectory of things for them, in the short-term at least. Part of bodhichitta is realizing that at present we don’t have the ability to really help them with their deep sufferings (maybe we can help some with their manifest suffering, but not so much with their changing and pervasive suffering, or the fact that they are trapped in a cycle of uncontrolled rebirth). Once this truth touches my heart, it becomes “unbearable.” The gap between how much I would want to help and how much I can actually do so becomes unbearable.

Third, I need to channel this unbearability into bodhichitta. I can’t at present do much, but a Buddha can. Only if I become a Buddha will I have the wisdom, skillful means, and ability to be there for them every moment, in life after life, for as long as it takes. I want to be able to, at least in my heart, say to those I love what VGL has told us, “I will be with you always. I will never forget you, I’m always working with you. Please do not forget me.” I then use this wish to channel the feelings of unbearability into a qualified and powerful bodhichitta.

But then fourth, I need to overcome my doubts about whether it is even possible to become a Buddha, whether our teachings are indeed scientific methods that can take me to that state, and whether I even have the ability to do what it takes for long enough to accomplish these goals – or at least get far enough along the spiritual path in this life to ensure I can continue with it in my next life, and so on without interruption until I can accomplish these lofty spiritual goals.

I know intellectually what I need to do, but the “hard” part is bringing it into my heart. It forces me to confront these different levels of subtle delusions in my heart. At each stage there are different pitfalls and deep-seated delusions to work through – most of them rooted in my attachment to them being OK, my impatience for quick results, and my doubts about myself and the path. Working through these is how we actually enter the Mahayana.

We actually enter the Mahayana path when we generate spontaneous bodhichitta. Once we do, our enlightenment becomes inevitable and unstoppable. But to get to spontaneous bodhichitta, we first need to generate a qualified, in our heart, bodhichitta even for just a moment. Working through the four final hurdles above is how we do that. It seems these are the final steps we need to take in our heart to get to the actual precious mind of bodhichitta. Once we get to it once, we then do so again and again and again, until it becomes our new habit of our heart. We then gradually build up more and more momentum until it becomes present all the time.

For that to happen, we need to train in concentration. Technically speaking, to actually enter the Mahayana (by generating spontaneous bodhichitta), we need the mind of tranquil abiding. That too seems so far off from where I’m at. I’m also getting older, which will make it harder. I’m running out of time. But it seems most of the instructions of the Ganden Oral Lineage explain that if we can get to the fourth mental abiding on our main objects that’s good enough to get the train started with enough irreversible momentum that we will eventually get to the fully qualified minds. That seems doable.

But it all starts with those initial experiences in the heart of an authentic bodhichitta. To get there, we have to work through the four things explained above. Once we can do it once, we then know it is possible. So really, from a practical point of view, we enter the Mahayana when we generate for the first time in our heart an authentic bodhichitta.

But bodhichitta is this feeling for the sake of all living beings, not just the small circle of people we currently feel heart-felt love for. So we first need to generate a qualified bodhichitta for a few people, and then we gradually expand that until it encompasses all living beings.

I feel like the challenges I have faced the last several years are all forcing me to actually make these steps in my heart. This is quite different, much more subtle and difficult, than intellectually understanding what I need to do. But I do feel I’m starting to get there. It’s been hard, but I’m starting to feel it coming together in my heart. I’m not there yet, but I am starting to see the landing zone.

Dorje Shugden, Venerable Geshe-la, Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka, please help me to do this. May I never waver until I attain the final goal.

Unclogging our Spiritual Pipes:

Kadampa Ryan 4. Practicing in Daily Life

One of our biggest obstacles to developing bodhichitta is we don’t really believe we can become a Buddha. Maybe others can, but not us. Maybe nobody can and all this Dharma stuff is a big scam. Such doubts may lurk within our mind and we’d be wise to dig them up and work through them. Pretending they are not there will not help us.

Without this confidence that we actually can become a Buddha, when we consider the full magnitude of others suffering and see there is nothing much we can do to help, we can quickly become despondent and then overwhelmed by it all.

Knowing this, we then hold ourselves back from considering their suffering, both in this life and their future lives, because we feel it will just be too much.

This in turn filters further down into a reluctance to actually change the object of our cherishing from self to others. Best we just accept everyone else is going to suffer and try save ourselves, or at least eke out a little bit of mental peace.

Therefore, it is vitally important that we confront our doubts about our ability to attain enlightenment – including whether such a thing is really possible. If we allow these doubts to remain, it will clog the spiritual pipes of everything that comes before it.

