Archive Result

1414

20100314GRNYNL3

Transcriber Hartmut

0:00 Heart Sutra, lineage prayer, short mandala, sang gye chö dang….

0:15

Do kindly generate bodhimind and if you cannot, then think at least that for the benefit of all mother beings you would like to obtain the stage of the Buddha for which you would like to listen, learn, analyze and meditate and obtain total enlightenment. For this you would like to listen to this teaching.

The teaching you are listening to is the lam rim, the road map to enlightenment or buddhahood. There are a number of different lam rims in the Geden Kagyu tradition. As I said yesterday, the lam rim is not a new creation by the Gelugpas, but it is the essence of the prajnaparamita texts. This has direct and indirect meanings. The direct meaning is the wisdom aspect, the indirect aspect is the compassion aspect. All of those are the essence of the teachings of the Buddha. That prajnaparamita comes into 12 volumes. The shortest version is in one volume, the most detailed is the kangyur, some 100 and some volumes. The 12 volumes are known as bum in Tibetan. The second shortest version is known as gye tong ba, which has one volume. The essence of that teaching clearly emphasizes what the direct and indirect meanings are. Then in accordance with Atisha’s tradition Je Tsongkhapa wrote the great lam rim, the lam rim chenmo, which has 3 volumes in English, translated by a number of different professors, organized by the New Jersey Learning Center. Then you have Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middle Lam Rim. If you read it next to the lam rim chenmo, it reads like a synopsis of the lam rim chenmo. Everything is mentioned there, but if you go into the lam rim chenmo, it is much more. Even that Middle Lam Rim has been made shorter by Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s in the Lines of Experience. There are 8 famous commentaries, out of which the 1st or 2nd Panchen Lama wrote the de lam, the ‘Smooth Path to Enlightenment’. Then depending on who wrote the de lam, the nyur lam or ‘Quick Path’ is written by either the 2nd or the 3rd Panchen Lama. There are a number of others, like the 5th Dalai Lama’s jam pel zhal lung, Manjushri’s Oral Instructions. There is also the 2nd Dalai Lama’s ‘Essence of Refined Gold’. There are so many of them. Lately, Pabongkha Dorje Chang wrote the Liberation in the Palm of your Hand – nam dröl lap shang.

All of them really talk the same thing. The outlines match. But some people have a lot of time to read and understand and meditate, some people have only short time. That’s why there is all this variety. This nyur lam is not too long, not too short, quite interesting. The real short ones, like the Foundation of Perfections has only a couple of pages. Then in the 1st Panchen Lama’s lama chöpa you have the Prayer of the Graduated Path too. All of them give you everything. All your practices are so well organized. This has not been organized by me or by my teachers, but by Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa himself on the basis of Manjushri’s instructions.

Now it is easy. We can say ‘common with the lower level’, ‘common with the medium level’ and ‘mahayana’. All these are made by Manjushri and Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa. For anybody after him it was then very easy to write the commentaries, because the basic foundation was established. Manjushri and Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa did not make that up themselves either. It already came from India. Atisha is the one who really started this. He started the Kadam tradition with his student Drom Rinpoche and so on. When Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa came in it was called New Kadampa lineage.

Yesterday I reviewed almost all three scopes. Today I would like to review something that some of you may not have heard before. I don’t want to go back to review the 6 preliminaries, but I like to say something about the first ones, like cleansing the place and laying the altar. Then comes laying out offerings and making offerings, presenting them artistically. You have to remember that. The teachings really emphasize the artistic presentation. The Ganden Lha Gyema itself for example says

YI WONG CHO YON NA TSOG ME TOG DANG

DRI ZHIM DUG PO NANG SAL DRI CHAB SOG

NGO SHAM YI TRUL CHO TRIN GYA TSO DI

SO NAM ZHING CHOG KYO LA CHO PAR BUL

Pleasing water offerings, various flowers,

fragrant incense, light, and scented water,

this ocean of such cloud-like offerings, both actually arranged and mentally created,

I present to you, O supreme Field of Merit.

