Aspiration Prayer of Mahamudra

vii
Contents
Biography of Tai Situ Rinpoche xi
Foreword xiii
Preface xv
The Aspiration Prayer of Mahamudra, xxi
Introduction 1
I. The Preliminary Prayer (Verse 1) 7
II. The Main Body of the Prayer
A. General Dedication of Merit Towards
Enlightenment (Verse 2) 13
B. Specific Dedication Prayers Towards
Enlightenment
1. Prayer for Perfect Conditions for the Path
a. Common Prayer for Perfect Conditions
for the Path (Verse 3) 16
b. Uncommon Prayer for Perfect Conditions
for the Path (Verse 4) 17
2. Prayer for Perfect Wisdom that Understands
the Path (Verse 5) 26
THE ASPIRATION PRAYER OF MAHAMUDRA
3. Prayer for an Unmistaken Path (Verse 6) 29
4. Prayer for Unmistaken Practice on the Path
a. General Prayer for Unmistaken Practice on the Path
(Verse 7) 37
b. Specific Prayer for Unmistaken Practice on the Path
Prayer for Correct View, Meditation, and Action
(Brief) (Verse 8) 42
i. The View
Prayer for the View of Mahamudra (Brief)
(Verse 9) 45
Extensive explanation of the View
Prayer to Understand all Phenomena as Mind
(Verse 10) 56
Prayer to Abandon the Limitations of Existence
and Non-Existence (Verse 11) 59
Prayer to Abandon the Limitations of Being
and Non-Being (Verse 12) 61
Prayer to Understand the Unity of Emptiness
and Interdependence (Verse 13) 63
Prayer to Overcome All Doubts Concerning
the Ground (Verse 14) 64
ii. The Meditation
General Prayer for Mahamudra Meditation
(Verse 15) 65
Specific Prayers for Mahamudra Meditation
Prayer for Shamatha (Verse 16) 68
Prayer for Vipashyana (Verse 17) 70
Prayer to Recognize the Essence (Verse 18) 71
Prayer to Understand
the Great Unity (Verse 19) 72
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Prayer for Perfect Meditative
Experiences (Verse 20) 73
Prayer for Actual Realization (Verse 21) 77
iii. The Action
Prayer for Compassion (Verse 22) 78
Prayer for the Unity of Emptiness and
Compassion (Verse 23) 80
iv. The Fruition
5. Prayer for Final Accomplishment of the
Fruition of the Path (Verse 24) 81
III. The Conclusion of the Prayer (Verse 25) 85
Notes 97
Glossary of Terms 101
Index 123
About the Karmapas 127
Long Life Prayer for Tai Situ Rinpoche 130
Sherab Ling 131
Meditation Centre Information 133
ix
CONTENTS
The Aspiration Prayer of
Mahamudra,
the Definitive Meaning
Composed by
The Third Gyalwa Karmapa
1 . Namo guru
Gurus and yidams, deities of the mandala
Buddhas of the three times in the ten directions and your sons
and daughters,
Please consider us with kindness and understanding, and
Grant your blessing that these aspirations may be accomplished
exactly as we ask.
2. Sprung from the snow mountain of pure intentions and actions
Of myself and all sentient beings without limit,
May the river of accumulated virtue of the threefold purity
Flow into the ocean of the four bodies of the Victorious Ones.
3. So long as this is not accomplished,
Through all my lifetimes, birth upon birth,
May not even the words evil deeds and suffering be heard
And may we enjoy the splendor and goodness of oceans of
happiness and virtue.
xxi
4. Having obtained the supreme freedoms and conjunctions of
the precious human existence, endowed with faith, energy
and intelligence,
Having attended on a worthy spiritual friend and received the
pith of the holy instructions,
May we practice these properly, just as we have received them,
without obstacle or interruption.
In all our lives, may we practice and enjoy the holy dharma.
5. Hearing and studying the scriptures and reasonings frees
us from the obscuration of not knowing.
Contemplating the oral instructions disperses the darkness
of doubt.
In the light born of meditation what is shines forth just as
it is.
May the brightness of the three prajnas grow in power.
6. By understanding the meaning of the ground, which is the
two truths free from the extremes of eternalism and
nihilism,
And by practicing the supreme path of the two
accumulations, free from the extremes of exaggeration
and denial,
Is attained the fruit of well-being for oneself and others, free
from the extremes of samsara and nirvana.
May all beings meet the dharma which neither errs nor
misleads.
7. The ground of purification is the mind itself, indivisible
cognitive clarity and emptiness.
That which purifies is the great yoga of Mahamudra.
What is to be purified are the adventitious, temporary
contaminations of confusion.
May the fruit of purification, the stainless dharmakaya, be
manifest.
xxii
8. Resolving doubts about the ground brings conviction in
the view.
Then keeping ones awareness unwavering, in accordance
with the view, is the subtle pith of meditation.
Putting all aspects of meditation into practice is the
supreme action.
The view, the meditation, the action may there be
confidence in these.
9. All phenomena are illusory displays of mind.
Mind is no mind the minds nature is empty of any entity
that is mind.
Being empty, it is unceasing and unimpeded, manifesting as
everything whatsoever.
Examining well, may all doubts about the ground be
discerned and cut.
10. Naturally manifesting appearances, that never truly exist,
are confused into objects.
Spontaneous intelligence, under the power of ignorance, is
confused into a self.
By the power of this dualistic fixation, beings wander in the
realms of samsaric existence.
May ignorance, the root of confusion, be discovered and cut.
11. It is not existent even the Victorious Ones do not see it.
It is not nonexistent it is the basis of all samsara and
nirvana.
This is not a contradiction, but the middle path of unity.
May the ultimate nature of phenomena, limitless mind
beyond extremes, be realized.
12. If one says, This is it there is nothing to show.
If one says, This is not it there is nothing to deny.
The true nature of phenomena, which transcends
conceptual understanding, is unconditioned.
May conviction be gained in the ultimate, perfect truth.
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13. Not realizing it, one circles in the ocean of samsara.
If it is realized, Buddha is not anything other.
It is completely devoid of any This is it or This is not it.
May this simple secret, this ultimate essence of phenomena,
which is the basis of everything, be realized.
14. Appearance is mind and emptiness is mind.
Realization is mind and confusion is mind.
Arising is mind and cessation is mind.
May all doubts about mind be resolved.
15. Not adulterating meditation with conceptual striving or
mentally created meditation,
Unmoved by the winds of everyday busyness,
Knowing how to rest in the uncontrived, natural
spontaneous flow,
May the practice of resting in minds true nature be
skillfully sustained.
16. The waves of subtle and coarse thoughts calm down by
themselves in their own place.
And the unmoving waters of mind rest naturally.
Free from dullness, torpor, and murkiness,
May the ocean of shamatha be unmoving and stable.
17. Looking again and again at the mind which cannot be
looked at,
The meaning which cannot be seen is vividly seen, just as it is.
Thus cutting doubts about how it is or is not,
May the unconfused genuine self-nature be known by
self-nature itself.
18. Looking at objects, the mind devoid of objects is seen;
Looking at mind, its empty nature devoid of mind is seen;
Looking at both of these, dualistic clinging is self-liberated.
May the nature of mind, the clear light nature of what is,
be realized.
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19. Free from mental fabrication, it is the great seal,
Mahamudra.
Free from extremes, it is the great Middle-way ,
Madhyamika.
The consummation of everything, it is called the Great
Perfection, Dzogchen.
May there be confidence that by understanding one, the
essential meaning of all is realized.
20. Great bliss free from attachment is unceasing.
Luminosity free from fixation on characteristics is
unobscured.
Nonthought transcending conceptual mind is spontaneous
presence.
May the effortless enjoyment of these experiences be
continuous.
21. Longing for good and clinging to experiences are
self-liberated.
Negative thoughts and confusion purify naturally in
ultimate space.
In ordinary mind there is no rejecting and accepting, loss
and gain.
May simplicity, the truth of the ultimate essence of
everything, be realized.
22. The true nature of beings is always Buddha.
Not realizing that, they wander in endless samsara.
For the boundless suffering of sentient beings
May unbearable compassion be conceived in our being.
23. When the energy of unbearable compassion is unceasing,
In expressions of loving kindness, the truth of its essential
emptiness is nakedly clear.
This unity is the supreme unerring path.
Inseparable from it, may we meditate day and night.
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24. By the power of meditation arise the eyes and
supernormal perceptions,
Sentient beings are ripened and Buddha fields are perfectly
purified,
The aspirations that accomplish the qualities of a Buddha
are fulfilled.
By bringing these three to utmost fruition fulfilling,
ripening, and purifying may utmost Buddhahood be
manifest.
25. By the power of compassion of the Victorious Ones of the
ten directions and their sons and daughters,
And by the power of all the pure virtue that exists,
May the pure aspirations of myself and all sentient beings
Be accomplished exactly as we wish.
translated by Lama Tashi Namgyal
THE COMMENTARY
on
The Lord Protector Rangjung Dorjes
Aspiration Prayer of Mahamudra,
the Definitive Meaning
by
His Eminence Jamgon Tai Situ Rinpoche
WASHINGTON FEBRUARY 1995
1
INTRODUCTION
A
s requested by the dharma centre and its lama, I will be teaching
about Mahamudra, particularly according to the Prayer of
Mahamudra, written by the Third Gyalwa Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje.
We have only three sessions to go through the prayer, so it will be quite
brief; but it will be both a teaching and a transmission.
As you know, in Buddhism every person who teaches dharma and
also every person who receives the dharma has their own responsibility.
That is very simple the pureness and the authentic future of the
lineage depend totally on the people who have the lineage of transmission,
and by my teaching this to you, you are going to have the transmission
of this particular teaching and lineage. So this is not a public talk. This
is not just a simple introductory lecture. This is very serious. I take it
that way, and hope you all know that. After this teaching, you will be
connected to the Mahamudra lineage just as we all have been connected
to it throughout the history of the Mahamudra lineage. I wanted to let
you know this, because that is the way it was taught to me.
At the beginning, it is necessary to give you the definition of
Mahamudra. Mahamudra, both the term and the teaching itself, is
actually derived from the essence of the teachings of Lord Buddha. The
sources of the Mahamudra teachings in the Tibetan language are called
gyu, gyazhung, and mengak. Gyu means tantra, and those are the direct
words of Lord Buddha himself. Gyazhung refers to the texts written by
the great masters of India, originally written in Sanskrit, which were
2
subsequently translated into the Tibetan language. Mengak are direct
instructions given from master to disciple, given according to the
particular disciples maturity and level of understanding with the sole
purpose of improving the wisdom, the compassion, the devotion and
the realization of the disciple. These latter are usually not written.
Sometimes they are hand written, but definitely not printed.
But I must tell you that some of these mengak texts have been
translated into English and printed and you can buy them in bookstores
these days. Maybe I can call it blessing in disguise (laughter).
Now, gyu, the original source of the Mahamudra teachings, are
actually the highest tantras, such as Chakrasamvara, Hevajra, Mahamaya,
Kalachakra, etc. the essence of these teachings is Mahamudra. Another
source of the Mahamudra teachings is the gyazhung, the texts written
by the great Indian masters, such as Nagarjuna, and the teachings of
the great Indian mahasiddhas, such as the eighty-four mahasiddhas and
the thirty great female enlightened masters, etc. Those teachings and
those texts are the gyazhung and are a source of the Mahamudra teachings.
