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20050820GRCLMT2

Hartmut

To become a Buddha is not an instant achievement. We have instant coffee and other instant things, but they are not that great anyway. There is no instant Buddha, because all buddhas are great. There is no instant enlightenment, because it can only happen due to causes. The main cause to become Buddha is the bodhimind, the precious, very valuable, wonderful jewel like mind, the ultimate, unlimited, unconditional love and compassion. That is that mind. That also has two: praying form and action form.

First we just pray to have that mind, to be able to become like that. Later, we will actually be able to do it. The first here, to be able to meditate and practice lojong, the lojong has its own little guru yoga. This requires meditation, which is from the Buddhist background.

In the space in front of you in space is your own spiritual master or lama. In reality it is your own spiritual master, but in the form of a totally enlightened Buddha Amithaba (Tib: ö pa me) . He is red in color, otherwise just like the usual Buddha. In his retinue is Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of compassion and also Vajrapani, to the left and right of him. They are surrounded by all enlightened beings, buddhas and bodhisattvas, dharmapalas and all of them.

You have to visualize that and create a big space in front of you. You have the space of the alter, the field of meditation, the objects of refuge. So in this case the recommended one is Buddha Amitabha. All the enlightened beings have a letter OM at their crown, AH at their throat and HUM at their heart level.

Those of you who are not very familiar it may be a little tough. Just think it is Buddha, and the only difference from Shakyamuni Buddha is that he is red in color. To represent body, speech and mind, he has OM AH HUM at crown, throat and heart level. You can just think that Avalokitesvara and Vajrapana are there. If you can’t see them clearly, that’s fine.

Light goes out from the heart of Buddha Amithaba, inviting the wisdom beings from wherever they are. The words normally used are “from their natural abode”. They come in and dissolve and become oneness with what we have imagined. What we imagine is called “commitment beings” and what we invite is called “wisdom beings”. So the commitment beings and wisdom beings become oneness. Why did we invite the supreme field of merit here? Because we would like to do some activities, such as the seven limbs.

First we prostrate to Lama Buddha Amithaba.

In English prostration means to bow down, etc. but in reality, looking at the quality of the object of refuge, admiring their qualities and seeking those qualities, is the full meaning of prostration. The English term doesn’t convey that message, but it is the best word the translators could find. The Tibetan word is chag tsal. Chag is the object that we can respect and admire and praise. Tsal is seeking the qualities they have. So that one little simple word can give you all those meanings in Tibetan. In English you may have to say “I admire and respect the qualities of the person, and I would like to have those qualities myself.” You don’t have to say the words, but you have to think that.

Then you make offerings to Buddha Amithaba, actually arranged and mentally created. Actually arranged means what you directly put out. Lets say you buy $1000 worth of offerings and put them up. Even then it is nothing much. Mentally created offerings, on the other hand, are unlimited. Nobody has a budget on the mind. There is no limitation. You can create all kinds of different offerings that fill the space and that’s what you should visualize and mentally give. That is an act of generosity too. You may have a glass of water and one little flower and a broken piece of incense, burning or not burning, but in your mental exercise it is the best, most beautiful gardens in the world and all their flowers. There is most beautiful, nourishing food there and all other stuff that is available in all the world. There is the most beautiful environment. Then you offer also your fortune, your virtue, without attachment, without hesitation. That is a true act of generosity.

Attachment is very hard to cut. When you want to offer something, the question comes up, “But what do I do tomorrow? When do I pay my next month’s bill?” But in reality, generosity is free of true existence, in emptiness nature. That really cuts everything. It is funny. When you talk about emptiness, the move “Matrix One” tells you that what you see is not the reality. The virtual reality that has been created is almost the same as reality. From the angle of absolute truth, that is really what it is. It is not true. The delusions we have are like the agents in the matrix and they limit us and that’s how people can be controlled. Buddha almost talks the same thing. Einstein also says the same thing. I am not saying that the Matrix is teaching Buddhism, but that’s the reality. If you are looking from the angle of absolute reality, what is there to hesitate about, what is there to be attached to, what is there to be let go of? What’s there to hold on to? Nothing. That’s how emptiness in reality becomes everything.

