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3 times we said the 21 Praises of Tara and the third time, in Tibet we would do it the very fast way. There are some other reasons too, but we didn’t use those. Now we continue where we stopped yesterday. I think it is the rejoicing that we did last night and we stopped there. That was on page 7, the second verse. That’s part of the 7 limbs. To remind, the first limb is prostration, the second is offering, the third is purification, the fourth is rejoicing. So now this is the request.

སེམས་�

ན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་བསམ་པ་དང།

བློ་ཡི་བྱེ་བྲག་ཇི་ལྟ་བར།

ཆེ་ཆུང་ཐུན་མོང་ཐེག་པ་ཡི།

ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་བསྐོར་དུ་གསོལ།

SEM CHÄN NAM KYI SAM PA DAN

LO YI JE DRAK JI TA WAR

CHE CHUNG TÜN MONG TEK PA YI

CHÖ KYI KOR LO KOR DU SÖL

According to the varieties

of sentient beings’ thoughts and minds,

turn the wheel of doctrine, please,

of the great, small and common vehicles!

If you look at this, the teaching you need have to be suitable to your mind. If they are not, then it is not right. We request to the Field of Merit, to Lama Tara, to Buddha the teachings, in accordance with the mental level of the individual and their interest.

0:02:51.5

If you are not interested, then no matter how profound it maybe, you cannot push it, you cannot make them eat. It is not going to help. They are going to throw up. So it has to be according to the mental level of the individual, such as che chung. Che stands for the great vehicle, Mahayana. Chung is the smaller vehicle, the Hinayana. I am explaining according to the Tibetan words. I can’t explain according to English. If I have my own ideas I would not have said ‘turn the wheel of doctrine’. I don’t think that the word ‘doctrine’ is a good idea at all. It is like dogma. Saying “turn the wheel of dharma” would have been easier for Buddhists.

0:04:29.7

I am talking to you from the Tibetan. Tün mong means ‘common’, referring to the Mahayana, and Hinayana and then the extraordinary yana, which is Vajrayana. Tün mong tek pa is actually a hidden word. Tün mong means ‘common’, but here they are talking about extraordinary or uncommon, tün mong ma yin pa. So ‘uncommon’ refers to vajrayana. So sometimes when you read Tibetan, you have to know how to read it. Honestly. Tün mong normally means ‘common’ but here it doesn’t mean ‘common’. It is means ‘uncommon’, which means Vajrayana.

0:06:28.3

The technical name for teachings is ‘turning the wheel of dharma’ – chö kyi khor lo kor du söl. So we make request for teachings suitable to the mind of the individual, either the Theravadan path, the Mahayana path or the extraordinary vajrayana path, whatever may be.

That is not only the need of the individual, as a different individual, but also at different times. Also, myself as an individual, there are times when I need more Theravadan teachings, there are times when I need more Mahayana teachings and there are times when I need more vajrayana teachings. Even for Theravadan teachings, within that, there are the basic informational aspects of the Theravada teachings on morality, then those on concentration or meditation and then those on wisdom.

Even in Mahayana there are basic information teachings on the six perfections, on love and compassion, bodhimind. There are the basic informational teachings on meditation on the six perfections and love and compassion. There are the basic information teachings on wisdom.

In the vajrayana too, sometimes I need the entering permission to vajrayana, the initiations. Sometimes, I need understanding of the mandala structure. Sometimes I need teachings on self-generation or sadhana of the development stage. Sometimes I need teachings on completion stage or even becoming it.

0:09:51.6

That’s what it means when it says, “in accordance with the variety of thoughts and minds”. It is the need of the mind and the need of time. So making requests is important, because a) if you don’t make requests you don’t get teachings. The teachings are not available on 1-800 numbers. Even the 1-800 numbers you still have to dial. Without dialing you don’t get it.

One thing, at our level, extraordinarily making teaching requests is the last 11th hour of samsara, we are uplifted from the learning path into the path of no more learning, the stage of total knowledge. There is an uplift then. That is absolutely necessary. The lama will appear to you as Buddha Vajradhara and give that teaching to you. That is the most important.

0:11:44.4

That’s why you request teachings. B) at the time of transition of your life you also need reminders of connecting your mind with the right things. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. The other day when we had Elizabeth’s memorial service I did mention that was the time when I was in New York. I was not on the spot when she was transiting, but I was in touch with her, first through telephone through Mark Harada. Then Mark told me that the doctor came and said that she was now brain dead. I was sitting in my apartment and started saying the “Seeing the Lovely Face of the Dakini” at my dining table. I felt a very strong emotional contact, extremely strong. Even Jamyang who is normally very critical of me always, even he said, “Oh, this is something unusual, lucky.” Afterwards we even went to Jewel Heart and said the Guhyasamaja root tantra. But at the time of the transition that feeling was so strong. It was almost like hand-walking.