And mengaks are texts such as the Ninth Gyalwa Karmapas Ocean of
Certainty, Ngedon Gyamtso. This is one perfect example of mengak. These
are the sources of the Mahamudra teachings.
Now the definition of the term Mahamudra, if we make it very
simple, is this; every single, relative reality, inclusive of everything and
not excluding anything, is the manifestation of the ever-present,
incorruptible, unchanged ultimate. That is the definition of Mahamudra
in general. Now, technically, this means that if we are able to do anything
properly we can attain enlightenment through that particular vehicle.
And, in principle, that means anything. So, I will give you a simple
example: drinking water. If I know how to drink water properly, I will
get enlightened. Okay, you wait (drinks water). Im not enlightened.
(laughter) Why? I dont know how to do it. So, in principle, by doing
anything correctly, we can attain liberation.
Now that is the Mahamudra in general, according to its basic
definition. But then, why did I not attain enlightenment by drinking
the glass of water? Number one, I dont know how to do it properly;
3
INTRODUCTION
and, number two, I dont have the lineage that teaches how to attain
enlightenment through drinking water. Do you see?
Therefore, the particular teachings of the lineage of transmission
of Mahamudra that we do have such as the four foundations of
Mahamudra, the visualization practices of Mahamudra, the physical
exercises of Mahamudra, the breathing practices of Mahamudra, the
deity practices of Mahamudra, and the way of observing the nature of
mind of Mahamudra we have because we have that lineage. Therefore,
through those means, which are limited in number, compared to
everything else we might do, we can get enlightened. We dont know
how to attain enlightenment by eating pizza. We dont know how to
attain enlightenment by drinking Coca Cola, we dont know how to
attain enlightenment by driving a sports car or by travelling in a mobile
home. We dont know those things because we dont have such a lineage.
But in the Mahamudra tradition we do have the lineage of attaining
enlightenment by praying, by meditating, by doing practices such as
the four foundations (ngondro), etc. Those things are alive, because there
is the living lineage of how to attain liberation through those means.
So, we shouldnt get those two things mixed up. When we see in principle
what Mahamudra means, and then see in principle what kind of lineage
of living teachings there is, then it becomes very clear. Yes?
Now, the very widespread, lets say popular, concept of Mahamudra
is that you dont have to be involved in any kind of visualization, in any
kind of prayer, any kind of ritual, any kind of discipline. You just
somehow sit there and get enlightened. And that is very true in one
particular aspect of the Mahamudra teachings. That is the heart and the
essence of the Mahamudra teachings to be absorbed in and to observe
the nature of mind. To be absorbed in and observe the nature of mind,
which is always nothing less than Buddha itself. If we manage to do
that, then that is enlightenment. Enlightenment is nothing more, and
nothing less than that. That is the essence of Mahamudra. But that
happens as a result. We cant begin there; that is the end, not the
beginning. We have to get there by the accumulation of merit and the
accumulation of wisdom, by purification of negative emotional
4
defilements, by purification of cognitive obscurations. We have to
overcome all the defilements and obscurations in order to get there.
So, although Mahamudra means trodrel, semche trodrel, being away
from activity, or an activity-free sort of practice, a non-conceptual, non-
dualistic aspect of practice, we still have to overcome the dualistic bondage
in order to be nondualistic. We cant say we are nondualistic just because
we want to be nondualistic. It doesnt work that way. We have to go
slowly, step by step.
I have a kind of primitive new term for it, saying we are
nondualistic just because we want to be nondualistic. You might even
call it, with all due respect, slang. Okay? If we are not clear and honest
about where we stand as far as our personal level of maturity is
concerned, and we just want to be, and believe we already are, what
we really wish to be, then it becomes a little inconvenient for everybody,
especially for that person. And I call it unidentified flying ego
(laughter). So, unidentified flying ego is out to lunch. Has been
taken for a ride. And maybe, while that is happening, Buddha nature
is temporarily out cold (laughter). I dont mean to say inauspicious
things, but sometimes in this way we get the point pretty quickly. So,
that is a basic, general description of Mahamudra.
In the Prayer of Mahamudra itself, the Third Gyalwa Karmapa writes
about almost every important point of dharma not only of
Mahamudra, but of whatever level of dharma that you can think of:
Hinayana, Mahayana, Mahamudra, Madhyamika. Anything that you
can think of about dharma is one way or another summarized in this
very short prayer.
This prayer is written as a supplication. When we go through a
traditional text like this, then it is very important to go through it in
the strict Tibetan way. In our tradition, when we learn about a text,
there is an important, basic structure that you have to follow; you have
to have an outline of the entire text first. Then you know which sentence
means what and where it belongs, and in that way it becomes quite
easy. Otherwise, it becomes like a big hotel with many rooms and many
floors with no room numbers and no floor numbers. Then it becomes
5
INTRODUCTION
very difficult to find anything like an elevator with buttons but no
numbers on them it would be very hard to find anything! In order to
avoid that, there is, in the beginning, the outlining of the entire text.
And we call that, sachay. I dont know what you call it. Maybe you call
it outlining.
So then, this text has three parts. The first and last parts are very
short. The first is the preliminary aspect of the monlam or prayer. The
second is the actual prayer itself, which comprises the majority of the
text. And the last part, which is very short, is the conclusion of the
prayer. So, there is the beginning, the main body of the prayer, and the
conclusion of the prayer three parts.
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I. THE PRELIMINARY PRAYER
T
he first part is written in four sentences. We call each verse a shloka.
At the beginning of this first shloka there is a short Sanskrit sentence.
1. Namo guru,
Gurus and yidams, deities of the mandala,
Buddhas of the three times in the ten directions and your
sons and daughters,
Please consider us with kindness and understanding, and
Grant your blessing so that these aspirations may be
accomplished exactly as we ask.
That is the beginning part of the prayer four lines and one short
Sanskrit phrase preceding them. The Sanskrit phrase is Namo guru. Here
Karmapa bows to and salutes his guru. Namo means salutation, and
guru means the master, his teacher. Here he means his personal root
guru, as well as all the gurus of the Mahamudra lineage.
When you talk about guru in the Mahamudra lineage, there is the
pure (dharmakaya) aspect of the guru, the distance lineage gurus, and
the close lineage gurus. The distance lineage gurus start with the Lord
Buddha and extend in a continuous, unbroken succession of enlightened
masters and students all the way down to the Third Gyalwa Karmapa,
who is the author of this prayer. We call that the distance lineage because
it goes all the way back to the Buddha Shakyamuni.
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This is very particular, because the great master, Tilopa whose
disciple was Naropa, whose disciple was Marpa who brought the
Mahamudra lineage from India to Tibet, whose disciple was Milarepa,
whose disciple was Gampopa, whose foremost disciple was Dusum
Khyenpa (the First Karmapa), all the way down to the the Sixteenth
Karmapa, and then to the present holders of the lineage had many,
many gurus, each of whose lineages extended all the way back to the
Buddha Shakyamuni. From some gurus Tilopa learned certain tantric
texts, from some gurus he received certain empowerments, etc. And the
entirety of these Mahamudra teachings was actually derived as one whole
from Tilopa, who transmitted them to Naropa, who then transmitted
them to Marpa, etc. So, that is the distance lineage.
There is the close lineage of Mahamudra as well. That lineage begins
with the Buddha Vajradhara who bestowed Mahamudra teachings on
the Bodhisattva Lodro Rinchen, which teachings then come down to
Tilopa and Naropa. In the case of the great masters who received
Mahamudra lineage transmissions directly from the Buddha Vajradhara,
those transmissions happened a long time after Prince Siddharthas
paranirvana.
1
The physical Buddha, the historical Buddha Shakyamuni,
Prince Siddhartha, was at the time no longer in physical Prince
Siddhartha form. What happened was that first these great masters
received the teachings of the Buddha and the Buddhas disciples through
distance lineages, and they practiced them. Through their practice
they attained realization. As part of their realization the Buddha
manifested to them, but not as Prince Siddhartha, as Buddha
Vajradhara. So, Buddha, the sambhogakaya of the Buddha, and the
nirmanakaya of the Buddha, which is Prince Siddhartha in our case.
The Buddha Vajradhara means all in one the ever present Buddha,
the timeless Buddha.
Then the Buddha Vajradhara transmitted directly to certain great
masters, but only as a result of the realization of the teachings they had
already received from their masters, whose teachings started with the
historical Buddha. In this way, the Mahamudra lineage and many
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THE PRELIMINARY PRAYER
Vajrayana Buddhist lineages actually have distance lineage as well as
close lineage.
Close lineage we call ngegyu in Tibetan. Nge means close, not very
far. Sometimes people misunderstand and think that these masters may
have just been running around somewhere and all of a sudden a big
light hit them, whereupon they encountered Vajradhara and received
all the teachings and then commenced going around and teaching. But
it is not like that. These great masters first followed the path of the
distance lineages, they followed the discipline and really practiced. And
through their practice they attained realization. Subsequently, they
received the transmission as part of that realization. It is not another
trip of UFE (unidentified flying ego).
So, when the Third Karmapa says Namo guru, he is addressing both
the distance lineage gurus and the close lineage gurus, as well as his personal
root guru from whom he received the teachings of Mahamudra.
Karmapa salutes his guru in Sanskrit, according to the custom of
most Tibetan Buddhist masters, who begin their writings and prayers
with Sanskrit words. The reason for this custom is that the Lord Buddha,
although there was no limitation on Buddhas part, physically was born
in India. And the Buddhas teachings were originally heard by those
people who spoke the Indian language. In order to respect that, and
also to receive the blessing of the original sound of the Buddhas teachings
as they were heard by his disciples, these masters always begin with a
few Sanskrit words. In Tibetan, to somebody who doesnt know Sanskrit,
namo guru doesnt mean anything. But in Sanskrit it means salutation
to the guru.
Now I want to go on a little side-track here. Since I have been in
the West many people have talked about doing prayers and practices in
the English language, in German, French, Spanish, Chinese, etc. People
are very much concerned about this, because they say that when they
say prayers in Tibetan they dont know what they are saying. When they
say them in their own language, they know what they are saying, and it
makes them feel better. Thats understandable, isnt it? And somehow it
will happen; not it has to happen, it will happen! But it will not happen
10
out of haste and out of everybodys desperation. It has to happen properly.
I think to a certain degree it has happened properly already, very nicely.
But, for the dharma as a whole, or the texts as a whole, it has to happen
very, very nicely. Nicely, not just socially nicely, if you know what I
mean, but in accordance with the transmission of the lineage as it has
been continued all the way through history. First the dharma was
transmitted in Sanskrit; then it was transmitted in Tibetan, in which
language it has continued to be transmitted for many centuries, for
more than a thousand years. Thats a pretty long time. Now it has to
happen also in English and other languages. That transition has to take
place in a sacred and holy manner, not just like some kind of simultaneous
translation at a world trade conference. That is okay for them; they are
professionals there, and they render speech in all the languages needed.
But it doesnt work like that in the translation of dharma.
What I see happening, and what I think will happen inevitably, is
that our translations into English and other languages will employ
three languages. Because the dharma originally came from India, the
Sanskrit mantras and certain other phrases will always remain in
Sanskrit. They will not be translated. The Tibetan masters never
translated OM MANI PEME HUNG, or the hundred syllable mantra,
or any of these namo gurus.
