Happy Je Tsongkhapa Day: I Rejoice in the Great Wave of your Deeds

October 25, 2025 Kadampa Ryan 7. Kadampa meaning of special days buddha, buddhism, meditation, philosophy, spirituality

In many ways, October 25^th, or Je Tsongkhapa Day, is my favorite day of the Kadampa calendar. Why? Because he is the founder of our tradition, our living spiritual guide, and the source of all good. On Je Tsongkhapa Day, we can remember his great kindness, strive to emulate his example, and ultimately decide to mix our mind inseparably with his. I pray that all those who read this develop unchanging faith in Guru Tsongkhapa, and in dependence upon this faith, effortlessly follow his joyful path.

Understanding How Holy Days Work

There are certain days of the year which are karmically more powerful than others, and the karmic effect of our actions on these days is multiplied by a factor of ten million! These are called “ten million multiplying days.” In practice, what this means is every action we engage in on these special days is karmically equivalent to us engaging in that same action ten million times. This is true for both our virtuous and non-virtuous actions, so not only is it a particularly incredible opportunity for creating vast merit, but it is also an extremely dangerous time for engaging in negative actions. There are four of these days every year: Buddha’s Englightenment Day (April 15), Turning the Wheel of Dharma Day (June 4), Buddha’s Return from Heaven Day (September 22), and Je Tsongkhapa Day (October 25). Heruka and Vajrayogini Month (January 3-31), NKT Day (1^st Saturday of April), and International Temple’s Day (first Saturday of November) are the other major Days that complete the Kadampa calendar.

A question may arise, why are the karmic effect of our actions greater on certain days than others? We can think of these days like a spiritual pulsar that at periodic intervals sends out an incredibly powerful burst of spiritual energy, or wind. On such days, if we lift the sails of our practice, these gushes of spiritual winds push us a great spiritual distance. Why are these specific days so powerful? Because in the past on these days particularly spiritually significant events occurred which altered the fundamental trajectory of the karma of the people of this world. Just as calling out in a valley reverberates back to us, so too these days are like the karmic echoes of those past events. Another way of understanding this is by considering the different types of ocean tides. Normally, high and low tide on any given day occurs due to the gravity of the moon pulling water towards it as the earth rotates. But a “Spring tide” occurs when the earth, moon, and Sun are all in alignment, pulling the water not just towards the moon as normal, but also towards the much more massive sun. Our holy days are like spiritual Spring tides.

Je Tsongkhapa is the Founder of the New Kadampa Tradition

Buddha Shakyamuni is the founder of Buddhism in this world, and all of the different types of Buddhism (Zen, Theravadin, Kadampa, etc.) are all different presentations of his teachings. Buddha gave 84,000 different instructions, but different traditions will place different emphasis on different aspects to correspond with the karmic dispositions of those who follow that tradition. We cannot say one tradition is better than another in some absolute sense, rather we can say, “this tradition is better for me,” and “that tradition is better for her,” etc. In this way, we can each cherish our own traditions while respecting all others.

Atisha is the founder of the Kadampa tradition. ‘Kadam’ means a special presentation of Buddha’s 84,000 teachings called the “Lamrim,” which the Buddhist Master Atisha introduced when he went from India to Tibet in 1042 AD. ‘Pa’ means somebody who puts into practice. A Kadampa, therefore, means somebody who takes Atisha’s Lamrim as their main practice. Atisha is primarily known for uniting the vast and profound paths together. The vast path refers to the accumulation of merit, the principal cause of a Buddha’s body; and the profound path refers to the accumulation of wisdom, the principal cause of a Buddha’s mind. By practicing the union of the two, our practices of the vast and profound paths reinforce each other and we create the causes to attain a Buddha’s body and mind simultaneously. His path is generally presented as the Three Principal Aspects of the Path, namely renunciation, bodhichitta, and the correct view of emptiness. Renunciation is the wish to escape from samsara ourselves, bodhichitta is the wish to become a Buddha to lead others to liberation, and the correct view of emptiness eradicates the root of samsara, self-grasping ignorance.

Je Tsongkhapa (1357 to 1419 AD) is the founder of the New Kadampa Tradition. Just as Atisha presented the union of the vast and profound path, Je Tsongkhapa introduced the union of Sutra and Tantra. Like the old Kadampas, practitioners of the New Kadampa Tradition also take Atisha’s Lamrim as their main practice. The difference is New Kadampas can practice the Lamrim at the gross level (Sutra) and the subtle level (Tantra) as completely non-contradictory. Sutra is how we practice Buddha’s instructions with our gross mind, Tantra is how we do so with our subtle and very subtle minds, but both are methods of practicing Lamrim.

Ultimately, Tantra is much quicker than Sutra because our gross minds arise from our subtle and very subtle mind. If we pull weeds but fail to take out the roots, the weeds will grow back; in the same way, if we pacify our gross minds but fail to purify our subtle minds, the delusions will keep coming back. Tantra is a special spiritual technology for purifying our root mind, or our very subtle mind, of all of our delusions and their karmic imprints, thus eradicating samsara at its root. We purify our very subtle mind by meditating on its emptiness. This one meditation functions to simultaneously uproot all of the contaminated karma we have accumulated since beginningless time. Je Tsongkhapa showed how the paths of Sutra and Tantra are not only completely non-contradictory, but are mutually reinforcing, and by practicing them together in the context of Atisha’s Lamrim, we can quickly attain enlightenment.

The New Kadampa Tradition has five main aspects of the path: renunciation, bodhichitta, the correct view of emptiness, generation stage, and completion stage. These can be understood as there is one action on the path: changing the basis of imputation of our I from our ordinary samsaric body and mind to the completely pure body and mind of a Buddha. There are two reasons why we do it, renunciation (for ourselves) and bodhichitta (for others). And there are two levels at which we do it, the gross body and mind of a Buddha (generation stage) and the subtle body and mind of a Buddha (completion stage). Je Tsonkghapa is the founder of this way of practicing.

Since Je Tsongkhapa, there has been an unbroken lineage of his teachings down to our present-day lineage gurus, including Je Phabongkhapa, Trijang Rinpoche, and our very own Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. There is no difference in meaning between the Dharma Je Tsongkhapa taught and what we currently practice, the only difference is the cultural presentation, analogies, and languages used to express that meaning. Everything we practice, directly or indirectly, comes from Je Tsongkhapa. We are Je Tsongkhapa’s tradition. The New Kadampa Tradition – International Kadampa Buddhist Union (NKT-IKBU) was founded by Geshe-la to present Je Tsongkhapa’s teachings to the modern world.

Je Tsongkhapa is our Living Spiritual Guide

One of the hardest parts of the Buddhist path for modern people is relying upon a “guru.” At first, it all seems very “cult-like.” I remember telling my first teacher Gen Lekma once, “I’m down with all of the Dharma teachings except this whole reliance upon the spiritual guide thing!” When I told her this, she was in the middle of swallowing some tea, and she nearly spit it out in a laugh. After collecting herself, she looked at me and said, “I have found that the things we struggle the most with at first later become the things that have the biggest transformative impact on our mind.” Truer words have never been spoken.

To understand why reliance upon the spiritual guide is the root of the path, we have to back up a bit. Why do we need teachers in general? Because we are ignorant and don’t know. Why do we need spiritual teachers? Because we are ignorant of the spiritual path, not knowing its destinations nor how to follow the path to these destinations. Why do we need a root guru or root spiritual guide? Because we need somebody who has completed the path and can guide our mind to the same state. It takes humility to learn from any teacher, it takes great humility to rely upon a Spiritual Guide.

Normally, we say Geshe-la is the root guru, or Spiritual Guide, of the NKT. It is true everything we study and practice comes from him, and he has created for us all of the conditions we now enjoy for our practice, such as temples, centers, teachers, sangha friends, books, sadhanas, and so forth. But what does he say? He says don’t look at me, rather look at Je Tsongkhapa at my heart. We view Geshe-la as an emanation of Je Tsongkhapa, but Je Tsongkhapa is our actual Spiritual Guide. What does Je Tsongkhapa say? He says don’t look at me, rather look at Buddha Shakyamuni at my heart. What does Buddha Shakyamuni say? Don’t look at me, rather look at Heruka at my heart. Guru Heruka is our actual spiritual guide. He appeared as Buddha Shakyamuni to introduce the Dharma to the people of this world. He later appeared as Je Tsongkhapa, who in turn appeared as Geshe-la. This is Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka. Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka is, always has been, and always will be the spiritual guide of the Kadampa tradition. From one perspective, it is the same person – the same mental continuum – appearing at different points in time according to the karmic dispositions of the people of this world.

But from another perspective, Je Tsongkhapa is still our Spiritual Guide today. His emanation bodies may change, but the jewel in the lotus remains the same person. When Buddhas attain enlightenment, they become deathless beings. Their emanation bodies may pass away, but they do not, they continue to live. We can continue to develop a living relationship with these holy beings because they are still with us today. He is still here, guiding us, teaching us, blessing us, and so forth. Geshe-la, the Gen-la’s, and all of our other spiritual teachers are essentially spiritual telephones which connect the pure world of Je Tsongkhapa with our present samsaric reality. Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka speaks and works through all of them. When we rely upon our outer spiritual teachers they explain to us how to develop a relationship with our inner spiritual teachers who then take us to enlightenment. The outer teachers and the inner teachers are not separate beings, but different layers of the same being appearing to different levels of purity of mind.

