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19921117GRAAON09 JH

XI

the CONSEQUENCES of the negativities

their effect on the INDIVIDUAL

What do the delusions do to the individual?

We already talked about the six root delusions and how each one of the delusions affects the individu without touching on the vajrayana and tantric techniques. Very basically we talked.Now we still have to mention the basic idea of what these delusions in general do to the individual. In the text here it is mentioned very clearly:

What do the delusions do? They destroy you.

They destroy the individual; they destroy the mind.

In particular they destroy the moral conduct of the individual.

When I say moral conduct, probably you will immediately think of sexual conduct, the normal American idea of moral and immoral. I don’t think here we are talking about that. Here morality means that what comes when the individual is free of negative forces, negative thoughts. When you are free of negativities, whether action or thought, you have morality. Basically when you are keeping the positive actions and staying pure, then it is moral. When you talk about morality from the Buddhist background, you talk about how much you are protecting yourself from the negativities, whether thought or action. When we talk about moral and immoral, we are talking about how much commitments or vows the individual breaks. These things are the negatives.

When delusions come up within the individual, they are going against your own personal commitments of being good, your personal commitments of being a pure being, your personal commitments of clearing the obstacles from the individual being inside. It is going against that. That is why negativities not only destroy the individual and the individual’s mind, it also destroys the moral conduct. All the root delusions we mentioned here have that effect.

The faults of delusions: of course it destroys your mind. It destroys yourself, because it diverges the attention of the individual from the positive things that you are building to negativities. Then your actions become negative, and then that somehow connects and makes the negative karma that the individual carries to start up completely. This is one of the reasons why a number of people find the it absolutely difficult to handle: when you try to do good, try to be positive and try to develop better, somehow, with or without realizing, the delusions hit you somewhere else and you can’t do it. Somehow you have to pull and do all sorts of funny things. This is because these delusions encounter the negative karma, and start them up.V0:07:31.7

All our karma, good and bad, lie almost invisible and inactive within the individual. We have a tremendous [store] of it. Basically it is inactive, but any delusion that comes, activates the original negative karma within the individual.

That is why even when the actual delusion is gone, it makes it very difficult to control. There are a lot of reactions, mental agony, sometimes even physical reactions. That is because the negative karma, which is somehow sleeping there,( dormant) is awakened and starts to connect. That is one of the reasons why these negative actions are not good. Not only the delusions are stirred up, they’re also made more stable. If you continuously carry on the negative activities, instead of getting rid of them, somehow it makes them more stable, unless you do some kind of purification and try to clear them up. If you just leave the negative as it is, the after effects of the delusions makes the delusions much more stable and solid. It constantly brings about its continuation. Like that, there are lots of problems you will encounter. 0:09:39.3

I try to introduce to you what negative thoughts and actions do to the individual. Basically they give you a lot of trouble. Also they connect the individual to negative results. If you believe in reincarnation, they bring you a bad rebirth in future. That is basically what it is from the Buddhist point of view. Shantideva said:

Should even all the gods and anti-gods

Rise up against me as enemies,

They could not lead nor place me in

The roaring fires of the deepest hell.

But the mighty foe, these disturbing conceptions,

In a moment can cast me amidst (those flames)

Which when met will cause not even the ashes

Of the king of mountains to remain.

Shantideva, A guide to the Bodhisattva's way of life, ch. 4, vs. 30-31

Shantideva introduces these delusions as enemies of the individual who is seeking liberation, who is seeking spiritual upliftment, who is seeking to get closer to enlightenment. It is a powerful enemy, much more powerful than any enemies that we can think of. Shantideva said: in case all the samsaric gods and all human beings on earth become your enemy, what can they do to you? Well, they can harm you and give you a lot of difficulties, but they have no power to drag you down to the lower realms in future. They can do whatever, they can punish you, make you suffer physically or a little bit mentally, but if you keep mentally clean and clear, the physical pains they give you sometimes may not even be that painful. But these negative thoughts and actions; these enemies, not only can harm you in this life, but they can also drag you into lower realms in future lifes. So it is a very important and powerful and strong enemy.v0:13:17.1

The earlier Tibetan teachers said: this is a very, very powerful enemy. If it were an ordinary enemy, a human being on the human level, we could talk to him and try to make a deal with him, try to compromise. Somehow we could make it through. But these you cannot talk to, you cannot make a deal with. If you try to make a deal with the delusions you are lost totally. No matter how much you try to be good to them, they always are harmful to us. If you have a human enemy, no matter how bad the person may be, if you try to be nice, one day they will change their minds or at least get a little softened. But this one does not. This one really harms.