In this particular prayer we are studying, this phrase is not even
used as part of the translation of a text originally in Sanskrit. The Third
Gyalwa Karmapa wrote the Sanskrit sounds of namo guru in Tibetan.
Nobody speaks Sanskrit as a language, but he wrote it in Sanskrit, so
there is a reason for it. Therefore, this custom will remain as it is.
Then, secondly, very important parts of the text will remain in
Tibetan. A few words. Yes? The majority of the texts will be translated
into the local language. That is how I see it unfolding. I share your
aspiration in this matter. I think you all pray for this transition to take
place quickly and properly and without damaging the lineage, without
damaging its blessing. We have many wonderful texts, but there will be
no blessing if there is no lineage. If translations come about only as a
result of peoples fear and peoples greed, then there will be no benefit.
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THE PRELIMINARY PRAYER
Translations have to happen in a pure and healthy manner. We should
all pray for that. Okay? Now back to the text.
After that short Sanskrit phrase, the Third Gyalwa Karmapa
continues to invoke all the gurus and deities of the mandalas, and the
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the three times and ten directions,
requesting their compassion, that they be compassionate towards him,
and requesting that they support the fulfilment of the prayer that he is
writing. He wants them to bless his writing of the prayer.
The meaning of gurus you understand. Deities refer to the
sambhogakaya of the Buddha. And the surroundings manifest as the
environment of that deity. The environment and the deity together make
the mandala. Mandala means the whole thing. Mandala does not mean
only the surroundings; it means the surroundings and the deity.
2
The reason that we practice deity meditation in Tibetan Buddhism
is that each and every one of us in our potential is Buddha. Ultimately,
we are Buddha, nothing less than Buddha. This popular concept of
human nature as being bad is wrong, according to Vajrayana Buddhism.
Human nature is perfect and good and nothing less than Buddha.
And not only human nature, but the nature and essence of every single
sentient being is perfect. However, although we have this ultimate
potential of perfect, limitless goodness and positiveness, we have
negativity and we have shortcomings and limitations, which is very
apparent. I dont have to tell you about it. And, I dont mean only
apparent in me; I presume in you too. But anyway, the practice of the
deity begins right there where you are. Through the practice you
transform your subconscious and unconscious levels of mind, as well
as the physical body through your visualization. You transform your
experience of form into the deity. In this way, then, it is the ultimate
form of purification, and the ultimate form of the accumulation of
merit. The deepest and most direct way to transform whatever is
negative, all of which exists as the result of negative deeds the
physical limitations and mental limitations and defilements, etc. is
to transform it all into the essence of itself. That is the purpose of the
practice of the deity, the practice of the yidam.
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When Lord Buddha taught any particular tantra manifesting as
that particular tantras deity, then the particular disciples to whom
Buddha manifested all got enlightened. So, the lineages come from those
enlightened masters. Through practicing the meditations associated with
these deities, we also have the chance to attain enlightenment. Our
great masters, like Marpa, attained enlightenment through these
practices. Milarepa attained enlightenment through them. Gampopa
attained enlightenment through these practices. Indeed, all of the great
masters of our lineage attained enlightenment through the practice of
deity meditation, the essence of which is the recognition of the true
nature of mind the essence of Mahamudra itself. When Karmapa
talks about the yidams or the deities, that is what he means.
As for the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions and
three times; three times means past, present, and future and ten directions
means the four cardinal directions with the four directions in between,
above and below making ten. Thats actually a more complicated
way of saying every direction, yes? So, Buddhas everywhere. Maybe
our great masters are worried that we think that beneath the earth
everything is solid. Therefore, they say below. Perhaps they want us to
know that there is space below, just like space above. In practical terms
it means every direction.
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II. THE MAIN BODY
OF THE PRAYER
N
ow the second part of the text, which is the main body of the text
itself, Karmapa writes in two parts. The first part generally
dedicates all the prayers and intentions of himself and all sentient
beings and all their virtuous activity of body, speech and mind towards
enlightenment. And the second part of the main body of the text
particularly dedicates the prayers in five sections to five particular,
specific objectives. First, the general dedication, and, second, five
specific objectives.
First, the general prayer:
A. GENERAL DEDICATION OF MERIT TOWARDS
ENLIGHTENMENT
2. Sprung from the snow mountains of pure intentions and
actions
Of myself and all sentient beings without limit,
May the river of accumulated virtue of the threefold purity
Flow into the ocean of the four bodies of the Victorious Ones.
This is very simple poetry. Here Karmapa makes an analogy with
the very pure snows of a snow mountain, which melt and give rise to
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very clean streams, which will enter into the ocean and become part of
the great ocean. I think this is perfect for your mountains here. His
supplication concerns the virtues of himself and all sentient beings
that derive from pure motivation and pure action. The purity is like
the clean, unstained snow on the top of a mountain. That is the example
of the pureness of the motivation and the deeds. Then he makes
reference to three-fold purity. By implication he is saying that there
are three things that make an action impure. Hes talking about pure
motivation and pure action, which are free from three aspects of
impurity. The three aspects of these are: a fixation on or attachment
to the subject, the object, and the deed itself. Dualistic fixation makes
an action limited and impure. For example, if I give something to a
beggar, then the beggar is the object to whom Im giving, and I am
the one who is the giver, the subject. There are five dollars that I am
giving to the beggar. There is a fixation on these three things, and so
it is a samsaric gift. It is okay to give. We should give, of course. But
it is still limited when there is fixation.
When we refer to the paramitas, as in the paramita of generosity,
we mean a form of generosity that has become totally pure. Generosity
then is totally achieved. This achievement doesnt mean that you have
to go bankrupt. It doesnt mean that you have to make everybody rich,
you know? It means that there is no dualistic clinging of any kind between
the giver and the recipient of the giving, and no clinging to the things
that are given. The giving is totally free from these three limitations and
three aspects of duality.
So Karmapa prays that all of our intentions and actions be free of
these three aspects of dualism. He says that virtue, or positiveness, is
like a very pure river coming from the mountain. And this, he prays,
will flow into and become one with the four kayas of the Victorious
Ones, whom he compares to a great ocean. The four kayas of the Buddha
are dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, nirmanakaya, and svabhavakakaya. The
first three kayas are not three separate things. They are just three aspects
of one thing, which is the fourth kaya, the svabhavakakaya. And so,
looking at the whole prayer, these four lines express the general prayer
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THE MAIN BODY OF THE PRAYER
of Gyalwa Karmapa. He is praying that our actions be very positive,
free of any kind of dualism, so that these positive activities may become
the condition for our enlightenment. That is his prayer in general.
Now I will comment on this a little bit as it relates to the Mahayana.
In Vajrayana Buddhism the most important step of inner maturity is to
be a complete Mahayanist. If one does not have Mahayana motivation,
then one cannot be a Vajrayanist cannot and will not be a Vajrayanist.
It is not illegal to be a Vajrayanist without proper Mahayana motivation;
but one simply wont be a Vajrayanist without it; the preconditions are
not there. Proper Mahayana motivation is the wish to attain
enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings to have bodhicitta.
So, Karmapa in these four lines is saying: May all our intentions and
deeds be for the sake of enlightenment. That establishes the basis of this
entire prayer. He does it all at once in this part.
B. SPECIFIC DEDICATION PRAYERS TOWARD
ENLIGHTENMENT
In the next section of the main body of the prayer, he makes several
specific prayers with specific objectives. He makes five major, specific
prayers. Number one, he is praying for perfect conditions for the path
to liberation. Number two, he is praying for perfect wisdom, which will
enable us to really understand and to attain realization on the path.
Number three, he is praying for a path that is an unmistaken path, a
correct path. Not a wrong one, not a look-alike path. A real path. Then,
number four, when we apply and practice this path, he wants the practice
to be authentic, too. The path could be a correct path, but we might
practice it incorrectly. Then it doesnt work. So, he prays that we also
get the practice right. Then, number five, he prays for the accomplishment
of the journey on the path, for the final, perfect realization, for
Buddhahood itself. So, he makes these five particular prayers.
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1. PRAYER FOR PERFECT CONDITIONS FOR THE PATH
Of these, the first one, which is about perfect conditions for the
path to liberation, he writes in two shlokas. The first shloka concerns general,
ordinary conditions, while the second concerns the extraordinary, more
advanced conditions.
a. Common Prayer for Perfect Conditions for the Path
So, first, the ordinary conditions:
3. So long as this is not accomplished,
Through all my lifetimes, birth upon birth,
May not even the words evil deeds and suffering be heard,
And may we enjoy the splendor and goodness of oceans of
happiness and virtue.
Here Karmapa prays that, until one reaches that great liberation
the great ocean of the four kayas of the Victorious Ones until that is
achieved, life after life, rebirth after rebirth, in all reincarnations, may
not even the sound of negative deeds and negative conditions, such as
suffering, which is the result of negative deeds, be heard. He prays that
not only will we not accumulate negative deeds, but that negative deeds
will not even be around to hear about. This is a bit of an extreme prayer,
of course. It is a prayer, you have to remember. Karmapa is not saying
that hearing negative things is bad. But if it were possible not even to
hear of negative things, that would be wonderful, wouldnt it? And then
he prays that joy and virtue be totally abundant, like a great ocean, and
that we may totally enjoy the goodness of it. So he prays that, for all
sentient beings, life after life, there be no negativity, no suffering, and
that their lives may be full of joy and totally auspicious and positive.
That is his general, very basic, fundamental prayer.
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b. Uncommon Prayer for Perfect Conditions for the Path
This leads to the second, extraordinary or more advanced prayer,
concerning the perfect conditions for the path to liberation:
4. Having obtained the supreme freedoms and conjunctions of
the precious human existence, endowed with faith,
energy, and intelligence,
Having attended on a worthy spiritual friend and received
the pith of the holy instructions,
May we practice these properly, just as we have received them,
without obstacle or interruption,
In all our lives, may we practice and enjoy the holy dharma.
The four lines before these last ones are very basic, very fundamental,
but very general. But, in these next four he makes his aspiration more
advanced, deeper and quite specific. Not general, very specific. He says,
may we obtain the profound precious human life. There are eight talwa
and ten jorpa, eighteen particular qualities of this precious human life.
I think all of you know of or have done the four foundation practices
(ngondro). At the beginning of these practices, you do four
contemplations. The first of these is the precious human life, and within
the precious human life contemplation, you contemplate eighteen
subjects. Now Karmapa is talking about these eighteen subjects. Tal
refers to eight particular conditions.
3
So Karmapa is talking about and
praying that we may have these eighteen conditions of a precious human
life. And then he prays that we may have profound devotion, faith, and
trust, profound diligence and wisdom, all of which qualities are very
important on the path of dharma. With faith or trust, diligence and
wisdom all together we can accomplish a lot.
Next, Karmapa prays that we may meet and become acquainted
with a profound and kind master. He uses a particular word, shenyen.
She actually means one who is sympathetic. Nyen means one who is
helpful one who is sympathetic with our shortcomings and weaknesses
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and able to transmute our shortcomings and weaknesses, help us to
develop our potentials and lead us progressively through the journey.