Whenever we engage in any Guru Yoga practice, our main job is to feel we are in the living presence of our spiritual guide – seeing all of the Buddhas as inseparable from our guru and our guru as inseparable from all the Buddhas. Every practice we engage in is about creating a close karmic relationship with our spiritual guide in his different karmic aspects. In dependence upon this karmic relationship, we gain greater and greater access to our spiritual guide’s blessings, until eventually, it is almost as if we gain the ability to download their enlightenment into our own mind. In the end, we mix our mind with our guru’s mind, where we make no distinction between our mind and his enlightened mind. From one perspective, it is like a mind transplant where his mind becomes ours; from another perspective, it is like removing the obstructions to our own root mind and discovering that our actual mind was his enlightened mind all along.

Because Je Tsongkhapa is the embodiment of his Dharma, by mixing our mind with his, we mix our mind with his special union of Sutra and Tantra and eventually come to see ourselves as a wave inseparable from the ocean of his omniscient mind. We view all phenomena as arising from emptiness, all emptinesses as the nature of our mind of great bliss, and the union of our realization of great bliss and emptiness as inseparable from our guru’s Truth Body, or Dharmakaya.

Je Tsongkhapa is the Source of all Good

This is somewhat harder to understand. All good things come from good karma. All good karma comes from virtuous actions. All virtuous actions arise due to receiving blessings from the holy beings. Je Tsongkhapa is the synthesis of all the Buddhas, therefore he is the source of all blessings, virtuous actions, good karma, and ultimately good results.

Sometimes, we like to take credit for our good deeds, therefore we think Je Tsongkhapa is not the source of all good, we are. Or maybe it is a mixed affair, where he helps us with his blessings, but mostly it comes from our own effort. This doubt comes from grasping at a duality between ourselves and our ultimate nature. Our good deeds arise from our good intentions, but where do they arise from? They pour into our mind when we open it up to the sun of our pure potential. Just as the sun pours in whenever the blinds are opened, so too virtuous intentions come into our mind when cracks in the layers of the karmic obstructions on our mind appear. But what is our pure potential? By nature, it is Guru Tsongkhapa. All Buddhas impute their I onto the truth body or Dharmakaya. What is this? It is a mind of great bliss that realizes directly and simultaneously the emptiness of all phenomena. A Buddha’s body and mind are the same entity, the same nature, which means their truth body pervades all phenomena. Because we too are empty, we have a pure potential. This pure potential fully realized is Je Tsongkhapa. Every time we access or ripen this potential, we are releasing some of Je Tsongkhapa into our mind. Thus, he is inseparable from all of our good intentions – he is our good intentions manifesting in our mind.

There are many prayers to Je Tsongkhapa, but the most famous is the Migtsema prayer, which explains that Je Tsongkhapa is the synthesis of Buddha Shakyamuni, Vajradhara, Avaolokitehsvara, Manjushri, and Vajrapaini. There is also the single-pointed request which explains he is the guru, he is the yidam, he is the daka, and the Dharma protector. If all of the goodness in all of the universe were gathered together, it would produce the appearance of Je Tsongkhapa. Put another way, Je Tsongkhapa is a holy being who has managed to successfully impute his I onto the synthesis of all goodness. Thus it is perfectly correct to say he is the source of all good because he is all goodness itself.

But how can we understand he is the source of all good, including that of non-Buddhists? Everything we perceive is ultimately created by our mind, arising from our mind. There is no creator other than mind, and there is nothing that exists outside of our mind (if it did, that thing would be inherently existent). This means that everything is part of our karmic dream. Any good we perceive in the world is a reflection of the goodness in our mind. We created the karma for that goodness to appear. We already established that all goodness that arises in our mind comes from Je Tsongkhapa, thus any goodness that arises in our karmic dream also arises from him.

Remembering Je Tsongkhapa’s Kindness

On Je Tsongkhapa Day, our main practice should be to remember his kindness. We can do this by contemplating what Geshe-la said about Je Tsongkhapa Day. I find it particularly helpful to remember his kindness in my own life. He has given me my spiritual life. Without my Dharma practice, I don’t know how I would have turned out in the wake of my mother’s suicide on my wedding day or all of the other challenges I have faced in my life. Je Tsongkhapa’s way of thinking has come to dominate my way of thinking, and I am much happier for it. It suffices to ask myself what my life would be like if I had never met his Dharma to see the profound impact it has had.

More importantly, he has provided me with the spiritual tools I need to close the door on ever taking lower rebirth again through purification and refuge practice. Through his kindness, I have found the door to liberation that will enable me to once and for all cease the samsaric nightmare I have been trapped in since beginningless time. He has shown me not only that I can attain enlightenment and thereby be in a position to help all those I love who are also drowning in samsara, but he has provided me with incredibly simple step-by-step instructions for how to do it. In what can only be described as a miracle, I have found qualified tantric teachings of generation and completion stage through which it is possible to attain enlightenment in one life or barring that, at least getting to the pure land where I can complete my spiritual training. His blessings flow into me day and night, even while I sleep, holding me back from quite literally going insane. Without him, I would be lost. With him, I have been found. By relying upon him, I can fulfill all my own and other’s pure wishes. He is a true wish-fulfilling jewel who has kept alive the holy Kadam Dharma in this world, and it is my job to do all that I can to internalize it and then pass it on to future generations.

Emulating his Example

If I were trapped on a desert island and only allowed one book, it would be Great Treasury of Merit. Normally we say Joyful Path of Good Fortune is like the hub of the wheel of Dharma, and all of the other books are like spokes of that wheel. But the axis around which Joyful Path turns is Great Treasury of Merit which presents the very synthesis of Je Tsongkhapa’s Dharma by showing how all the essential meanings of his teachings fit together with exactly the right proportionalities of how important each teaching is. In truth, the book is about 70% how to rely upon the Spiritual Guide and 30% everything else, which is exactly correct. The sections on visualizing the spiritual guide explain the meaning of his holy form. Buddhas can manifest their inner realizations as outer forms, and Je Tsongkhapa’s body is quite literally all of his realizations as form. By generating faith in his holy form, we mix our mind with all of his realizations. The sections on prostrations, praises, and making requests explain his many good qualities and special functions in our life. Reading these with faith, one cannot help but be amazed. In truth, I would say the true hub of the wheel of the Kadampa teachings is Oral Instructions of Mahamudra and Mirror of Dharma. In my mind, Mirror of Dharma is the Oral Instructions of Lamrim. Around this is Great Treasury of Merit, round that is Joyful Path, and then emanating like spokes are all the other books. But if I’m only allowed one book, I still pick Great Treasury of Merit.

There are two aspects of his example which appeal to me most. The first is how he demonstrates the practice of moral discipline and the second is the great wave of his deeds.

His outer form is of a fully ordained monk, revealing the practices of the vows of individual liberation. His inner form is Buddha Shakyamuni, revealing the moral discipline of a Bodhisattva. And his secret form is Vajradhara or Heruka, demonstrating the moral discipline of a tantric master. At my very first Kadampa festival, when Geshe-la first opened the temple in Manjushri, he gave a three-day teaching on essentially one subject – overcoming distractions. He explained that we have everything we need to attain enlightenment, the only thing that is missing is our practicing these instructions without distraction. The practices of moral discipline are how we overcome our gross distractions by letting go of each object of abandonment. Moral discipline is not wishing to engage in negativity, but holding ourselves back from doing so. Rather, it is realizing we no longer wish to do so, and so we “let go” of wanting the objects of our transgressions. Normally, we think moral discipline is a list of ‘don’ts’ that deprives us of our freedom. We have everything backward. The practice of moral discipline is a profound shift in our mind that is experienced as a “release” into greater and greater levels of inner freedom by leaving behind the chains of samsara.

Every day in our Heart Jewel practice, we rejoice in the great wave of Je Tsongkhapa’s deeds. What exactly is this great wave? We can say it is his special method for eventually liberating all beings. He attained enlightenment. What did he do with his enlightenment? He formed new spiritual guides for carrying forward the tradition. What did those spiritual guides do? Create more spiritual guides still. In this way, his virtuous deeds multiple exponentially until eventually the wave of his kind actions will carry every single living being to the state of full enlightenment. He has set in motion a spiritual self-perpetuating machine whose function is to liberate all beings from all suffering forever. In one short life, he initiated a wave that will never stop until all of his pure wishes are fulfilled.

We have the incredible good fortune to not only receive benefit from him but to become ourselves part of his great wave. He has laid at our feet exactly the same Dharma he taught and realized. By picking up the Dharma he has given us and bringing it into our mind, we too can become a fully qualified spiritual guide able to carry forward this great lineage for the benefit of all those we have a close karmic relationship with. If we do not do this for those we love, who will? It may be aeons before his wave comes around again to these beings, but we can carry them with us right now. Gen Tharchin says the beings who we generate bodhichitta towards as bodhisattvas are among the first we lead to enlightenment when we attain the final goal. Look around at everyone you love, see how they are drowning, and now remember Je Tsongkhapa has given you the means to do something about it by becoming part of his great wave.