Beautiful attracted flowers, well decorated, incense not just burning and producing smoke, but with beautiful smell. That depends on the individual. Some people like perfume, some find it very difficult and overpowering. I was experiencing yesterday at lunch. Someone had such a strong perfume. Anyway, do not ignore the artistic arrangements. Some people think that offerings are important, but it is okay to just put a glass of water there and just put some flowers somewhere. That doesn’t work. Then you don’t create the karma of presenting it nicely. If you lack the artistic touch and just have lumps here and there – unless you are very highly developed and can manifest anything into something beautiful – you are depriving yourself of an opportunity to be a person who is in future well organized and good looking. Yes, you may have made offerings and you probably will have a good human rebirth, but you could be ugly-looking. We don’t want that. So it is important to have the artistic touch. Trungpa Rinpoche emphasized that so much. He adopted the Japanese ikebana flower arrangement style and even now, if you go into a small Dharmadhatu branch center like the one in Chicago – the flower arrangements are fantastic. I don’t mean that our flower arrangements are not good. They are very good, thank you. But they don’t have too many, but arranged so well. You have to look a couple of times and look again and again – because it is very attractive. Also it is completely neat. It is not an altar which becomes a junk yard. I don’t like altars that become junk yards. A lot of people bring all kinds of post cards and put them on the altar. Luckily we don’t do that, otherwise I would have to throw all of them out. In that case we would be better off without altar.

The altar and the things on it should be clean, nice, neat and of good quality. You don’t have to put everything up there. But that’s not what I wanted to review.

30:00

That is the creation of the field of merit. Many of you have heard it, but many of you didn’t. Again, let me emphasize this. The lama chöpa tree is over there. You can look at it. The lama chöpa tree has Lama Losang Thubwang Dorje Chang in the center. The lam rim tree has Buddha Shakyamuni in the center. Some people will say it is the refuge tree, but it doesn’t matter. It is the lam rim tree. Another difference is that the lama chöpa has the Mahamudra lineage above the Lama. That is Manjushri after Manjushri on top. The lam rim doesn’t have that. Otherwise it is almost the same.

In the lam rim field you have the Lama Thubwang Dorje Chang. In reality, it is your own root guru, appearing as Buddha Shakyamuni. That establishes that there is no separation between Buddha Shakyamuni and your own root master. The actual person is your root master and he looks like Buddha Shakyamuni. Another important point is that creating the field is important, but not that important. You have a bunch of lineage persons at your right hand side, surrounding Maitreya Buddha. That is gya chen chö gyu – the compassion lineage. Then on the left you have Manjushri surrounded by a number of people. That is called profound wisdom lineage – sab mo ta gyu. Above that is Buddha Vajradhara, surrounded by lots of the mahasiddhas, people who have achieved this crazy wisdom. That is called nyam len jin lab gyu the blessing lineage.

In front you visualize again your own root master – in his own form, surrounded by all the direct masters from whom you have taken teachings. These are 4 groups surrounding the central figure. Then these are followed by all the yidams, buddhas, bodhisattvas, dakas, dakinis and dharmapalas, like any other merit field. The order of these are: yidams first. Within that the maha anu yoga tantra yidams are first and right in front are Guhyasamaja, Yamantaka, Heruka and Hevajra. These are the more important. They are sitting on the same lotus petal as the Lama Buddha. Then the other maha anu yoga tantra yidams follow that. Then you have the yoga tantra yidams and then the charya and kriya tantra yidams. Then you have the buddhas. That means all buddhas other than Shakyamuni Buddha. He is the most important guru. That’s the guru appears in the form of Shakyamuni Buddha and so he is the category of lineage masters. But all other buddhas, like the 10 directional buddhas, the 35 purification buddhas, and so on, male and female, appear in the Buddha line. Below that you have have the bodhisattvas, male and female. That’s because they are the Mahayana sangha. Then you have the arhats, the Theravadana sangha. Then come the dakas and dakinis, the vajrayana sangha. The non-samsaric dharmapalas are the dharma protectors.