Nyen means a support. As we practice, our teacher, our master
accompanies and supports us. Karmapa prays that we may meet such a
master and receive from him or her the essence or nectar of the
instructions. What that means is that and this is most important
when we have a great master, and when we have great faith, diligence,
and wisdom, then what we must receive under those conditions has to
be the real nectar of dharma, the profound, authentic teachings of the
Buddha. So Karmapa prays that these teachings may be received.
Then Karmapa prays that there be no obstacle to the practice of the
correct path. We have to be able to practice correctly what teachings we
receive; we have to be able to digest them and apply them properly
without obstacle. If we are getting something wrong, we want to have
obstacles, so that we dont continue, so that we stop and ponder, and
then learn about the correct way. You see? But if everything is going
well, positively, we dont want obstacles. He prays that we may practice
appropriately without obstacles. And he prays that every consecutive
life will be totally dedicated to and involved in the practice of the precious
and profound dharma. Damcho means profound and sacred dharma.
This is a specific prayer for the basic conditions, the appropriate
conditions necessary to progress on the path.
In this shloka we learn quite a few very important things. In general,
we learn about devotion and diligence and wisdom, etc., but there is a
tremendous depth of understanding within these topics in regard to the
importance of practicing the pure dharma correctly. He emphasizes this
in every one of the four lines. In the first line, he refers to precious
human life, which is profound. Profound means precious human life
that is conducive for attaining enlightenment a human existence
endowed with all the requisite qualities to pursue the right goal. And in
the next line, when he talks about the teacher, he indicates the need for
a profound and kind teacher. At the end of this line, he also indicates
the need for the nectar of the profound and precious instructions
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Then he indicates the need to practice appropriately, without
obstacles. Not just practice, but practice appropriately. Correctly. In the
last sentence, he says, dam cho. Cho means dharma. Dam cho means
profound, sacred, precious, authentic, pure dharma. Dam has many
meanings. So, in this way the Gyalwa Karmapa is emphasizing the
correctness, the rightness, and the accuracy of all of these particular
conditions. He is praying that they all arise in that way because they are
all necessary for the attainment of enlightenment.
Now Im going to take a little side-track here. Sometimes people
are very, very diligent. We have a saying: So diligent that the forehead
can make a hole in the wall (laughter). You see, they will bang on it
continuously until it makes a hole. But it doesnt really help very much
because you could have bought a sledgehammer and just hit the wall
once. Then there would be a hole. You dont have to use this (Rinpoche
points to his forehead). So diligence does not mean desperately trying
to do something. One has to get everything right. And if one does
everything in this right and correct and pure way, then everything will
be fruitful, and every moment of doing something or doing nothing
becomes diligence. You see? Thats why in our teaching there is
tremendous emphasis on mindfulness and awareness. It doesnt emphasis
mindlessness. It doesnt suggest that to really hit the wall you have to be
mindless, not mindful. You see? So, diligent mindfulness and awareness.
This all goes together.
I have four lines here that were said by one of Tibets great yogis. I
have shared these in several places, and for me they mean alot because
they really helped me to understand devotion and compassion. Okay?
This great yogi is called Drukpa Kunli. He is supposed to have been
one of the three craziest yogis of Tibet. He was very unconventional and
very extreme. One day he went to a shrine, a very beautiful shrine. He
was standing in front of it, and, of course, he doesnt fit there, you see.
Because he is one of the craziest persons. His clothes are terrible.
Everything is really bad. He is standing there, and he looks at the Buddha
statue without bowing, without doing anything; he is just staring at the
Buddha with some sense of surprise, as though he were seeing an old
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friend that he hasnt seen for a long time. As you say in America long
time no see (laughter). So hes looking at the Buddha with a long
time no see attitude. He looks at him for a long time. And finally he
says four things. First he says, A long time ago you and I were the
same. Then he says, You were diligent; therefore you have become
enlightened. Then he says, I am lazy, therefore I am still wandering in
samsara. Then he says, Therefore, I bow to you. Then he prostrated
to the Buddha, and behaved himself.
You see, faith, trust and devotion all come to the same thing. It is
not that the Buddha had something that we dont have, and that we
are so thrilled by what Buddha has and are so blindly amazed by it
that we fall on our faces everywhere for the Buddha. It is not like that.
It is for the very reason that we and Buddha are, in essence, the same.
In a Buddha, that essence is fully liberated and mature. A Buddha has
attained ultimate freedom and ultimate liberation already. And the
Buddhas teaching is the manifestation of that limitless liberation and
limitless realization.
We all have the potentials of the Buddha. It is for this reason that
receiving the Buddhas teaching is meaningful to us. Buddha did not
campaign for himself to teach dharma. And we are not Buddhas
propaganda minister, either. Propaganda minister, Im not either. You
see? The Buddhas teaching is the manifestation of his realization. It is
not his egocentric, dualistic concepts and findings and discoveries.
Our devotion to Buddha is deeply rooted in our essence and our
potential. When the Buddha talks about the sufferings of samsara, hes
not saying that good food is bad. Hes not saying that being healthy is
uncomfortable. Being healthy is very comfortable. Buddha knows that.
Good food is very tasty. He knows that, too. But what he is saying is
that the suffering of samsara is that no sentient being can or will ever
stop struggling until they become Buddha. That is what he is saying.
The nature of every sentient being is without limitation that is
Buddha nature. And until each person and each being is fully free and
unlimited, until they each reach the ultimate freedom and ultimate
liberation, they are not going to be at peace. They will struggle with
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whatever it takes. We can see very well how many problems there are in
the world, in every society, even in religions, everywhere. And we can
see how many problems there are in every family. And also, how many
problems there are in every person. And we are not just busy with
problems of bread and butter. Most of us do very well with bread and
butter, dont we? But it doesnt make us liberated. From this we can see
that our ultimate liberation is the destination of our ultimate potential,
our Buddha nature.
So devotion to Buddha is totally inherent in us. And compassion
for all sentient beings is the other side of that devotion to Buddha.
Sometimes people say, I have lots of compassion, but I dont have
devotion. That is not possible. That means that the person must look
more deeply at their compassion. Once you have pure, authentic
compassion, that is devotion. Compassion and devotion are not two
separate things. They are two sides of the same coin. You have compassion
for all sentient beings because you know their essence is Buddha. When
you see someone lying in the street with no food and no clothes, you
know that in that person there is the Buddha. How you feel towards
that person lying down there that is authentic compassion. It is not
that you think that you have clothes, a house, and food, and that this
person doesnt have them, and so, therefore, you feel superior to that
person. That is not complete compassion. That is also not bad. Instead
of just ignoring the person, you have that kind of superficial compassion.
And then you try to help. That is wonderful, that is good. But true
compassion and devotion are much deeper than that.
In these four lines, the Third Gyalwa Karmapa covers all of these
very important areas of Vajrayana Buddhism, which are also very much,
actually, the essence of the Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism as well.
We have completed the beginning of the prayer up to the two specific
prayers that Karmapa wrote regarding the perfect conditions for the
path to liberation. I will stop here for now and will continue later. If
you have questions.
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QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
QUESTION: By unidentified flying ego, are you alluding to or
referring to nihilism?
RINPOCHE: Definitely not! With nihilism there is no ego...Ah...Im
joking (laughter). It can be both eternalism and nihilism, but it is actually
a little more difficult than that, because in eternalism and nihilism there
is already identified ego. You see? And because it is identified as eternalism
or nihilism, you can fix it. But unidentified ego means ego is very much
there, yet the ego still says that there is no ego. For example, if I tell you
that I am enlightened, then you might say, No, you are not enlightened.
Then I will say, I am. Then if you say, No, then I will say, Okay, if
you dont stop saying that, I will call my lawyer (laughter). You see? So
that is UFE. Okay? It is not so much a question of eternalism and
nihilism. The ego is there, and yet the ego is not recognized by the
person, either intentionally or unintentionally. And that is very hard to
deal with very, very hard to deal with. The only one who can deal
with it is oneself. For another person it is very hard to deal with.
QUESTION: Rinpoche, what was the name of the yogi who was staring
at the Buddha?
RINPOCHE: Drukpa Kunli. I think he is quite well known around
here. Lots of Western people know about Drukpa Kunli.
QUESTION: What is the name of the fourth aspect of Buddha that
encompasses the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya?
RINPOCHE: Svabhavakakaya. In Tibetan we say ngowo nyichi ku,
ngowo nyi ku. It simpl y means dharmakaya, sambhogakaya,
nirmanakaya are not separate things. They are three aspects of one
thing that is what it means. It does not mean another thing. It
means further emphasis.
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QUESTION: How can one do something properly unless one is
enlightened?
RINPOCHE: Thats very good. Thats very, very good. Excellent. But
actually, we can do it properly by following the lineage closely and
properly. If there is no lineage, then it will take somebody who is
enlightened to do anything properly. Because we have the lineage, then
we follow the lineage. And the teachings of the lineage transmitted to
us and interpreted for us are the original teachings of the Buddha. They
are not the original teachings of the person who teaches us. That is the
closest way to the correct way. Thats an excellent question.
QUESTION: Regarding the issue of translation, could you explain
the reason for the bendzra in Tibetan and vajra in Sanskrit. Which
should we use?
RINPOCHE: Well, its very simple. Because the majority of the great
Tibetan masters were not educated in Sanskrit, they didnt know how to
pronounce Sanskrit properly. So vajra became bendzra, you see. And we
continued to say bendzra because we received the transmission as bendzra,
and not vajra. So, we continue to say it that way. The sound has the
blessing. Many great masters got enlightened saying their mantras with
bendzra. So bendzra is equal to vajra. But, if we are here to pass a Sanskrit
exam, we might lose a point there (laughter) because we dont know
how to say vajra. Its like OM MANI PEME HUNG, instead of OM
MANI PADME HUM.
LAMA TASHI: Rinpoche, this questioner is a bit confused about the
distinction between close and distance lineages.
RINPOCHE: Okay, I will give you an example. And this is a totally
fabricated example. But maybe it will help you. If I attain enlightenment
in this life, I will be attaining enlightenment through the practices that
I received from my gurus. I could have received 200 different teachings
24
from 200 different teachers. Each teacher received each particular
teaching from his or her guru who had in turn received their teachings
from an unbroken lineage that goes back to the Buddha. That is the
distance lineage. But, when I attain enlightenment, as part of my
realization, I might receive direct teachings from Buddha himself. That
would be a close lineage. That lineage would start from that particular
Buddha and would come first directly to me and would then continue
on from me to others. That would be a close lineage. My distance lineages
would be the lineages of all my gurus, the practice of the teachings of
which brought me to this realization. Both are involved. It is like many,
many small streams on the mountainside. They all come together in
one big river. And the big river goes all the way down to the ocean as
one single body of water. So its like that, the distance and close lineages.
Now undo this fabrication. Im not enlightened; Im not a Buddha.
Okay. Im Buddhas disciple, his follower.
QUESTION: Do close lineages always begin after a siddha has attained
enlightenment?
RINPOCHE: Of course. Of course. Not before. After they attain
enlightenment, of course. If somebody receives the teaching directly
from Buddha without being enlightened, that would be unfair (laughter).
Unfair to all of us, you know. Why didnt that happen to us? Why for
him? Did he pay more money or something? (laughter). That would
never happen.