Deciding to Mix our Mind with His

In the final analysis, attaining enlightenment is very simple: all we need to do is mix our mind inseparably with somebody who has already attained enlightenment. In this way, the duality between their mind and our mind vanishes, and their enlightened mind becomes our mind and our mind becomes their enlightened mind. Everything else in the Dharma is why we should do this and how to do it. As practitioners of the New Kadampa Tradition, whose mind do we mix ours with? Lama Tsongkhapa’s. It’s as simple as that.

Every object of meditation is an aspect of his mind. Every instruction we practice comes from his mind. Every realization we gain is an infusion of his mind into our own. Every practice we do is changing the basis of imputation of our I from our ordinary contaminated body and mind to his completely pure body and mind. Every deity we rely upon is like a facet on the diamond of his mind. Every phenomenon we see is a wave on the ocean of his mind. He is everything. Our job is so simple: just mix our mind with his. Whatever we mix our mind with, we become. Since he is the synthesis of all the Buddhas, all Dharmas, and all Sanghas, by mixing our mind with his, we too become the source of all good.

The only thing that is missing is deciding to dedicate our lives to this goal. There are so many things we do in life, but how many of them do us any good? Only deciding to mix our mind with his will free us. We can reach the point where our every thought, word, and deed is him working through us. We need not struggle in our spiritual practice, we merely need to request his blessings. We need not invent the path, we can simply follow the one he has laid out for us. We need not ever doubt, we can internally request his wisdom. There is nothing he cannot provide us, all we need to do is decide to rely upon him.

Today is Je Tsongkhapa Day. Every decision we make today is karmically equivalent to making that same decision ten million times. What better way to mark this holy day than making the firm internal decision to dedicate our life to mixing our mind with Lama Tsongkhapa’s, our living Spiritual Guide. I pray that everyone who reads this transforms their life in this way.

Happy Buddha’s Enlightenment Day: We can do it too

April 15, 2025 Kadampa Ryan 7. Kadampa meaning of special days buddha, buddhism, philosophy, religion, spirituality

Happy Buddha’s Enlightenment Day everyone! April 15^th of every year we celebrate and remember Buddha’s enlightenment. It is one of the most special days on the Kadampa calendar and provides us an excellent opportunity to deepen our understanding of what enlightenment is, recall Buddha’s kindness in attaining it, and make a clear determination to attain enlightenment ourselves.

Understanding How Holy Days Work

There are certain days of the year that are karmically more powerful than others, and the karmic effect of our actions on these days is multiplied by a factor of ten million! These are called “ten million multiplying days.” In practice, what this means is every action we engage in on these special days is karmically equivalent to us engaging in that same action ten million times. This is true for both our virtuous and non-virtuous actions, so not only is it a particularly incredible opportunity for creating vast merit, but it is also an extremely dangerous time for engaging in negative actions. There are four of these days every year: Buddha’s Englightenment Day (April 15), Turning the Wheel of Dharma Day (June 4), Buddha’s Return from Heaven Day (September 22), and Je Tsongkhapa Day (October 25). Heruka and Vajrayogini Month (January 3-31), NKT Day (1^st Saturday of April), and International Temple’s Day (first Saturday of November) are the other major Days that complete the Kadampa calendar.

A question may arise, why are the karmic effect of our actions greater on certain days than others? We can think of these days as a spiritual pulsar that at periodic intervals sends out an incredibly powerful burst of spiritual energy, or wind. On such days, if we lift the sails of our practice, these gushes of spiritual winds push us a great spiritual distance. Why are these specific days so powerful? Because in the past on these days particularly spiritually significant events occurred which altered the fundamental trajectory of the karma of the people of this world. Just as calling out in a valley reverberates back to us, so too these days are like the karmic echoes of those past events. Another way of understanding this is by considering the different types of ocean tides. Normally, high and low tide on any given day occurs due to the gravity of the moon pulling water towards it as the earth rotates. But a “Spring tide” occurs when the earth, moon, and Sun are all in alignment, pulling the water not just towards the moon as normal, but also towards the much more massive sun. Our holy days are like spiritual Spring tides.

What is Enlightenment?

Fundamentally, the entire Buddhist path is about attaining enlightenment. This is a word that is used in many different contexts, even in modern society, but sometimes we lack a clear understanding of what exactly it means. Geshe-la provides several different definitions or explanations to help us understand.

According to Sutra, Geshe-la explains in Joyful Path, “any being who has become completely free from the two obstructions, which are the roots of all faults, has attained enlightenment.” The two obstructions are the delusion obstructions and the obstructions to omniscience. Delusion obstructions are the presence of delusions in our mind. At a technical level, their main cause is the karmic tendencies similar to the cause created by our own past mental actions of delusions. When a deluded tendency ripens in our mind, say thinking that external things are causes of our happiness or attachment, and we assent to that tendency, we create the new mental action of generating a delusion. If a deluded tendency ripens and instead of assenting to it, we realize it is deceptive and we apply opponents or antidotes – or even simply choose to not follow it and let it return back to our root mind like clouds dissolving back into the sky – we are training in the moral discipline of restraint and creating the karmic causes for a higher spiritual rebirth (another precious human life, reaching the pure land, attaining liberation, or even attaining enlightenment).

The root delusion is self-grasping ignorance, which thinks we are the body and mind that we normally see. From this comes self-cherishing, which thinks this self is supremely important and is willing to neglect or sacrifice others for its sake. From these two, which are sometimes referred to collectively as our self-centered mind, come attachment and aversion. Attachment mistakenly thinks some external objects are a cause of our happiness and aversion thinks other external objects are a cause of our suffering. These four delusions together are the root of all of our other delusions, such as anger, pride, jealousy, deluded doubt, and so forth. The obstructions to omniscience are the karmic imprints from our previous delusions and their corresponding actions. Every time we engage in an action, it creates karma that gets planted on our very subtle mind. Actions motivated by delusion create contaminated karma – karma that ripens in the form of samsaric experience. These contaminated karmic imprints on our very subtle mind prevent the omniscient mind of a Buddha from arising. When we remove the two obstructions from our mind, our pure potential, or Buddha nature, becomes completely unobstructed and we become a Buddha. From this perspective, we are all Buddhas in waiting, we merely need to remove all that obstructs such a state from arising. When we permanently overcome our delusion obstructions, we attain liberation; and when we permanently overcome our obstructions to omniscience, we attain full enlightenment.

According to Tantra, a Buddha is someone who has completely overcome ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions. Ordinary appearances are all of the things we normally see – our bodies, minds, enjoyments, others, worlds, etc. These are the samsaric appearances that arise from our past contaminated actions. Samsara is nothing more than a contaminated karmic dream. When we purify our ordinary appearances so that they never arise again, samsara simply ceases to appear. It dis-appears because, in fact, it never was. Ordinary conceptions occur when we grasp at ordinary appearances as being true. All ordinary appearances appear to exist from their own side, as being completely real and existing independently of our mind. Things exist “out there” waiting to be experienced or observed, and it appears to us as if our mind has absolutely nothing to do with bringing these objects into existence. Ordinary conceptions think things actually exist in the way that they appear – they really do exist out there, independently of our mind. When we overcome our ordinary conceptions, we attain liberation; and when we overcome our ordinary appearances, we attain full enlightenment. For somebody who has overcome their ordinary conceptions but not yet overcome their ordinary appearances, things will still appear to their mind in the way that they normally do, but the very appearance of these things will remind the person that such inherently existent things do not exist at all. For example, if we look at a picture of the New York City skyline before 9/11, the very appearance of the World Trade Center will remind us that it no longer exists.

In the Oral Instructions of Mahamudra, Geshe-la provides a functional definition of enlightenment when he says, “Enlightenment is the inner light of wisdom that is permanently free from all mistaken appearance, and whose function is to bestow mental peace upon each and every living being every day.” This definition not only explains what enlightenment is but also provides us with the definitive reason why we should attain it. Since Mahamudra is a Tantric instruction, it too says enlightenment is permanent freedom from all mistaken appearance. But this definition also describes what unique abilities we gain when we attain enlightenment, namely the ability to use our blessings to bestow mental peace upon each and every living being every day – forever. Happiness is a state of mind, therefore its cause must come from within the mind. We can observe from our own experience that when our mind is peaceful, we are happy even if our external circumstance is terrible; whereas if our mind is not peaceful, we are unhappy even if our external circumstance is terrific. Therefore, inner peace is the cause of happiness. Buddhas are sometimes referred to as “inner beings,” or beings who live within the mind. As inner beings, they have the power to directly touch the minds of other living beings (since despite all appearances our minds are not actually separate from each other) in such a way that their minds become more peaceful. And they are able to do this directly to each and every living being every day forever. Just as the sun shines equally upon all things, Buddha’s blessings shine forth into the minds of all living beings directly and simultaneously. We attain enlightenment to gain that ability.