All the Buddhist teachers from Buddha onwards say:that we constantly have sufferings in samsara is nothing but the creation of these delusions. That was our enemy in the past, at present it is not letting us have a good, comfortable, joyful, relaxed, peaceful state. Presently it is harming us, and in future it will also harm us much more. Therefore it the enemy of the past, the enemy of the present and it will be the enemy of the future.

One of the earlier Kadampa masters, Geshe Beng Kungyel, said:

I always stand near the door of my enemy, the delusions.

I will always hold a sharp spear and stand there

waiting for this enemy to come up.

The moment he comes up I hit him.

If he is relaxed, I relax.

If he doesn’t relax, I won’t relax.

That is my way.

We often talk about awareness. If you are interested in awareness, this is where we focus: the awareness of those delusions growing, and awareness of whatever the direct opponent of each and every delusion is, and try to make use of it at the time it comes. That is basically the problem of the delusions as well as how you handle them, whether negative or positive. 0:17:17.5

HOW THE DELUSIONS CREATE KARMA

If you are thinking of using abusive language, a thought comes up. That also creates another karma: the karma of creating using abusive language. The moment you start using that language, followed by that thought you use that abusive language. When you are using that abusive language you are actually creating the karma of using harsh words. When you use that language, the other person, when he gets hurt, then you have completed the karma. That is how it really works.

I gave you one example, but anger, attachment, all of them work that way. When the other person gets hurt you have completed the karma. You may be satisfied with what you said. You may enjoy the other person getting hurt. That adds up a little more negative karma; it becomes a little stronger, more powerful; actually the opposite way of rejoicing in the negativity activity that you did because you enjoyed that person being hurt.

The imprint of that karma is immediately put upon the consciousness and it almost goes to sleep; it is not visible. You carry it around and whenever another opportunity like this comes up, it connects the old karma you left there, adds up more on that or reinforces it. That is how it works. That is why it is said that it harms you in the long run, it harms you in the future. Directly, it destroys you because you who are basically a perfect, wonderful human being is made into a funny and not necessarily nice person. Your mind, basically clean, clear and of lucid nature, is now made into a mushy, moody, terrible state. We always give the example of a pure glass of water [which becomes muddy when you put a handful of mud in it and stir]. That is why it is said it destroys yourself, it destroys your mind and it destroys your future.

If that is not bad, then what can be bad?v0:20:43.7

It harms not only you as an individual but to everybody else. If we work collectively and get angry together, we create a collective karma. If we do it individually, we create individual karma. When you go into the karmic system, it is very hard to know exactly how karma functions. The gross way we can always see, but when you go into the subtle level, I think it is very difficult to figure out how karma works. Everybody can say, ‘Karma is cause and effect, if you do good you get good karma, if you do bad, you get bad karma.’ But when you go down very carefully, if you look in a microscopic way, it is very hard to know. Even Buddha said: that it is more difficult to know how karma functions than to gain total wisdom, that is knowing the nature of phenomena. Knowing karma is much more subtle and more difficult.

When you leave that imprint on the individual, it is called creation of karma. What kind of karma do you create? Basically we can say there are three different types of karma here: karma of fortunate or lucky karma, karma of unfortunate or unlucky karma, and unshakable or immovable karma.

Normally we talk about good karma and bad karma. Today I am talking slightly different from this. With lucky, unlucky and immovable karma I am talking within the circle of samsara only; I am not talking outside samsara. Samsara is the circle of lives, lives continuing one after another without our control.0:24:09.2

Though we created the karma, it becomes uncontrollable when it is functioning. We lose the control, karma takes over the control; when the karmic power has gone down and you gain the control, another karma will take over. You keep on meeting it. That is really how it works, according to Buddha’s teachings.

