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Session 6

The next is the accumulation of wisdom merit. That will be done through the migtsema mantra.

O glorious and precious root Guru,

come take your Lotus and Moon seat placed here on my head.

And keep me safe in your great kindness.

Bestow on me please the powerful attainments

of your body speech and mind.

In your visualization here you either keep the visualization in front of you or you send a duplicate guru who comes and sits on your crown. If you don’t want to do that it is also fine. Then you don’t have to say this verse. But it is actually good to have a duplicate lama come and sit on your crown, when you say this verse. Then you 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.

The first line is referring to Avalokitesvara, who is the embodiment of compassion. However, it is the absolute compassion, the compassion that sees the absolute truth. This is free of false perceptions. What is false perception? We perceive our ego which is saying, ‘You are here to protect me and help me’. We project some kind of independent self or ego that we identify with as ‘me.’ In reality there is no such thing as ‘independent self’, something that is free of any interdependence with anything. A mind that perceives that way has a focal point that is not there. This is expressed in the first two lines of the mantra mig me. me is a negative, meaning it is not there. Mig is what you see. So the false perception of an independent self is not there at all. This is the essence of wisdom. Further, Avalokitesvara himself is the embodiment of ultimate compassion. So we have here the combination of wisdom and compassion. Now you identify Tsong Khapa with Avalokitesvara, saying, ‘You are the combination of wisdom and compassion’.

Similarly, the second line, ‘Manjushri, master of flawless wisdom’ refers to the wisdom which in essence is compassion. The essence of wisdom is compassion and the essence of compassion is wisdom. Looking at the physical form of Avalokitesvara we know that he is the essence of the love and compassion of all enlightened beings, and Manjushri is the essence of the wisdom of all enlightened beings.

Tong nyi nying gye nying po je – the essence of emptiness is compassion. These two lines give you both the combination of each, but their emphasis is different.

The third line refers to Vajrapani, the Vajraholder, the holder of power of all enlightened beings. That stands for power and capability of all enlightened beings appearing in the wrathful form of Vajrapani. He is also known as the keeper all of tantras, mantras and yantras. Every power is there. In essence that is wisdom and compassion. Therefore, each line has wisdom and compassion together and also names the deity, which means the total compassion, wisdom and power of all enlightened beings appearing in the physical form of Avalokitesvara, Manjushri and Vajrapani. Vajrapani’s power totally destroys the evil powers, external, internal and secret.

The combination of all of them above is appearing in the one physical aspect of my own root guru in the form of Tsong Khapa. He is the most outstanding and learned, the crown jewel of scholars as well as saints and adepts of all of Tibet. His personal name is Losang Drakpa. With respect I bow down with the highest part of my body to the lowest part of his body, his feet. By touching them I supplicate him and request him, ‘Help me, guide me, save me, give me the wisdom of learning, analyzing, contemplating and meditating. Give me the wisdom of composing, teaching, debating. Give me the siddhihood of ordinary and extraordinary complete enlightenment. Give it all to me right now. Bless me, help me, guide me, make me like you.

That is what you think when you say this mantra. This mantra, the actual sound of it, is also itself Manjushri. Tsong Khapa himself had composed this Tibetan verse to honor one of his masters, Lama Rendawa. He had said,

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 ren da wa

sho no lo-dro zhab-la söl-wa deb

This verse is directly addressed to Rendawa Shono Lodro. Lama Rendawa replied that this verse didn’t suit him but rather suited Tsong Khapa, and sent it back with the Tsong Khapa Losang Drakpa inserted instead of his own. We consider this verse to contain great blessings by these two great teachers, who were disciples of each other. They are called lama yab se, teacher and student, who passed this verse to each other. This mantra is very important and repeating it hundreds, thousands and even millions of times is not too much at all. It has by itself great value for purification. It also has the development of wisdom, and spiritual development by itself. It is not like Vajrayogini’s mantra where it is said that just by saying it you can complete everything, but still, it is very close to that.

There is a way of saying the migtsema in four lines, five lines, six lines and nine lines. In the usual Gaden Lha Gye ma you don’t have to bother with the six round and nine round recitation. This system, the se gyu system, unlike the ensa nying gyu system, does not have the six round – or nine round migtsema recitation. It just has the 5 rounds. In case you want to accumulate hundreds of thousands of this mantra you can use the 4 line version.

mig-me tze-we ter-chen chen-re-zig

dri-me kyen-pe wang-po jam-pel-yang

gang-chen ke-pe tzug-gyen ren da wa

sho no lo-dro zhab-la söl-wa deb

This eliminates the third line: dü-pung ma-lü jom-dze sang-we-dag

Which was actually added up later. Both Avalokitesvara and Manjushri were there in the beginning and then somebody in the lineage thought, ‘Why not Vajrapani?’ and added that up as well – hundreds of years later.