Buddha is So Kind Because He Teaches the Truth of Suffering

One of the hardest things for people to come to accept is that happiness cannot be found in samsara. We are convinced that it can be, and we resist thinking that it can’t be. There are two main causes of this resistance. First, our attachment has been duping us since time without beginning that external objects are a cause of our happiness. There are all sorts of pleasant things like a beautiful sunset, a delicious pizza, or great sex. We have seen countless (American) TV shows or movies, and almost without exception, they all have happy endings; so we think samsara must be the same. When we hear that samsara is the nature of suffering and happiness and freedom are impossible to find in it, we think, “that’s just not true.” The second reason we resist this is it seems to be an incredibly depressing thought. It seems so pessimistic and negative to always talk about suffering and how terrible everything is – how about a little optimism here so we can retain some hope? Things may be bad, but better to not think about it too much, otherwise, we will become overwhelmed by sadness and despair.

When people first hear the teachings on suffering they think, “how can this possibly be a ‘Joyful Path,’ and how can thinking about so much suffering ever lead to happiness?” We might think Buddhists are all “Debby Downers,” and Buddha’s teachings are actually preventing us from enjoying even the very modest happiness we are able to find in life by pointing out how such pleasures are not real happiness. So we are left with nothing. Buddha does not seem kind, he seems like the ultimate ‘buzz kill.’

How can we happily understand the teachings on the truth of suffering? First, we have to be clear on their meaning. Buddha is not saying there is no happiness, he is simply pointing out that we can’t find it in external things. Ultimately, happiness comes from within the mind, namely through inner peace. He further explains what destroys inner peace (delusions and negativity) and what causes inner peace (wisdom and virtue). So he does not deprive us of happiness, he simply points out what works and what doesn’t – very useful knowledge! Second, these teachings save us from wasting our time looking for happiness where we will never find it. If we lost our keys, we might spend hours and hours looking all over our house to find them. But if our daughter sent us a text message saying she accidentally walked off with them, we would not waste our time looking for them because we would know she has them. We have been looking for the keys of happiness in samsara since beginningless time – searching, searching, but never finding. Buddha comes along and tells us, “you’ll never find them in samsara, but you can find them by putting my instructions into practice,” we are incredibly relieved. Third, he is not saying we can’t enjoy the sunset, pizza, or sex, he is saying from their own side they have no power to bring us happiness, but if we relate to them in a pure way, we can come to enjoy a far greater pleasure than we ever could have through ordinary means alone.

But for me, his greatest kindness is he has provided us with a permanent solution to aging, sickness, death, and uncontrolled rebirth. In the life story of Buddha Shakyamuni, Prince Siddhartha is given everything he could possibly want – riches, enjoyments, loving parents, a beautiful family, and adoration from all of his subjects. Yet he realized that none of these things can protect him (or any of us) from the seemingly inescapable sufferings of birth, aging, sickness, and death. Seeking a solution, he wanted to leave the palace and go attain enlightenment. His father tried to stop him, and the Prince said, “if you can provide me with a solution to these problems, I will remain in the palace,” but his father had to admit, he could not. The Prince then said he would leave the palace and return with a solution so that he could help his parents, his family, his subjects, and indeed all living beings with a permanent method to escape such sufferings forever. He then began his spiritual journey, and eventually attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. He conquered the cycle of death itself. Instead of being reborn in samsara, he discovered methods to permanently wake up from it into the pure lands of the Buddhas. The practices we have today are those that he taught, and if we sincerely put them into practice, we too can attain the same state.

Deciding to Become a Buddha Ourselves

Compassion is said to be the mother of all Buddhas since all enlightened beings are born from it. Buddha attained enlightenment out of compassion for us – he wanted to help us also permanently escape the sufferings of samsara, the two obstructions, and ordinary appearances and conceptions. Without his compassion for us, he would not have been able to purify his own mind to attain enlightenment and he never would have begun turning the Wheel of Dharma for us.

But our ability to attain enlightenment depends upon ourselves generating compassion for others, just as Buddha did. How do we generate compassion? We first generate love for others, then we consider how they suffer. It is said if we do this, compassion will naturally arise, but this is not entirely correct. If we lack faith in a solution, then when we consider the suffering of those we love we will become overwhelmed with grief and sadness. But if we realize there is a solution, then when we consider the suffering of those we love we will find their suffering difficult to bear because we will realize none of it need be. They could be completely free.

To transform this powerful mind of compassion into the personal determination to attain enlightenment ourselves, we need to add three things. First, a feeling of personal responsibility for leading others to everlasting freedom ourselves. We generate this mind by thinking, “if I don’t do it, who will?” We might think, “well, Buddha will.” But Buddha attained enlightenment so that we could do the same so that we could help these people who are karmically close to us.

Second, we need to add confidence that we ourselves can attain enlightenment just like Buddha did. Sometimes we think attaining enlightenment is just too difficult and we are too incapable to ever even contemplate beginning such an undertaking. But as explained above, we all have a Buddha nature, we simply need to remove the two obstructions or ordinary appearances and conceptions from our mind, and our enlightened state will naturally be unveiled. We each have enlightenment within us, we just need to remove all that obstructs it. Further, we all have experience of being able to remove our faults somewhat and replace them with similitudes of inner qualities. If we can do this a little bit, there is no reason why we cannot do so completely. The methods we have are the exact same ones Buddha taught and have been practiced by millions of practitioners since. Geshe-la calls them “scientific methods,” meaning everybody who investigates for themselves by sincerely putting the instructions into practice will likewise enjoy the exact same results – he guarantees it! There is nothing we can’t do without persistent effort. Our delusions are just bad habits of mind, but with effort, we can change our habits and thereby change our karma.

Finally, we need to add an understanding of the special abilities of a Buddha to help others so that we see our becoming one is the only way we can rescue all living beings from their suffering. Buddhas are fearless in helping others. We tend to hold ourselves back for fear of what others might think or lack of confidence in our abilities, but Buddhas have overcome all delusions and all fear. He fearlessly teaches the truth of suffering and worries not what others might think. Buddha is also a deathless being. In our present state, we can at best help a limited number of people in this one life, but a Buddha has transcended death, and so is able to continue to help living beings in life after life, gradually guiding each and every one of them to the enlightened state. Buddha possesses omniscient wisdom. We are quite ignorant and often have no idea how to help others. We don’t understand karma, delusions, nor the causes of happiness or suffering. But Buddhas see all three times directly and simultaneously, so they know exactly why people are experiencing the suffering they are and they know exactly what others need to do to make their way to the city of enlightenment. Buddhas also have perfected their skillful means of helping others. It is not enough to simply know everything if we are not able to actually skillfully help people come to realize the same things. Buddhas know how to present the Dharma to others in a way that they can easily understand and practically put into practice, thus opening the door to liberation for them. They know how to gradually guide people to enter, progress along, and ultimately complete the path to enlightenment. If we become a Buddha ourselves, we too will develop the fearlessness, deathlessness, omniscient wisdom, and skillful means necessary to gradually lead everyone we love to the same state.

When we combine our compassion which cannot bear the suffering of others with a feeling of personal responsibility, the confidence we can do it, and a firm understanding of the many qualities of a Buddha, we will naturally develop a strong determination to attain enlightenment ourselves for their sake. This mind is called “bodhichitta,” or the mind of enlightenment. It is the most virtuous mind a living being can generate. In Joyful Path, Geshe-la says:

“Bodhichitta is the best method for bestowing happiness, the best method for eliminating suffering, and the best method for dispelling confusion. There is no virtue equal to it, no better friend, no greater merit. Bodhichitta is the very essence of all eighty-four thousand instructions of Buddha. In Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life Shantideva says: It is the quintessential butter that arises when the milk of Dharma is churned. Just as by stirring milk, butter emerges as its essence, so by stirring the entire collection of Buddha’s scriptures, bodhichitta emerges as its essence. For aeons Buddhas have been investigating what is the most beneficial thing for us. They have seen that it is bodhichitta because bodhichitta brings every living being to the supreme bliss of full enlightenment.”

Today is Buddha’s Enlightenment Day, which means if we strongly develop this supreme mind of Bodhichitta today – making the firm decision to work for as long as it takes to attain enlightenment ourselves – it will be the same as doing so ten million times. Such a pure mind has the potential to permanently redirect the trajectory of our mental continuum and powerfully propel us towards the City of Enlightenment. From there, we will be able to help everyone attain permanent freedom from all of their suffering for all of their lives. What could be more meaningful than this?

On Mixing Dharma and Politics – Not Letting Political Differences Divide the Sangha

February 4, 2025February 5, 2025 Kadampa Ryan 4. Practicing in Daily Life buddha, buddhism, meditation, philosophy, spirituality

For a lot of Americans, the political changes happening in the United States right now are deeply troubling. The same is true for a lot of non-Americans who see what is happening. Yet at the same time, there are a lot of other Americans who are pleased with what is happening. The same is also true around the world.

There is also no doubt within the global Kadampa Sangha we have many examples of people who are both pleased and displeased with the changes that are occurring. Yet let’s be honest here, the Kadampa community on the whole does tend to skew left politically, so I would guess there are many more people who are troubled by what is happening and others who are afraid to voice their support for fear of being judged by their spiritual community.

