The Pure Dance of “Only Emptiness”: Reflections on the Pure World “Inside Emptiness.”

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra

The more we purify the obstructions to omniscience, the more non-dual appearance and emptiness appears directly. The first thing we will perceive directly within the vast sky of only emptiness will be ourself as the nada, our Enjoyment Body. Then, we will begin to perceive directly our Emanation Body in the aspect of the supported and supporting Heruka Body Mandala. Finally, we will perceive directly the completely purified all phenomena of all three times simultaneously, all as aspects of non-dual appearance and emptiness. We perceive only emptiness, but it appears to us directly as completely purified all phenomena. Then, we we gradually draw all beings into our world.

All of this is happening inside emptiness. As VGL said to Gen-la Dekyong, “In the word empowerment, we can say from an intellectual perspective it is giving an introduction to the union of the two truths that is the union of Buddha’s illusory body, conventional truth, and the mind of clear light, ultimate truth. According to Tantra, everything is ultimate truth. Within ultimate truth, things exist, everything exists inside emptiness. Buddha sees everything as truth. There is no conventional or non-truth. Everything is inside emptiness, which is truth. This is union of the two truths according to HYT. This union is understood through our own experience. Nothing exists other than emptiness. With this understanding, self-generation has power to abandon self-grasping. We say non-dual appearance and emptiness. Not two, one. When we are meditating on self-generation, we are also meditating on emptiness as one object. Then our meditation on self-generation has power to cease our self-grasping. The way of understanding the union of the two truths has many levels. The highest level is when realizing the meaning of the 4th empowerment, the word empowerment of HYT. We realize the very subtle level of the union of the two truths according to HYT. It means the union of appearance and emptiness at its most profound level. Buddhas see only objects that are the truth, emptiness. Ordinary beings who have not realised emptiness only see false objects.”

And as VGL says in Mirror of Dharma, “For qualified Tantric practitioners, in this endless space of emptiness their own environment, enjoyments, body, mind and their own self naturally appear as the enlightened environment, enjoyments, body, mind and self of an enlightened being, all naturally existing in dependence on their mere name. The meaning of non-dual appearance and emptiness is very profound and not easy to understand. The wisdom that realizes non-dual appearance and emptiness is a higher level of the correct view of emptiness, and training in this wisdom is the quick path to enlightenment.”

As Gen-la Dekyong shared from VGL during the Summer Festival, “You can find. Emptiness and appearance are not two objects. They are called union. This is subtle and difficult to understand, but you can find this. There is no guarantee because it depends upon your energy for practicing, receiving blessings, many other methods together, such as accumulating merit, purifying negativity. Always, when you have time, you are relaxing, lying down, or even sleeping, learn this. Finally, you will find ultimate truth. We need to improve our experience. We need to understand correctly. Buddha explains this even in Sutra. Emptiness subject is explained very clearly. Non-dual appearance and emptiness, the union of two truths, the union of great bliss and emptiness, are all from HYT. But the real meaning is already explained in the perfection of wisdom sutra. The only thing we change is the mind from gross mind, we change the mind to great bliss. Ultimate view has already been explained in Sutra perfection of wisdom. Try to become familiar. Finally, we will find the highest level of ultimate truth. This is explained in the meaning of the fourth empowerment, the precious word empowerment. This is the most subtle, ultimate truth, that we find only through HYT. Emptiness we can’t make more subtle. But from the other side, we can make the mind more subtle. Non-dual appearance and emptiness, from emptiness side, not much difference. But form the mind’s side, clear light of bliss, very subtle mind becoming manifest there is a huge difference. This is the meaning of the fourth empowerment, the precious word empowerment. Buddha’s final intention, ultimate view, ultimate truth. Finally, we can attain ultimate truth of HYT, Buddha’s main intention. Before that, we ourself need to improve. We Kadampas have the opportunity to do this continually. The meaning of this teachings is inconceivable. Verbally, inexpressible. I cannot teach HYT union. In the word empowerment, which is the instructions introducing union, this union is understood through our own experience. In Buddha’s mind, everything is truth. There is no form other than emptiness, no emptiness other than form. There is only one. Union means two things become one. Now only one, ultimate truth. So this self-generation meditation on the non-duality of appearance and emptiness, we are learning this. It has power to abandon self-grasping. We need to spend a lot of time thinking, contemplating, accumulating merit, purifying imprints of wrong views denying Dharma in many lives and this life. There are big amounts of imprints of wrong views obstructing union. We need to study, contemplate, meditate, and purify negative actions. Buddha sees everything as truth.”

