Archive Result

(Jewel Heart Prayers)

Do kindly generate pure motivation as described by the Lam Rim tradition- at least for the benefit of all living beings, one would like to attain total enlightenment for which I would like to listen to this teaching. And with this mind do kindly listen, and dharma what you going to listen is fortunate ones to be able to reach to total enlightenment- the ‘Roadmap to Buddhahood,’ the (2:00)chagyu lamge rinpa, the ultimate enlightenment stage/path, to total enlightenment, for which we have two outlines talking about lineage traditions and explaining the stages and their orders. And by understanding, then actual development within one’s mind. First one also has the lineage traditions and all of them have been already completed. Second one also has the wisdom path, and the ‘vast method’ path and wisdom path, And that also has both of them, and the finally three stages, common with the lower, common with the medium, and Mahayana path. So, the common with the lower also has actual session, and in-between session. Actual session has beginning, prerequisite, session itself, and conclusion. .Prerequisite also has six prerequisites and that is also cleansing the place and laying the altar. And creating a perfect offering, with the pure perfect offering, free of… the goods you have collected by doing the wrong way, such as, the one is called flattery, the other is deceit. By deceiving people collecting money or something, so making offerings are not right. So it is a pure offering, right-livelihood-collected offering. And that also made with a very artistic arrangement. And then sitting on the correct cushion, like a Buddha/Vairochana style, or whatever is convenient for you, and generating a special mind and then taking refuge and then, bodhimind, and then generating four immeasurable, they’re all over. We have already talked about it. Then we have the lain this very special supreme field of merit. Both Lama Chopa style and this teaching’s particular style. Both are completed and then I talked last Thursday and it is completed. And then, after completing the field of merit, then accumulation of merit and purification, the major activities done through either what we call the seven limb or seven branch activities. First of all is prostration. That is also body speech and mind prostration and that is over. And the second is offering. Offering also has offering which has equivalent and offering that has no equivalent. The first is normal offerings. Second are extraordinary offerings and both we have talked and completed. And now, now the purification, today the purification.

So purification is also now… then normally purification is done. No matter whoever does what wrong it is, and the Buddha told us anything we did wrong, no matter how heavy a negativity it might be, whatever we have done, there is nothing that you cannot correct. Buddha gave lot of examples. Some of them really for us to convince, even, such as Angulimala story. Angulimala story supposed to be happened during the Buddha’s lifetime, as you remember, I shared many times but again, it is important. Angulimala- that is either Sanskrit or Hindu, Hindi words. ’Anguli‘ is the thumb. Thumb. Either this thumb or the finger, I don’t know, whichever it is, one of these two. I keep on always thinking the thumb but then when they say ‘anguli’ the Sanskrit scholars sometimes tell me it is ‘finger.’ So, anyway, one person who had a wrong spiritual master, that particular wrong spiritual master encourages that individual to create powerful negativity such as saying, “If you are capable, (10:00) go ahead and kill one thousand human beings by you alone and with your sword. If you can kill one thousand human beings, cut each one of their either thumb, or the finger, then put them through a string and make a rosary, and wear it, and come back to me after that when it is one thousand and then I will liberate you.” So, sometimes people get caught in such a funny wrong path which is not very surprising. Very often, you know, very often it is happening. Even tonight I believe, CNN is showing the Jonestown story. Jonestown. And that is also in the name of the spiritual path and that is what happened and we all know. These are the wrong path. They don’t tell you that is the wrong path. The purpose is to do this, purpose is… I don’t know, whatever they talk, but somehow we’re caught into it. So that is why the wrong spiritual master is considered extremely dangerous for the people it is much more dangerous than having a non-virtuous friend is considered extremely dangerous and harmful. This wrong spiritual teacher is even more harmful. So this is how one has to be really careful with all this.

