Archive Result

Name of Transcript: 19980501GRJHNLGLG

Name of Transcriber: Sally Boyer

Start Date: 10-27-2023

Finish Date: 11-05-2023

Now we are gathering here together tonight actually originally we are supposed to talk Ganden Lha Gyema which already we did during the retreat time that might not be specifically to talk Ganden Lha Gyema here except that dissolving system in the Ganden Lha Gyema system which might not come in that 64 steps so might as well touch that a little bit. And then somebody asked me for Ganden Lha Gyema oral transmission, right? You did it? And may as well do the Ganden Lha Gyema oral transmission first. Then simply just have to hear it, that’s just about it sound. (Oral transmission in Tibetan)

I believe that’s the oral transmission. You have heard sound, right? That will do.

Okay, now there are questions in the Ganden Lha Gyema. When we talk we can talk in very relaxed and casual way but when you do it you have to do it seriously. If you are too serious you go to sleep like I did. So most of the Ganden Lha Gyema’s points we’ve already covered, the 7 limbed we covered, Migtsema we talked and there are two verses, the wisdom may grow and all this sort of thing, do we have it or you don’t have it? Basically the Ganden Lha Gyema, you can do the Ganden Lha Gyema as pure sutra, you can do Ganden Lha Gyema practice as sutra tantra combination and all of those. The teaching transcript what you have here is sutra tantra combination and there’s a little complicated things there but you can really skip those complicated things, just do like a sutra alone sort of invocation, 7 limbed, saying mantras, making requests and maybe join with the Foundation of Perfections so you can have sort of overview of all the path and finally dissolving the lama into yourself. So, when you finally dissolve the lama to you these are the three or four last which says: Oh glorious root Guru come take your lotus cushion at my heart or something, right? There are three of them. So, when you begin the Ganden Lha Gyema, actually I forgot to mention, before that you sort of visualize Pure Land of Maitreya Buddha which we call it Ganden in Tibetan or Tushita in Sanskrit. It is sort of Pure Land of natural abode of enlightened beings in general and particularly Buddha of Love, the Maitreya Buddha and Tsongkhapa, Atisha, etc., sort of a great pure space.

Quality of the Pure Land is unlike our land, all the grounds, trees, rivers, the flowers etc., whatever it is there they are the wisdom part of Maitreya Buddha. So the flowers are also blooming all the time like an orchid doesn’t die for a couple of weeks, an orchid remains long, doesn’t die like a tulip within a couple of weeks. And the wind that is blowing around and moving leaves etc., is also supposed to be very soothing and wonderful, the singing of the birds and all of them are also the sound of compassion and the sound of wisdom. The ground is also supposed to be very rich and very lush and sort of you know when you have beautiful ground the green grass growing sometimes it can even work like a sponge and that type it’s supposed to be. Lucky you don’t have cars there, you’ll get stuck (laughs). I don’t know if there are cars or not, maybe there is.

Maybe they have different wheels, who knows? Anyway, that’s supposed to be Pure Land just sort of a little bit imaginary Pure Land. And over here you are sitting yourself and with all enthusiastic and clear mind and looking forward the brightness and with very excitement and you certainly imagine Tsongkhapa with two disciples. Even if you can’t remember the disciples very clearly it’s fine. Tsongkhapa, this is your imaginary Tsongkhapa right in front of you. Though when you imagine Tsongkhapa, Tsongkhapa is there. That goes for everybody, Buddha, yidams; the moment it’s imagined it’s there. That is the reason there because they have the commitment to guide us to help us. And the moment we open ourselves up the opportunity is there so it should be there. And that is not only the reason. The most important reason is at that level of enlightenment level your body and your mind function one frequency not separately, not like us.

They function together, wherever your mind is your body is there; wherever your body is your mind is there, it is functioning on same frequency together simultaneously. So therefore they are all knowing, enlightened means knowing all, right? When they are knowing all and they are there because their mind is there and the body comes there and that’s the reason a lot of people say that God is everywhere because the mind is everywhere and then they are there. Because their mind is everywhere, they know everything. It is very similar to that. Yet still to satisfy our rational mind we invite them. The first verse from the heart of protector of the Land of Joy, whatever that is that first verse, the invocation verse. So if you want to visualize they come from their natural abode which is Pure Land Tushita they come here and become oneness with whatever you have imagined that one become oneness with that, that will do. Then it becomes the Supreme Field of Merit and then we do our business. And because the purpose of Supreme Field of Merit is to gain the merit for us so the major business activity is the seven limbed prayer and Ganden Lha Gyema it comes the request to remain is first then praise, right?