How can we overcome these doubts? Fundamentally, it comes down to believing in the methods we have received, believing in our pure potential, and believing in the laws of karma.

We have the same methods all the previous Buddhas had, the only difference between us is they applied enough effort and we haven’t yet. But the methods themselves are scientific methods that work for all who put them into practice.

We can believe in our pure potential because, first, we do have many examples of having successfully changed ourself with small things. If we can do so with some things, we can, with sufficient effort, do so with everything. And because second, everything – including ourself – is empty, mere constructions of our mind. This can be proven directly through our own investigation. Descartes said “I think, therefore I am.” The Kadampa corollary to this is, “I can change how I think, therefore I can change who I am.”

And we can have confidence in the laws of karma because everything points to them being true and because enlightened beings – those who have completed the path – have verified for us with their omniscient minds that they are true. If we create the necessary causes to attain enlightenment, the result is definite.

When we believe we have methods that can actually take us there, the ability to change ourselves and ripen fully our pure potential, and unwavering conviction that if we never give up creating the causes for it, we will get there in the end, then we will believe – in our heart – that we can actually do it. More than that, we will know we can. This is wisdom.

But then there is one last obstacle we will need to unclog and that is our attachment to immediate results – both for ourself and for others. Even with the Ganden Oral Lineage instructions, it is going to take time, possibly a long time, before we get there. During that time, we will suffer and all those we love will continue to suffer. We need a patience that can accept these realities, but knows eventually we will get there and we will help all those we love do the same.

Once this final obstacle is removed, then every suffering we encounter both for ourself and for others gets channeled into a powerful bodhichitta. Since samsara is the nature of suffering, this means our samsaric experience itself – every moment of it – becomes a cause of our enlightenment. As this becomes our new mental habit, we start to pick up spiritual momentum until we feel ourselves charging down the path like a locomotive, with all living beings in tow. Nothing will stop us from reaching the city of enlightenment and bringing all those we hold dear to the same final destination.

How wonderful!

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

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.

Understanding Being in Keajra Without Abandoning our Human Body:

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

I’ve been thinking about what it means to attain Keajra without abandoning our human body.

Geshe-la said in Portugal that, “When practitioners reach Keajra pure land or Keajra Heaven through a transferrence of consciousness in this sadhana, their previous body immediately changes into the nature of light. If a practitioner who is 80 years old reaches the pure land of Keajra, he or she will become like a 16-year-old youth with a body made of light and filled with bliss. The contaminated body ceases and their body transforms into an uncontaminated body, permanently free from sickness, aging, death, and every kind of samsaric rebirth. Their original body transforms into a special body.”

It seems the meaning from the perspective of such a practitioner is their original body (in the aspect of Ryan, for example) continues to appear but is perceived as being the nature of light. It transforms into a “special body.” Their contaminated body that they normally see completely disappears, but this “special body” of light in the aspect of their original body continues to appear like an emanation in this world. But “their body,” the basis of imputation referred to by the mere name “my body,” becomes like a 16 year old in the prime of their youth, with a body of wisdom light filled with bliss.

It is like Russian dolls. The outer layer is their “special body” in the aspect of their original body that performs a function in this world like an emanation, but within that, like a Russian doll, they see themselves with a deity body. Their original body may still appear as an 80 year old, but they experience “their body” as the 16 year old deity body. The thought “my body” no longer refers to the our original body, but to our deity body; but our ordinary body still appears to us in its normal aspect but no longer as a contaminated body, but rather as a “special body” of wisdom light.

So is this special body still in samsara? It depends upon from whose perspective we look at it. For the people in our life, they will continue to see us as they have always seen us, through the lens of their karma. But we see our original body as a special body of wisdom light in the aspect of our original body.

But VGL goes further and says, “With this practice of the Uncommon Yoga of Inconceivability, we can reach the pure land of Keajra with this human body. When practitioners engage in the special transferrence of consciousness, their consciousness does not leave their body, but goes to Keajra together with the body.” In other words, we experience it as if our human body is in Keajra. How can that be if our special body still has its original aspect and still appears to be functioning in our original world? All sorts of questions start to arise.

I think the answer to these questions lies in something VGL said long ago that “the mind of Lamrim is Akanishta pure land.”