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Why offering? Offering creates tremendous amounts of good merit. You can also take the opportunity to purify. In our absolute reality we have no faults, we are pure, no doubt about it. But we have engaged so many times with all these “agents” from the Matrix. It is these false delusions and impure things that have infected us so much. That’s why purification is so important. It is not just things like eating meat, which we want to purify. The focus is not so much on that level of purity, but on the pure nature which has no fault, however, in connection with those delusions we are affected and impure things do happen. It is like a contagious disease. The person may be healthy and pure, nothing wrong with them. But then they come in contact with a contagious disease and become sick. If you don’t treat that you die.

Likewise here, we are basically pure, however we have come in contact with impure things and if we don’t purify it could destroy us completely. We may not disappear, but we will have constant, continuous suffering. That is the definition of ‘destruction’ here. That’s why purification is important. Anything we did wrong, anything we contact, can be purified, because it is impermanent. It is changeable and it is dependently arising. So everything can be purified.

In prayer form you may say, “I purify everything”. Does just saying that purify everything? That’s questionable. You have to read and study a little more about purification. There are the basic principles of recognizing, regretting, not repeating and antidote action. If you purify with all these principles you can purify anything. There is no such thing that you cannot purify. That’s because it is impermanent and dependently arising.

Furthermore, we need quick cash, otherwise we can’t function. Where can we get good karma from quickly? From rejoicing. These are like little tricks. When someone does something good, you rejoice. When the Dalai Lama does good work, we rejoice. When Mother Theresa did great work, we rejoice. When Dr. King did good work, we rejoice. When Nelson Mandela did good work we rejoice. But if we keep on being jealous, we are not going to get anything. There is no point in saying, “It should not have been Mother Theresa, it should be me.” “It should not have been Dr. King, it should have been me.” That doesn’t work. But these thoughts to come up in our minds. We are addicted to jealousy. It doesn’t have to make any sense. When you are addicted, what you do doesn’t make any sense at all. Look at the people who are addicted to hot chili. They keep on eating these hot peppers no matter how much it is burning. The nose is dripping, we are sweating, but we still keep on eating it, right? Does that make sense? No. What blocks the rejoicing is the jealousy. When you see your neighbors doing something good you will say, “Yes, it’s great and wonderful, but….” So there is always a “but”, like “but they have an ulterior motivation” and all kinds of things. That’s because of jealousy. But if you rejoice you lose nothing. You gain everything. According to the Buddha, if the person is spiritually higher than you, if you rejoice in their work, you get at least half of their benefit. If they are equal to you and you rejoice, you get equal the benefit. If they are lower than you, then you get double the benefit.

This is very profitable business, no investment, no risk, very straight forward and the yield is guaranteed. So why not? At the same time we also request the enlightened beings to remain forever, not to walk away from us, not to leave us alone. They won’t, but you gain by asking them. Also you ask them for continuous teaching information, whenever and whatever you need. Finally, you dedicate all your virtues to developing these two types of bodhimind, the prayer form and action form, or the relative and absolute bodhimind. These divisions are not the same. Just to let you know that when you hear “two types of bodhimind” it can be either of these two sets.

Develop these two precious minds and decide: for the benefit of all mother sentient beings, I would like to become a Buddha. And I would like to dedicate all my virtues to that.

So this is like putting a down payment of all your practices for becoming a Buddha.

Then comes the request. You say to the lama

Lama Rinpoche Buddha Amithaba, I and all sentient beings, may our minds be influence by dharma. That dharma may go straight forward and not take a zig zag course. Our dharma practice may not be met by any obstacles. All wrong thoughts may completely be stopped in my mind. All perfect thoughts may grow completely, especially the love-compassion and bodhimind may immediately develop within us.

By making that request, all the retinue, like Avalokitesvara and Vajrapani and all other enlightened beings, dissolve to Lama Amithaba. He also happily and joyfully dissolves from the crown and becomes oneness with you. That completes the preliminaries or prerequisites.

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