QUESTION: As regards the three impurities, Rinpoche, is the third
that which is given, or the act of giving, or is there a difference
between them?
RINPOCHE: Take for example, jinpa or generosity. Jincha means what
is to be given. Lenpo means the one who is to receive. And dongpo
means the one who is to give. These three: the one who receives it, the
one who gives it, and that which is given. What is to be given, and all of
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that together involves giving and taking and all of this, but then of
course, if somebody really wanted to go into detail, it might end up
becoming 10,000 (things to see as empty or not to be fixated on), instead
of three. Because, with respect to every moment you have to talk about
every single thought. Before I wanted to give, the other one is hoping
that something will be given. So, if one were to consider all the moments
of thought involved before, during and after one act of generosity, it
would become too complicated. Because all of it is involved. Three-fold
purity and these three main spheres of activity are just a general outline
of three particular things.
QUESTION: Rinpoche, what is it that makes them impure, and what
is it that makes them pure?
RINPOCHE: Dualism and non-dualism. Because enlightenment can
never be limited, and dualism of any kind is limited. You cant have a
limited Buddhahood. You see? Then it might just be, Buddhahood
Limited, Inc (laughter).
QUESTION: Rinpoche, how does one find ones guru, the physical
guru, the human guru?
RINPOCHE: When you find, you find. There is no particular way
to find the guru. You receive teachings, you have certain inspirations.
You learn from a guru in whom you have full faith and trust and from
whom you gain or derive inspiration and with whom you really feel a
connection, an affinity. Because of the affinity, the connection, the
trust, the faith and the inspiration, you learn from the situation. Theres
no way to make those affinities and those connections like some
kind of signing of something theres no such thing. It has to happen
from your heart. When it happens, it will happen. The basic,
fundamental thing is that we all have to be sincere. That is very
important. Our motivation should be sincere. We want to be sincere
in the way we want to learn about Lord Buddhas teachings. We want
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to practice the dharma for the sake of attaining enlightenment, for
the benefit of all sentient beings. If that is purely established, then the
guru and the teacher, all of that will happen naturally. I dont think it
will be anything very complicated.
2. PRAYER FOR PERFECT WISDOM
THAT UNDERSTANDS THE PATH
Continuing our teaching on the Prayer of Mahamudra, written by
the Third Gyalwa Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, we are in the second part
of three parts of the main text, which is the actual main body of the text
itself. Within this main part, we are on the second of the particular
prayers. The Third Gyalwa Karmapa writes regarding the perfect wisdom
necessary to understand and realize the path to liberation in four lines:
5. Hearing and studying the scriptures and reasonings frees us
from the obscuration of not knowing.
Contemplating the oral instructions disperses the darkness
of doubt.
In the light born of meditation what is shines forth just as it is.
May the brightness of the three prajnas grow in power.
Here the Gyalwa Karmapa writes about three aspects of wisdom:
the wisdom arising from learning, or learning by hearing, wisdom arising
through contemplation, and the wisdom arising from meditation. Three
aspects of wisdom. He prays that these three wisdoms should increase.
Now remember, this particular prayer in which he talks about the three
wisdoms is a prayer to have perfect wisdom to understand and to attain
realization on the path. That is the particular subject here. The Gyalwa
Karmapa, in writing about the first wisdom, says that by hearing the
lung, which here means the direct teachings of the Buddha, and also the
rigpa, which refers to the particular reasonings and commentaries on
the teachings of Buddha, ones obscuration of not knowing, of ignorance,
will be liberated; one will be freed from the ignorance of not knowing.
27
So, once we know, we overcome not knowing. This is the first step in
the development of wisdom. He specifically says lung and rigpa here
because we can know all kinds of things. We can know how to make
nice bread. We can know how to sail a boat. We can know how to surf,
or how to ski. All of that is knowing. But here, a particular kind of
knowing that will clear away ignorance is required: lung, which refers to
the teachings of the Buddha, and rigpa, which refers to the commentaries
and explanations on the teachings of Buddha given by his followers.
The main purpose of a Buddhist and particularly of Mahayana and
Vajrayana Buddhists is to become enlightened, to attain Buddhahood.
To fulfil that purpose, the first step is to overcome the obscuration of
not knowing.
The next stage he writes about is wisdom arising through
contemplation. Here he mentions a particular kind of contemplation,
the contemplation of sacred instruction. Mengak, means instruction,
but very special instruction. Sempay means contemplating. It also
can be translated as thinking. First you hear the teachings and then
you contemplate them, you think about them, look into them, and
go through them as thoroughly as possible. That is sempay. Now,
what that does is to cause one to be victorious over the darkness of
doubt. If we were walking at night with no light, then we wouldnt
know where we were going. We could end up anywhere, you know.
Therefore, the example is nightfall, the darkness of night. The
darkness here represents doubt. If we dont contemplate these things
that we have learned, then we might still have doubt, and we might
not overcome those doubts. What we have learned he describes as
mengak, sacred instruction. So, the second kind of wisdom we obtain
through contemplation of mengak.
Then contemplation is followed by the third kind of wisdom, which
he says here arises from meditation, from the light that is the result of
meditation. The light that is born from meditation will make clear the
actual as-it-isness of everything. That is bad English, I think. But the
meaning behind that is: Whatever is there, you see as it is, unmistakenly,
without delusion. Through meditation one develops clarity, not this
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kind of clarity (indicating the physical light in the room), but the clarity
of knowing correctly, of seeing correctly, seeing accurately, both your
objectiveness and your subjectiveness, both sides.
So, in this way, at the beginning, what you have learned as the
method, whatever it might be meditation, prayer, visualization, or
just a simple discipline, whatever you have learned you will see accurately.
Then, what those meditations and prayers and disciplines are for, the essential
purpose of that particular discipline, meditation, or prayer, will also be seen
accurately. Then, what has been seen accurately will also be realized accurately.
In this way, the third wisdom is described here.
Karmapa ends these four lines by saying, may the light of the
wisdoms be ever-increasing the wisdom of hearing the teachings; of
contemplating them, thinking about them; and of meditating upon
what you have established through thinking and hearing. Those are the
three aspects of wisdom.
Now, I would like to go on a little side-track here. As far as the
English language is concerned, I really dont know exactly the distinction
between meditation and contemplation. Maybe they are the same. Once,
when I had an exchange with some Christian mystics, they talked about
contemplation very much as we talk about meditation. So, Im not really
sure exactly how it works in your language. But, in Tibetan, when we
say sempa it means thinking (traditionally translated contemplation).
And when we say, gompa it is also thinking, of course, but not thinking
about something to find out something. It is just going through the
particular matter, whatever it is step by step an established and
confirmed practice. As for example, systematically going through the
procedures of a particular meditation practice as outlined by a teacher.
It is not trying to find out what you know and what you dont know,
and make sure that you get it right and all that sort of thing. So there is
this difference. But both are mind. You contemplate with the mind.
Meditation posture is body, but meditation is mind is involved with
mind. It is a mental activity. But once one achieves the final realization
of meditation, then that is not a mental activity. It is something that
one becomes. But, until then, it is a mental activity.
INTRODUCING MAHAMUDRA
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3. PRAYER FOR AN UNMISTAKEN PATH
Now, the third particular prayer that the Third Gyalwa Karmapa
writes is for the unmistaken, correct, path itself. This is also written in
four lines:
6. By understanding the meaning of the ground, which is the
two truths free from the extremes of eternalism and
nihilism,
And by practicing the supreme path of the two accumulations,
free from the extremes of exaggeration and denial,
Is attained the fruit of well-being for oneself and others, free
from the extremes of samsara and nirvana.
May all beings meet the dharma which neither errs nor
misleads.
Here the Gyalwa Karmapa writes about ground, path, and fruition.
The ground, he says, is the two truths the relative truth and the
ultimate truth free from both eternalistic and nihilistic extremes.
The path is the accumulation of merit and the accumulation of wisdom,
free from the extremes of asserting and denying.
Then, the fruition, he writes, is free from the extremes of samsara
and the extremes of peace, nirvana, and is the benefit for oneself and
the benefit for all beings. He ends these four lines by saying: May I and
everyone meet the dharma that is not antithetical to the actual purpose
of dharma, that is not mistaken or going on any detours away from the
actual purpose of the dharma. So, golwa means totally going against.
And chukpa means misunderstood. He prays that one meet with dharma
that is neither going against the actual purpose of the dharma nor is a
misunderstanding of the dharma.
This particular stanza is extremely rich and extremely deep. The
whole, entire dharma is here in these four lines. To be simple here,
when Karmapa says ground, he doesnt mean some kind of basic
foundation practice. Ground here means the ground for everything.
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When we say, I wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all
sentient beings, that is the basic motivation of Mahayana.
Every single one of these ideas must have a ground (a basis). When
you say, I wish to attain enlightenment, you have to have the ground
to attain enlightenment. For the benefit of all sentient beings. With
respect to your attaining enlightenment, there must be a ground that it
will be a benefit for others. And then finally, enlightenment itself should
be beneficial for others and there must be a ground for that. And
then, everybody can attain enlightenment, there must be a ground for
that. Otherwise, it is all just wishful thinking. So, the ground means
this basic ground for everything.
Now, the basis and ground for the entire Buddhist tradition goes
back to enlightenment. That is what Buddhism is all about. How far we
get in this life is one thing; but every single Buddhist wishes to become
enlightened. Some Buddhists wish to become enlightened as far as
arhatship. Some Buddhists wish to become enlightened and become
Buddhas.
4
So, there are slight differences between becoming an arhat
and becoming a Buddha. I mean, not slight (laughter). Tremendous.
But somehow, both are a kind of enlightenment, the process of
enlightenment. And as for me, you know, I wish to attain enlightenment,
too, definitely. But realistically, I dont want to fail to improve by at
least one percent in this life. So, from when I was born to when I die, I
definitely want to make sure that I improve one percent at least. And, I
do my best (laughter). So everybody has their ambition in this life. Still,
everybodys ultimate goal is to become Buddha. That is for every
Buddhist. There must be a ground for that, a basis for being able to do
that. And the ground is that every single sentient beings potential, which
is the essence of their mind, is equal to the Buddhas mind. And we call
that Buddha nature. The essence of the mind of every sentient being is
perfect and has no limitation, just like the Buddhas.
So, this is the ground. There is not one single sentient being, however
insignificant it might look it could be something like an amoeba
that does not have Buddha nature. I dont know whether or not amoebas
have Buddha nature, but they are supposed to be sentient beings. That
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means they have Buddha nature. Every single sentient being has Buddha
nature as their ultimate potential. That is the basic ground.
The ground for why your enlightenment will benefit all sentient
beings is that the Buddha Shakyamunis enlightenment benefits us. Two
thousand five-hundred years after his enlightenment, it still benefits us.
The previous Buddhas enlightenment benefited Buddha Shakyamuni.
He took the vow to attain enlightenment three trillion eons in the past,
and the benefit of that is that Lord Buddha became enlightened. In this
way, we can know that as his followers, we too will be enlightened, and
that our enlightenment will definitely benefit all sentient beings, just as
Buddhas enlightenment benefits us. That is the ground for thinking
and thinking correctly that our enlightenment will be of benefit to
all sentient beings.