During the teachings on distractions, Gen-la Jampa explained (quoting How to Understand the Mind) that nothing is a distraction from its own side, but becomes so when we engage with it with a deluded mind. Deluded minds project objects of delusion and all objects of delusion are distractions. But if we relate to objects with Lamrim minds, they cease to be objects of delusion, they become objects of Dharma. That annoying person in our life becomes an object of our patience, the deluded person becomes an object of our compassion, everyone becomes an object of our love, and everything becomes an object of the wisdom realizing emptiness. These objects cease to be objects of samsara, but become objects of Akanishta pure land. The mind of Lamrim is Akanishta pure land.

So from the perspective of the practitioner, their human body is also with them in Keajra and they see their human body functioning in a world similar in aspect to the world we normally see in our daily lives, but instead of it appearing as contaminated objects of delusion, everything appears as objects of Dharma because they are relating to all objects with Lamrim minds.

A similar outcome can be obtained through our faith in Dorje Shugden alone. If we view all things as emanated by Dorje Shugden and that we are in his pure land training grounds, the aspect may still appear similarly as our original world, but for us it will be his pure land because all objects that appear to our mind are seen as objects of Dharma (because we are relating to them all with Lamrim minds).

With this understanding, there are no contradictions and everything settles into the pure land quite nicely.

May we all attain Keajra without abandoning this human body.

Vows, commitments, and modern life:  Motivation for series

Kadampa Ryan Vows, commitments and daily life

Normally we think of our vows and commitments as an afterthought at best or as chains at worst.  We have all taken our vows many times when we received empowerments or when we engage in our daily practice, but many of us still have not started to take our practice of them seriously.  We swing from either the extreme of not even giving our vows a second thought to the extreme of beating ourselves up with them out of guilt for all the different ways we fall short.  We swing from the extreme of over-interpreting the words “do your best” to mean “don’t even bother trying” to the extreme of thinking in absolutist terms about what they mean and imply.  We quite often view them as rules or restrictions imposed from the outside, or we view them as constraints on our having any fun in life.  To us, vows and commitments often seem to restrict our freedom, but we accept we have to take them because we want to go to a given empowerment.  But the reality is most of the time we don’t even think about them, and we make almost no effort whatsoever to train in them.

This series of posts will attempt to reverse our attitude towards our vows and commitments.  Instead of viewing them as restrictions on our freedom and fun, we can come to view them as an internal GPS guiding our way to the blissful city of enlightenment where the party never stops.  If we want to go to a particular city, we program our GPS, hit go, and start driving.  We happily follow the directions without feeling like we are being deprived of all the wonders on the side streets we could be exploring.  When we miss a turn, we usually say a curse word, but then the GPS plans a new route, and we happily continue on our way.  When we arrive at our destination, we think to ourselves, “man, this thing is great.  How did I ever get around without one?”  It is exactly the same with our vows.  We want to go to the city of enlightenment (our good motivation), the vows and commitments are like the directions the GPS gives us along the way to keep us on our chosen route, and if we follow them happily but persistently, they will definitely deliver us to our final destination.  If we get lost or take a wrong turn, we don’t need to worry, because the GPS gives us new directions that we then follow.  No matter how lost we become, no matter how many wrong turns we make, we always know if we just keep following the directions it gives us, we will eventually get there.  It may take longer than what was originally planned (wrong turns), or there may be unexpected traffic (negative karma we need to purify), but if we just keep at it, we will get there. 

I know some people think their GPS gets upset at them when they make wrong turns.  But this is just our own anger at ourselves projecting our frustration onto the GPS voice.  But nowadays, we can program our GPS with all sorts of different voices to choose one more pleasant.  I actually know somebody whose GPS has the option of choosing the voice of a Porn Star (turn right, baby…)!  In the same way, we need to make an effort of giving our vows and commitments “the right voice” within our mind.  When we remember them or but up against them, we need to have them speak to us with the loving, understanding voice of our Spiritual Guide.  We need to hear him chuckle and say, “don’t worry, be happy, just try.”  The chuckle is important.  The sign that we have proper renunciation is we are able to have a good laugh at ourselves and our delusions.  It’s OK and it’s normal that we make a hash out of it.  When we make mistakes, we learn from them and move on.  We think beating ourselves up with guilt motivates us to do better, but it doesn’t.  Guilt is anger directed against ourselves.  It destroys all joy in our training, and when we lose the joy, we lose our effort (effort is taking delight in engaging in our practices).  Without effort, we have nothing.  We might do our practice every day for aeons, but if we don’t enjoy ourselves while trying, we actually have no effort and will therefore experience no results.  If we want, we can give the vows and commitments the seductive voice of Vajrayogini calling us to join her at her place! 