If we bring these understandings into our self-generation practice, training in non-dual appearance and emptiness throughout the practice, but at a minimum from bringing death into the path of the Truth Body on, viewing everything that appears afterwards as the pure dance of “only emptiness,” our tantric practice takes on a whole new, much more profound level. If we train in this way, we can begin to understand the “magic” of the Ganden Oral Lineage and how it is indeed possible to attain enlightenment in this life, even within three years if we could do this perfectly. It’s all so amazing!

A Pure Life: Abandoning Lying

Kadampa Ryan Precept Days

This is part eight of a 12-part series on how to skillfully train in the Eight Mahayana Precepts.  The 15th 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, Gen Tharchin, and Gen 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.  Gen 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 (nothing is), 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 is a serial liar. Virtually everything he says is a lie in one form or another. All of his lies appears to be ultimately motivated by what best served his interests. Many people share his interests, and therefore excuse his lying as what is necessary to accomplish their desired policy or social goals. But many people wind up believing his lies. Because of the nature of his position, his lies 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 lies 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 have 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 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 are 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 too 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 lied in the past and to make the firm decision that we will abandon lying.

Modern Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: Can an Independent Creator Create Anything?

Kadampa Ryan 2. Modern Bodhisattva's Way of Life

(9.62) (Samkhya) “When no sound is present, the consciousness enjoys other objects such as visual forms.”
But if it is permanent, why does it not continue to apprehend sound?
(Samkhya) “Because there is no sound in the vicinity at that time.”
Well, if there is no object, sound, then there is no subjective apprehender of sound!

Shantideva’s point here is that if there is no subjective apprehender of sound then it shows that the consciousness has changed from there being a subjective apprehender of sound to there not being a subjective apprehender of sound, therefore the consciousness that the Samkhya’s is the I is not permanent.

(9.63) Moreover, how can an awareness whose nature it is to apprehend sound
Also be an awareness whose nature it is to apprehend visual forms?
(Samkhya) “It is like one person who can be considered to be both a father and a son.”
But this is mere imputation; he is not by nature both.

The Prasangikas do not disagree that consciousness can be aware of both sound and visual forms, they simply disagree that such a consciousness can be permanent. How is it possible then for us to refer to a continuously residing consciousness that the Prasangikas believe in? How exactly is that different from what the Samkhyas are asserting? The Prasangikas agree that the continuously residing consciousness is like one person who is considered to be both a father and a son, but that this difference is one of simply mere imputation by mind. The consciousness apprehending sound and the consciousness apprehending visual forms are two different consciousnesses because they are perceiving two different objects, but conventionally we can refer to them as our continuously residing consciousness by mere name or mere imputation. It is not inherently or permanently one or the other.

(9.64) The analogy of father and son does not work for you Samkhyas.
According to you, the independent creator of all manifests all forms.
Thus, father and son must be one nature, as must an apprehender of sound and an apprehender of visual forms –
But such things are not seen by a valid mind.

Once again, like the Christians, the Samkhyas believe in an independent creator of all phenomena.  Like many Christian Mystic traditions, the Samkhyas believe there is no distinction between the creator and its creation. Thus, father and son, the apprehender of sound of the apprehender of visual forms, must all equally be the same nature as this independent creator.

But how can there be an independent creator? If it is independent, then how could it come into a relationship with its creation? If it is permanent, then how can it create different things because does not it then change? Interestingly, it is only by embracing the Prasangika view that we can resolve these contradictions and view all things as the nature of our mind which is the creator of all, and that our mind is empty which enables it to change and create and come into contact with and know different things. We are able to make a nominal distinction between the mind that knows things and the objects that are known while still seeing them as being of one nature. All things are the nature of mind, and the ultimate nature of mind is emptiness.