Looking within that, you have fortunate karma, unfortunate karma and immovable karma. What do the fortunate karma do? If we try to focus on being clean and pure, do meditatation, help others, be generous, keep good moral conduct, are patient and all this, every act will create a fortunate karma. The result of the fortunate karma -I am talking this keeping reincarnation in mind - will be a good future life. The result of those unfortunate karma will give you a negative, lower realm suffering life.

When we talk about a good life, we include the human life, the samsaric-gods’ life and above that the life of the gods with form. Why is that called fortunate? Because the results are good.

Below that, the realms of the animals, of the hungry ghosts and the hell realms are the result of unfortunate karma. Immovable karma are the formless, above the form samsaric gods are the formless ones.

The lowest level of beings is considered the hell realm. There are hot and cold hell. Buddhism has hell too, but they are not permanent, they are impermanent. People go there and come out of it, do not stay there forever. Sometimes it is for so short a period that it is like the bouncing of a ball. There was a great teacher, called Ra Lotzawa, a very powerful vajrayana or tantric teacher. For a good reason/cause Ra Lotzawa purposely destroyed thirteen great boddhisattvas, among whom was the son of Marpa Lotzawa, the founder of all the Kagyu traditions. Marpa’s son was Tharmadote. He had a great practice, a practice in which somehow you can transfer your soul or consciousness; you take it away from your own body and get it into another person’s body and go round and act and function like the other person. Ra Lotzawa noticed that and said, ‘This is dangerous. In future it is going to do a lot of harm to a lot of people. I must stop this.’ He warned Marpa and his son, but they refused to obey his warnings. Milarepa was there to attend to Marpa’s son. Milarepa was a disciple of Marpa. Ra Lotzawa said, ‘Look, I have to destroy you if you do not stop this.’ Marpa was great and Tharmadote was also known for being great, so they said, ‘Go ahead’.

But Marpa made a rule for his son, ‘You have to go into retreat, very strict retreat, you can’t go anywhere.’ So Tharmadote sat there. One day he saw many people going, also very old people, who couldn’t even walk and were pushed by others and leaning on sticks. He asked, ‘Where are you people going?’ They said, ‘There is a great festival over another village and it happens only once in a hundred years. If I don’t go today, I will never see it. Even if I were on my death-bed I would get up and see it.’ Tharmadote thought, ‘I am young and active, and my father is well-known, and I myself is known, young and beautiful. If I don’t go and see this... Why am I sitting here? Why should I worry about little warnings here and there?’ He decided to go without knowledge to his father Marpa. He asked his mother and she said, ‘Okay, go, but take Milarepa with you, because there is a warning, remember.’ She thought Milarepa could help.

That night Marpa had a funny dream. He dreamt that a very powerful and wrathful guy came and said, ‘Look, I have to take your smaller heart. I have to forcefully take it, I can’t help it.’ Marpa didn’t know why. When he woke up he thought about his son, and he started checking who by that time had already gone to that festival. While coming back something happened to the horse. While Milarepa was taking the horse down, the horse started jumping and Tharmadote was thrown off the horse and died.

And Ra Lotzawa took care that no dead body was available during seven days after that. Nobody died in that period, because of Ra Lotzawa’s power. That was done because they had that particular practice of being able to go into any dead body, so he wanted to make sure there would be no dead body at all for seven days. The mother finally said, ‘You [Tharmadote] take my life, push me out and use my body’. He wouldn’t. Finally he found a little pigeon and he went into the pigeon. And finally he went to India. There is a long story about it, about the pigeon becoming a parrot and the parrot speaking etc. Ra Lotzawa did things like that. v0:33:34.2

So Ra Lotzawa, who was very proud, said, ‘Including Tharmadote, son of Marpa, I destroyed thirteen bodhisattvas, but I will not go to the hell realm, because of my special method.’ He was very boastful. Then what happened? The teaching tradition says that Ra Lotzawa went into the hell realm, but bounced down and bounced up like a soccer ball. So the hell is not permanent, but totally impermanent; sometimes it can be a second or so, but you do go there

The negative karma produce the lower realms, the positive karma produce the higher realms. I did use the word immovable karma. Why is it called immovable?