Our conception of freedom is completely wrong.  Freedom is the ability to choose.  But being a slave to every whim of our delusions is not freedom, it is bondage of an eternal order.  True freedom is the ability to choose to pursue what we know is actually good for us.  Our vows and commitments run in exactly opposite the direction our delusions want to go.  Since we are still fooled by the lies of our delusions, we think if we follow them, they will lead us to happiness.  The reality is all delusions share the same final destination – the deepest hell.  They all eventually lead us to the same place, but they trick us by painting an image of an illusory paradise just over the horizon.  Duped again and again, we run towards suffering and away from true freedom. 

There are three main reasons why we should train in the moral discipline of our vows and commitments.  First, doing so creates the karmic causes to maintain the continuum of our Dharma practice without interruption between now and our eventual enlightenment.  Second, doing so strengthens the power of our mindfulness and alertness, which are the two most important muscles for strong concentration.  And third, moral discipline is the substantial cause of higher rebirth.  We seek the highest rebirth of all – enlightenment – but getting there is often like climbing many, many flights of stairs.  But it is a joyful climb, because the higher we go the more blissful we feel.  And it is certainly better than the alternative of falling down the stairs…

In this series of posts, I will attempt to go through each of the vows and commitments of Kadampa Buddhism.  I will first explain what each vow is, then I will discuss some instances in our modern lives where these vows come into play, and finally I will discuss some strategies for how to keep the vow with a joyful mind.  My hope by explaining all this is I might myself finally start training in my vows and commitments with all the spiritual fruit that flows from this.  If others are also able to benefit from these explanations, then it is all the better.

Happy Protector Day: Tapping into Dorje Shugden’s Power

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HUM
Respectfully I prostrate with body, speech and mind. 

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

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

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

Modern Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: Dedication for the Entire Series

Kadampa Ryan Uncategorized

And now we come to the final chapter of Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, chapter 10, Dedication.  Shantideva reveals the practice the perfection of giving in his dedication of the merit he has accumulated from composing the Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life.   It is a most beautiful expression of a mind of giving without boundaries, in the form of a special prayer.  The whole of the Guide culminates with these very special words of giving, showing, actually, where all a bodhisattva’s actions are leading.  In fact, showing where our whole life, a bodhisattva’s life, is being directed.

I remember when I first read this dedication, I was astounded. I had never read anything quite like this before.  So, so moving.  It sums up for me what a bodhisattva is really about.  It seems we can put everything, all the trainings of a bodhisattva that have been explained by Shantideva, into the practice of giving.

I think we can understand why Shantideva’s left this until the very end, revealing the practice of giving in the form of dedication.  It says so much about Shantideva and the bodhisattva’s way of life. It seems the whole of a bodhisattva’s life can be regarded as one of giving, finally.  Shantideva, it is clear with these verses, he thinks about everyone.  He thinks about everyone and wants the best for others.  He wants to give others everything they could possibly hope for, everything they could possibly wish for.  Such selflessness is almost beyond words.  Extraordinary.

I would encourage people to use this dedication as their own.  For example, when you feel that you have accumulated a lot of virtue, a lot of merit with a particular activity, at the end of that activity, use this dedication.  I know many people who have done this.  They felt they have accumulated a lot of merit through their efforts, they then go to this dedication at the end of the day or their long retreat, or perhaps their studying the whole of Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life.

I will not provide a commentary to the dedication, because we need to make it our own.  There are some of you reading this who have been with me since the very beginning, when I started this commentary way back in November 2015.  It has been a long ride, but hopefully one you have enjoyed as much as I have.  We can sit down on our meditation cushion, perhaps this weekend, and read through this dedication, trying to make it your own.  We can dedicate any and all merit we have accumulated from reading these posts in the same way that Shantideva did.  It is what he would want.  It is the best way we can honor his contribution to our spiritual lives to dedicate in the same way. 

But the true dedication is not simply reciting these words from our heart, but dedicating ourselves to bringing these dedications into reality.  We need to ourselves become bodhisattvas, travel the bodhisattva path, and then give back to all living beings in this way.  In other words, don’t make this a dedication prayer, dedicate your life to making it come true.

(1) Through the virtues I have created
By composing Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life,
May all living beings without exception
Practise the Bodhisattva’s deeds.

(2) By virtue of my merits,
May all beings everywhere,
Tormented by sufferings of body and mind,
Find physical comfort and mental joy.

(3) For as long as they remain in samsara,
May their temporary happiness never decline;
And may they all eventually experience
The everlasting joy of Buddhahood.