Anyway, we really sometimes are caught into it with the creating negativity. Although everyone would like to do everything right. But the right has become, even too much righteous becomes a problem, right? So it is something very funny. Somehow you really need good intelligence, intellectual capacity to the individual, a good human sense to understand how much is right and how much is wrong. Otherwise we are really caught into it. Not only we are caught into it, some of them, but some of them whatever we do we create negativities. Even you don’t want to, we do create negativities. We drive. When we drive, how many insects that we will drive over? If it is during the summer and you are on the dirt road, how many insects we get killed while driving? Sort of normally what we say is, “Mind my own business, going to my own way, to my work,” but, on the way how many insects who get killed? How many incidents that we hit some creatures on the road? If you hit a skunk, and then they will chase you, but they may chase you, but they may lose their life. All this. Even deer at night here in Michigan we get the deer hit a lot of times. And those skunks and those possums, and all of those on the roadside. Sometimes even an innocent child, with or without knowing, somehow people get accidents, what we call it, right? So they’re not done by sort of by vicious feeling of “I’m going to kill.” No. But it happens. The human beings, no doubt, is a quite rare, very rare, actually, and hopefully no one goes through with that, but then you know we hit with some creatures animals here and there and insects so many of them we get killed. Even in New York, we live in apartment, in summer, how many cockroaches come in? And each one of them we have to take care of, either with… I don’t think we can sweep cockroaches and take it out, it’s not so much convenient, so we do all that. And then we also, you know, the mice comes in and all this, and here and there we have to… then similarly there are all this virus and bacteria and all of those, and if you really think about it, it is so many that every moment whatever we take anywhere, lot of negativities, lot of negativities. It always happens it’s not that you’re really being malicious and really wanted to do it, but it happens all the time. And physically killing alone, then lying, always, something or another may not be again very maliciously telling you the wrong thing, but then misleading statements and not telling straightforward and all these are there. And then mind is even worse. Our mind is so active, so active, and so destructive sometimes. It is a mean monkey inside the temple and everywhere looking for some opportunity to do something wrong. It’s always, you know, like a mean monkey in temple, so it’s everywhere, on the top higher level of the temple there, and knocking down the images, upper part of the images, and big images, ushnisha, and crown, and crown jewels and then the middle level throwing everything here and there and the lower level eating the offerings and drinking the water offerings, knocking them down and jumping all over, and even catching fire through the butter light offering on the tail of the monkey and burning the temple, all of those, just like that, our mind does. Within the body, within the temple of our body. Then you know the higher level of the spiritually developed better than you, we have a jealousy try to destroy them. And middle level, at the equivalent level we have competition and trying to make myself better, with or without valid reason, and at the lower level, looking down on them and sort of taking yourself more (20:00) superior than those ones, and all this happens in our mind all the time. Even our physical body may be sitting with or without comfort somewhere, with or without saying prayers, with or without meditating or whatever, mind is active creating all that type of negativity all the time. Even we say prayers, like our commitments like you do these days, like six session yoga you do right? Six session yoga- you may be saying it but you may be saying the words “The space before me sits the Lama Dorje Chang, blah blah blah…” but the word may be going and the mind is somewhere else actively doing something else, so this is always, always happens with us so we create negativities through body through speech through mind with and without any efforts. Especially without efforts so we do all the time. And then what we have done, as we do now, we have done more than what we can think of it. Very definitely more than what we can even imagine. Think about it! The life of ourselves. A few years before, few years before we knew what is right and wrong what how our minds is functioning what we do. Think about it a few lives before, with no knowledge, no understanding of right and wrong. No, I mean you know really, killing might have been our survival through many lifetimes and so if you think about it that way, we have a tremendous amount of negativities. Sometimes wonder how come we have such a wonderful life at this moment, wonderful opportunity at this moment, really wondering how come? But because you know, there is nothing surprised. In my case, you know, today I meant to be in NY, but then I have tremendous pain in both of my knees, and especially when I have to get up and it’s very painful, and then when I sit down it’s very painful, and when I walk it’s not a big deal- I can walk without difficulty but I have to walk slowly, but I can walk. But sitting down and getting up is extremely sharp pain on my knee so I thought if I sit and get on the plane it would be difficult to manage, so today I didn’t go to the airport. So I decided not to go there because of those sharp pains. I’m sorry about it, but I hope it will be better within next couple of days, so at least next Thursday I will be there because that will be my probably last. Then I have to go to Europe so that will be the last one. So I will be there hopefully, and so who knows, but still lucky I didn’t die, I’m still here. So that’s what it is. And so I’m wondering a little knee pain, of course, bound to happen, because the negativities that I created in my previous life, negativities that I have created even within this life, you know while you are asleep, while you are