There are a number of different visualizations. For those you have either Tsong Khapa in front of you or both, in front and on your crown. Light and liquid comes from his crown, goes through our body completely, washes all our negativities and they disappear from our physical and mental system far away. Negative karmas, negative actions, negative thoughts, negative emotions – all are washed away by the wisdom nectar – like light and liquid.

It is as though from your guru a water hose is opened and comes pouring all over his own body and also inside of him, filling up all parts of his body, then pouring out from there. The light and liquid comes pouring out from all parts of his body, even the lower parts. It cuts through lotus, moon and sun cushions and enters through our crown into our bodies. It washes all our negativities, inside and outside of our body. In some of these salad dressing bottles, especially if it is vinegraitte, the oil and the spices and the vinegar separate and you can see the line of separation. Just like that, you can see the nectar coming down. The line pushes down completely through our body and washes all negativities away completely from all the lower doors, both, back and front, and even from our feet and toes. It leaves completely and our body becomes pure and crystal – like nature. Light in weight and joyful in feeling, majestic in looks, that’s how it becomes.

You can repeat this visualization many times, as often as you want to. One visualization does not necessarily have to be completed with one round of the migtsema. You just keep on saying the mantra and doing the visualization for a while. Do at least 21 migtsemas a day. This is not a commitment. If you miss a couple of days here and there, it doesn’t matter. But make sure you continue to do it. It will be helpful.

There are other meditation techniques associated with this but for regular daily practice this will be good enough. When you have completed the purification, you stop the liquid draining from the lower part of the body. Your body fills up with great, yellow-orange looking nectar. This is in reality the power of your life, your wisdom, energy, your pure nature. It fills you up from toe to crown. You have to think that you look younger and feel better, are a kinder and gentler person, more caring and loving and all your negativities are gone.

There is also another special technique:

From the lama guru’s body a lot of light and nectar is coming and all our negativities are pushed through our body, through the nerves and veins, in between the bones, in between the flesh and skin, everywhere the powerful nectar completely washes away all negativities which go down and totally leave my system, my body, my mind stream and my emotions. All goes out in form of dirty laundry water type of colored liquid. It goes below from wherever you are sitting, down into the ground below. Way down there the Lord of Death is waiting and coming towards you aggressively in physical form of a red bull. All the things you have washed out go below to the red bull Yama who is after our blood. He drinks and swallows all that stuff and is fully satisfied and then he goes away. This is considered to be one of the most important long life practices.

Then again the nectar comes from the guru’s body and particularly from the sword and the book. It reaches to ourselves in form of yellow nectar. It develops wisdom which allows you to sort out things very quickly. It gives you wittiness and sharpness and quickness. It also gives you depth. Some people can only make silly jokes. It makes your wisdom also strong and powerful.

There are a lot of these techniques. I don’t want to share them all now. This much will do.

Then you make request:

May the wisdom

which follows learning, thinking and meditation, increase;

And may the wisdom of teaching, debate and composing increase.

May I achieve ordinary and extra-ordinary accomplishments.

Bless me to quickly become like you.

Ordinary wisdom refers to healing and other ways to helping. Extraordinary wisdom is buddhahood, making ourselves to become Buddhas. The next verse is very vajrayana oriented.

May the simultaneously born great bliss shine immediately

And the delusion shadow of inherent existence be cleared.

Cut the net of doubts of the true nature of mind.

Bless me to quickly become like you.

Thus we have completed the teachings on the Gaden Lha Gyema. The practice of the Foundation of Perfection is inserted in here. It is not really part of the Gaden Lha Gye ma. The Gaden Lha Gye ma itself goes to the dissolution system.

O glorious and precious root Guru, come take your

Lotus and Moon seat at my heart

And keep me safe in your great kindness.

Bestow on me please the powerful attainments

of your body speech and mind.

O glorious and precious root Guru, come take your

Lotus and Moon seat at my heart

And keep me safe in your great kindness.

Help me to achieve ordinary and extraordinary accomplishments.

O glorious and precious root Guru, come take your

Lotus and Moon seat placed at my heart.

And keep me safe in your great kindness.

Remain steadfast until I achieve Buddhahood.