(4) May all embodied creatures
Throughout the universe
Who are experiencing the pains of hell
Enjoy the bliss of Sukhavati Pure Land.

(5) May those tormented by cold find warmth,
And may those tormented by heat be cooled
By a continuous rain of soothing waters
Flowing from the vast clouds of the Bodhisattvas’ merit and wisdom.

(6) May the forest of razor-sharp leaves
Become a delightful woodland glade,
And may the trees of splintered iron and piercing thorns
Transform into wish-fulfilling trees.

(7) May the regions of hell become joyful lands
Adorned with vast and fragrant lotus pools
Resounding with the enchanting calls
Of wild geese, ducks, and swans.

(8) May the heaps of burning coals become piles of various jewels,
May the red-hot iron ground become a soothing crystal floor,
And may the mountains of the crushing hells
Become celestial palaces of worship filled with Sugatas.

(9) May the hail of lava, blazing stones, and weapons
Henceforth become a rain of flowers,
And may all attacks with weapons
From now on become a playful exchange of flowers.

(10) May those drowning in the fiery torrents of acid –
Their flesh eaten away to reveal their lily-white bones –
Attain the bodies of celestial beings
And sport with consorts in gently flowing streams.

(11) “Why are the henchmen of the Lord of Death and the unbearable buzzards and vultures so afraid?
By whose noble power is the darkness of our suffering dispelled and joy bestowed upon us?”
Looking above them, those in hell will behold the radiant form of Vajrapani, the Holder of the Vajra.
Through the force of their new-found faith and joy, may they be freed from past evil and come to abide with him.

(12) When they see the lava fires of hell extinguished by a rain of flowers moist with scented waters,
And are immediately satiated with bliss,
They will wonder by whose hand this was brought about
And behold Pämapani, the Holder of the Lotus.

(13) “Friends, cast away your fears and quickly gather here,
For above us is the youthful Manjushri, whose radiant topknot dispels all fears.
Endowed with great compassion and bodhichitta, he protects all living beings,
And through his power dispels all suffering and bestows perfect joy.

(14) “Behold him in his enchanting palace resounding with the songs of a thousand celestial beings,
With hundreds of gods bowing before him, their tiaras touching his lotus feet,
And a vast rain of flowers falling upon his gracious head, his eyes moist with compassion.”
Thus, upon seeing Manjushri, may all beings in hell cry out with joy.

(15) Likewise, when through my roots of virtue all beings in hell
Feel the cool, sweet-smelling rain descending from miraculous clouds
Created by Bodhisattvas such as Samantabhadra,
May they experience perfect happiness.

(16) May all animals be freed from the fears
Of being preyed upon by one another,
And may all hungry spirits be as happy
As the inhabitants of the northern continent.

(17) May they be satiated by a stream of milk
Flowing from the compassionate hands
Of Arya Avalokiteshvara
And, by bathing in it, may they be constantly refreshed.

(18) May the blind see forms,
May the deaf hear sounds,
And just as it was with Mayadevi, the mother of Buddha,
May all pregnant women give birth without pain.

(19) May the naked find clothing,
May the hungry find food,
And may the thirsty find pure water
And delicious drinks.

(20) May the poor find wealth,
May those weak with sorrow find joy,
And may those whose fortunes have declined
Find replenishment and long-lasting good fortune.

(21) May everyone who is sick
Be swiftly healed,
And may every disease that affects living beings
Be permanently eradicated.

(22) May the frightened be released from their fears,
May those in captivity be freed,
May the powerless be endowed with power,
And may people think only of benefiting one another.

(23) May travellers on the road
Find happiness wherever they go,
And without any effort
Accomplish whatever they set out to do.

(24) May those who sail by ship or boat
Obtain whatever they seek
And, returning safely to the shore,
Joyfully reunite with their friends and relatives.

(25) May those distressed because they have lost their way
Meet with fellow travellers
And, without any fear of thieves or other dangers,
Proceed comfortably without fatigue.

(26) May those in dangerous and fearful places,
Children, the aged, and the unprotected,
As well as the bewildered and the insane,
Be guarded by benevolent celestials.

(27) May all humans be freed from all the unfree states,
May they be endowed with faith, wisdom, and compassion,
And may they have the very best food, follow pure conduct,
And always be concerned for their future lives.

(28) May they have inexhaustible joy and copious resources,
Just like the supreme treasury;
And may they enjoy freedom,
With no disputes, interferences, or injury.