Basically when you die, how does the future life happen? It depends on how well focused you are at the time of dying. When you are going to die and you realized you are dying, if then you go through with fear, it is not very nice. If you die with anger, it is not very good; if you die with attachment, it is not very good; if you die with hatred, it is naturally bad. But if you die with positive, good thoughts like love, compassion, or thinking of the enlightened beings, understanding of wisdom, application of the wisdom, or taking refuge to Buddha, dharma sangha, or thinking of saying mantras, it is always good. The reason why it’s good is because positive thoughts will connect to a positive karma, so you will almost get a great future rebirth. You can almost guarantee it. If it is connected with negative thoughts, anger, or regret like having a long list of ‘I should have done this, I should have done that....’, then it is not very good.

There is a very primitive story. In the Tibetan tradition they make boots with long side panels and a lot of decorations. What they used to do? The families making those boots, would teach even their own children how to make the lower part only and they would teach another person how to make the upper part of it. They never used to teach both of them, not even to their own children. Even if they would teach both to one person, they wouldn’t teach them how to put the parts together. Then one day the father got sick and was dying and then he started regretting it. He told one of the children, ‘When you make this you have to put them together like this’ and the kid said, ‘Okay daddy, it’s fine. You can do it’.

If, like that, you have regret of doing this and that, a lot of things come up. That is not very nice for the individual, because it brings up a negative karma. Therefore if you are certain that someone is going to die, that the time is coming, it is always important to remind the individual of positive thoughts. This is very important.0:39:33.4

A lot of people ask questions like, ‘So and so is dying, what can I do?’ Normally that question to help someone dying, comes to me on telephone, sometimes in the middle of the night. It is very difficult for me to answer them.

Number one: I do not know how much and what that individual who wants to help, can do; what capacity that person has to be able to help. Number two: I don’t even know what is the stage of the dying person. I at that time try to pray and do something, whether the individual asked me or not; that may be a little helpful.

What you can really do when you are near to the person who is dying, is to try to make sure that person is peaceful. There should not be any disturbance. When I say disturbance I mean to say disturbance to their mind, get irritated or get angry or attached. All these things one should try to avoid.

In the old Tibetan system, where ninety percent of the people was Buddhist anyway, they traditionally try to bring in a Buddha image, try to show that to the people, say a few mantras like Om mani padme hum and try to encourage the individual to focus.

People who have positive karma, do have interesting things. I witnessed one person dying in Delhi. He knew he was going to die and we all knew too. One day he really was going to die. He started losing his memory and said, ‘Rinpoche, where is this choir of monks. I can hear them saying all these prayers, I can hear the music going on, where are they?’ Then he closed his eyes, asked after his wife, saying, ‘What happened with her? Could you please tell her to hurry up, we have to catch the plane.’ Then again he switched back, ‘Oh, they are saying prayers now, I can hear them’. I made a mistake there. I started saying the Yamantaka sadhana very loudly. Then he lived three more days. It was a mistake, because that was the time to go, but I think all the different spirits that are around got afraid of the Yamantaka sadhana and they all ran away and so he couldn’t die for three more days. Things like that happen. If you have a positive karma, at the time of death if it goes naturally, it goes back and forth.You can see it. When you are connected with positive karma it helps to connect.0:45:00.1

So you always try to have less disturbance and try to remind them of wholesome thoughts. If they are Buddhist remind them to follow Buddha, dharma and sangha; if they are not Buddhist, try to remind them of whatever tradition practice they are following. And then compassion to all beings is a very great thing to take.

Also other things like the wisdom of emptiness are recommended, but if the person has no understanding of emptiness, it doesn’t do that great. So compassion, taking refuge, thinking of enlightened beings; these are things you can do.