You are calling your root guru. In the first of these three verses you ask him to take his lotus seat this time at the heart level, not at the crown. At the first request, the two disciples, Khedrup je and Gyaltsap je, merge into Tsong Khapa into his shoulder and they become one person. The bodies merge, the thrones merge. Now there is only Tsong Khapa.

At the second request, when you say the second verse, you ask the guru to give you ordinary and extraordinary attainments. At that moment you heart opens up in the form of an 8 petalled lotus. From your crown, the guru’s throne goes down your central channel to your heart. This explanation is not completely pure sutra style. The throne settles at your heart in beautiful light nature. It has no weight whatsoever.

In the last of the three verses you ask the lama to remain steadfast until you attain enlightenment.

Tsong Khapa, at this point, shrinks to the size of one inch, light natured, comes to your crown, goes down your central channel and in your heart, sits on the throne, on lotus and moon cushions.

Then the heart petals close. Yet the tail of the cloud remains connected to the heart continuously, touching the pure land.

Then you have the concluding prayers:

In life after life, supreme master Tsongkhapa

Please be my Mahayana spiritual guide.

May I never be separated for even a minute

From the stainless path praised by the Buddhas.

You ask your master to remain connected with you life after life and give you the perfect, stainless path of the Mahayana, which is love/compassion-wisdom oriented. Such a path is praised by the Buddhas. When you become enlightened you need to be a Buddha with a mind. Even here, we would like to have a President with a mind. So certainly we want a Buddha who has wisdom. But the wisdom alone, without body, won’t do. That is why we need love and compassion which produce the physical aspects of the Buddha.

In short, throughout all my lives

May I be guided by the great spiritual friend Manjushri.

May I always meet the superlative path

Shown by Tsongkhapa.

Then there is the dedication. That is the usual thing. I don’t have to explain it. Since the Foundation of Perfection is included here in the Gaden Lha Gye ma I will give you the oral transmission of that, rather than explaining it which would take some time. The Foundation of Perfection is a shorter version of the Lam Rim. You have received that at various times, so you know.

Rimpoche’s concluding remarks of the weekend:

At times like this it is extremely important to have the support of the sangha, of the practitioners for each other. Try to bring the practice together. Actually, practice is something individual. You do it by yourself. You are born alone and die alone. At the same time, having each other is not only helpful for practice. It encourages and supports others. It is good to set up a time to the Gaden Lha Gye ma together. The longer version of that is the lama chopa and that is good to do together. Actually, it is also fine to just get together on social occasions too. Just have coffee and sit together. That builds the strength of the sangha. Whether Buddhism remains does not so much depend on the solitary practitioners, but on the sangha community.

Some people may want to do some other practice like White Tara or Medicine Buddha. So put on group sessions for that. You may want to do Green Tara or Red Tara or others. You don’t have to participate in everything. Go wherever you can. Maybe somebody would also offer some yoga or tai chi classes. The goal is to eventually make everybody perfect. You can become a Buddha, even within a short life time. It depends on the effort you put in.

Don’t go too much to extremes, ignoring all usual activities. Stay in the middle, but don’t give up the practice, because you won’t ever get this rare opportunity again. Life is short and the chance is rare. You know it. There are only few people over 80. The ones who are in their 20s or 30s now, will be there in just a couple of decades. I used to watch ‘Day of Our Lives’, where you see the hour glass and the sand coming down. That is the reality of our life. So make best use of it.

There are a number of practitioners who are now able to guide others. All of you can become that too. It depends on combining information and practice. If you only want information, go to the university. You can get a doctor’s degree. Don’t be like certain professors who do their course, then leave their books untouched until next year when they pull them out again and run the same old course. Pick up the knowledge and practice and become a different person. The personality should change. We are naturally very aggressive, angry and obsessive, jealous personalities. That is what we need to change into compassionate, caring nature, become kind and wise, generous and moral people. That is the change we need. We are not aiming at a good future life. We will get that as a side effect. It is not the main goal of Dharma practice. If you make yourself perfect, then even though you don’t want a good future life, you will get it.

One of the great Kadampa lamas always prayed to be reborn in hell to benefit the beings there. When he was close to dying, he told his attendants to make offerings. He said, ‘I have wished to be reborn in hell, but I am getting all the perceptions of pure lands and not a single one from hell. Please arrange big offerings, I would like to pray to be reborn in a hell realm.’ You see that even if you don’t want a good rebirth, by virtue of your practice you are going to get it anyway. It is a side effect. You are practicing for the benefit of all beings to become a Buddha. This lama prayed to be reborn in hell, so he would have better purification and could help others better. The result was that he went to a pure land.

End of teaching