That is the creation of the field of merit. Then you make the 7 limbed offering and so on. Finally you dissolve the field of merit. You dissolve the lower ones to the upper ones: the dharmapalas dissolve to the dakas and dakinis, they to the arhats, they to the bodhisattvas, they to the buddhas, they to the kriya, - charya, - yoga – and then maha anu yoga tantra yidams. Finally these dissolve to Guhyasamaja yab-yum, and to Yamantaka. The lineage masters dissolve to: the wisdom lineage to Manjushri, the compassion lineage to Maitreya Buddha and all other teachers in front of you, from whom you have taken direct teachings. The blessing lineage adepts of the lineages of Yamantaka, Heruka, Guhysamaja, Hevajra, etc, will dissolve to the Buddha Vajradhara. Finally you are left with Manjushri, Maitreya, the root master and Buddha Vajradhara. Manjushri and Maitreya dissolve to the Lama and the root master dissolves to Buddha Vajradhara. Buddha Vajradhara finally enters through the crown of the root master in the Buddha form, thus giving birth to kyab ne kundu lama lhag pai lha Thubwang Dorje Chang – Buddha Buddha Vajradhara.

0:40

He is our daily usage. Even in Vajrayogini it says: he is collection of all refuge. Every yidam practice, wherever you go, has that. That’s where it comes from. So that is what you have in every lam rim. Lama lhag pai lha in Tibetan means the special of special god. Finally that Buddha Buddha Vajradhara comes and sits on your crown. Then in every outline, whatever you meditate, like now we are doing the bodhimind development through the exchange stage method, he is also there on your crown. He is the witness, guide, role model. He is somebody you always look to for help, like saying “mom”. In that manner it functions. You see that as collection of all refuges. So in the case of lama chöpa it is Lama Losang Thubwang Dorje Chang, because the principal is Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa. So this is a guru yoga based on Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa. In reality it is your root guru, whoever that may be, looking like kyab ne kundu lama lhag pai lha Thubwang Dorje Chang – Buddha Buddha Vajradhara or in the case of the lama chöpa Lama Losang Thubwang Dorje Chang. Functioning in that way it becomes the Ganden nying gyü kyi me nga – Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s special transmission. You are not going to see that written down in books much.

For practitioners this is so important. If it is a western book you have to put three strokes and dots, these !!! exclamation marks. In Tibetan we don’t do that. We just mix them in. That’s why I wanted to review this. So every time I say kyab ne kundu lama lhag pai lha Thubwang Dorje Chang – Buddha Buddha Vajradhara, I am referring to that very specific Thubwang Dorje Chang, who is in reality your own root master, the collection of all your direct masters, appearing as Lama Buddha Vajradhara in the case of lam rim and as Lama Losang Thubwang Dorje Chang in the case of the lama chöpa. Even in the lama chöpa, when you generate the refuge field in the beginning, it is based on Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara. Then the rest of the lama chöpa is about Lama Losang Thubwang Dorje Chang.

In reality it is the collection of all – remember we created them all, dissolved them into 5, then they dissolve into one and finally Buddha Vajradhara comes down, giving birth to the lama lhag pail ha Thubwang Dorje Chang. So when you meditating love and compassion, when you develop bodhimind, when you develop generosity and morality, and so on, everything goes in that form.

Before I continue the nyur lam teaching here, I would like to give the oral transmission of Pabongkha’s Prayer to meet with the teachings of the great Je Tsongkhapa Dharma King of the 3 realms. That’s how Tibetans normally address Je Tsongkhapa: kham sum chökyi gyal po chen po.

Those of you who are not familiar with the oral transmission you just hear the words. Hearing the words alone is enough.

GR gives that oral transmission. 0:47

There is a verse here that means:

May I meet with the victorious Lobsang’s teachings

Superior to the others in their way of bringing about the supreme mind in us,

Through the practice that combines into one the 7 points cause and effect instructions

With the equalizing and exchanging self and others.

That is what we have been talking about in the last 2 days.

0:50

May I meet with Victorious Losang’s teachings

That reveal the subtlest of essential points regarding the two truths

Of noble system of Arya (Nagarjuna) whereby emptiness and dependent arising

Emerge the one from the other and action and agent are thoroughly correct

As subtly conceptually ascribed.

In other words, emptiness and dependent origination, one brings the other. But in the subtle mind you can function everything. It is the real essence of Nagarjuna’s two truths. It is a very subtle point of the two truths.