Then what is it? Then offerings, then purification, then rejoice then request for the teachings then dedication, well that’s the major business. Then supplication and the Migtsema and seeking wisdom and compassion, two verses and wisdom and compassion on Lam Rim stages which is the foundation of all perfections which will correspond to this and what is not going to correspond is finally dissolving. And when you want to finally dissolve that and if you have three people there the right and left people become sort of right and left people dissolve inside the center Tsongkhapa figure and then you are very excited, yourself and profound faith for Tsongkhapa who is a total enlightened being. Total enlightened being means all the enlightened beings are like one person. And seeking your influence, you’re blessed and actually seeking you yourself will remain with me in my open heart and then you make the first request, that’s the first verse. At that moment, the throne etc., come down, come to your crown go and land at your heart level and it is there, it has to be smaller then, you cannot imagine a huge throne coming through your head because it sort of enter through head and you make into fat body, you don’t want that. And opens and sits at the center of your heart.

The second request, the sun and moon cushions come down and sit on the throne. Finally Tsongkhapa himself, not too big and not so small that you can’t see it, maybe about 2 inches, 1 inch and come and remains at your heart level and then close your heart petals. The heart petals are seale and have Migtsema going around. On top of that Migtsema you can also have Sanskrit alphabets like KA K’A GA GHA NGA all these and also those yidam mantra turn(??), essence of relativity or whatever and all those three of them, can sit like that. But still you are doing that but you are not forcing him to remain if he doesn’t like it there but you have to think that he accepts it, he enjoys and he likes to be there. And then whatever you do thereafter in the activities that you do, important activity to helping people, to giving healing, to guide your group or to teach lessons, to give public talk or to give private teaching, whatever and you keep on thinking the Lama Tsongkhapa from your heart is doing it. So it is not only help themselves it also helps yourself. Ok, that’s good enough. And there are two more verses which is actually prayer. And that verse itself we know and I don’t have to explain and you don’t have to read the verse because it will take a long time.

Okay, so that basically covers the Ganden Lha Gyema. Now what I need to talk to you is Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism is something considered to be very important, a number of reasons. Even when there’s not so much of Buddhism in the West even at the time, a lot of spiritual teachers or alternative teachers and all of them look to Tibet as a source or home of spiritual path. Although Buddhism was born in India but in India so many things happened, so many wars and this and that and of course the great modern development and all of them came up together and the real value of Buddhism has gone down tremendously in India and not only gone down tremendously in India but totally disappeared actually. Whatever the Indian Buddhism we have today is re-imported from Sri Lanka in the 50s including Bodh Gaya tree. So, it is really sort of disappeared in India so world at large as the spiritual world somehow looking at Tibet as spiritual home. So even movies called Shangri-la and this and that and so keeps you even though you are not spiritual practitioners your consciousness just guides and people look to Tibet as source of spiritual. And that Tibet is of course you are looking for Tibet that has combination of religions and everyday life together, functioned till 1951or 52 or let’s say up till 59. And what is that so great about it even though you have Buddhism in Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, all these so all say you have it but still why Tibet is so important? That is because there is Vajrayana.

Why Vajrayana is so important? What makes it so different? It’s because it not only deals with our life and living but it also deals with our dying stage, death and bardo and even rebirth. Not only they deal with rebirth, bardo and death but transforming them into very positive way such as in the form of true nature in the form of illusion body or in the form of manifested state which normally we call three kayas but that’s what it is all about. And as I say, if you can transform you, you can transform; if you cannot transform you try to change them in the sense even cheat death, they are all…even if you can cheat death as sort of getting yourself out of the body even before the like a couple of hours or minutes before it is due. And the question how you deal with it? Actually, you should look like this; if you look at Hinayana more or less it is discipline oriented because you try to be disciplined. You can’t do this, you can’t do that, you can’t look here but do this, do that; it is more discipline oriented. And if you in the Mahayana it is a little more love and compassion and not so much restricted as discipline.

And the Vajrayana is totally very relaxed, very open and transforming. Transforming in the sense instead of pushing very strong emphasis on cutting down on negative emotions but some of the negative emotions even may have some usefulness within that and making use of that and getting, becoming pure, sort of rather than cutting through with hard discipline. It is internally things pop out, it is not like the Lamrim level we pick up each and every information and try to put it on us but the transformation of Vajrayana activity works inside and then affect out, it is sort of internal coming out rather than external interjecting it. There are four tantras have been divided and Buddha himself said that the way Vajrayana functions is if you want to destroy let say the poisonous tree over there, in the normal Mahayana Hinayana will be you have to get some weapon try to cut it out, chop branch by branch and then finally able to cut the stem and maybe you try to remove the root out and all these.