0:14:26.0

So making requests for the teachings goes in that level and in this level and the everyday level. Teaching doesn’t necessarily mean formal teaching. It is not necessarily even an informal teaching, but the mind is connecting with the right point, leading to the right level.

As I said earlier, the mind is very lucid. It really picks up and becomes that. So that is teaching. First is the informational teaching, giving the opportunity to ponder and think about it, gain understanding and meditate and that becomes part of your character, part of your destiny. That is teaching. I said enough.

0:15:51.8

Next will be the request to remain and have longevity.

འཁོར་བ་ཇི་སྲིད་མ་སྟོངས་བར།

མྱ་ངན་མི་འདའ་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཡིས།

སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྒྱ་མཚོར་བྱིང་བ་ཡི།

སེམས་�

ན་རྣམས་ལ་གཟིགས་སུ་གསོལ།

KOR WA JI SI MA TONG BAR

NYA NGÄN MI DA TUK JE YI

DUK NGÄL GYA TSOR JING WA YI

SEM CHÄN NAM LA ZIK SU SÖL

Until samsara is empty, please

do not pass into nirvana,

but at sentient beings sunk in the ocean of suffering,

look with compassion!

Remain with us till samsara is ended. Remember the bodhisattvacharyavatara (Ch 10, v. 55) says,

ji si nam khar ma se par - di si dag ne nä gyur ne…..

༥༥

།ཇི་སྲིད་ནམ་མཁའ་གནས་པ་དང༌།།

།འགྲོ་བ་ཇི་སྲིད་གནས་གྱུར་པ།།

།དེ་སྲིད་བདག་ནི་གནས་གྱུར་ནས།།

།འགྲོ་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་སེལ་བར་ཤོག།

JI SRID NAM MKHA' GNAS PA DANG'GRO BA JI SRID GNAS GYUR PADE SRID BDAG NI GNAS GYUR NAS

'GRO BA'I SDUG BSNGAL SEL BAR SHOG

For as long as space endures

And for as long as living beings remain,

Until then may I, too, abide

To dispel the misery of the world.

To paraphrase: As long as space remains and as long as sentient beings are there, I may remain that long and clear the obstacles and sufferings of living beings.

This is the very important dedication that Shantideva made. And this dedication here is very similar.

0:17:43.0

Nirvana is a Sanskrit word. We know that nirvana is peace and samsara is suffering. Peace is very common in our usual language. [When someone passes we say] the person has gone into peace or something or remains in the final resting place – which also refers to peace. In this case Eastern culture refers to it as nirvana. So that is making requests. Then there is dedication. Making requests and dedication may be coming from the doctrinal part, but prostration, offering, purification, rejoicing, are really very important ways of improving the individual. So you look at that as doing service to God or whatever in one way of looking, and in another way you look at this as practice to improve yourself. That’s why I said in Buddhism, Buddha’s point is that you are the most important. You are the one who does right or wrong. You are the one who almost creates yourself. Almost. I don’t want to say it, but you can almost think that way. You almost create your own good and bad, your own life, your own future by yourself, through the medium of karma. So you are responsible. So this language is acceptable. You are responsible for yourself, for your future, your good or bad future. Everything is your responsibility. That is acceptable, culture-wise. If I say, “You are your own creator”, then that is not acceptable. No one says that, but in reality it is the same thing.

0:20:57.4

I don’t mean the reality of emptiness, but bottom line it is the same thing. You are responsible and you do it. So what is the difference? It is the same thing.

That’s why these seven limbs are so important. The simple essence practice is the seven limbs, really. From the Buddhist doctrine point of view a few points came in and they are not for me to reject. So we leave them and even in the Jewel Heart prayers we do them every day. It is the same thing, just in one line and this is four lines. Even when you look in the ganden lha gyema, the seven limbs are there in four line verses. In the la ma chö pa you find a few verses for each of the seven limbs. If you look in the King of Prayers you also find the seven limbs. Each limb has two, three verses, some have one. That is also available in English now.

The bottom line is that the seven limbs is the essence practice of Buddha Dharma, not necessarily as a service to Buddha or to Dharma, but in your own service. I don’t know. It is your own helping to yourself. And this is the way it is.