(29) May those who possess little splendour
Be endowed with majesty,
And may those whose bodies are worn through asceticism
Attain magnificent and noble forms.

(30) May all beings everywhere
Take rebirth in a gender of their choice,
And may the lowly and downcast attain grandeur
Without ever displaying pride.

(31) By the power of the merit I have accumulated,
May all living beings without exception
Abandon all forms of evil
And always engage in virtue.

(32) May they never be separated from bodhichitta
And always follow the Bodhisattva’s way of life.
May they be cared for by Buddhas and Spiritual Guides
And forsake all demonic activity.

(33) While in samsara, may they be reborn in fortunate realms
And enjoy inconceivably long lives,
Abiding always in contentment
Without ever hearing the word “death”.

(34) May all places throughout the world
Become gardens of wish-fulfilling trees,
Resounding with the sound of Dharma
Proclaimed by Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

(35) May the whole ground
Become completely pure,
As level as the palm of a hand,
And as smooth as lapis lazuli.
(36) And in every land may there appear,
For the sake of all disciples,
Multitudes of Bodhisattvas
Possessed of excellent qualities.

(37) May all living beings uninterruptedly hear
The sweet sound of Dharma
Issuing forth from birds and trees,
Beams of light, and even space itself.

(38) May they always meet with Buddha
And their Sons and Daughters, the Bodhisattvas;
And may the Spiritual Guides of the world
Be venerated with clouds of offerings.

(39) May celestial beings bring timely rains,
And may harvests always be plentiful.
May governments rule in accordance with Dharma,
And may the people of the world prosper.

(40) May all medicines be effective,
May the recitation of mantras fulfil all wishes,
And may all spirits and animals who have
influence over us Be endowed with great compassion.

(41) May no one ever experience physical pain,
Mental anguish, or sickness.
May they be free from all forms of unhappiness,
And may no one ever be afraid or belittled.

(42) In all temples and Dharma centres,
May recitation and meditation flourish forever.
May the Sangha always be in harmony,
And may their wish to benefit others be fulfilled.

(43) May Sangha who wish to practise purely
Find the right conditions to do so
And, abandoning all distractions,
Meditate with mental suppleness.

(44) May the ordained be materially provided for
And always be free from harm.
May no one who has taken ordination
Ever allow their moral discipline to degenerate.

(45) May all those who have broken their moral discipline
Completely purify their downfalls.
May they attain a fortunate rebirth
And never allow their morality to decline again.

(46) May those who are learned in Dharma be respected
And receive material support.
May their minds be pure and peaceful,
And may their good qualities be proclaimed in all directions.

(47) May they never experience the sufferings of the lower realms
Or meet with hardships of body, speech, or mind.
May they have forms superior to those of the gods
And quickly attain the state of a Buddha.

(48) May all living beings again and again
Make offerings to the Buddhas.
May they become endowed with the eternal bliss
Of a fully enlightened being.

(49) May the Bodhisattvas fulfil the welfare of the world
In the very manner they have intended,
And may all living beings receive
Everything the Buddhas have intended for them.

(50) Likewise, may all Solitary Realizers and Hearers
Attain the happiness of nirvana.

(51) And until I attain the level of the Joyous One,
Through the blessings of Manjushri,
May I be concerned for all my future lives
And always receive ordination.

(52) May I always live humbly, sustained by simple food.
Throughout all my lives, may I abide in solitude
And always find ideal conditions
For achieving my spiritual goals.

(53) Whenever I wish to see a scripture
Or compose even a single verse,
May I behold without obstruction
Protector Manjushri.

(54) To fulfil the needs of all living beings
Reaching to the ends of space,
May my way of life always resemble
That of Manjushri.

(55) For as long as space exists
And for as long as living beings remain in samsara,
May I abide among them
To dispel all their suffering.

(56) May all the suffering of all living beings
Ripen solely upon me;
And by the power of the Bodhisattvas’ virtue and aspirations
May all beings experience happiness.

(57) May the Buddhadharma, the sole medicine for all suffering
And the source of all happiness,
Be materially supported and honoured,
And remain for a very long time.

(58) I prostrate to Manjushri,
Through whose kindness my virtuous intentions arise;
And I prostrate to my Spiritual Guide,
Through whose kindness my virtuous qualities increase.
This concludes the tenth chapter of Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, entitled “Dedication”.

This concludes Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, composed by the Buddhist Master Shantideva.

Happy Tsog Day: Generating a Supreme Good Heart

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 34 of a 44-part series.

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.