If you and the dying person are following the Buddhist tradition, there are certain mantras you can do, like the purifying mantra. You can read to them loud enough to the dying person, because at the time of the death the hearing gets lost. Try to remind them a little before that. Things like that will be useful.

If the practitioner is practicing, meditation, remind him or her of wherever the level that person is. E.g. if it is a Lamrim meditator common with the medium level, remind him/her of the four noble truths, the truth of the path. If it is a mahayana practitioner, remind him/her of bodhimind. If it is a vajrayana practitioner, remind him/her of the lama inseparable from the yidam. Remind them of the mantra of each and every individual yidam they are practicing. Things like that you can do. v0:47:41.4

I have also seen an old pre-59 prime minister of Tibet, who died in Delhi about 1964/5. Just before he died I was called. He was saying the mantra of Vajrayogini. By the time I walked in he didn’t recognize or even hear me, but he was still saying the mantra. People die like that too. I saw him the day before and he felt he was going to die and he said, ‘Will you please come and pray for me and help me?’ He slept, kept one little boy near him and his family in another room. The boy told me that he woke him around three or four in the morning, then he got up, went to the toilet, brushed his teeth,and wanted the boy to put up all the things high. He asked the boy to call me. The boy called me and then his family. Then he sat straight on the cushions and started saying his prayers. These are the good ways. The negative way is, ‘Oh! I forgot this, I should have done this, I should have done that. I am losing this…’ All these type of thoughts are not necessarily great. They bring negatives.

Negative karma will bring a negative bardo. A negative bardo will bring a negative rebirth. But they are shakable. Even though you have negative karma created and a negative bardo created, yet by the powerful prayers of some great masters, by vajrayana power, mantra power, it can even switch from negative into positive. That is possible because of the conditions. That is why it is called shakable. But if you have a karma to take rebirth in the formless realm, you can’t switch it; that is why it is called immovable, you can’t move it round.

So there is: lucky karma, unlucky karma and immovable karma.

Basically that is how our life functions: negative, positive, neutral. Everything neutral is changeable, like the period you fall asleep, the period when you regret things. These type of things are basically neutral, so they are switchable. You can make all your sleep positive if just before you fall asleep your thoughts are positive. You can work with a thought and try to make it a positive thought, till you wake up the whole period will be positive, virtuous and it creates virtuous karma. If you fall asleep in anger or something, the whole sleep period is negative, you’ll have additional anger and frustration. If you fall asleep in a big frustration, all sleep period till tomorrow morning is frustration. Really, it is negative karma, it will put the imprint of negativity. Basically: any neutral thing is switchable; it can change. Out of the fifty-one mental faculties, four of them, called the variable mental factors: sleep, regret, general examination and precise analysis, are switchable [dependent on motivation and particular situation].

So it will be very beneficial and profitable for us if we use the sleep-period for positive thoughts. Ribur Rinpoche, who was here during the summer-retreat, told us that he was with my late father during the last couple of years. When he went to sleep he always said a certain mantra, which means that probably he did his practice during the sleep period. These people may have the yoga of sleep. Ribur Rinpoche told me the story. His Holiness the Dalai Lama asked him, ‘How does Demo Rinpoche sleep?’ He told him. After which His Holiness folded his hands and said, ‘Wow’. He probably used that either as sleep yoga or at least he used to go through the period (with a virtuous mind.) All changeable mental factors you can switch that way. Basically,if you sleep with positive thoughts, that all becomes positive. 0:54:47.2

I think that much for tonight. If you have any questions, I will be most happy to share certain thoughts.

Questions and answers

Audience: What is neutral karma in the sleep period?

Rinpoche: If you just fall asleep with no specific positive or negative thoughts, not thinking anything in particular, just let whatever is coming up be, then it is neutral.