Perhaps because it is part of my job, I have given a lot of thought to the question of the relationship between Dharma and politics. On the one hand, VGL is very clear we should absolutely not have any mixing of Dharma and politics at all. When religion and politics mix, the politics do not become more enlightened, rather the religion becomes more political. The spiritual path is primarily about future lives. The Dharma has a lot of opinions about delusions and karma, it has absolutely no opinions about who’s in power and what direction they are taking a given country or the world. This causes many Dharma practitioners to fall into the extreme of thinking we shouldn’t think or talk about politics at all for fear of mixing the two. There are others who come to this same conclusion because each time politics is mentioned in Dharma circles it usually ignites a firestorm, like stepping on a bee’s hive, creating unnecessary division within the sangha. There are others still who might not share the dominant political views within the Kadampa community and when they express views that are contrary to the dominant view, they get attacked for being a bad Kadampa or something – how can you possibly support what is going on and be a good Kadampa??? Call it Dharma cancel culture if you want. This hurts, so they conclude it is better to just say nothing.

On the other hand, VGL is also very clear that our job is to attain the union of Kadampa Buddhism and modern life. He said he has given us the Kadam Dharma, we know modern life, our job is to unite the two. Politics and what is happening in the political realm is unquestionably part of modern life. We can’t bury our heads in the sand and pretend things like wars, revolutions, or major political developments that are affecting the lives of billions are not happening. This is especially true in democratic countries where power is first and foremost vested in the people. Politics is fundamentally about how power is shared and used. Power is inextricably part of modern life. Protecting others creates the causes for power. We cannot both protect others and not accumulate power. How we use the power we have is fundamentally a political question. Democratic systems are political systems – governing how power is shared and used.

So how can we reconcile all this? I would say by relying upon the wisdom realizing emptiness, remembering without inner peace outer peace is impossible, training in the instruction that everybody is welcome, and doing our part to uphold the internal rules of the NKT.

Each one of us has a different karmic point of view on what is happening in the world. There is no one single correct karmic perspective, there are just countless different ones. As a result of this different karma, we will each diagnose the ills of the world through different lenses. We are quite literally seeing different things, or at least different angles on the same thing depending upon our karmic positionality. Since we each see the world in different ways, it is entirely natural, normal, and not a problem that we will each have different political opinions about things. This creates some space in our mind to accommodate different political views among people who share a common love of the same Dharma.

VGL was very concerned about world peace and we should be too. We have Temples for World Peace, World Peace Cafe’s, and he often taught without inner peace, outer peace is impossible. In Toronto during the Iraq war, he famously said, “love is the real nuclear bomb that destroys all enemies.” So does this mean all Kadampas must be peaceniks? He also taught it is possible to kill virtuously if it is protecting even more others. Many Kadampas have different opinions about the wars in Ukraine, the Middle East, and elsewhere. What is the Kadampa solution to all this? Inner peace. Our job is to internally be at peace with the world and everything that happens in it. Being at peace with everything does not mean being aloof or doing nothing, rather it means we are able to maintain our inner peace with whatever appears. If we are internally at peace with the world, we are already experiencing world peace even if war is raging all around us. How do we become at peace with the world as it is? By removing any and all delusions we have about whatever is appearing. We don’t deny what is appearing in political realms, we just do the inner work to be at peace with whatever is appearing.

VGL also extensively taught about how within the Kadampa community that “everybody is welcome.” Because the world will appear to us in different ways according to our karma, we will quite naturally have different political views and opinions – and we will act on those views and opinions, even if that means some Kadampas find themselves on opposite sides of various political aisles. What matters within the Kadampa community is not what your political views are – the Dharma doesn’t have a single political point of view on any question – rather what matters is are you applying the Dharma to overcome whatever delusions you might be having with respect to what is appearing in the political realm. For some, that will mean supporting whatever is happening, for others that will mean fiercely opposing it with every fibre of their being. And both are perfectly OK as long as each person is countering whatever delusions are ripening within their mind. After the George Floyd murder, many within the Kadampa community (like much of the rest of the world), became very concerned with questions of diversity and inclusivity also within the Kadampa community itself. Some others thought this was mixing Dharma and politics and many divisions within the sangha emerged. My answer to this is “everybody welcome.” That doesn’t just mean everybody is welcome regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, and so forth, but also regardless of their political views. If we make it seem like only certain political views are welcome in Kadampa communities and consistent with the Dharma teachings we are, in my view, fundamentally betraying one of VGL’s main legacies of purifying the Dharma of politics. Good Kadampas fight their delusions and yes the delusions in the world, but they can do so from any political point of view they happen to be coming from. As a spiritual community, we MUST create the space for people of any political persuasion to feel entirely welcome. Otherwise, we are not practicing “everybody welcome.” And again, to be honest, this primarily means creating more space for right-leaning views and eliminating any trace of cancel culture within Kadampa communities towards those who might hold different political views.

Finally, within the Kadampa community itself, people will have a wide variety of different opinions about how power is distributed and used within the Kadampa community itself. Some will criticize parts as being too authoritarian, some will criticize other parts as being too rebellious, some will criticize the pricing policies or how the profits are spent, and others will criticize how we take care of our sangha members in retirement. Some will feel threatened when any decision made is questioned, others will feel like they don’t have the space to say anything for fear of being exiled or fired. All of this is entirely natural and not even slightly a problem. VGL has given us the internal rules for navigating all such questions. It is our constitution. VGL has said he wants the International Kadampa Buddhist Union to be entirely democratic. Each one of us will have a different positionality or role within the internal rules, but we all equally take on the internal rules as part of our moral discipline of being a Kadampa. We should each fulfill our role within the internal rules as faithfully as we can, upholding the internal rules above our own individual interests or perspective. There will naturally evolve different schools of thought about how we interpret the internal rules, some strict constructionists, others originalists, others still viewing it as a living document. This is no different than how judges interpret the constitution in different ways. No problem, all that is normal. We each fulfill our role within the internal rules with the least delusions and the most wisdom we can muster. We fulfill our role within the internal rules in a way that is consistent with the Dharma we have been taught. We need to create the space for this tension within the Kadampa community. Democratic systems divide power, with each part checking and balancing all the others. It’s not a problem that different people will have different views about the decisions being made (and how they are being made). This is a feature of the system, not a bug.

Politics is an inevitable part of modern life, even within the Kadampa community. We do not need to fear political differences within the Sangha about what is happening in the world or even what is happening within the Kadampa community. What we need to fear is delusions and contaminated karma, we need to fear ordinary appearances and conceptions. We don’t mix Dharma and politics, but we do engage in our politics in a Dharma way. Because we each will have different delusions with respect to what is appearing, we will naturally support or oppose different things and that is perfectly OK. As long as we are all fighting delusions, we are building inner peace. From this inner peace, outer peace will naturally emerge.

How to Make Definitive Prayers and Requests to the Buddhas:

February 1, 2025 Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 4. Practicing in Daily Life, 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden buddha, buddhism, meditation, philosophy, religion

From one perspective, all Dharmakayas – the truth body of a Buddha, the ultimate, definitive Buddha – are the same nature of the union of bliss and emptiness of all phenomena, like the different spaces within different empty bottles that when broken merge together seemingly indistinguishably. But we would not say there is just one Dharmakaya – that would be grasping at singularity with respect to the Dharmakaya.

Yet, at the same time, we can and do distinguish different Dharmakayas. There is Heruka’s Dharmakaya, Dorje Shugden’s Dharmakaya, Medicine Buddha’s Dharmakaya, Tara’s Dharmakaya and so forth. But we would not say there are entirely distinct Dharmakayas, as that would be grasping at inherently existent plurality of Dharmakayas.

Now we could say from the perspective of Guru Yoga there is just one Dharnmakaya, the Dharmakaya of our spiritual guide, and all other Buddhas arise from that. But even that is grasping at a singular of our Guru’s Dharmakaya. Our guru is a mere name that emanates all the Buddhas and all the Buddhas come together to form our guru. Both are equally true, just from different perspectives.

We might think, “OK, that’s interesting, but it seems like a philosophical point with no practical value.” Not true.

When we dissolve all things into the Dharmakaya, we should not lose track of whose Dharmakaya we are dissolving things into. Dissolving all phenomena into different Dharmakayas accomplishes different functions. Each Buddha accomplishes a different function in dependence upon the specific bodhichitta they generated as bodhisattvas on the path. For example, Tara promised to help all Kadampas with their Lamrim practice and to provide protection from diseases and so forth, Dorje Shugden promised to help arrange all the outer and inner conditions necessary for our swiftest possible enlightenment, and so forth.

The essential point of the union of appearance and emptiness according to highest yoga tantra, as I understand it at least, is the subtle conventional truths of objects are ultimate truths that abide inside emptiness. Inside the emptiness of the table is the subtle conventional truth of the table, the mere name table. We do not say emptiness in the abstract, it is always the emptiness of something, in this case the emptiness of the table. Inside the emptiness of the table is still the mere name and function of the table. There has always only been an empty table, yet it still accomplishes the function of a table. The name and function of a table does not cease when we realize its emptiness, but they exist and abide inside its emptiness. It remains a mere lack of inherent existence, but of something that does something.

The same is true of the emptiness, or truth bodies, of the different Buddhas. We can think of it like ice cream. Mint chocolate chip and cookie dough are both equally ice creams, but they definitely have different flavors. In the same way, the Dharmakaya of Heruka, the Dharmkaya of Dorje Shugden, the Dharmkaya of Medicine Buddha, and the Dharmakaya of Tara all all equally Dharmakayas, but they have different names and functions. Emptiness itself may not do anything, but all empty things have specific names and functions.