May I meet with Victorious Losang’s teachings,

Miraculously swift in cutting the cycle of cyclic existence,

By taking the result three kayas as a path through transforming

Our samsaric basis – the continuum of birth, death and intermediate state.

In order to cut the ordinary birth, death and bardo, as well as transform them into the result of the three kayas and obtain the 3 stages of Buddha, his birth, death and bardo stage, this is a unique, extraordinary way of cutting the samsara.

So that was the oral transmission of Pabongkha’s Prayer.

Now, on recommendation of Glenn Mullin I have been asked to give the oral transmission of Palden Lhamo’s mantra and Vaisvarana’s mantra.

Palden Lhamo

JHO RAMO JHO RAMO JHO JHO RAMO TUN JHO KALA RA CHEN MO RAMO AJA TAJA TUN JHO RULU RULU HUNG JHO HUNG

There are 7 Jho’s in one mantra, so the way you say it has to be to emphasize these.

Vaisravana and 8 entourages (including Zambala)

TAYATA- HI LI MA TI BAN DA - HI LI HI LI MA TI BAN DA – KU RU MA TI BAN DA – KU RU KU RU MA TI BAN DA – TSU RU MA TI BAN DA TSU RU TSU RU MA TI BAN DA -

– HALI BALI MA HA HA NA YE SO HA

OM VAISRAVANAYE SOHA OM VAISRAVANAYE SOHA OM VAISRAVANAYE SOHA –

ZAMBALA ZAMUNDAYA SOHA - ZAMBA LA ZAMUNDAYA SOHA - ZAM BALA ZAMUNDAYA SOHA

PUNA BANDE SOHA PUNA BANDE SOHA PUN A BAN DE SOHA

MANDI BANDE SOHA MANDI BANDE SOHA MANDI BANDE SOHA –

KUM BE RA YE SOHA KUM BE RA YE SOHA KUM BE RA YE SOHA

SAMBURA JANAYE SOHA SAMBURA JANAYE SOHA SAMBURA JANAYE SOHA –

GUHYE TA MA YE SOHA GUHYE TA MA YE SOHA GUHYE TA MA YE SOHA –

PANZA KU YE SOHA PANZA KU YE SOHA PANZA KU YE SOHA –

PANZA YIM BE LINI SOHA PANZA YIM BE LINI SOHA PANZA YIM BE LINI SOHA

That concludes the oral transmission part. Now to continue with the teachings: 58:38

Yesterday we did the exchange way of developing bodhimind. The conclusion I didn’t do. We did the verse 60 from the lama chöpa

60. DEY NA JE TSÜN LA MA THUH JE CHEN

MA GYUR DRO WEI DIK DRIP DUK NGAL KUN

MA LÜ DHA TA DAG LA MEEN PA DANG

DHAG GI DHE GE ZHAN LA TANG WA YI

DRO KUN DHE DANG DHAN PAR JIN GYI LOP (3x)

Therefore, supremely compassionate Lama,

Inspire me to take the bad deeds, imprints, and sufferings

Of all beings to ripen upon me right now,

And to give to them my happiness and virtue

So that all beings may be happy.(3x)

With that you have give and take – tong len. That part I don’t have to repeat. The verses after that are the advices. We don’t have to do them. That’s where we left yesterday. So you visualize taking the sufferings of all living beings, all kinds of sufferings. Yesterday I told you that if you are afraid of taking some sufferings do not specify them. Just think that you take in all sufferings.

What you are really taking in is some kind of undesirable results, causes and imprints of sufferings, so that the living beings become not absolutely free of direct pain but also won’t have them in future, because now all the causes are also gone. It is not going to wake up any time in future, because also the imprints are gone. Imprints are the capability to revive. There is no physical shape but if conditions meet again the capability becomes a cause. It is sort of a sleeping possibility – not a probability, but a possibility, when the conditions meet. Sometimes they give you the example of garlic and garlic smell. The chopping board on which you chop your garlic, even after washing it, you have the smell of the garlic. That is comparable to the imprint – except the garlic smell on the chopping board does not have the capability to revive the garlic. But the effect, the smell of the garlic, is still there. The imprints, negative and positive, of garlic however, have the capability to revive them. It is not the direct karma or deed, but just the possibility – if conditions meet. The effect of garlic is taste and smell. So the smell still remains and that’s the same as with the imprints too.