(9.65) (Samkhya) “It is like an actor changing roles and being seen in different aspects.”
Well, if the I changes in this way, it cannot be permanent!
(Samkhya) “Although the aspects change, its nature remains one and the same.”
But you cannot establish an unchangeable nature of the I, because you deny the ultimate nature of I, the lack of a truly existent I.

Remember, the goal of the Prasangika refutations of the other schools is to gradually guide people to the Prasangika view. We do not disagree that it is like an actor changing roles but being seen in different aspects, we just disagree that such an I is permanent. We also do not disagree that although the aspects changed the nature remains one in the same, we simply say that the nature of that I cannot be truly existent. The only way in which the aspects can change and the nature remains one in the same is if everything is empty.  We can see the Prasangikas agree with much of what the Samkhyas say about the I, they just simply disagree with it being permanent and it being truly existent.

Happy Tsog Day: Rejoicing In and Requesting the Turning of the Wheel of Dharma

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 13 of a 44-part series.

Rejoicing

Though phenomena have no sign of inherent existence,
From the depths of our hearts we rejoice
In all the dream-like happiness and pure white virtue
That arise for ordinary and Superior beings.

Geshe-la explains in Joyful Path that rejoicing is the easiest of all the virtues. We simply need to be happy for others, both when they experience good fortune and when they create the cause for it by engaging in virtuous actions. Normally, we get jealous of others when good things happen to them, thinking it is not fair that everything goes well for them, but we always have to suffer and struggle. We would rather nobody experience good fortune than others experience it and we are not. Similarly, when others are praised for some good quality they possess, we immediately become jealous and find fault in the other person or we feel like that person being praised is in fact an indirect criticism of ourselves, and so we become defensive.

Rejoicing in other’s virtue is quite simply the easiest way to create good karma for ourselves. All we need to do is consider the virtuous actions of others and think how wonderful it is for them and for the beneficiaries of their virtuous actions. Geshe-la explains in Joyful Path that the amount of merit we create by rejoicing is a function of our relative spiritual development. When we rejoice in the virtues of those more spiritually developed than ourselves, such as the Buddhas or Bodhisattvas, we accumulate a fraction of the virtues they accumulated in the process of engaging in their virtuous actions. When we rejoice in the virtues of those of equivalent spiritual development as ourselves, we accumulate exactly the same amount of merit they do for engaging in the virtuous actions. And when we rejoice in the virtues of those spiritually less developed than us, we accumulate more virtue from our rejoicing than they do from the virtuous action itself.

Practically speaking, we have many opportunities to train in rejoicing – every time somebody has something good happen, rejoice. Every time somebody else is praised, rejoice. Every time you see somebody help somebody else, rejoice. Just be happy every time anything good happens. It is not hard to change this habit if we apply a little bit of effort.

Here, Geshe-la highlights the relationship between rejoicing and the wisdom realizing emptiness. When we grasp at others existing separately from us, we think their virtue has nothing to do with us. But when we realize the emptiness of ourself, the other person, and their virtuous deed, we realize that all this goodness is happening inside our karmic dream. Any good that happens or ripens inside our karma dream is ripening inside our own mind; thus, we can be thrilled that it is happening because the environment of our mind is becoming purer and purer.

Requesting the turning of the Wheel of Dharma

From the myriads of billowing clouds of your sublime wisdom and compassion,
Please send down a rain of vast and profound Dharma,
So that in the jasmine garden of benefit and happiness
There may be growth, sustenance, and increase for all these living beings.

The appearance of Dharma teachings is a dependent arising. In other words, if we do not create the karma for the Dharma to appear, it will not. Right now, we have found the Dharma and as a result, we can practice it. But there is no guarantee we will attain enlightenment in this life nor find the Dharma again in our future lives. If we do not find it again, how can we possibly continue with our practice?