But in the Vajrayana way, it is something like the tree is completly rotten inside and even the worms inside the tree eat them out and the tree dies out. Not only that, if you look in the Hinayana they don’t even talk about enlightenment, the ultimate goal they can come up to is arhat, they don’t even talk about it. You go ask any Burmese teacher you go ask any of those they won’t talk about enlightenment, they only talk arhat level which we call common with the lower and medium in Lamrim. Odyssey to Freedom, I think it goes up to 38, right? And that is the total achievement and when you look in Mahayana they talk for you to become enlightened, they talk about enlightenment, talking about becoming Buddha.

Enlightened in English they both use together, that’s a problem. And that very long time like you know like three hundred eons or something. So Vajrayana talking about today or tomorrow so it is very short whether you make it, die or doom, if you make a difference in this life you got it, if not, forget it. That ‘s what Vajrayana says. So it is easy, it is effective and it is important, it is capable of delivering goods much more faster than any other vehicles that have ever known. It is faster than supersonic jets. So, there are a zillion qualities that Vajrayana, just wanted to tell you that much and then how does Vajrayana work? Vajrayana is the base like the Sutra type of thing, it’s called Tantra. Each and every Tantra are said narrated by Buddha himself through many manifestation. So when he narrate that Tantra in according to that Tantra, Buddha himself manifests himself in the form of whatever yidam it might be. So the most important Tantras are maha anu yoga Tantra because maha anu yoga Tantra is the only Tantra would be able to deliver the goods within a lifetime. And there are a number of different, a lot of different yidams are in there. For example, the Kalachakra the Dalai Lama does everywhere is also kind of yidam; Yamantaka is another yidam or Guhyasamaja, Hevajra all of them are yidams and Tara is also yidam. So among the yidams themselves nobody is higher than anybody else. They are all equal.

For example, some people may think oh, Kalachakra is more important than any other thing or some people may think that, it is not. They are all equal by themselves, they are all totally enlightened beings, they are all equal. Why you have so many yidams? Because some people have special connections with some yidams, some people may not have special connections with some yidams and since there is a variety of different personalities are available to suit them we have variety of yidams, that’s how it happens. So if you are not connected with a yidam and then your Vajrayana door is shut and whatever the method in there you cannot get benefit. So, opening yourself to opportunity is very important and traditionally all naturally or reality ways in order to really receive a Vajrayana initiation one should have a very strong background and foundation, experience, realization of all the different stages that we are talking in Lamrim.

Should I wait till I have complete experience in Lamrim or what should I do? That is the question. So, for that I don’t know how long can you wait; you might not even have the opportunity available so therefore in Tibet the traditional teaching in Tibet would recommend you to take initiations and even you’re Lamrim focus is not completely strong however without taking a complete Lamrim teaching at least once one is not recommended, not permitted, not only not recommended but not permitted to take any initiations at all. You may think how come the Dalai Lama is doing Kalachakra and everybody’s going as long as you bought the ticket for $750 and so everybody’s going there, so how come? I think that is more or less witness ceremony, I don’t know, that’s my feeling. And once the Dalai Lama himself said after giving Kalachakra in New York, after like seven days or something and like 4,5 days teachings and at the end of 3 days there’s Kalachakra; at the end he said, “Oh about 20 people or so obtained initiation.” He said that at the end but nobody said, “Give my money back.”

Anyway, that’s a joke but the reality is I mean that’s how it works. And if you don’t have the opening you are completely deprived of all opportunities. And when you’re taking initiation it really doesn’t matter whatever the yidam you take it’s fine; Yamantaka, Heruka, all of them are in absolute reality it is the total enlightened being in different physical form with different identity, some are called Yamantaka, some are called Heruka, some are called this some are called that. It really doesn’t matter, whichever you are taking it doesn’t matter, it’s all the same thing. And especially these days we are doing Heruka, Heruka is the same person as Avalokiteshrava; Avalokiteshrava is peaceful form, Heruka is wrathful form.

And Heruka is especially very special, not only the love and compassion but also attachment; it is part of the love but…especially Heruka is love attachment combined transforming into pure path which we are very much in it. That is one of the important reasons. Another thing is when Buddha relate all the Tantras Buddha himself manifest as this yidam and that yidam and mandala manifested, and at the end of that Buddha closed everything down including Guhyasamaja and everything. The mandala opened, explained, initiated, mandala closed.

And Heruka mandala instead of closing it still remains open and it is said Buddha opened Heruka mandala on the peak of Mt. Meru and mandala also face to our continent, continent is the wrong word, to the human land to the direction of the human land. And not only the mandala door, yidam also facing that direction. That is the reason why it is more closely linked and more for us than any other yidam because the closeness and the where and how the mandala manifested and how it remains, all of them count this is the relativity, this is clearly relativity, yes. And not only that, not only that, normally anything whatever happened in earlier period you know, time of the Buddha and thereafter and all this, seems to be very easy and everything and when you get times like this degenerate age we call it so everything becomes more difficult but in Heruka, opposite direction.