So collect them in form of undesirable things like dirty laundry water, etc, so you don’t have to specifically think about the actual sufferings you are taking away. That is, unless you are trying to heal somebody, if you are a masseur, physical healer, etc. In that case you really have to think that you are taking that very specific pain and cause of pain away, while you massage or touch that area. Not only pinpoint the very spot of pain but the connected area, wherever it is and take that in.

1:04

This is very helpful for people who really do healing. They can do that. I believe every person has the capability of healing – whether you have developed the skills or not. So if you are doing healing, it is always good to do it with tong len. Maybe do that 21 times or at least 7 times, or if you are very busy, then at least 3 times. Then you have to make sure that these sufferings dissolve within your own system. If you can think of the nature of emptiness, that’s good. But it depends on the person. Some individuals can function with that. Some individuals can feel that it just disappears somewhere in their body. But having it remain somewhere in your body may not be that good. As we said yesterday, see the ego in the form of light at your heart level and that sufferings comes in in the form of air and hits the ego and the light goes out. The air then is also gone. Or you bring the suffering in as some kind of thunder and lightning. That needs a little skill. Then with that you hit the ego, which is like a little mountain-like rock. Through the lightning hitting it the rock falls into pieces. Then it goes completely out of your system. There are many ways of doing that. Read the transcript Lojong. If I remember I gave a couple of options in there. That doesn’t mean however, that every lojong book will recommend the same.

Sometimes you look and they don’t have it. Sometimes the tradition will make a difference. I follow Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s tradition. Secondly, teachers themselves make a difference. Particularly, the individual teacher who is teaching, makes a difference. So it is not like in a western medical book. There you read that if you have this pain and have these symptoms, then you take this pill. It doesn’t work that way here. It is very much individualized. Sometimes earlier Tibetologists and Buddhologists called Tibetan Buddhism “Lamaism”. When we came to the west in the 1960s we all denied that completely with one voice – from His Holiness down to every Tibetan. We said it is not Lamaism but Buddhism. But now, if you look carefully, it could be Lamaism too. Even in the Tibetan tradition they will tell you

La me drib u gang sha ma to dribu lama gang sha ma

it is up to the lama where he wants to leave his bell, it is not the bell that puts the lama here or there.

So it could be Lamaism too. In any case there are very special ways of doing it. If you are doing it you have to follow the advices. That is verse 62 and 63 in the lama chöpa

62. DHOR NA ZANG NGAN NANG WA CHI SHAR YANG

CHÖ KÜN NYING PO TOP NGEI NYAM LEN GYI

JANG CHUP SEM NYEI PHEL WEI LAM GYUR TE

YEI DHE BA ZHIK GOM PAR JIN GYI LOP

In short, whether conditions seem favorable or unfavorable,

Inspire me to make a habit of happiness,

By increasing the two types of Bodhimind

Through the practice of the five forces, essence of all the Dharmas.

63. JOR WA ZHI DANG DHEN PEI THAP KHEY KYI

TREL LA GANG THUB GOM LA JOR WA DANG

LO JONG DHAM TSIK LAP JAY NYAM LEN GYI

DHÄL JOR DÖN CHEN JE PAR JIN GYI LOP

Whatever happens, may I use meditation at once,

Applying the skillful methods of the four techniques.

Inspire me to take advantage of this fortunate life

By practicing the commitments and precepts of training the mind.

64. TONG LEN LUNG LA KYÖN PAY TRÜL DHEIK CHAN

JAM DANG NYING JE LHAK PAI SAM PA YI

DRO NAM SI TSO CHE LAY DRÖL WEI CHIR

JHANG CHUP SEM NYEI JONG PAR JIN GYI LOP

‘Give and Take’ mounted on the breath is the magic device

That brings love, compassion, and the special mind.

To save all beings from this world’s great ocean.

Please bless me to awaken true Bodhimind.

There are the four ways or methods that makes the life worthwhile and there are the five powers of functioning. Then at the time of transferring your consciousness and there are also five powers and four actions. These at the basis of my book “Good Life Good Death”. So the real essence of following the advices are these.