What is the practical value of this understanding? The main value is it removes completely anything and everything that obstructs the different Buddhas from bestowing their blessings on our mind and accomplishing their functions in our life.

For example, imagine you are experiencing a very difficult situation in life. If you dissolve everything you normally see that is creating such difficulty for you into Dorje Shugden’s Dharmakaya, we are not just saying none of these appearances exist. Dissolving everything into emptiness is not just a profound way of putting our head in the sand, thinking it will all go away if we don’t look. Dissolving everything into Dorje Shugden’s truth body is a way of offering that which is giving us trouble to Dorje Shugden, requesting him to transform it into a cause of our enlightenment and to perform his function to arrange all the outer and inner conditions necessary for our swiftest possible enlightenment. After we have dissolved the appearances into his Dharmakaya, when they re-emerge we will see and understand them from Dorje Shugden’s perspective. We will have the wisdom to see how this difficulty is exactly perfect for our swiftest possible enlightenment. Dissolving everything into his Dahrmakaya is a way of purifying the contaminated karma giving rise to the obstacles in the ocean his truth body. So the karma giving rise to those appearances which are indeed obstacles will be purified and even our external situation might change.

We might say how is this any different than just requesting Dorje Shugden to accomplish his function with respect to our difficult situation? It’s not different, it’s just a more powerful and more profound way of making the request. It is more powerful because it is making the request free from any obstructions grasping at inherent existence of ourself, Dorje Shugden, or our difficult situation. No obstructions to our request means more power to receiving his blessings. It is more profound because this is how we make definitive prayers and requests. Dissolving the disturbing appearance into Dorje Shugden’s Dharmakaya is how we definitively make a prayer and request to him to accomplish his function in our mind and life. Subsequent to our request, all appearances that arise will be experienced directly as the fulfillment of our prayer and request, gradually at first, but then later completely. What was experienced as an “obstacle” will now be experienced as “perfect for our practice.”

The exact same thing is true for the Dharmakayas of all the different Buddhas. Dissolving all phenomena into Heruka’s Dharmakaya subsequently transforms all appearances into objects of compassion and non-dual appearance and emptiness. Dissolving all sick people and sickness into Medicine Buddha’s Dharmakaya subsequently transforms all appearances into objects of healing outer and inner sickness. Dissolving all things into Tara’s Dharmakaya subsequently transforms all appearances into objects of Lamrim, and so forth.

It is not unlike making mandala offerings. When we make a mandala offering, we offer all objects of attachment, aversion, and ignorance to our spiritual guide, freeing our mind from such delusions. Dissolving all phenomena into the Dharmakaya is like making a definitive mandala offering. Dissolving all phenomena into the different Dharmakayas of the different Buddhas is like making definitive mandala offerings requesting the specific blessing and function of each Buddha.

Making our offerings, prayers, and requests in this way takes them to a whole new level, increases their power, and enables us to train in the union of faith and emptiness every moment of every day. Faith and prayer are emptiness in action.

Happy Heruka Day: Enjoying An Ocean of Bliss and Emptiness

January 25, 2025 Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 7. Kadampa meaning of special days buddhism, meditation, philosophy, religion, spirituality

Today is Heruka Day, which takes place during Heruka and Vajrayogini month (otherwise known as January), and is a special day when his blessings are particularly powerful. Most of all, on this day we can recall his kindness and make an effort to bring him to life in our world.

Who is Heruka?

Heruka is the manifestation of the compassion of all the Buddhas. Out of his Truth Body, he emanates himself as a complete path from the deepest hell to the highest enlightenment. He is Keajra Pure Land, which is not some distant place but rather a different way of looking at our world. He emanates in this world as Spiritual Guides who in turn introduce us to Keajra Pure Land. We then begin to connect with it, and as we do, we are guided progressively to purer and purer states of mind. Geshe-la once said the mind of Lamrim is Akanishta Pure Land – a revealing way of phrasing things, a mind as a place. Heruka is the principal deity of Akanishta Pure Land. Our Spiritual Guides first guide us into Lamrim (Akanishta), then conventional Keajra Pure Land through generation stage, then definitive Keajra Pure Land through completion stage. Finally, we attain union with definitive Heruka, the omniscient mind of great bliss realizing directly and simultaneously the emptiness of all things. Heruka is not just this final state, he is the entire path to it. He is the compassion of all the Buddhas manifesting as the quick path to enlightenment.

My favorite description of Heruka is Chakrasambara. As Geshe-la explains in Essence of Vajrayana:

“Another term for Heruka is ‘Chakrasambara.’ ‘Chakra’ means ‘wheel,’ and in this context refers to the ‘wheel’ of all phenomena. ‘Sambara’ means the supreme bliss, which is called ‘spontaneous great bliss.’ Together ‘Chakra’ and ‘sambara’ reveal that by practicing Heruka Tantra we gain a profound realization that experiences all phenomena as one nature with our mind of great bliss. This realization directly removes subtle dualistic appearances from our mind, and due to this we quickly become definitive Heruka.”

This realization is called “meaning clear light,” and Geshe-la explains in Guide to Dakini Land that if we gain this realization, we can attain enlightenment within six months. This does not mean we can attain enlightenment in six months from the time we start practicing Heruka. It will take a long time to gain the realization of meaning clear light, but once we do, we can attain enlightenment in six months. Practicing Heruka is the quickest method for attaining the realization of meaning clear light. At a minimum, through our sincere practice of Heruka in this life, if we can die with a mind of compassion and faith in Heruka, it is definite we can be reborn in his pure land. From there, we will be able to quickly attain meaning clear light and then enlightenment. This is our incredible good fortune.

Recalling the Kindness of Heruka

The very heart of the sadhana Offering to the Spiritual Guide is the Single-Pointed Request, which can be understood as a prayer to Heruka as Keajra Pure Land.

You are the Guru, you are the Yidam, you are the Daka and Dharma Protector;
From now until I attain enlightenment I shall seek no refuge other than you.
In this life, in the bardo, and until the end of my lives, please hold me with the hook of your compassion,
Liberate me from the fears of samsara and peace, bestow all the attainments, be my constant companion, and protect me from all obstacles.

The first line reveals the vastness of Heruka. Heruka is by nature our Guru and our Guru is Heruka. All Tantric practices are fundamentally trainings in guru yoga – a special way of viewing the deity and the guru as inseparably one. Saying Heruka is our Guru and our Guru is Heruka evokes different meanings, and both are true simultaneously. Heruka is also our Yidam or our personal deity. He is the Buddha we seek to become and our ultimate role model. Christians ask, “what would Jesus do,” we ask, “what would Heruka do,” and we seek to do that. Heruka is also the Daka, which here refers to the Heroes and Heroines of his body mandala. These deities are his retinue, but also his spiritual limbs. Heruka is also the Dharma Protector. He manifests Dorje Shugden as the Protector of the Guru’s words. Conventionally, Heruka appears as the totality of his Pure Land, from the HUM at his heart to the principal deity (Yidam); to the body mandala deities (Daka); to his celestial mansion, Mount Meru, and the continents (his gross body); to the charnel grounds (his perception of samsara); to Dorje Shugden’s protection circle surrounding it all transforming whatever appears into a perfect condition for the enlightenment of all beings within Heruka’s pure land.

The second line explains how we rely upon Heruka. It begins with an understanding of both why we go for refuge to him and for how long our commitment to doing so is – namely to attain enlightenment and until we do. Geshe-la explains Heruka’s power is only unleashed within us in dependence upon our motivation of Bodhichitta, the wish to become a Buddha for the benefit of all.

The third line makes our reliance upon Heruka pure. In Joyful Path, Geshe-la explains what makes our spiritual practice pure instead of worldly is whether we are engaging in it for the sake of all of our future lives or the sake of this life. We rely upon Heruka in this life, in the bardo, and in all of our future lives. What do we request of him? That he always hold us with the hook of his compassion. The ocean of samsara is vast and it is easy to get lost at sea and drown; but out of his compassion for us, he throws us a hook we can grab onto. If we never let go, he will pull us to safety. What is this hook and how does it appear in our life? It primarily appears as our Spiritual Guide, but it also manifests as the Daka and the Dharma Protector.