For most of the westerns, it is even very useful to keep blank thoughts: just sitting there blankly and giving a rest to the mind is very useful. If you are a deep, strong, powerful practitioner, like in the Tibetan tradition, then basically it is objected to do a blank sitting, because blank is just blank and you are wasting your time. That is the argument. When I first came into this country, I said that a number of times. When I first came to this country, I said that a number of times.Then I began to look at it and I realized, the blank mind is not there! Therefore if you give yourself a little bit of time [to keep the mind] blank, it is useful and helpful. But when you become real practitioner, when you go deeply into the practice, I will tell you, ‘Don’t sit blank.’ Blank is neutral, no gain no loss.

Any other thoughts– like ‘I need to walk, I have to go’– becomes negative when the negative nature comes in, when the positive nature comes in, it becomes positive, otherwise every single thing we do is neutral. That is why Tibetan Buddhist tradition teaches you: in the morning when you get up, you say’ I take refuge to the Buddha, dharma and sangha until I reach enlightenment. By taking refuge in By practicing generosity and other perfections, may I be able to obtain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.’ If you correct your thoughts like, every action that you have to do during the twenty-four hours period, may it become a contribution for me to become enlightened for the benefit of other beings’. Then even all these neutral things all switch to a positive action. If you put your first thought in the best way, it becomes:

first thought best thought 1:00:10.0

The Tibetan way of saying : first thought; best thought is positive way of saying the mind that you generated is always the best thing you do.

Question: inaudible

Rimpoche:The violent dreams will come up.a lot of people have them, particularly when you watched violent movies.However, there is a question:dreams are dreams.It is not ..dream period. Unless the individual is very sensitive, we can either control the dream or the dream influenced the mind.Otherwise, I am not even sure when you have very basic negative dreams, whether that period becomes negative or not because it is not the principle mind and the principle beings functioning.It is some kind of mental faculty contacting on that particular point and particular function.I don’t think the dream influences the being’s principle mind.

I am not sure whether it is activity of subtle mind or not.Yes, it is dreaming mind but I am not sure if it’s part of principle mind.Anger influences the individual mind because it is done with awareness.If you kill somebody in the sleep, it is not karma of killing because you did not kill

Q.

When you wake up, the sleep lost control. That is why you wake up.The waking mind connects so it picks up what happened just before that, so you become afraid.We call it nightmare.

Question: Emotions that arise from particular dreams..?

Rimpoche: that is a different mind. Emotions arise because of that.

Question :…..inaudible

It depends on individuals. Certain individuals function with sleep mind. Basically it is not. You picked up what you immediately left When you have fearful sleep and suddenly wake up you are afraid. The fear is connected to the sleep. When sleep loses control you sort of wake and pick up from there. When you forget something suddenly also you pick up with that. Remember in this Long Life Prayer of mine,which Lochor Rimpoche wrote:

When you prayed to the main images of Drepung’s Tantric Temple,

Your rosary flew from between your folded hands

And landed as a necklace of Palden Lhamo’s image,

This miracle was clearly seen by all assembled!

when the mala went from me to the Palden Lhamo’s image and they try to not to tell me. Maybe Lochor Rimpoche said better not tell just yet as too early.I completely forgot completely until I saw that writing. I completely forgot for over 30 years.Suddenly when I read this, the fear that at that time when the mala in my hand went up, reconnected. I connected to that fear the moment.1:07:18.7

Just like this, dream is short period where you forget. Forgotten is the long period.

A SMALL PRACTICE ONE CAN DO

I give you a simple little practice everybody can do, something to hold on to. If you get up in the morning before you go to work or do whatever, meditate for a short period.

1. Refuge

First is seeking protection from Buddha, dharma and sangha and generating a great thought: one would like to benefit all other sentient beings and one would like to seek the highest stage ever possible. Then you take refuge with the words:

Namo Gurubhye, Namo Buddhaya, Namo Dharmaya, Namo Sanghaya. 1x)

Namo Buddha, Namo Dharma, Namo Sangha (3x)

or:

I take refuge to Buddha, dharma and sangha

Until I obtain enlightenment.

By practicing generosity and the other perfections

May I be able to obtain enlightenment

for the benefit of all sentient beings. (3x)

The Guru here can be guru Sakyamuni, Guru Tsongkhapa, who is the central figure of this teaching tradition, the Gelugpa tradition.