0:23:10.4

So dedication is the last one:

བདག་གིས་བསོད་ནམས་�

ི་བསགས་པ།

ཐམས་�

ད་བྱང་ཆུབ་རྒྱུ་གྱུར་ནས།

རིང་པོ་མི་ཐོགས་འགྲོ་བ་ཡི།

འདྲེན་པའི་དཔལ་དུ་བདག་གྱུར་�

ིག

�

ེས་ཡན་ལག་བདུན་པ་འབུལ

DAK GI SO NAM CHI SAK PA

TAM CHÄ JANG CHUP GYU GYUR NÄ

RING POR MI TOK DRO WA YI

DREN PÄ PÄL DU DAK GYUR CHIK

May all the merits I have gathered

become the cause of enlightenment,

so that I soon become the glorious

liberator of sentient beings!

“The glorious liberator of sentient beings” refers to total enlightenment. That is Buddha. In other words we are dedicating all our virtues to become ourselves Buddha. But the individual self is Buddha and that is dedication. That covers the Seven Limbs.

0:24:27.1

Now the next is the Praise to the Twenty-One Forms of Tara. There is a little note here in the text that I have not read before:

(recite these as many times as possible, from OM JE TSÜN MA PAK MA DRÖL MA LA CHAK TSAL LO! up to CHAK TSAL WA NI NYI SHU TSA CHIK. Each time you say the words CHAK TSAL (HOMAGE), visualize that a replica comes from the relevant Tara, just as one lamp lights another, and sinks into you.)

That is not a wrong explanation. Looks like Glenn Mullin translated this. These 21 Praises of Tara – I don’t know who wrote it. I have no idea. I didn’t pay any attention. It is coming from a very long time ago, maybe even before Buddha. I don’t know.

0:26:52.3

Who put them together? No idea. So the 21 Taras Praise in Tibetan has two different physical versions. There are two traditions. One is the version of Atisha. Tibetans call him Atisha, but the Bengalians don’t know when you say ‘Atisha’. I have a number of Bengalians, not scholars, but taxi drivers and merchants. Now it’s West and East Bengal and East Bengal is now part of Bangla Desh. When I first came to India it was all part of India and then there was a war between India and Pakistan and Bangla Desh was created. I was in Dehli in those days. Mostly the Indians used Tibetan guerilla trainers who were supposed to be challenging China in the creation of Bangla Desh. Most of the Muktibanis were Tibetans. The Tibetan brigades had to travel at night and take over one town and disappear in the early morning and then the Bengalians would come with sticks and jump around and the radio and television would announce that the people took over that town, and this town and that town. Finally, 5000 or 6000 Pakistani army had to surrender to the Indian army in Dhaka. Then Bangla Desh was created.

0:30:26.4

Earlier it was East Bengal, part of Pakistan. That was after the 1949 partition and then later it became Bangla Desh. The taxi drivers in New York City who are from Bangla Desh, if you tell them about Atisha, they know nothing, but when I mentioned Dipamkara, they immediately knew, “Dipamkara, the Bengalian teacher.” Tibetans call him Atisha Dipamkara Shrijana. Dipamkara is his real name and that’s how a lot of Bengalians know Atisha. He brought the refined Buddhist teachings to Tibet from the Indian institutions such as Vikramshila, where he was from and from Nalanda. Those great refined teachings were brought to Tibet by Dipamkara.

from the Indian institutions such as Vikramshila, where he was from and from Nalanda. Those great refined teachings were brought to Tibet by Dipamkara Srijana Atisha.

0:32:00.4

Atisha’s version of the 21 Taras shows the normal Tara 21 times. I have a tangka here of Atisha’s version of the 21 Taras. Then there is another version of the 21 Taras by Mahasiddha Nyima Päba, in Sanskrit Suryagupta. Surya is the sun (Tib: nyima). His version of the 21 Taras differs. Here the Taras have lots of hands and hand implements and they are totally different. It is hard for people who are not familiar to call them Taras. It is a little difficult for them, completely different. One of them is riding on a bird, one on an elephant, I don’t remember exactly. At least in Tibet there are these two well-known versions of the 21 Taras.

Whether you have the Taras in this version with a number of hands, some wrathful or whether you have simple the same Tara 21 times, in reality it makes no difference. So Atisha’s version is very simple. It is the same Tara 21 times. Each of the 21 Taras has her own little assignment. This praise of Tara has been translated from so many different Indian dialects into Tibetan. That’s where there are even different versions. This particular version of the names and little descriptions of their work is very commonly accepted by any traditions in Tibet, Sakya, Nyingma, Gelug, Kagyu, wherever you go. That praise to the 21 Taras is the same.