At degenerate age Heruka Yab Yum, both Heruka and consort Vajrayogini are much more effective whatever if we put a little effort and they are much more effective than before because every time when the time goes down their power and capability build up with the effort so things work much faster than anything else, that is the Heruka and consort Vajrayogini special quality which really other yidams don’t possess. That doesn’t make Heruka Yab Yum better than others but it is more effective for us than others. And then on the other hand the request for Heruka initiation is one of the practical request because there is no sadhana commitment and that’s why they chose because if you when you have so many sadhanas it is big difficulty.

And when you say sadhana I couldn’t sleep so there’s not enough time there, remember today. But you still have the commitment of Six Session Guru Yoga, the simple reason is when you are initiated, not only you are introduced to the mandala you also meet the family members of the five dyani Buddhas and actually connecting your own physical aspects of feeling and cognitions and collectiveness and all the five senses of ourselves connecting with the five pure wisdom nature physical appearance. Did I make it more difficult for you? Sort of really making it oneness and building, connecting and bringing, try to bring out the pure part of everything. Pure part of form, pure part of sound, pure part of smell and a mind that acknowledge those, all of them bringing together and transforming from the ordinary level to the extraordinary level which is what five dyani buddhas means.

So when you are sort of met members of the Buddha families you have some kind of commitment there such as I try to be generosity, I protect my vows, I take refuge, that type of thing so every time you say, “I’ll do that six times a day.” Meaning three times a day and three times a night. And since it has become very difficult for us the earlier teachers wrote down a few lines of practice, thing to say, pray, whatever so by saying that six time a day together six times it sort of covers the…it helps us not breaking our commitment whether you can do it or not do it but just simply saying the words it helps to protect from breaking vows. And so that’s why Six Session Yoga commitment is there and there are long detail Six Session Yoga we always have, there’s not shortage in Tibetan so many long ones there. And there are middle one and what most of the people here saying, how many pages?

Two pages. And we recommend you to say that and there’s a very, very short one, four lines and even the worst of worst comes, sort far I’ve never done it but worst of the worst comes because of our lives so busy, worst of the worst comes you might be able to say that. But the reason why I do not recommend that is it is Pabongka who said this is not good enough. Not the Pabongka today in Nepal, no, the famous Pabongka. It is also written by Ngulchu(?) on Tashi Longpo Lama called Ngulchu, the short one. So Pabongka thought it’s not good enough. Pabongka accepts a lot of Ngulchu’s writing but not this particular one but when the worst of the worst comes for us something is better than nothing if worst comes so maybe put the four lines there at the end. So that’s it. The point here is some people may be a little afraid to enter Vajrayana, there is nothing to be afraid, Vajrayana doesn’t bite you.

On the contrary it is a very important opportunity, Buddha himself said, “There was a Hindu Buddhist mythological flower called Udumbara flower and that flower suppose to pop out and once Buddha becomes official Buddha; when he was born the flower was born when Buddha becomes a Buddha the flower opens, when that official Buddha dies flower dies, it is one flower appears so once official Buddha comes; so it is considered so rare and so important and so auspicious. So even that one thousand times in one eon comes that comes one thousand times this eon, Vajrayana is even rarer than that. Out of one thousand buddhas only the Shakyamuni Buddha, the fourth Buddha carries Vajrayana.. Maybe the eleventh Buddha and hopefully the last one; so sort of even among the one thousand buddhas only three Buddhas will carry Vajrayana, it is how rare it is. And by sheer coincident, really coincident and nothing else, by our own fortune that we happen to contact this and we happen to be having initiation coming in life, so such an opportunity to be able to utilize is fortunate.

So if you miss it that will really miss a terrible opportunity and then initiation will be given but you simply have Six Session Guru sadhana, Six Session Yoga to say and your major focus will still continue on the Lamrim stages. And whenever you have the opportunity comes up, whenever your capability comes up you can transit yourself and that means when each and every individual separately by yourself when you are capable of functioning in the Vajrayana way and then you can transit because you have already opened door. And followed by that I hope to return in November and do a Vajrayogini initiation and teaching and you’ll be eligible for that. And if you have not taken any other initiations before you cannot join in Vajrayogini initiation, that is the stage behind it(??).

And so I’m looking for those of you who are first time joining in Vajrayana family, like to welcome them. And those of you who have already been there and that’s a great opportunity to purify and to re-strengthen yourself, your vows, your commitment and another thing, in Vajrayana, if you maintain your vows and commitments even if you don’t do anything you get liberated, even you lie down and do nothing you get liberated and that’s true. All that is pep talk anyway, it is true but still it’s pep talk. I guess that’s it. Bodhisattva vows, initiation and refuge. So that’s it.