There are three principal methods for ensuring we find the Dharam again in all our future lives. The first is to put the Dharma we have received into practice. I once asked Geshe-la for a guaranteed method to meet him in all my future lives without interruption, and he said, “concentrate on practicing Dharma and always keep faith.” The second is to work to cause the Dharma to flourish in this world, such as giving teachings, working for our Dharma centers, or even discussing the Dharma on social media. And the third is to request the turning of the Wheel of Dharma. All three create the karma for it to appear in our world, both now and in the future for ourselves and for all living beings.

On Letting in the Hurt:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let it in.

Happy 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.

Modern Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: Emptiness of Our Soul

Kadampa Ryan 2. Modern Bodhisattva's Way of Life

We now enter into a section in which Shantideva refutes the views of the lower schools.  The first view he looks at is the Samkhya schools. The Samkhyas are very similar to how most Christians think about their soul. When you speak with a Christian and ask them about their soul, they will describe it as this permanent thing that goes with them from life to life, and the purpose of the Christian path is to save their soul. Once again, when we go through these debates we should not feel as if they are somehow divorced from our normal reality because none of us have ever heard of the Samkhyas before. We don’t know what their view is and we don’t seem to hold it, so it seems irrelevant to us. But if we can connect the views of the lower schools with views that we see in modern society, then we can appreciate the reputation that shantideva engages in. So when you see the sampek’s, as a shorthand it’s enough to think about a popular understanding of Christianity. And even that is not enough because we might not consider ourselves Christian and so we might think that this is refuting the views of others. In truth we need to find within our self where we still grasp onto notions of relating to our I or our self as something that is permanent and eternal.

(9.60) If, as the Samkhya school asserts, a permanent consciousness is the I,
Then the consciousness that enjoys sound is also permanent;
But how can it continue to enjoy sound
When the object, sound, is no longer present?

(9.61) If it can be a subjective consciousness even though its object does not exist,
Then it follows that even a piece of wood can be a subjective consciousness.
Nothing can be established as a consciousness
If there is no object of which to be conscious.

As we go through Shantideva’s actual refutations it is important to keep in mind what exactly Shantideva is rejecting and what he is not rejecting. Sometimes we can look at these debates and over apply the refutations to see a complete and total rejection of all the views of the lower schools. This is incorrect.  The way to think about the different schools is like a ladder of thought where we gradually abandoned different aspects of things that we mistakenly think are ourselves but in fact are not. But we do not reject everything that was in the lower view because there are elements of the lower schools that we retain within the Prasangika view. In this way, our study of the lower schools enables us to gradually build up the overall framework for understanding the Prasangika.

The Samkhya view is that our self is a permanent consciousness. They say not only is the I inside the permanent consciousness, the I is this permanent consciousness. They think this is our true self that goes with us from life to life. Again, it is very similar to the Christian view.

In Buddhism, when we call something permanent it means that it is unchanging. It never changes.  We need to make a distinction between permanent and eternal. Eternal means lasts forever, permanent means unchanging. It is perfectly possible for something to be eternal but not permanent. For example, the water on this earth is eternal , but it is constantly changing forms and so therefore it is not permanent. It is also possible for something to be permanent but not eternal. For example, the emptiness of my car is permanent in the sense that it never becomes any more or less empty, but it is not eternal because when the car no longer exists, the emptiness of the car no longer exists.

The Samkhyas believe in an I that is both permanent and eternal. The Prasangikas disagree with the permanent part but agree that our actual self is indeed eternal. According to the tantric teachings we understand that at our heart we have our continuously residing mind and continuously residing wind, which is our continuously residing body and mind. These never separate and are eternal. They last forever. But they are not permanent because they are undergoing constant change.

The Prasangikas also retain the idea of consciousness being part of our I.  The difference is the Samkhyas say that our consciousness is our I, whereas the Prasangikas say that consciousness is part of the basis of imputation of are I.  Specifically, we impute our I onto our continuously residing body and our continuously residing mind.  Our consciousness is part of our I but not our I itself.  

So what then do the Prasangikas actually refute of the Samkhya view? First, they refute that the I is permanent. If the consciousness is the I, and the I is permanent, then it follows that once the consciousness perceives something it must perceive that thing forever without change. If the consciousness goes from a state of observing a sound to then not observing the sound, then it implies that the consciousness itself has changed, and therefore is not permanent.