Finally, you think you develop the bodhimind through exchange. I am not going to talk about it here, but you can read in Pabongka’s Liberation in the Palm of your Hand, in which the 7 stages and 5 stages are combined into the 11 stages. It is very short in there, just a page or so at the most. In Tibetan there are just a few lines. But it is very important. It is Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s way of developing bodhimind. Again, Pabongka in his Prayer to Meet Tsongkhapa’s Teaching:

Men ngak chik tudril ne kyong wa yi – sem chok kye tsül shen le kye shuk pe..

May I meet with the victorious Lobsang’s teachings

Superior to the others in their way of bringing about the supreme mind in us,

Through the practice that combines into one the 7 points cause and effect instructions

With the equalizing and exchanging self and others.

These are the special instructions of Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa. There are so many, from guru devotional practice to ultimate enlightenment. Even at the end of the practice, just before you become a fully enlightened Buddha, you rise yourself internally as the illusion body. Even the nyur lam says: many don’t even hear a word about this. So it is so important.

When I talk about the many qualities of Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching, I am not trying to be sectarian. I am not saying that because I am following Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching it is superior. But there are so many points everywhere that make a difference.

1:13

Over here, you have developed the bodhimind through the exchange method. Again, you have to realize: so far I just simply visualized and imagined, but it has not yet happened. Everyone has not become free of suffering, but for the time being you have to think that it has been done. Then at the next moment you think: it has not yet happened. I just imagined it. So it may materialize and become reality as I have imagined. So you think: I pray to the kyab ne kundu lama lhag pai lha Thubwang Dorje Chang that it may happen. Then light and liquid come from the body of Lama Thubwang Dorje Chang, enter through our crown and slowly comes through the forehead, eye level, ear level, nose level, mouth level down to the throat and goes down into the chest in the heart level, down to the navel level, down to the legs, all the way, completely down to the toes and the soles of the feet. Internally that happens and externally the light and liquid bathes you like if you are washing yourself with soap. In between skin and flesh and internally, even within the chakras and channels, everywhere, every impurities are completely washed away and are washed completely out of your system. All negativities leave your body and particularly the self cherishing and the imprints of that are completely washed out of your system, from the knees, from the toes, from the back bone and everywhere and you become pure. Then kyab ne kundu lama lhag pai lha Thubwang Dorje Chang dissolves to me and I become one with him. I become a Buddha. I look like a Buddha. I feel like a Buddha and function like a Buddha.

So I radiate light from my body that reaches to the people around me, my nearest and dearest, the family, loved ones and their friends and loved ones, and again the friends and loved ones of those people, in short the whole existence, the multi galaxies of the whole existence. My light reaches to all of them. Just the touch of the light purifies the inhabitants and the environment and all the inhabitants become transformed into fully enlightened buddhas. They are free from all suffering, causes of sufferings, imprints of suffering. The strong light blocks all negative actions, negative minds, negative emotions, their results, their causes and even the imprints. All are completely purified. They become fully enlightened buddhas and leave for their heavens. You can even go to the hell realm and just by the touch of the light coolness is brought to the hot hells, warmth to the cold hells, food, drink, clothes and so on to the hungry ghost realms, intelligence, better understanding and wisdom to the animal realms, and thus all 3 lower realms are completely emptied.

1:20

All human realms, demi god realms and god realms are also completely purified. The individual beings are transformed into buddhas. The light now dissolves back to me and I am so happy that I was able to do that.

That is the Buddha activity. When you become a Buddha you can do that. Here you imagine that you can. You look like Buddha, feel like Buddha and act like Buddha. That’s what you are supposed to do. Then dedicate all your virtues to fulfill the wishes that you have generated. You can also say OM MUNI MUNI MAHA MUNI YE SOHA along with that. If you want to say mantras you can say them here. You can say the migtsema that is also fine or any other mantra of any other yidam. That was the conclusion of developing the bodhimind.

In between sessions it is recommended to read about it, think about it. Some people think that in between sessions doesn’t matter. I don’t talk about that much either. When teaching, I think that people need a break and so I let them do whatever they do. But one day, I was asked by someone, “What are you hiding? You give us no instructions what should be done in between the sessions. There must be very confidential, secret teachings.” So I thought I better say something.