awake, both times we non-stop we create negativities not so easy to create through physically or through speech, but very easy to create through mind, through mind. So it always happens. Especially like during the elections, it hits, to some people it hits very hard, and so it is. Well, so luckily the election is over, so but sometimes these things happens. So when we are wondering when we have created so much negativities, some pains are bound to happen. So still lucky enough, still in life. It is painful, but it’s not life-threatening or anything, so it is okay. So that’s what happens. So when you have all these negativities and their result will be suffering and pain or else, what else it is. So therefore it is important to purify all negativities we have accumulated before and all the negativities with or without knowledge we are accumulating now and all the negativities we are bound to accumulate in future, what we have already collected what we are collecting and what will be collecting. So these are past, present, and future negativities and that has to be purified. One good thing in Buddhism, negativity no matter how much whatever, huge as I said Angulimala, Angulimala had killed almost 999 human beings and their thumbs or the fingers or whatever it is, the anguli is string through and they have a mala wearing, and finally he doesn’t want to kill his mother and he couldn’t find any other person to be killed in one week. One thousand. Small village in India. It is very difficult. People run away so they couldn’t. So his mother could not let him go, so she wanted to help him, but also she’s afraid. She is watching from distance coming closer, popping up, and when she recognized.. when she realized he saw her, she made sure that he sees her. And when she realized when he saw her, she is also afraid she need to run, and he also has a hesitation of killing his own mother, so while that’s going on, then the Buddha appeared suddenly. So the Angulimala thought, “Ha! Now I don’t have to kill my mother. This creature had showed up I can get him!” So he started chasing the Buddha by running. Buddha walking slowly. He couldn’t catch Buddha. And then finally he started shouting saying, “Hey, wait! Hey! Wait! I have to get you!” Then Buddha said, “I’m waiting. Why don’t you come a little faster? Come, I‘m waiting!” So he couldn’t get, and that is how they broke the ice and begin to have a (30:00) conversation. And then well, ‘wait’ and ‘waiting’ and exchange of the word ‘wait’ and ‘waiting’ and then through that they can create a conversation and then Buddha finally able to convince him whatever he is doing is totally wrong and that spiritual master that he had seen and who told him to bring thousand-finger rosary is a wrong teaching and misguiding and all this, and finally he become follower of Buddha. And not only that, but during the Buddha’s lifetime and there are so many incidents, one of the great kings, the Buddha’s benefactor who not only happens to be king, but all himself happens to be an arhats, has been sort of (31:32)-------- they overthrow the king and the son, the prince, took over and put the father into jail. And in prison in the palace on the second floor below the king’s own cottage, king’s own palace sort of residential area below that, and under the king’s court or something that. And finally the father died. Just before the father died, Buddha appeared in life in front of the dying king not through usual procedure of opening door and walking, but magically appeared and talked to him. And finally he died. And then this king had tremendous amount of regret. And number of regret have come up. He is also follower of the Buddha, the son-king so he realized that according to the Buddha that he had committed two, not only one, but two limitless negativities such as killing your own parents, father or mother or both, and plus killing an arhat so sort of created double limitless negativities. So he was very regretful, terribly depressed, and a horrible situation. At the moment he tried to see Buddha and finally Buddha gave orders and told him the father and the mother should be killed. The retinues and your kingdom, the human beings should be destroyed. And then that is the way the people get liberated or something. And that’s a very funny sutra that Buddha told to that king which of course interpreted, not the real parents, but the parents of samsara. Not the real king, not the real arhats, not the real human beings, but all twelve links of interdependent system originations, if you have destroyed the person will be liberated, naturally twelve links of interdependent nature makes individual person continuously function within samsara. So this sort of thing and during the Buddha’s time also tremendous amount of negativities and Buddha showed so many ways of purifying. Even later in Tibet, if you look in Milarepa life story there is a hunter, the hunter which is chasing the animals, and which chasing those deer and finally the hunter gives the bow and arrow in the presence of Milarepa and give a commitment that he will no longer hunt the living beings. And later Milarepa taught that person and became one of those important outstanding disciples of Milarepa and one of the great even arhats. And so all of those which now to conclude the Buddha himself had said, “The sun and the moon can be covered by clouds, but clouds are temporary. It can be removed. But the space, the sky, the sun, and the moon all remains pure.” So likewise, negativities are temporary. It comes in many times to us with or without realization, especially we are very much addicted with the negativities so therefore our mind is so much, so much involved with negativity even one makes a little statement, we don’t think that person is sincere, probably you know how that happens. Even during the last election, election day, there were a couple of us together watching the election result and then they showed that Jesse Jackson was crying so one of the people with us, I won’t name it, and said, “Oh he’s crying because he thinks it because that’s not him.” So it is very cynical thoughts. I told immediately to that person, that is how mean you are. Honestly. Because you know, that person may or may not be mean, but not in the mind