Implicit within the Samkhya view is that this is not a problem because the consciousness just continues to see things and know things as those things move around it. It is like a light that simply shines and illuminates whatever comes in front of it. Shantideva refutes this view by pointing out it is impossible to have a consciousness without an object of consciousness because otherwise what is the consciousness conscious of? Therefore, you cannot have a consciousness that does not change as it becomes aware of different objects.

Modern Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: Is our Mucus our Authentic Self?

Kadampa Ryan 2. Modern Bodhisattva's Way of Life

(9.57) The teeth, hair, or nails are not the I,
Nor are the bones or blood.
The mucus and phlegm are not the I,
Nor are the lymph or pus.

(9.58) The body’s fat or sweat are not the I,
Nor are the lungs or liver.
None of the other inner organs is the I,
Nor are the excrement or urine.

(9.59) The flesh or skin are not the I,
Nor are the body’s warmth or winds.
The space element of the body is not the I,
Nor are any of the six consciousnesses.

The basic point is rather simple:  Ignorance is when we hold the following view:  The I is one with its basis, yet it is also independent.  When somebody points at our body, we feel they are pointing at us.  Yet, we say, ‘my body’ as if the I was somehow an independent possessor of the body.

Emptiness is when we realize the I is not one with its basis, but it is not entirely separate from it.  We cannot find the I anywhere within its basis, but without the basis there is no I at all.  Emptiness is when the I is a mere name imputed upon the body and mind.  We are able to identify the distinction between the basis of imputation and the imputation itself.

This is not just an academic discussion, but has very practical implications:  If we think our self is one with its basis, we identify with our delusions, thinking they are an intrinsic part of ourselves. For as long as we are doing this, when we apply opponents, we will not actually eliminate our delusions because we are grasping at them.  We can remain like this for decades in the Dharma and wonder why we are not changing.  To actually get rid of our delusions, we have to stop identifying with them as ‘us.’ 

We have all had examples of situations where we thought we had gotten rid of a delusion, but then it came back.  We then think we haven’t really changed.  We think there is this permanent nature to ourselves that doesn’t change.  Our belief in this makes any progress on the path impossible.  We need to stop grasping at the permanence of our self, and realize that we are always changing – in what way depends upon our actions.  This gives us enormous flexibility to change ourselves.  Normally we are afraid to do so.

In popular psychology, people talk about being true to our “authentic self.”  We then even make a moral issue out of ‘being true to ourselves’, ‘this is me.’  So anything that isn’t consistent with ‘who we are’ we think is wrong.  We then think not indulging our delusions is somehow not being true to our authentic self.  We intentionally grasp at some view that prevents us from ever changing for the better.  This is completely wrong.  We are what we identify with, and we have choice about what we identify with.  If we say the angry, jealous, deluded person is “not me,” but rather the patient, loving, and wise person “is me,” then we can change the basis of imputation of our I from a deluded person to a wise one.  In truth, this is more being “true to our authentic self,” because we are not our delusions, we are our Buddha nature.  The self that we normally see is a hallucination, so how can we be true to that?

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. 

Happy Tsog Day: Making Our Spiritual Life Practical

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 12 of a 44-part series.

Offering medicines, and ourself as a servant

I offer many different types of excellent medicine
That destroy the four hundred and four diseases of the delusions,
And to please you I offer myself as a servant;
Please keep me in your service for as long as space exists.