If you are in the retreat of a certain yidam, like Yamantaka, Vajrayogini, Avalokitesvara, etc, then of course the in between sessions is important in order to overcome ordinary perceptions and conceptions. So everybody appears in the form of a yidam, every sound is in the form of mantra, and so on. Many Tibetan teachers, particularly the Nyingma and Kagyu traditions, tell you that you should think that every male is Avalokitesvara, every female is Tara, every sound you hear, including the wind blowing through the willow trees, is mantra. So in vajrayana practice, the in between sessions should be in that way.

In lam rim practice compassion in between sessions. Shantideva says,

As long as space remains, as long as living beings exist,

I may remain to clear their sufferings.

When you focusing point is shamata or Samadhi, then in between sessions you also have to maintain focus. Otherwise, if you focus in the sessions and then in between sessions you let it go haywire, then it doesn’t work.

The next one I should finish off today too. That is taking the bodhisattva vow through ritual. I can just talk about that a little. There are two outlines:

For those who don’t have the vows, how to get them

For those who have them, how to maintain them

For those who don’t have the vows, how to get them.

There are two types of bodhimind:

Prayer form

Action form

You can take both prayer form and action form together. Sometimes you take only the prayer form, not the action form. Both are possible. It is very simple.

1:26:27

You can use this verse:

I take refuge in the Three Jewels!

I confess each and every sin

I congratulate all beings on their virtues!

I hold enlightenment as goal!

Until enlightenment, I take refuge

In Buddha, Dharma, and the Best Community!

I conceive the spirit of enlightenment

To achieve the goals of self and other!

So here you take refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, purify all negativities, rejoice in all activities of the buddhas and of all great beings and the good work of everybody and hold bodhimind at the heart. You can repeat this three times and visualize that you repeat that after Lama Losang Thubwang Dorje Chang or Lama Lhag pai lha Thubwang Dorje Chang. It has to be Buddha. Even in vajrayana context you invite the yidam with the guru. Taking that is through prayer form. You are praying that you may be able to liberate all living beings.

The action form is saying a few more lines.

Conceiving the supreme spirit of enlightenment,

I wish to receive all beings as my guests!

I shall engage in pleasant highest deeds of love,

May I win Buddhahood to help all living beings!

After developing bodhimind I invite all living beings as my guests. I will carry on the bodhisattva activities and may obtain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. Here not only you are wishing to lead all living beings to total enlightenment, but you are committing to carry out the actions, such as purification, rejoicing, and inviting all living beings. Those who are not liberated you would like to liberate, those who are not consoled, you would like to console, those who cannot breathe you would like to help breathe. These are action commitments. So you are taking the bodhisattva vows in prayer form and action form. That’s if you do it separately.

Here in the nyur lam there is a very easy way. This is according to Shantideva in the bodhisattvacharyavatara:

Sang gye jang chub sem pa gö

Dag la gom pa dzer du söl…..

O Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Gurus please listen

to what I now say from the depths of my heart.

Just as all Buddhas of the past have developed

the thought of enlightenment, true bodhicittta,

then practice its stages of graded development

following the trainings for all Buddhas's sons,

so may I too, for the sake of all beings,

develop bodhicitta and follow the trainings

exactly as all Bodhisattvas have done. (3x)

There is Lama Lhag pai lha Thubwang Dorje Chang either on your crown or in front of you, or within the Field of Merit. Wherever he is, doesn’t matter. You have to think that you are repeating the vows after him. Why repeating? The vow has to be transmitted. The source has to be there, and from the source it has to reach to us. That’s why we repeat three times. In so many Buddhist ceremonies, including vajrayana initiations and everywhere, you are asked to repeat a lot. You are repeating after the lama and thus receive transmission from him. That’s it. We repeat, not because we don’t know what to say, but because we are receiving the transmission. You visualize repeating after Buddha. If you have a Buddha image in your house, do three prostrations. If you can’t, bow down a little with folded hands. Then with a pure and clear mind, if you can put your right knee down, left knee up and then think of repeating after Buddha. Think that the image is the actual living Buddha, not a bronze or metal Buddha. Think he is alive, with flesh, blood and bones. Then think you are repeating after him. Then draw the attention of buddhas and bodhisattvas:

Please pay attention to me. As the earlier buddhas have generated bodhimind and have followed the bodhisattva advice, I also, in order to serve all living beings, would like to develop bodhimind and would like to follow the bodhisattva activities.