That enlightenment is a necessity for every single sentient being
to attain, the ground for that is that every sentient being in essence is
nothing less than Buddha. Therefore, until they attain Buddhahood,
they will not be at peace. They will struggle. Every single sentient
being will go on wandering and struggling in samsara. The definition
of samsara is going in circles. When you are going in circles you might
be running, you might be crawling. The circle can be as big as the
whole universe. The circle can be as small as the circumference of a
finger, but going in circles means going in circles. At the end of the
day you end up in the same place. The definition of samsara is that,
however much we struggle, we end up in the same place. But that will
not stop us from struggling. Until we become Buddha, we can find
ourselves in all kinds of realms; we can go through all kinds of things,
but we will continue wandering and struggling and being helplessly
propelled from realm to realm, sometimes seemingly happy, more often
in pain, but always dissatisfied. Therefore, attaining Buddhahood is
the final destination of every single sentient being because their
ultimate essence is Buddha. Therefore, enlightenment is a necessity,
and the destination of every single sentient being.
In that way, the ground for the enlightenment of the person who
is praying, and the ground for enlightenment itself for which the person
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is praying, and the ground for the benefit to all sentient beings of
attaining enlightenment, for which the person who is praying is
praying, all become relevant.
That is the simple way to understand the ground. Ground means
that if you are a travel agency and somebody comes and ask you to sell
a ticket to someplace called Seattle, then there has to be a place called
Seattle. There is a place called Seattle, right here. So, that is the
ground. If there werent a place called Seattle on the planet earth,
and somebody wanted to buy a ticket to that place, then there would
be no ground, see?
The particular definition of ground that Karmapa has written
here is relative truth and absolute truth. Absolutely, we are all Buddha;
relatively, we are not yet manifesting as Buddhas. As far as extreme
views eternalism and nihilism are concerned, if we dont
understand relative and absolute truth, then we inevitably become
either eternalistic on the one hand, or nihilistic on the other. We might
believe that everything is a real, solid thing for ever, which is eternalism;
or we might not believe in anything at all, which is nihilism. In other
words, we might think that everything exists, or nothing exists.
However, the true understanding of relative truth and ultimate truth
is free of eternalism and nihilism, or of any eternalistic view or any
nihilistic view. The correct view of relative truth and absolute truth is
that they are a unity; in harmony.
The next line talks about the supreme path of the two accumulations,
free from the extremes of assertion and denial. This is very much related
to the previous point. Every dharma is related. Here, if we are eternalistic
then we will assert everything, because, when we do something good, it
will be to our minds only an entirely good thing. If we do something
bad, then we will regard it as a completely bad thing. And, somehow
between these two, if we are fighting the good and the bad as a battle,
nobody is a winner. You see? You Americans have a wonderful saying
for that: To get tangled, you need two (laughter). (Rinpoche is trying
to say, It takes two to tango.) Do you say that? Oh, tangled, entangled,
two to tango. You say it really well. Two to tangle.
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What is important to understand here is that, if we think of doing
good karma as opposite to bad karma, and doing one good thing to
purify one bad thing, then enlightenment will never happen. Impossible!
How impossible? Well, in one day, just to keep the human body moving,
living and breathing, how much life do we destroy? For example, you
eat a plate full of rice. When you grow that rice, how many animals
have to be killed? First you have to plough the ground. The worms are
cut. The animals on top of the soil have to be cut under, and insects
and animals underneath have to be dug up. And they will die, dried
up by the sun. This happens all the time. And then every day you
have to water. How many insects get drowned? Countless. Then you
spray; otherwise, other little creatures will eat the rice or we will not
be able to get any rice. After that, you have to harvest. How many
beings will be chopped into pieces in harvesting? For each single grain
of rice maybe ten, twenty lives, maybe more are taken. And then
we eat a plate full of rice. And so on and so forth. I dont want to
depress you, but thats the reality.
And when we brush our teeth every morning, what happens? We
know we have to brush. So when we do, how many germs are we
killing? You see? And we have to brush, you see? And so on. There are
many things like that; I cant enumerate them all here; there are so
many. The whole of life just to keep it going. If it were the case that
we had to purify every one of our bad karmic actions by doing some
good karma equal to it, what would you have to do? What would I have
to do? For one days karma, I would have to live maybe a hundred lives
without creating any more bad karma. How do I do that? Am I supposed
to hibernate, or do nothing? You see, in this way, if our thinking becomes
eternalistic, then we get stuck.
Then, if we talk about being nihilistic, there are many ways to be
nihilistic. One positive way to be nihilistic, which is very harmful, is
to say, I am Buddha. My potential is Buddha. I dont have to do anything.
But by not doing anything, things will just continue and go on as usual.
There will be no progress, definitely not. Just by thinking we are Buddha
does not make us Buddha. Knowing is up here (pointing to his head),
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you see. Knowing has to do with knowledge; it is not wisdom. Knowing
and information have to be transformed into wisdom through work,
through practice, through application, through really going through it
and digesting it and applying it.
So, that is a positive way to be nihilistic, saying that you are
Buddha. But there are negative ways to be nihilistic, as well. You know
these ways very well. People believe that they can do just one something
to make everything right. They do that something and get everything
wrong. They do something, trying to get rid of the things that they
think need to be got rid of. After some time it becomes a religion that
they want to get rid of. It becomes a race that they want to get rid of. Or
some kind of culture that they want to get rid of. In this way it becomes
a total evil disaster. Worse than a disaster, there is no word to describe
it. That is the result of a nihilistic attitude.
The real balance and harmony between these two extremes is the
actual path of dharma, which Karmapa describes in the next line as the
accumulation of merit and the accumulation of wisdom balanced
and harmonized. We cant totally avoid accumulating bad karma, but
we do our best. That means we dont purposely kill something. We dont
purposely steal something. We dont purposely hit people. As far as our
intentions are concerned, we avoid all negative karma. We do our best
to avoid it.
Also, we try to be generous, we try to be kind, we try to be
considerate. Not that we think that these actions will take care of
everything they wont; but somehow, we do our best. First, we
avoid all negative activities. Then, even though they are not negative,
we should also try to avoid and overcome unnecessary activities, and
replace them with positive and meaningful activities. That is the
accumulation of merit.
At the same time you have to accumulate wisdom. Enlightenment
happens through the accumulation of wisdom, not through the
accumulation of merit. The accumulation of merit will provide the
space and opportunity and the conducive conditions for the
accumulation of wisdom. But the accumulation of wisdom comes
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through truly developing compassion, truly developing devotion, truly
meditating, truly praying, truly recognizing ones essence and the
essence of everything. On the outside, positive conditions must be
developed, but it is on the inside that the actual realization happens.
Enlightenment is possible only in that way from the inside, not
from the outside. Why is it that we can become enlightened in that
way? What happens to the bad karma that we have accumulated just
by living? How is it taken care of?
We can get enlightened because it is impossible to accumulate bad
karma (ultimately). Bad karma is all relative, isnt it? We know that on
this planet we dont see any human beings who are older than 200 years,
who have been here for a long, long time, millions and millions of
years. All of those people, what happened to them? They died, they all
died. But do you know any of them who died ultimately? Nobody died
ultimately. Everyone died relatively. Their human bodies died. Their
minds never ever died. You see? So, from that point of view, and through
the realization of ultimate truth, the relative negativity, relative karma,
is naturally transformed and purified. That is how enlightenment through
the path happens. That is also why good karma benefits us, and why
bad karma harms us only on the level of relative truth. But now, right
now, can we comprehend the ultimate? No, we can only hear about it.
I can talk about it; you can hear about it; you might understand it.
Thats about it (laughter). You see, thats about it. Our days, our nights,
our body, our speech, our minds are totally ruled and controlled and
influenced by relative truth. Therefore, as long as we dont realize the
ultimate truth, we are totally under the influence of and under the
total cause, condition and result of karma and relative truth.
Therefore, both merit accumulation and wisdom accumulation are
extremely important. Sometimes when people become very intellectual
even Buddhists when they become very intellectual, when they really
know alot then they somehow overlook the accumulation of merit.
That is no good, because what happens then? I see lots of these kinds of
people. They say, I want to do good things. I am sincere. I want to
practice dharma, but, you know, this happens, that happens, this does
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not work. They say all kinds of things. And I know that they are not
just making excuses. Its real. Its happening that way and its difficult
for them. Why does that happen? Because of the lack of merit. That
person has not accumulated enough merit. One has to accumulate merit
in order to overcome relative obstacles. And relative obstacles, even if
we mean well, we might not succeed in overcoming without a rich
accumulation of merit. Unless we are really, really dedicated like Milarepa
or Naropa, and that I dont think is very easy. I dont like to say it, but
in reality, you know, it is not that easy for most of us. In that way, we
will be very happy if we have merit and, because of that, things fall into
a positive kind of condition, and we are able to progress internally as
well. Therefore, if we develop both externally and internally, from both
the relative point of view as well as from the ultimate point of view,
from the merit point of view as well as from the wisdom point of view,
gradually, together and harmoniously, then this will be wonderful. That
is what Gyalwa Karmapa is praying for here.
In the next line, Karmapa talks about the fruition, which is free
from extremes. The first extreme is mere samsaric attainment, and the
second one is peace, but a passive kind of peace, which we call nirvana.
Those are extremes. Why? Because attainment that is beneficial for
oneself and beneficial for all beings is what we actually wish to achieve.
We wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.
On the one hand, we dont just want to reach some kind of very peaceful,
very happy, very quiet state of realization and just sit there and enjoy it
forever. Thats not what we are looking for. And on the other hand, the
Gyalwa Karmapa says that our attainment should be free of mere worldly
attainment, such as being a king, being rich, being the richest person
on earth. You can be the most beautiful person on earth, you can be the
most powerful person on earth. Your worldly attainment can be anything.
You could even be a universal monarch ruling over four continents,
over one whole solar system well, youd better be good in that case
(laughter). If you become a universal monarch ruling over four
continents, you will have lots of responsibility. We will all be in your
hands. Anyway, the point is that we can be or might become anything
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in the universe. Thats perfect. But then, that attainment will still be
impermanent. It will not last forever. In that way it still entails the
suffering of samsara. The struggle will still go on.
If we should reach some kind of peaceful and quiet state and just
enjoy that, that would be quite good, but that is not the practice of
Mahayana, nor is it the practice of Vajrayana. This Mahamudra prayer
is written in accordance with the aspirations of the Vajrayana, which
are the same as the aspirations of Mahayana. Vajrayana is practiced for
the benefit of limitless sentient beings. One-sided nirvana is good and
nice, even desirable, but it is just for oneself. So, it is limited.
Therefore, what Karmapa is praying for is the total realization of
Buddhahood Mahamudra realization, with no limitation whatsoever,
for ones own benefit and for others benefit totally without any
limitation. That is the kind of fruition that Gyalwa Karmapa is praying
for. Then he prays for an unmistaken path, and not a roundabout kind
of path he prays for the correct path for himself and for all of us.
That is the third particular prayer.
4. PRAYER FOR UNMISTAKEN PRACTICE ON THE PATH
Prayer number four is concerned with the practice of that
unmistaken path. He is praying for correct, unmistaken practice upon
that unmistaken path. He makes two divisions: The first is a general
prayer for this unmistaken practice upon an unmistaken path; the second
is a more detailed prayer for this.
a. General Prayer for Unmistaken Practice on the Path
The general prayer covers a very large part of the text this particular
prayer, prayer number four, the correct practice upon the correct path. He
says many prayers within it. It gives an overall view of the whole thing.