The fourth line reveals Heruka’s main function; or put another way, the principal benefits of relying upon him. His aspect of the Guru functions to liberate us from the fears of samsara and peace. Peace here refers to the solitary peace of individual liberation, which is nice for us but useless for others. We pray to never get trapped in solitary peace but instead strive to probe deeper into the clear light to become a Buddha who perceives directly the union of appearance and emptiness motivated by an unstoppable compassion that works until the end of time to free others from their suffering. His aspect of the Yidam functions to bestow all the attainments. Bestow is a beautiful word as it implies the giving of something precious. In truth, we attain enlightenment by the Buddhas bestowing the realizations of their mind upon ours, like a gift. Of course, we must do certain things from our side to open up our mind to receive these precious gifts, but by nature, our future realizations of the stages of the path are actually by nature aspects of our Yidam’s mind. His aspect of Daka functions to be our constant companion. In other words, the deities of the body mandala – Heruka’s retinue – are our companions who not only bless our own channels, drops, and winds, but similarly bless all living beings as they fulfill Heruka’s wishes in this world. His aspect of Dharma Protector functions to protect ourselves and all the beings inside Heruka’s mandala from all obstacles to our spiritual practice. Nothing is an obstacle from its own side. Things only become obstacles when we relate to them in a deluded way. Dorje Shugden is first and foremost a wisdom Buddha, meaning he grants us the wisdom to be able to see how whatever arises is perfect for our spiritual training. Since his protection circle envelopes all of Keajra, from the Charnel Grounds to the HUM at Heruka’s heart, he is likewise bestowing similar wisdom blessings on the minds of all living beings. This is why for Heruka samsara appears as the Charnel Grounds. In the Charnel Grounds, even though conventionally horrific things appear, they are all understood and seen as powerful Dharma teachings propelling us towards enlightenment. When we have this wisdom, when others come to us with their difficulties, we fail to even see a problem, we see only spiritual opportunity and powerful teachings. We then share our perspective with others, empowering them to transform their life into a joyful path of good fortune.

For myself, I try to recite the Single-Pointed request with these recognitions day and night as I go about my day. It is my daily mantra, and with every recitation, it draws me closer to Heruka. For me, the single-pointed request has the same meaning as OM GURU SUMATI BUDDHA HERUKA SARWA SIDDHI HUM and vice versa. In my meditation itself, I try to gain experience for what it feels like to be Heruka in Keajra.

Bringing Heruka to Life in our World

We can sometimes feel like Heruka is not in this world and our attainment of union with him is very far off. Both of these perceptions are completely wrong. Heruka is the ultimate nature of everything in this world and attaining union with him is simply one recognition away. How can we bridge the gap between these two very different views? Through the practice of the Eight Lines of Praise of the Father. This is a special method for activating Heruka’s function in this world through us. On the basis of this feeling of accomplishing his function in this world, we simply recognize ourselves as Heruka. Through continual training in this practice, the gap between our normal perception and our enlightened perception collapses until eventually, we experience ourselves directly as Heruka in this world performing his enlightened deeds for the benefit of all. As Geshe-la says in Essence of Vajrayana, “By sincerely reciting these praises we swiftly purify our ordinary appearances and reach Heruka’s Pure Land.”

The Eight Lines of Praise are almost like words of a magical spell, which function to invoke or activate the different functions of Heruka we are praising.

OM I Prostrate to the Blessed One, Lord of the Heroes HUM HUM PHAT

When we recite this line, we request Heruka’s body to become active in this world. His body is the form aspect of Keajra Pure Land. In Keajra, every form that appears is understood as a powerful Dharma teaching by all those who behold it. Heruka manifests as whatever living beings need to be led to enlightenment. While Keajra Pure Land is shaped like a mountain, it’s spiritual gradient is more like a funnel. No matter where you drop something in a funnel, it is eventually guided down into the center of the funnel. In the same way, no matter where you find yourself in Keajra Pure Land – from the Charnel Grounds to the principal deity’s body – you are inexorably drawn towards the indestructible wind inside Heruka’s heart chakra. By activating Heruka’s form body in our world, we are “inviting all beings to be our guests” in our Pure Land where we engage in the pleasing supreme practices of enlightenment. We then strongly believe that whatever forms appear to the minds of any living being, they are by nature emanations of Heruka’s form body, revealing the truth of Dharma and guiding all beings towards his heart.

In particular, when we recite this line, we can imagine that our body is Heruka’s majestic body. Our eyes may continue to perceive the body that we normally see, but our mind’s eyes of faith see ourselves as Heruka. In Essence of Vajrayana, it explains the symbolism of Heruka’s body. The short version is it reveals all of the essential stages of the path to enlightenment. Buddhas can manifest their inner realizations as forms. The main point is we should disregard, even forget, our body that we normally see and believe that through our recitation of this line of the prayer we perceive our body to be Heruka’s body.

OM To you with a brilliance equal to the fire of the great aeon HUM HUM PHAT

When we recite this line, we invoke/activate Heruka’s speech. In Keajra, every sound is arising from Heruka’s enlightened speech and they function to reveal the truth of Dharma. When we recite this, we imagine that every sound, even the rustling of leaves in the wind, is actually vajra songs teaching Dharma. His speech burns away the ordinary conceptions and ignorance of living beings like a great wisdom fire that radiates out and burns away all delusions. In particular, we should imagine that from this point forward all of our own speech is actually Heruka’s speech being spoken through us. Instead of saying whatever comes to our mind, we get out of the way and let him speak through us. If we are practicing this at the level of completion stage, we can recall that the nature of sound is wind, and so all sounds are actually the whistling of Heruka’s pure winds blowing through the world.

OM To you with an inexhaustible topknot HUM HUM PHAT

With this line we imagine we invoke/activate Heruka’s mind in our world, symbolized by his topknot. There are two aspects of his mind in particular worth noting. First, his mind sees all past, present, and future phenomena directly and simultaneously. He sees everything that has been, everything that is, and everything that will be as one inseparable ocean inside emptiness. This wisdom knowing the three times is extremely effective for being able to help people because we can see the karmic reasons why they are currently facing the situations they are facing and all of the different possible futures they will experience depending upon how they respond to their present circumstance. Heruka sees everything as currents and continuums, like spiritual winds blowing through time, not static pictures that seem arbitrary and bewildering. Second, his mind has the power to bestow the realizations of Chakrasambara on others, in other words, his mind functions to gather and dissolve all phenomena into the ocean of bliss and emptiness. When impure winds cease to flow, the waves of ordinary appearance subside, and the ocean of our mind settles into a blissful clarity. Heruka’s mind naturally draws all phenomena back into this original source of all purity. When we recite this line, we feel as if these two powers of his mind are now active. We start to see the three times as Heruka does and we feel all phenomena settling down into the ocean of our mind of clear light emptiness of all phenomena.

OM To you with a fearsome face and bared fangs HUM HUM PHAT

When we recite this line, we imagine we gain Heruka’s great wisdom knowing clearly and unmistakenly what are the objects to be abandoned and what are the objects to be attained, not only for ourselves, but for all living beings. Not being clear about this is our fundamental problem and the source of all of our suffering.

In Modern Buddhism, Geshe-la makes a clear distinction between our outer problem and our inner problem. If our car breaks down, normally we think, “I have a problem.” No, our car has a problem. Our problem is our inner problem of relating to this appearance in a deluded way. We need a mechanic to fix our car, and we need to change our mind to solve our inner problem. Fixing our outer problem will not solve our inner problem. If we continue to have our inner problem, we will just project it onto some other external circumstance and think now that needs to be fixed too before we can be happy. Worldly beings are convinced their problem is what is happening externally, and they expend all of their energy trying to solve all of their outer problems, but no matter how many times they do, they continue to have the same sorts of problems just with different faces or different sets of external appearance. The reason for this is they have not solved their inner problem. Heruka’s great wisdom enables us to see clearly that our own and others’ actual problem lies within. Once we are clear that our problem is our inner problem, then his great wisdom helps us see clearly our delusions as mistaken minds. It is one thing to identify that we have delusions, but if we do not see why they are wrong or deceptive, we will continue to follow them believing them to be true. His great wisdom also helps us easily know what is the correct way of looking at things that leaves our mind peaceful and calm. We not only know the wisdom way of thinking, we actually think that way – or at least believe it to be correct, even if the winds of our mind are blowing in opposite directions.

When we recite this line, we have this wisdom not only for ourselves but also for others. When others talk to us, we see clearly the difference between their outer and their inner problem, and with respect to their inner problem, we know and can explain in a way they can understand the objects to be abandoned and the objects to be attained. Traveling outer paths is accomplished through taking steps, inner paths are traveled through knowing what thoughts to believe. The great wisdom of knowing the objects to be abandoned and the objects to be attained is like always knowing which paths to travel so that we never get lost. It is like an inner GPS that is always set for the City of Enlightenment, and no matter where we find ourselves, we always know how to get to where we want to go.

OM To you whose thousand arms blaze with light HUM HUM PHAT

When we recite this line we imagine we invoke/activate countless emanations of Heruka who spontaneously burst forth from his heart of compassion to benefit living beings through acts of loving-kindness. This line refers to how Heruka is the compassion of all the Buddhas, he is the highest yoga tantra version of thousand-arm Avalokiteshvara. Some people wonder how Buddhas gain the ability to send out emanations. The answer is their compassion wishing to protect all living beings from all suffering is so great, emanations naturally burst out of their hearts in all directions, just like Avalokiteshvara spontaneously burst forth a thousand arms to help living beings with. Because they realize emptiness of all phenomena, their compassion is like blowing air into the soap of their realization of emptiness producing countless bubbles of emanations. Normally, when people come to us for help, we think, “I can’t help all of these people,” and we wish some of them would go away and stop putting so many demands on us. But a bodhisattva thinks, “I would want to help all of these beings, but right now, unfortunately, I can’t. That’s why I need to become a Buddha because then I will be able to be with each and every living being every day.” We imagine that through reciting this line, we gain this ability to send out countless emanations and to be like thousand-arm Avalokiteshvara, able to help living beings in countless ways.