We have met Geshe-la in this life and he has taught us the stages of the path to enlightenment. If we are lucky and apply full effort with great faith and a pure heart, we may attain enlightenment in this life. But it is also possible we will not complete the path before we die. At that point, it becomes vital that we find the path again in all our future lives without interruption so we can continue on with our spiritual training. Gen Tharchin explains that “if we do our honest best to train in the stages of the path throughout our life, it will be enough to ensure we find the path again in our next life.” But the supreme method to always meet Geshe-la again and again in all our future lives is to offer ourself as a servant for as long as space exists. What does it mean to offer ourself as a servant? It means to promise to dedicate our life to the fulfilment of our Guru’s wishes. What does our Guru wish? He wishes that we attain enlightenment and that we help others to do the same. His special method for leading all beings to enlightenment is to form fully qualified spiritual guides who in turn train other fully qualified spiritual guides, as a “great wave” of virtuous deeds that will – generation after generation – eventually wash over all living beings. To offer ourself as a servant is to make ourselves part of this great wave. Practically speaking we can do this by becoming a qualified Kadampa teacher, a center administrator, or even just a humble practitioner. The point is we do what we can to help cause the Dharma to flourish in this world. It is obvious that if we spend this life fulfilling our Guru’s wishes to cause the Dharma to flourish we will create the karma necessary to refind the Dharma in all our future lives.

Confession

In the presence of the great Compassionate Ones I confess with a mind of great regret
All the non-virtues and negative actions that, since beginningless time,
I have done, ordered to be done, or rejoiced in;
And I promise that from now on I shall not commit them again.

Infinite negative karma is the biggest problem we do not realize we have. Logically, this is not difficult to establish. First, the vast majority of our previous lives have been spent in the lower realms, where we engaged almost exclusively in negative actions. Animals may occasionally engage in virtuous actions, but almost every other action a lower being engages in is negative – each one creating negative karmic seeds on our mind. Second, engaging in virtue takes effort, whereas engaging in negativity comes effortlessly. This shows not only that we have powerful negative tendencies on our mind, but that in the past we have mostly engaged in negative actions and very few virtuous ones. And third, we have made almost no effort to purify our negative karma, even after having been in the Dharma for many years. Before we met the Dharma, we did not engage in purification at all, and since we have found the Dharma, we have done precious little purification. There are only two ways negative karma can be removed from our mind, either by ripening in the form of suffering or through sincere purification practice. Since we have not purified, all these countless negative karmic seeds remain on our mind. Intellectually, this logic is inescapable proof.

But it still does not move our mind. Why? Primarily because we still have on our mind negative karma of holding wrong views rejecting the truth of karma and past and future lives. These negative seeds prevent us from believing the unavoidable truth of our negative karma. So even though intellectually, we know it must be true, we do not really believe this in our heart, and therefore we never generate the appropriate levels of fear for the negative karma that remains. Geshe-la explains in Oral Instructions of Mahamudra that the primary reason we have not yet sincerely put the Dharma into practice is because we have neglected generating rational fear of samsara. In other words, the fact that we do not feel fear of our negative karma is itself a perfect sign that we have much left to purify.

I find it helpful to consider I (and everyone I know) am destined for the lower realms. We are en route for them right now, and if we do not purify, we will inevitably fall. I find it helpful to consider some analogies, such as I am on an island that is rapidly sinking into an ocean of molten fire of the lower realms. I am chained to the deck of the Titanic, and if I do not free myself, I will go down with the ship. I carry in my heart countless karmic time bombs that can explode at any moment.

To purify our negative karma, we need to apply the four opponent powers. The power of regret admits to ourself that we have untold quantities of negative karma remaining on our mind, and if we do not purify it, we will get sucked into a vortex of endless suffering. The power of reliance is turning either to the three jewels or to all living beings to purify our negative karma. The power of the opponent force is any virtuous action motivated by regret and is directed towards either the three jewels (such as Vajrasattva practice of the 35 Confession Buddhas) or living beings (such as engaging in virtuous actions for their benefit). The power of the promise is making internal commitments to refrain in the future from similarly engaging in negative actions. The power of regret purifies the effects similar to the cause. The power of reliance purifies the environmental effects. The power of the opponent force purifies the ripened effect. And the power of the promise purifies the tendencies similar to the cause to engage again in negativity.

I find it helpful to understand how this works by considering how we apologize. When we have wronged someone in some way, if we check, we follow a very clear formula when we apologize. First, we honestly admit what we did and the harm that it caused the other person. Then, we express our apology to whoever we harmed. Then, we do something kind to make amends. Finally, we promise to not do it again. The truth is we have been harming the three jewels and living beings since beginningless time. But we now have an opportunity to correct for this by engaging in sincere purification practice.