7. The ground of purification is the mind itself, indivisible
cognitive clarity and emptiness.
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That which purifies is the great vajra yoga of Mahamudra.
What is to be purified are the adventitious, temporary
contaminations of confusion.
May the fruit of purification, the stainless dharmakaya, be
manifest.
In these four lines Karmapa says everything there is to say about
the path and the practice of the path. He uses variations of the same
basic word four times here, which is jang. In the first line, when he says
jang, he means purification, to purify. It has several meanings. One
basic meaning is to purify. Another meaning is mastery, to master
something. There are a lot of meanings in this same word jang pure.
So let us limit it to purifying and mastery, okay?
In the first sentence he says, the ground for purification is the mind
the unity of clarity and emptiness. That is how he describes the
mind. When we practice, at the beginning, it means purifying all sorts
of shortcomings and defilements and negativities, etc. Then, as you
progress on your path you are going deeper, and what you are mastering
is much deeper than just overcoming negativity.
5
In that way, the ground
for that purification, what you are purifying, is the mind itself. As for
the minds qualities, there are no limitations. How he describes this is
the very commonly accepted way of describing it in high-level Vajrayana
teachings, which is the unity of emptiness and clarity. Emptiness, here,
in the sense that mind does not have any kind of dualistic entity. A
person who is alive may weigh sixty-five kilos, and then after that person
passes away, the body will still weigh sixty-five kilos. Mind doesnt weigh
anything. Mind doesnt have any kind of colour; mind doesnt have any
kind of shape; you cant trap mind in anything. It does not get suffocated
under water; it does not go crazy in space. Mind has no limitation of
any kind of dualistic identity. In that way, mind is described as empty.
Empty doesnt mean that nothing is there. Mind is the essence of
everything. But, it doesnt have any solid thingness to it, as such.
Therefore, it is empty.
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But then, mind is the essence of everything. Right now, we all can
see, understand, wonder. Somehow we can communicate, we can feel.
There is so much. All of this is mind, isnt it? Mind is everything.
Therefore, it is clear. If mind is put under the ground in the middle of
the lava in the middle of the planet earth, it will not be burned. If you
look up from within the darkest place on earth, from some kind of
cellar or basement, where there is no light whatsoever, it sees everything.
So mind is clear. It is not ignorant, it is clear. It is luminous. But then,
these two qualities cognitive lucidity and emptiness, luminosity and
emptiness are one. It is all the mind. It is a miracle in itself. The
unity of emptiness and clarity is the ground for purification. If you
remember what I told you about the ground earlier, then that applies
here as well.
In the second line, the Karmapa says that the means to purify
the method of purification is Mahamudra, the yoga of the vajra.
Mahamudra is like a vajra in the sense that it is the most powerful, most
direct method, and of incomparable strength. It is like a diamond, like
a thunderbolt. The greatest possible strength and quality and power
that is all described by vajra. Vajra means all of that in one. And yoga
actually means ways and means, and the application of ways and means.
In the West, when someone says yoga, you think of somebody putting
their feet here and there, and stretching, and all of that. That is hathayoga
exercise. Yoga in general means actual practice, the application of ways
and means. Gyalwa Karmapa here describes Mahamudra as vajra yoga.
He also adds great and calls Mahamudra the great vajra yoga.
In the third line, Karmapa says jang cha. Jang cha means what is to
be purified. We have the ground for purification and the means of
purification. And what is to be purified are the temporary, illusory
obscurations or stains that obscure the mind. That is what is to be
purified. All the defilements and all the negativities (Rinpoche is referring
to the emotional and emotionally reactive afflictions), and all the basic
defilements such as ignorance (Rinpoche is referring to the cognitive
obscurations, which also include dualistic perception), all are temporary.
They are not permanent. They are not ultimate. They are relative and
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temporary, and so they are also illusion itself. They are temporary, because
they are illusions. That is what is to be purified.
Illusion is very easy to understand, especially these days when we
are exposed to so much in the world. I really admire your people who
have invented all of these means of communication. If you really think
about what you see these days, you can come to understand so much.
People are fighting somewhere, and you look at what they are fighting
about, and you say, Oh, that is nothing, (i.e., nothing worth fighting
about). But for them its everything. They die for it. Their parents and
their friends are proud of somebodys dying for that specific thing. But
when you look at it from here, as members of the same human race on
the same planet, looking at it from your own perspective, then you can
get really shocked that something like that is so important to somebody.
And I dont think that they are less enlightened than you, and youre
not more enlightened than they are you can be totally equal in that
regard but just by seeing how illusion works, how they are involved
in such an illusion, then you are shocked by it.
Then, if they look at something that we do here that we think
is very important, maybe they will think the same thing This is
not very important; it is just nothing. In this way, we can see that
it is an illusion. It doesnt mean that it is bad; but that is the reality
of the situation.
There is so much illusion. There is positive illusion, there is negative
illusion, all kinds of illusions. I can even say, and maybe correct in
saying, that almost everyone is thriving on one or another kind of
someone elses illusion. And those peoples illusions are also that on
which some other ones thrive.
6
In this way, illusions keep on encouraging
illusions and keep on developing further and further. Once that happens,
then the good part is that the true colour of illusion, the true nature of
illusion, shows up more often. We end up seeing it quite clearly. That
part is actually quite good. The bad part is that everything goes so fast
that there is no time to get to the bottom of any particular illusion. Just
as soon as we are about to find out about any particular event, then
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something else has already happened. So in that way, you get illusions
within illusions. Its like dreaming within a dream, actually.
The Gyalwa Karmapas words here say that what is to be purified
are the illusions, all of the obscurations, which are temporary and relative.
That is what is to be purified.
In the last line, he discusses the fruition, the result of purification
jang dre which is the dharmakaya totally free of all defilements.
May it manifest. Ngon actually means manifest. So, here, this particular
word, ngon, says very clearly that enlightenment is not something that
you get from the outside. Enlightenment is something that happens
within and then manifests. It is not something created that finally
manages to be a complete creation. It is not a creation. It is the
manifestation of what is already there. In fact, it is simply the purifying
and overcoming of all the relative dualistic creations of confused mind,
thereby unveiling what has always been there and is always there as the
essence. So cho ku ngon gyur shok, dharmakaya, may it manifest.
For this, there is one particular example: As you know, the
Mahamudra lineage was brought to Tibet by Marpa. His guru was
Naropa. And Naropas realization, when it happened, happened in quite
a dramatic way. You might even consider it a little extremely dramatic,
and maybe not 100 percent acceptable in your kind of culture and society.
Naropa was following Tilopa all over to get teachings. Naropa was quite
enlightened already, but not quite there yet. So, hes following Tilopa
everywhere, and Tilopa really tests him. Tilopa led Naropa through the
hardest and most extreme journey towards liberation. Because, he
Naropa wanted to be enlightened in one lifetime, and also because
he was ready for it. So, Naropa passes through all kinds of tests, and
each test teaches one particular great transmission. So, Naropa is
transformed. And then one last transformation was still supposed to
happen. But it didnt happen. So, he had to go through many, many
things. Finally, Tilopa asked Naropa, Now what do you want? And
Naropa says, I still have not received the final teaching and transmission.
I want that. Then Tilopa asks Naropa, What could that be? Naropa
says to Tilopa, I want to attain enlightenment without having to practice
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(laughter). Without having to do anything. Then Tilopa got really
angry, or at least looked like he really was with all due respect. He
looked around for something, but there was nothing but his shoe and
slammed it into Naropas face, and knocked Naropa out. You see? Naropa
was out cold there for a couple of minutes. Then, when he woke up, he
was enlightened (laughter). He says to himself, I knew this always. So
Naropas miracle happened as a result of that. Tilopa told him, The
final enlightenment has to come from you. There is nothing more I can
give you toward it. So, that is, I think, exactly what Gyalwa Karmapa
is saying here: The result of purification, the stainless dharmakaya, may
it manifest. May it manifest in its fullest manifestation.
Those are the general prayers.
b. Specific Prayer for Unmistaken Practice on the Path
Now secondly, when Karmapa writes specific prayers for this, he
writes them in two parts again. First, he says it briefly in one prayer,
and then he goes into detail, one by one in four specific prayers.
Prayer for Correct View, Meditation, and Action (Brief)
First the brief one:
8. Resolving doubts about the ground brings conviction in the
view.
Then keeping ones awareness unwavering, in accordance
with the view, is the subtle pith of meditation.
Putting all aspects of meditation into practice is the supreme
action.
The view, the meditation, the action may there be
confidence in these.
Here Karmapa writes about the three most important components
of practice that we all must have as practitioners of Mahamudra. One
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has to have the correct view, the correct meditation, and the correct
action view, meditation, action these three should be correct.
View covers meditation and action both, because the view applies
at all times. You could call it view, or attitude, or understanding, or
value, or philosophy. It covers everything. Meditation and action mean
meditation and post-meditation. Action refers to post-meditation, when
you are not meditating. Meditation refers to when you are sitting and
meditating and practicing. Action means when you are not meditating
when you are doing other things. All of your activities have to be
conducted according to the view. In this way, the practice becomes
successful. We have a very old Tibetan saying its a little bit sloppy
and not very refined actually: When the stomach is full of food, and
the sun is shining warm, one looks like a great dharma practitioner. But
when negative circumstances fall on you, then the true colour of a real,
ordinary person shows up. If we are not able to have and maintain the
view very clearly, then the meditation and the action might not be in
accord with one another. Even if we have the correct view, if we are not
able to maintain it during post-meditation, then, during meditation we
could be very good and quite diligent, but during post-meditation we
could be behaving quite differently. It would be like someone who is
going on a diet and is not very good at it. One might go on a diet for
one month and really get thin, and then as soon as one comes off ones
diet, the first thing is to go to a McDonalds and next to a pizza parlour.
And then next is what? In that way, one spoils everything that has been
achieved. So, in that way it doesnt help. Its the same thing, if we meditate
very well, but then, after coming out of meditation, we become
undisciplined and not mindful, not aware, then it doesnt really take us
anywhere, and the meditation becomes something else. It actually does
not become the real dharma by which one attains enlightenment. It
becomes something like stress management (laughter). We meditate to
overcome the little aches and pains, to feel good, and then just go on
with our lives in the same old way. Then the next day, we meditate
again. It becomes stress management. There is nothing wrong with it,
but thats not real dharma, thats not the real purpose of Lord Buddhas
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teaching. So the view, the meditation, and the action all have to be
understood and practiced together.
Now, Karmapa says that the confidence of the view is the total
confirmation of the ground. The ground is Buddha nature, isnt it? When
we confirm that in our own minds, then we have confidence. We are
nothing less than Buddha. We are not this limited, miserable human
being. Lots of people say they are depressed, they are disappointed in
themselves, they dont feel worthy of anything. And theres all this guilty
feeling, and there are all kinds of things like that. One thing that I have
come across since I came to the West for the first time in 1980 is that a
lot of people say that they hate themselves, which I still havent really
digested 100 percent, although somehow, I roughly understand it. They
dont like themselves. They resent themselves. And people have a lot of
hurt. All sorts of things like that. So, I may be wrong, but I think the
greatest and most direct remedy for these attitudes and feelings is in this
first sentence: The confirmation of the ground is the incorruptible,
unshakable confidence that you are Buddha. You are Buddha in your
essence. Nothing can corrupt that, nothing can shake that. That is real
confidence, the highest and deepest and most natural confidence.