OM To you who hold an axe, an uplifted noose, a spear, and a khatanga HUM HUM PHAT

With this line, we imagine we gain Heruka’s ability to engage in wrathful actions, and we invoke his wrathful actions to pervade the entire universe. What are wrathful actions? They are the ability to use force out of compassion. They are of two types: outer and inner. Outer wrathful actions are when somebody is hurting themselves or others and we can stop them through using whatever power we have (physical, our position, our speech, etc.). We do this not out of anger, but to protect the person they are harming and to protect the person committing the harm from accumulating negative karma. Our wish is not to harm the other person, but to protect them. Sometimes outer wrathful actions take the form of telling people the hard truths of their situation, such as they are acting like a jerk or the only reason why they are suffering is that they are jealous or attached to companionship, or whatever. Whether our outer wrathful actions are effective depends upon whether our mind is truly free from anger and whether the other person has enough faith in us to take well what we are saying. If either of these two conditions is not met, our wrathful actions will just be anger or they will just be self-defeating. Inner wrathful actions are the ability to be utterly ruthless with our delusions, but kind to ourselves. We can only successfully engage in them if we have truly differentiated between ourselves and our delusions and we have realized that renunciation is true self-love or self-compassion. It is loving or having compassion for our true selves, our pure potential. Inner wrathful actions of a Buddha are powerful blessings that help people see clearly the error of their ways, sometimes at an epic scale, but without inducing guilt causing the person to beat themselves up. When we recite this line, we imagine we gain the ability to engage in such wrathful actions and we imagine we invoke Heruka to engage in such wrathful actions through the appearances of this world.

OM To you who wear a tiger-skin garment HUM HUM PHAT

This refers to Heruka’s ability to pacify anger and conflict. There is no evil greater than anger. Almost all of the harm in this world is caused by anger. Hell realms are the nature of anger, and those who remain consumed by anger in life wind up taking rebirth in hell after death because that is the nature of their mind. Anger prevents us from accepting samsara as it is, making us wish it was different. It leads to frustrations, great and small, leaving us always internally uncomfortable, agitated, and unhappy – sometimes enraged like a wild fire. Guilt is anger directed at ourself and is a major obstacle to our ability to view Dharma as refuge instead of a mirror we perceive to be judging us for all of our failures and shortcomings. Conflict in the world ranges from large-scale wars to spats between siblings, but it leaves a wake of pain wherever it goes. In Eight Steps to Happiness, Geshe-la says the mind of cherishing others is like a magic crystal that has the power to heal whole communities. In Toronto, he said, “love is the real nuclear bomb that destroys all enemies.” Heruka’s compassion is his magic crystal and his love is his nuclear bomb that ends all conflict. We imagine by reciting this line, we activate this power and it functions to pacify all anger, all guilt, and all conflict, not only in our own lives but in the whole world. We feel as if his love radiates out, pulsing peace into the world. In Transform Your Life Geshe-la says, “without inner peace, outer peace is impossible.” We imagine through Heruka’s blessings, we bestow inner peace on all living beings, resulting in universal peace for all. When our mind is at peace with all in the world, we are already experiencing ourselves world peace.

OM I bow to you whose smoke-coloured body dispels obstructions HUM HUM PHAT

In Essence of Vajrayana, Geshe-la explains:

“In the Condensed Root Tantra it is said that just by seeing a sincere Heruka practitioner we purify our negativities and attain liberation; just by hearing or being touched by such a practitioner we receive blessings and are cured of sickness; and just by being in the presence of such a practitioner our unhappiness, mental disturbances, delusions and other obstacles are dispelled. Why is this? It is because the actual Deities of Heruka abide within the body of the practitioner and therefore seeing the practitioner is not so different from seeing Heruka himself.”

When we recite this line of the Praise we recall this special quality of Heruka that makes merely being in the presence of a pure Heruka practitioner a cause of liberation for others. There are two types of obstructions – the obstructions to liberation, or our delusions; and the obstructions to omniscience, or the karmic imprints of our past delusions. Merely being in Heruka’s presence dispels both of these, just as being exposed to the sun will melt ice cream. When we recite this line with faith, we imagine that our Heruka body attains these qualities and when others are merely in our presence, it functions as a cause of their enlightenment – even if we are doing nothing other than watching football together. We further imagine that Heruka’s body pervades all phenomena; and while our ordinary eyes may perceive the things we normally see, our wisdom eyes see Keajra Pure Land, which is nothing other than Heruka’s pure form body. By being Heruka in this world, the two obstructions of all living beings are dispelled away, all ordinary appearances and conceptions dissolve, and all beings awaken into a world of pure wonder.

Through continuously engaging in the Eight Lines of Praise, we will gradually purify our mind and samsara will gather and absorb into the clear light, like clouds into a clear blue sky. We will feel Heruka as Keajra Pure Land become increasingly manifest and we will realize it is not far away, but actually the true nature of all things. Having activated these eight abilities of Heruka and feeling them work through us, we will have no difficulty generating a qualified divine pride thinking we are Heruka. As our experience with these verses deepens, the duality between ourselves and our Yidam will dissolve away until we experience union with this marvelous being. In this way, we will fulfill all of our own and others’ pure wishes.

Heruka day is a particularly auspicious day when Heruka’s blessings are especially powerful. The karma we create familiarizing ourselves with Heruka in our life and drawing closer to him on this day will pay dividends for aeons to come. If we have not yet memorized the Eight Lines of Praise, today is a perfect day to do so. Once we have learned it, we can then practice it day and night and swiftly move out of samsara and into Keajra Pure Land!

How to Welcome the Worst Case Scenarios

October 6, 2024 Kadampa Ryan 4. Practicing in Daily Life, 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden buddhism, karma, philosophy, religion, spirituality

Sometimes we worry about worst case scenarios; and sometimes even, the worst case scenario comes to pass. How can we learn to be mentally at peace with this? For me, I think the key to avoiding such worry about the future or despondency when adversity actually strikes is the practice of patient acceptance. This, for me, is the main point of the book How to Solve our Human Problems.

When things go badly in our life, most people will tell us something like, “this too will pass” or try give us some sort of hope that things will externally get better.

This may reassure us some, but such ways of thinking often leave us still worried that things might not improve and we think we can’t be happy if they don’t. Our mind is still attached to things being a certain way externally for us to be happy. But when we have a mind of patient acceptance towards the possibility that things could remain bad (or even get worse), we know how to keep our mind at peace with respect to the possibility that things remain as they are, then we can let go of that worry. In other words, we will know how to be happy if things improve and how to still be happy if they do not.

How can we get ourself to that point? The key for me is realizing how the difficult situation is in fact perfect for my Dharma practice. If I know how to transform the difficult situation (or the possible arising of my worst fears) into the path, then I will begin to understand Shantideva’s perspective that “suffering has many good qualities.” It still sucks from the perspective of my worldly concerns, but it is great with respect to my spiritual aspirations to purify my negative karma, generate authentic renunciation and bodhichitta, and even train in tantric pure view with respect to what would otherwise be considered awful circumstances.

Our training in Lojong – specifically the teachings from Universal Compassion and Eight Steps to Happiness – will give us the tools we need to transform our suffering into rocket fuel for our swiftest possible enlightenment.

To help gain this ability, I think it is foundational to surrender our lives completely to Dorje Shugden’s care. His job is to arrange all the outer and inner conditions necessary for our swiftest possible enlightenment. At one level, he does this through helping control what karma ripens (and what karma doesn’t) so that whatever happens is what we need next for our spiritual training, but at a more profound level he grants us the wisdom blessings to see and understand how what has happened (or what horrible thing could possibly happen) – no matter how terrible it might be – is in fact perfect for our spiritual development.

But this only works if our aspiration for spiritual development is stronger than our worldly concerns for a pleasant, easy life. If we still want a pleasant, easy life MORE than we want spiritual growth, then we may see how our present difficult circumstances (or even our feared worst case scenario) would be perfect for our spiritual training, but we don’t care! We want life to be good!

To address this problem, we need a deep and consistent practice of Sutra Lamrim. Sutra Lamrim (Joyful Path of Good Fortune, Meditation Handbook, etc.) primarily functions to change our aspirations from worldly ones to spiritual ones – generating greater concern for our own and others well being in our countless future lives than our concern for this life alone.

In short, when we have a deep and stable practice of Lamrim, then our spiritual desires are greater than our worldly ones, so when we receive Dorje Shugden’s wisdom blessings helping us see how our difficult situation – or the worst case scenarios we worry about – are in fact perfect for our spiritual development, we will no longer fear the worst but have the ability to be at peace with the possibility it could happen. We may even perhaps relish the possibility of it happening because we know such challenges will push us to attain enlightenment even more swiftly.

Then, we can be at peace with the possibility things get better and with the possibility that things might stay bad or even get worse.

In other words, we will know and have the ability to be happy all the time, no matter how bad things might get. Exactly what Venerable Geshe-la has promised us.

Kadampa Working Dad

Unifying our spiritual, professional and personal lives into the path

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Happy Heruka Day: Enjoying An Ocean of Bliss and Emptiness

How to Welcome the Worst Case Scenarios

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