doesn’t think a good way. Mind thinks, “Why he is crying, he is a politician,” he probably crying- first they probably thought is was fake and then realized he can’t stop crying, and when he realized it- “Oh yeah, he’s crying because he is not the person who is winning tonight.” So it is, really, you know, sometimes our mind is, that is how our mind is, instead of really thinking this guy was involved since the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King. Mind you, when Dr. King died, this guy is there and worked through for the civil rights movement all his lifetime, and now this is the time when somebody, an African-American get elected to the highest office in the world. President of the United States. Probably sad, happy, and couldn’t help it. Instead of thinking that “Well he’s crying because that’s not him who is becoming President tonight.” It’s a very cynical thought. That is how our negative addictions make our mind think that way. Always we have to think of something simple straightforward honesty. But somehow cynical, (40:00) mean, something will always think that way. That is how the addiction works. And I told that person that night itself, “You’re really mean because Jesse Jackson is crying because of that he did so much in that, instead of thinking that way and you just simply thought he’s crying because that’s not him becoming President tonight.” So that is how our mind works. Straight example. So negative addiction is such always we think the wrong way of the personal feeling we connect always the wrong, mean, something, never give chance to think maybe that person really means it. Maybe that person has better thought I do. That is hard work to always think that way, but always looking down at the faults of the people, try to correct, that is negative addiction and that creates negativities all the time. So that’s our mind. So mind creates negativities all the time. But one good thing in Buddhism, or what Buddha taught us, no matter how heavy, how powerful negativities we might have done, Angulimala- who had killed one thousand human beings in a week- even then, you are… you can purify you can become perfect, you can become pure, you can become wonderful human being. And that is the beauty of a human being. It’s a human quality, no matter what ever the negativity we may have it we can just purify it. We can become perfect, pure. We can. We can and we should and we will. And that’s one of our human qualities. It is very difficult if you are non-human to be able to do that, but a human beings can do that.

So how do we do it? By application of four powers. Power one, is taking refuge. I’m talking from the Buddhist point of view, that’s why. Taking refuge and generating bodhimind and meditating the four immeasurables at the third prerequisite level, we have that. That itself establishes the first power of base, base like foundation base. Second what we have to do is recognize and regret. Yes. Recognize. Without recognition it would be difficult to regret. So recognition and regret combined together we need it, We really need recognition and regret. Without recognition, regret won’t be strong enough. With recognition, it helps to build regret. So what we really require is the regret. Not only just regret, regret that somehow we ate very poisonous food or something. Some poisonous food that we ate, and we have some tremendous regret. Normally teaching tradition will give example here saying three people went out to a restaurant ate a poisonous food. One of them died already and one was very sick and about to die, and nothing happens to you. And although nothing is happening to you right now, but I saw one die, one is about to die, and I have nothing happened, I will have no peace in my mind. I will leave no stone unturned to do whatever I have to do, you know, I don’t know, go to a doctor and flush out and pump water in and throw out and do whatever you may have to, whatever the best way that you can wash our stomach out completely and that’s what we try to do, right? So that’s much regret is required according to the Buddha. Because purification is can be done but it is not casual work. It is not a casual activity, it is very serious business. The four powers that we have, it has to be very serious. Especially the power of regret has to be very serious. If it’s very serious, that much purification will be perfect, so it depends on that so it’s recommended very strongly power of regret. And power of regret, if it’s strong it’s non-repeatable power is very easy because once, you know, as I told you I got sick by eating a dry orange in Tibet when I was 8, 9, 10, years old and til even after going to India in 1959 and that will be after I am 23, 24 so it’s almost like ten years I can’t stand any smell of orange. Nowadays I can eat little bit of orange but I don’t like any sour at all anything, whether it is orange, lemon, or lime or whatever it is. I hate sours. Anything so even vinegars, except the Chinese vinegar- which is funny. But, honestly, so because you got sick and ten years and even fifty years thereafter you hate all sours. Everything sour. Even the sour smell I can’t stand it. So that’s because you got sick. And that much, if you have that much regret, the power of repentance will be automatic. So and then if possible the 35 Buddha purification. Or if not, then a general purification that we do have the verses available. It’s not a verse, it’s a loose thing available in English here so I think next week you will have them. Hartmut will give them to you, to everybody through email so that you can get them, so by saying that. So if you purify then with the- from the bottom of heart purification, when you purify and then no matter- once purification is not enough, repeated purification. (50:00) If repeatedly purified, no matter how heavy it might be, there is nothing that is not purified and thus the principle of impermanence has been defeated. So changeable, since everything is changeable, everything’s dependent arising, so therefore negativities are also dependent arise. When the conditions, parts, and parcels changed and then the nature itself change. So whether the negativities become positive or not, but it does not remain negativities. That is called purification.