Buddha not only has to be Sakyamuni, the historical buddha; there are many different buddhas, like the buddhas of the ten directions, the medicine buddha, the long life buddha etc. and particularly it is important to link up your own personal, future buddha, the beauty nature or buddha nature within the individual with the external buddha.

Link up your own dharma, your own spiritual development, which is your own positivity, with the external dharma of the attainments of the enlightened beings. We have introduced all the negatives. If you reduce your anger, then by cutting the anger, by separating yourself from the anger, you gain positivity. That very positivity -this is one example- is your own dharma. Likewise it goes for all other delusions; we have introduced the six root delusions. If you separate yourself from those delusions and gain the positivity by removing them from you, by not letting yourself be under their control,this is the first step of spiritual development within the individual. That is your own dharma. You take refuge to it, you try to build up your own dharma here, and you strengthen it by contacting the dharma within the fully enlightened beings over there.

Also there is the sangha, the special persons who have definitely clearly seen the true reality. Each one of us will become our own future sangha. You sort of wake that up.You just need to say three times.v1:11:04.9

2. Mantras

Then you go on and use the mantra:

TAYATHA GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SOHA.

That is the mantra of emptiness, the mantra of the true reality, the true nature of existence. That protects you from the disturbing obstacles either by evil or by spirits, ghosts etc.

Then buddha Sakyamuni’s mantra:

OM MUNI MUNI MAHA [SAKYA]MUNI YE SOHA.

This mantra links yourself to Buddha, who has not only overcome the rough delusions but also the selfish interest and the subtle delusions; he has overcome all of them. The body, mind and speech of all buddhas and our personal body, mind and speech get linked together. Soha: May the foundation of their qualities of body-, mind- and speech- be laid within our body, mind and speech.

OM MANI PADME HUM.

Again Om – Aum – represents body, mind and speech. Mani represents method; the method here is being love-compassion oriented, helping others, being totally dedicated, being less selfish, according to whatever your level may be. All of those love-compassion oriented practices are represented by the word mani, jewel. Padme is lotus, which is the wisdom, the clarity and understanding of wisdom. So the mantra is about trying to grow our own personal love-compassion by linking it to the Buddha's love and compassion, trying to almost make it oneness. Likewise also we try to link up our wisdom with the fully enlightened beings’ wisdom, which has no limit to clarity and knowing. We try to link up the very little wisdom we have to theirs, to make it to that level. Hum is the union, the union of that level of enlightened beings and me, bringing it up to that level.

OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA

Tare: One who has the proper method and the love to take us away from the circle of existence, samsara. Control-less we force ourselves; without control our delusions and karma make us take rebirth life after another. Tara will be able to lead us out of that. With Tare you name her. Tuttare: One who protects us from the eight fears, which we have been talking about in these talks. Ture: She who gives healing from all the illnesses that we have. We have two kinds of illnesses: the physical illnesses and the mental illnesses, after which the emotional illnesses come. The mental illnesses are all our delusions. The physical illnesses is whatever sickness you have. Anything from colds to not sleeping; too much sleeping. Also if you have addictions, you can concentrate on her, ‘Help me to get out of it!’ You focus of that when you say Ture. Soha is again to lay the foundation.

[If you want to you can insert here a little praise to Tara:

Tare ma liberates from samsara;

TUT-TARE liberates from the eight fears;

Ture liberates from all illnesses;

To you, the Great Liberating Mother, I prostrate.1:17:21.0

followed by the praises of the eight fears:

It sweeps us towards the stream of becoming, so hard

To cross, and, conditioned by karma’s stormy blast,

Waves of birth, age, sickness and death convulse it,

Attachment’s flood - please save us from this fear!

In the unbearable prison of samsara

It binds embodies beings, with no freedom,

Clasped by the lock of craving, hard to open

The chain of avarice - save us from this fear.

Driven by the wind of wrong attention,

Amidst a tumult of smoke-clouds of misconduct,

It has the power to burn down forests of merits,

The fire of anger - save us from this fear!