0:35:56.0

It is also said in the gathering of the large monasteries, as well as in small, individual families. Many families get together in their own home in the morning or evening, kids and parents sitting together and they say this, everywhere in Tibet until 1959. After 1959, when they came to India, it changed slightly. They don’t say it that much. They somehow relaxed that. Now many say it and many don’t. They say the longevity prayer for the Dalai Lama or something. But the refuge and the 21 Praises of Tara are said by everybody. Then the Gelugpas will also say the Ganden Lhagyema or lama chöpa, the Nyingmapas will say Vajraguru or that type and the Kagyupas will say whatever they say, the Sakyas will say their different prayers, but this [Tara praise] is traditional, old. Before 1959 they would all say that, commonly as refuge and the 21 Praises of Tara. There is no difference. The seven limbs also came together with that and everybody would say this very seven limbs prayer. It was said in monasteries, small families, individuals, everywhere.

0:37:46.8

Many individuals as kids would learn this and if you have difficulties, fears or threats, you would say this: om jetsün ma pakma drölma la chagtsalo, etc….Even kids would say that. Somehow Tara has become such a thing.

0:38:13.1

I will have to read the commentary too. I have just been able to download it yesterday [by Gunthang, sung bum,Vol 2, page 560], but I was not able to read it yet. So maybe we will do it in the next session.

I told you Tara’s story yesterday and about the pure land of Tara, Yu lu kö, which is attached to Avalokitesvara’s pure land called Potala. There are a great many teachers, masters, adepts, mahasiddhas – they are all together, the same persons in oneness, all teachers are actually adepts and mahasiddhas – and almost all mahasiddhas are teachers and adepts. So there are a number of stories of them traveling to the pure land of Tara. Tara is somehow extremely close to all of us, those following Buddha Shakyamuni’s teachings and very particularly those following Atisha’s tradition and lineage. She was instrumental and responsible for Atisha going to Tibet.

0:41:04.6

Tara appeared to Atisha so many times. But she never told him he had to go. She said, “If you go to Tibet your life will be shortened by 10 years. If you remain in India you will live ten more years. But if you go to Tibet you will be extremely helpful to so many generations in future. The choice is yours.” Tara always said that. Atisha finally chose to go to Tibet. His travels in Tibet are a totally different story. There is so much. The Tibetans also had sacrificed so much in order to bring Atisha to Tibet, including their king’s life. They made big sacrifices. 21 of their best selected youth were training to become translators and many of them died. Only a few survived, maybe 4 or 5 returned back to Tibet. The others all died in India, because of the huge altitude gap, the temperature gap and the road transitions.

0:43:01.0

Many of these translators’ memoirs said things like this:

Shing dom po mi ruk gen gye pa dra/ dü da dang tray yang lung nyi dra

Sometimes a tree had fallen across a gorge like a dead body and the only way of crossing the gorge was by walking over that tree.

When we are talking about a gorge in the Himalayas we are not talking about two, three feet, but about a thousand feet and down there would be a huge river running and between the two edges of the mountains there may be one little tree that had fallen down, so you had to cross over on that. Those earlier translators said it was “a tree fallen down like a dead body” and one said, “Even today, when I remember this, 40 years later, all my internal organs are shaking.”

0:44:42.6

That much difficulty they went through and many did not survive, only a couple of them. One is the great translator Loden Sherab and Lekpei Sherab. Lekpei Sherab was Loden Sherab’s uncle. That’s one set and Marpa is another one and Nga to Lotsawa was another one in that period. So there were just these 4 and 17 or so might have gone. Later there are other lotsawas like Baktsap and so on, but they came later. They were not in that group of 21.

Even Nga tso Lotsawa, as Tibetan representative, when he tried to invite Atisha to Tibet, had to maintain secrecy, because the entire Vikramshila institution was against Atisha going, particularly the abbot Neten Akra, the Venerable Akra, was very much against it. So they had to maintain their invitation secret. Nga tso Lotsawa did not know that, but kept on talking to everybody about it. So Tara literally appeared to him as an old lady and took him out to a cup of tea, where she told him, “If you have some important work to do, you don’t announce it. You have to keep it secret. You have a lot of obstacles and people will not support you but work against you.” She gave him a lot of hints, which he didn’t get. At the end she said, “Look, there is one guy here which you should see tomorrow and don’t tell anyone else why you came here except this guy.”

0:47:29.2

Then this guy happened to be one of the Himalayan guys living in Vikramshila and he told Nga tso lotsawa, “Don’t talk to people, because then you have to go back empty-handed for sure.” So he began to instruct Nga tso Lotsawa directly, because Tara as the old woman gave him tea and food and all that, but still, was only hinting, saying that if you have important work you sometimes have to keep it secret and not publicly announce why you are here.” So Tara was very much instrumental for Atisha coming to Tibet and she had a very special commitment for the followers of Atisha’s tradition. She said, “You are my children. I have to take care of you.” That much. Maybe the children need to eat food now, so let’s leave it there and have lunch.

0:48:44.1

End of session