And if one purifies, then it helps to develop qualities within the individual. If you have a heavy negativities, even you get intellectual understanding of what we are talking about, or reading about it your spiritual path it does not become quality of the individual person because what stands between the information and the person is those negativities and their effect. So when it purifies, then not only information learning, but information whatever you have becomes quality. The qualities that are already with you will not be decreased. Increased. And so that is important. Atisha, when he was in Tibet, number of times on the road he stopped his cavalry, the horse group running, suddenly stops in the middle because Atisha says, “Looks like I have one negativity come in.” So has some kind of wooden stupa he carries. So in the presence of that wooden stupa Atisha offers mandala and does purification. Whether Atisha really has negativities or not, it’s a different question. At least Atisha did that to give us a message that we should follow. A person like Atisha, he said, “Occasionally I get downfalls of self liberation, very often I get a lot of downfalls against bodhisattva vow, and against Vajrayana is like a snowstorm, all the time.” he says. If Atisha has that we are sure to have it. So the purification is very important. Je Rimpoche Lama Tsong Khapa, first and foremost, he had emphasized so much for purification during that period. He even repeatedly said, “So my practice was perfect those days, not later,” he says, and those days because he was so much emphasizing for purification. And also during the purification he also had this vision of 35 purification Buddhas, begin with the Buddha King of Naga (54:36 Tibetan name) and then 35 buddhas. So all this. And all this was done out of this Samantabhadra prayer and extraordinary aspiration of the practice of Samantabhadra King of Prayers. I think you can even Google it, ‘King of Prayers’ and you get that. ‘King of Prayer’ you get that translation available in English. So in this purification level I think this is, ‘Every harmful action I have done with my body, speech, and mind overwhelmed by attachment and confusion. All this I openly lay there before you.’ That is only one verse. So this King of Prayers or Samantabhadra, practice of Samantabhadra, aspiration of the practice of Samantabhadra prayers I believe if you Googled ‘King of Prayer’ you should get that so couple of verses we did the other day so this purification verse is this. What we say in our Jewel Heart prayer, “I purify all negativities,” right? ‘I purifiy all my negativities’ or something like that. We have one vers only. (Audience: I regret and purify all transgressions) Oh. “I regret and purify all transgressions.” So that is what we do out of our seven limb and that’s that. So this the important point. And again, I’m sorry I am not there tonight, but it is an important point. And that is something you can do every night before you go to bed, this little verse ‘Every harmful action I have done with my body, speech, and mind overwhelmed by attachment, anger, and comfusion, all this I openly lay there before you.’ That is Samantabhadra prayer and what we have is, ‘I regret and purify all transgressions so we have just (57:49 single lain?) and this has fallen in and whichever one you do, even the Ganden Llegyema if you are doing it, you have one line in the Ganden Llegyema (57:57 Tibetan verse) ‘From the limitless beginning I accumulated negativities of body, speech, and mind especially the opposite of the three vows that I have taken. I regret from the bottom of my heart.’ I am paraphrasing because I don’t say the Ganden Llegyema with me if you look in the Lama Chopa you have (58:34 Tibetan verse) But we sing that all the time. The translation is probably Jewel Heart prayers here, but I don’t know where Lama Chopa is. (To audience: Do you know where Lama Chopa is? Oh, thank you) It is the blue book of Jewel Heart page 69 and verse 31. “All negative actions that I have committed, ordered, or rejoiced in from beginningless time I regret and purify in your presence and I resolve to remain alert.” So whichever you do, doesn’t matter, but do it. And do it every night. Before you go to bed. So that way Atisha, Tsong Khapa, all of them said I will not sleep at night over with negativities. (60:00) If you get that we are great. So this is your practice. And then of course you have the supreme field of merit in front of you and this is an opportunity here, you remember that you have actually did by yourself, make others to do it, or encourage others to do it, or rejoice other’s negativity- all of them are purified. And keep on doing the purification every day. If you do it like drop of water in the bucket fills bucket every day. One day the bucket will be full. So that’s what we do, that’s how we live our life. Thank you, and I’m sorry again that I am not there. You know my mind is there, and if I could have beamed, I would have beamed there. But, so I am planning to be there next week, and I am planning all the efforts to be there, you know why? Because then I go to Europe and I won’t be able to see you. So I really wanted to be there. Thank you.

(To Jonas: No Questions, right?…….. Concluding prayers)