Attached to its dark hole of ignorance

It cannot bear seeing the wealth and excellence of others,

But quickly fills them with its vicious poison,

The snake of envy - save us from this fear!

He dwells between the mountains of wrong views

Of selfhood [jigta], puffed up with holding himself superior,

With long claws of contempt for other beings,

The lion of pride - please save us from this fear!

They wander in space of darkest ignorance,

Sorely tormenting those who strive for truth,

Of lethal danger to liberation, the fell

demons of doubt - please save us from this fear!

Untamed by sharp hooks of mindfulness and awareness,

And dulled by the maddening liquor of sensual pleasures,

He enters wrong paths and shows his tusks of harming,

Delusion’s [ignorance] elephant - save us from this fear!

Roaming the fearful wild of inferior practice

And ghastly desert plains of the two extremes [eternality and annihilation],

They sack the towns and retreats of ease and bliss,

The thieves of wrong views - save us from this fear!]

3. Seeking inspiration

The guru-devotional practice is the root of all development. Therefore you should think of a Tsongkhapa type of guru. Think not of a painted picture, but of a living figure. He/she is inseparable from all enlightened beings, inseparable from all the buddhas, inseparable from all the yidams, all the dharma protectors, all the dakas and dakinis and especially inseparable from your own spiritual masters. The guru you visualize in the form of guru Tsongkhapa or in the form of Buddha or in whatever form is easier to you. Then say the mantra:

MIG-ME TZE-WE TER-CHEN CHEN-RE-ZIG

DRI-ME KYEN-PE WANG-PO JAM-PEL-YANG

DÜ-PUNG MA-LÜ JOM-DZE SANG-WE-DAG

GANG-CHEN KE-PE TZUG-GYEN TSONG KHA-PA

LO-ZANG DRAG-PE ZHAB-LA SÖL-WA DEB

You are Avalokiteshvara,

great treasure of compassion, not aimed at true existence,

And Manjushri, master of flawless wisdom,

As well as Vajrapani, destroyer of hordes of demons without exception.

O Tsongkhapa, crown jewel of the sages of the land of snows

Lozang Dragpa, I make requests at your feet.

When you say Avalokiteshvara, it means the buddha of love and compassion. When you say Manjushri, you talk about the embodiment of the wisdom. When you talk about Vajrapani, you are talking about all the powers, all the capability to do everything. In other words love and kindness, wisdom and capability of all the enlightened beings together, take the physical form of Guru Tsongkhapa.

So you actually say, ‘You are the guru who has tremendous amount of qualities, qualities of the love, qualities of the wisdom, qualities of the power and capability. All of them I seek. I bow to you. Make me like you right now!’

You can think in that way [while saying the mantra]. Say the mantras three, seven, twenty-one, hundred times or whatever you want to.

4. Dedication

Then you can have a little dedication:

By this merit

may I quickly attain the state of a guru buddha

and may I lead unto that state

every being without exception.

You can do this simple practice either in the morning or the evening.

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I just simply want to say: Thank you so much. All of you put a lot of efforts into this period. And also all of you listening to the tapes and are not here physically, I have not forgotten you, all the best to you and to the practices that you do in your daily life.

I would also like to emphasize that when you say practice, it is not only simply the time you put in. It is absolutely necessary for you to put some time separately and do all this. If you don’t do it, it will have no effect. Do all this and meditate along with that. The words you may say from the mouth and then the words must be strongly backed up by the thoughts you put in. If the thoughts are not catching up with the words, say slowly. You may say less mantras then, but you will say good ones with the meaning built up. That served the purpose.

When we get used to it, it goes easier. The earlier Tibetan masters used to say,

The whole Lamrim, from the guru-devotional practice to embracing life, refuge, impermanence, suffering in the lower realms, refuge to Buddha, dharma and sangha, the four noble truths and the twelve links and the Bodhimind and on top of that the six paramitas and on top of that the development stage and the completion stage, they said one can do in the time you put your left leg in the horse-stirrup and you get on top of the horse. When you get used to it, it works that way.

Have a very good holiday.1:23:10.129

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