Say this three times and think you are repeating it after Buddha. If you have received the bodhisattva vows before you can think that you are receiving them again. Then you rejoice:

At this moment my life has become truly fruitful,

for, having attained an endowed human body,

today I have developed the true Buddha essence -

bodhicitta, and thus have become Buddha's son.

Now my life has become worthwhile. It was worth taking this human rebirth. I become the child of Buddha today. From now on I would like to follow the activities of the bodhisattvas.

You are giving yourself a pep talk and make yourself feel good and give yourself some encouragement.

Then, the next is: How to maintain the bodhisattva vows with you?

Most of us have received these vows from someone here or there. You can definitely take them again every day, though that is not a commitment. You don’t have to. Otherwise some people will think, “O my God, that’s too much to do.” If you want to, you can do it. But for maintaining them, you have to meditate.

Again, visualize Lama lhag pai lha Thubwang Dorje Chang on your crown and keep reminding yourself that you would like to obtain total enlightenment. Think: therefore I should learn, meditate and remember the benefits of protecting the bodhisattva vows. I would like to think at least three times a day and three times a night about that. Most of us are vajrayana practitioners and we have that Six Session Yoga. We do that six times a day anyway. So whatever the living will do and however they look at me, from my point of view I will never give up a single living being and I will remember the benefits of maintaining bodhimind. Shantideva himself said,

Jang chub sem kye kyo nam ke chig ki…..

The moment you develop bodhimind, no matter whatever you may be, you are a child of Buddha.

That is almost like being the Prince or Princess of Wales, who will become the king or queen of England. Basically there are four black points one has to avoid.

Cheating and lying to people, particularly your own masters

Creating regret for people who have done something good

Insulting a bodhisattva, someone who has entered the Mahayana path – i.e developing jealousy and saying bad things about them, almost seeing them as a challenge or thinking oneself should be favored over them and therefore doing anything to get the favor for oneself, including insulting the others. Even if true, pointing out the negative side more than the positive side becomes this black listed point.

Not pure dedication. Trying to divert people’s focus to something else. You don’t want people to think about it. Unless it is good for that person, disturbing people in the work they are doing.

In short, bodhisattvas have 18 root downfalls and 46 secondary downfalls. Making sure that one doesn’t get those downfalls are the most important bodhisattva activities. You are going to find those 18 and 46 downfalls in the teachings of la ma lob ju pa, the 50 verses of guru yoga, as well as in the Long Six Session Yoga.

1:41

There is a good book by Geshe Lobsang Tharchin on the Six Session Yoga. That has commentary information on it. That was carefully worked out. The vows are also listed in the back of the Jewel Heart Blue Prayer Book. I have a Six Session Yoga transcript, but I may not have said much about the bodhisattva vows in there, because it was some Dutch people who asked for that teaching but their flight was leaving at 2 pm that day, so I started talking at 10.00 am, so I would not have been able to include that information in there. I don’t think it is in there.

I guess that’s it. And next time I will be in this area will be for the Memorial Retreat May 28,29, 30. Thank you so much for being patient with me, for taking interest in this. Buddhism means practice. That’s important.

1:44 da gi ji ni sag pai ge wa di…..short mandala…..Next time for the nyur lam, I will try to do the 11 stages of bodhimind and then the 6 paramitas, including the last 2 paramitas, I will do during the summer retreat. That’s what I planned a year ago. That may not be according to the nyur lam, but it will be the six activities of the bodhisattvas based on the nyur lam and thereby I will have completed the nyur lam teachings. That’s it, and if I don’t see you in April personally, it may be through the webcast from Ann Arbor. Now I will be able to also see you and have two way conversation with you through the webcast. That’s very nice. Thank you

1:49 Final dedication verses (acc to nyur lam prayer sheet) 1:50