Then Karmapa talks about meditation. He says maintaining this
confirmation of the ground, this confidence, without getting affected
by thoughts and concepts and emotions, is the secret or key to meditation.
That is the crucial point, the important definition of meditation to
maintain awareness of that ground.
In the third sentence, the Gyalwa Karmapa says that the best and
the most profound action is the fully matured mastery of all that is
meditated upon, that meditation on the ground, on that confidence of
the view that arises from the confirmation of the ground, and the
mastering of that in all situations that is the profound action. No
matter what we are doingwe can be just having a holiday, or we can
be just resting at home or working at the office, or doing whatever we
are doing if we are always able to maintain this awareness of this
ultimate essence, then that is the true, profound action. He ends these
four sentences by saying, may one obtain this confidence and this depth
45
of view, meditation and action. That is the general, overall version of
this particular prayer. After that, The Gyalwa Karmapa breaks it down
and makes a prayer about each one of these. He makes a prayer regarding
the view, a prayer regarding the meditation, and a prayer regarding the
action, and a prayer about fruition or the total accomplishment of the
path. He will be praying for these four separately.
i. THE VIEW
The first one, which is the view, he writes in two parts. The first is
brief, and the second is in greater detail. This part of the prayer covers
most of the main body of the text.
Prayer for the View of Mahamudra (Brief)
The brief one reads:
9. All phenomena are illusory displays of mind.
Mind is no mind the minds nature is empty of any entity
that is mind.
Being empty, it is unceasing and unimpeded, manifesting as
everything whatsoever.
Examining well, may all doubts about the ground be
discerned and cut.
The Gyalwa Karmapa says that all phenomena, including
everything, are all manifestations of mind, are interdependent
manifestations of mind. Mind itself is not any kind of dualistic entity.
Mind is totally free of any kind of limitation. He says it is empty, but it
is totally alive and clear. There is nothing that cannot manifest through
it and within it. Then he prays: May one totally confirm this with clear
and profound examination of it.
For Mahamudra practitioners it is the highest Mahamudra
attainment if we are able to observe the essence of our mind and absorb
46
ourselves in it. We say observe when we are viewing the process personally
and inwardly, and absorb when we are viewing the process from the
outside. In that way, both the relative manifestation and the ultimate
essence of the mind become part of our experience.
7
Of course, it will
be dualistic, otherwise we will become Buddha in one second, in no
time which would be wonderful. It hasnt happened to me. Its true.
It hasnt happened to me. I want it to happen to you, but I dont know
(laughter). So I cant say too much about that.
Anyway, what Karmapa means here is that the view of Mahamudra
is the confirmed understanding that everything is the manifestation of
mind with no limitation and that everything is interdependent with
mind with no limitation. But, there is nothing new, nothing different
about this mind out of which everything manifests, and within which
we experience everything as we are. This mind is beyond any limitation:
both of having any kind of solid, dualistic identity or substance, and
also of not having clarity and clearness that pervades everything. Beyond
any limitation. Knowing this and observing this, becoming absorbed in
this, and confirming this, is the view of Mahamudra. That is the general,
overall prayer for the view of Mahamudra.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
QUESTION: Rinpoche, how can we accumulate merit when we are
always giving it away in the act of dedicating it to others?
RINPOCHE: Oh, dedicating merit is the accumulation of merit itself,
but I dont know whether or not I am supposed to say that. If I do, your
motivation might change, you see? Practically speaking, there is not so
much we can do in one life. If we dedicate our life, our entire life, it
might be eighty years, yes? Ninety years, for doing something for others.
What can we really do, how much can we do? Not so much, you know.
We couldnt do some really big limitless thing. Some people can do
things. Some emperors have built walls that you can see from the moon.
Some kings build palaces that cannot be destroyed even by bombs. These
47
kinds of things they can do, but still it wouldnt be limitless. Because of
this, what little meritorious activity that we can accumulate, good things,
we dedicate to everyone for the benefit of all sentient beings, so that
they may attain enlightenment. Then, that limited virtue becomes
limitless. That is the only way that something limited can become
limitless. It is for this reason that we dedicate the merit. We should
dedicate the merit, because in that way our little merit becomes limitless
and lasts forever. It is not like giving money. If you have lots of money
saved for many years, and then you put everything in one cheque and
give it to somebody, you will go bankrupt. So, merit doesnt work like
that. I understand what you might mean by this question. You look at
it as some kind of cash flow (laughter). But it is not that way. We will
not have a merit cash flow problem. It is dedication that will make a
little merit limitless.
QUESTION: Rinpoche, will this teaching place us within the Kagyu
lineage, and if so, what does that mean for those who practice Zen or
other forms of Buddhism?
RINPOCHE: Of course it doesnt limit your involvement with other
lineages. There is no such thing. It is not some kind of secret society
that youre signing into (laughter). Whatever practice you do, whatever
dharma that you practice, whatever job that you have, whatever kind of
friends that you have everything remains as usual. But in this way
you do get involved with the Mahamudra lineage. Yes, of course. This is
not a lecture. This is a transmission. It is a teaching. Because of that,
you get involved; you are involved. Yes. And thats what you are here
for. You wanted to receive a Mahamudra teaching. But it doesnt mean
that you cant associate with anybody else. The Mahamudra lineage
masters will not be jealous, you know (laughter). You shouldnt think
like that. You should be open. That is part of being a Mahayana
practitioner, and especially a Vajrayana practitioner.
48
QUESTION: Rinpoche, could you please explain a little more about
view, meditation, and action. For example, what do you mean by not
doing well in post-meditation, or being anything during meditation?
RINPOCHE: Not doing well during post-meditation is very simple to
explain. You meditate for maybe two hours, not moving and everything
is perfect, but after that, then you go to the pub, you drink, you get
drunk, and then you smoke, and then you might even do something
not so nice, and maybe go hunting and go fishing and all that sort of
thing. So, that is not doing well during post-meditation.
Doing well during meditation means, first, you have to receive the
teaching and instruction and lineage of transmission for the exact practice
that you wish to practice. Here, Im not teaching you how to meditate,
exactly. Im not giving you meditation instructions. I am teaching the
Prayer of Mahamudra as written by the Third Gyalwa Karmapa, as it
was interpreted in the commentary by the Eighth Tai Situ. So, this
lineage you have. But then, in order to know exactly how to practice,
you have to receive the practice instructions, and the practice transmission
from the lineage, on top of that. Then, following those instructions
exactly and meditating accordingly, is the proper practice of meditation,
is doing well in meditation. Meditation we dont just make up. We have
to receive the lineage of transmission.
QUESTION: (A question was apparently asked concerning the
difference between the Hinayana realization of cessation of an arhat or
arhati and the full enlightenment of a Buddha. Rinpoche seems to have
started by saying that the realization of arhatship entails liberation from
klesha and karma, and...)
RINPOCHE: ...all the negativity totally, no more negativity. And no
more negative karma, also. So you purify all the negativities, such as
mental defilements (kleshas) and negative karma. So, everything becomes
zero. When you reach that state, then that is peace (nirvana). You reach
the realization of peace. But that is not the full development of all the
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limitless qualities, nor is it the manifestation of the limitless potential
of mind, not yet. But reaching zero, which means, for example, that if
you were a very good shamatha meditator, and you could sit very still
and very quiet for hours, and then if you really went deeper and deeper
you might sit there so long that when you woke up it might be the
fortieth century. Yes? We call that cessation. So it is as though all those
2,000 years went by just like that. We call that, not samsara, but the
other side.
And another one is enlightenment. Again, when it comes to the
English language, enlightenment is not nirvana it is the English
language version of enlightenment, which could be anything. At first I
thought that enlightenment meant Buddhahood. I must let you know
that Im not educated in English. I cant read properly, I cant write
properly at all. Im Tibetan-educated. English, I can only talk so-so. So
I dont really know the meaning behind every word precisely. I just have
some feeling about it, and then I use it. And somehow most of the time
it seems to be okay. The meaning seems to get there. So anyway,
enlightenment, I thought, meant Buddhahood. But then, several times
people have come to me with some very simple question. And they say,
Can you enlighten me on this? (laughter) And then I would wonder
because at first I thought their question was really serious business,
because I thought somebody wanted to attain enlightenment through
that. But actually in such a case, enlighten is something like knowing.
You dont want to be ignorant about something. You want to know
about it. So, its the opposite of ignorance. It is like a knowing. But
then in the Tibetan tradition we say enlightenment of Buddhahood
the final enlightenment, total realization. All people say, I realize this,
I realize that, but it doesnt mean much. Somebody goes to a barber
to have their hair cut. And the barber does something wrong, and the
somebody doesnt realize it. So, he is walking around, everybody is
looking, and he doesnt realize whats wrong. But as soon as he goes to
the mirror he sees whats wrong. Then he realizes why people are looking
at him. So this word can sometimes be a little misleading.
50
But when we say the enlightenment of Buddhahood, the final
realization, that means total. That is the same as realizing dharmakaya.
Dharmakaya is another name for the total realization of the essence.
The dharmakaya essence, the ground that exists right now, the essence
of our mind, is dharmakaya. The realization of dharmakaya is when we
attain enlightenment as to the nature of our mind. This is something
that you have to emphasize. I always end up most of the time emphasizing
total realization, enlightenment of Buddhahood, Buddhas realization,
realization of Buddhahood. Okay. So, thats the definition, roughly.
QUESTION: Beings, what are sentient beings? For instance, plants
react to the sudden death of their fellow plants. Are they beings?
RINPOCHE: If the plants have mind, they are beings. If they dont
have mind, they are not beings. I dont know whether plants have mind
or not. In some of the sutras, the Buddha talks about certain plants
having mind. But it is not a generalization. It is in reference to some
specific events. In one teaching it says that there was one family whose
oven was a sentient being. It was a hell realm. Every day the being in the
oven was baked inside. All ovens are not beings, but sometimes the
mind can reincarnate into things like that. In that way, a mind can
reincarnate into a plant, yes. Definitely, into plants or anything. But it
doesnt mean that all plants have mind. I have never seen any text that
says all plants and all trees have mind. But I have seen in the sutras that
there were certain situations in which some plants were beings and
suffered in certain situations, yes.
QUESTION: Rinpoche, theres a second part to this question, what
are sentient beings? And does it mean, when we say sentient being, that
it is knowing that one is alive is a worm less sentient than a fish, a
fish less sentient than a cow?
RINPOCHE: I really dont know. That is a question of English language
definition, which I dont know. In the Tibetan language we call sentient
51
beings semchen. Semchen means one with mind. Sem means mind, chen
means having, whoever or whatever has mind. Then, more sentient and
less sentient, I really dont know. I would rather say more intelligent sentient
beings, and less intelligent, or more complicated-minded sentient being, or
less complicated-minded sentient being. But these English language
definitions I think you yourselves know much better than I.
QUESTION: Rinpoche, what is the relationship between intention
and the karma involved with harming or liberating sentient beings?
RINPOCHE: Well, intention is most important, definitely. But then
intention has many levels. Some mentally disturbed person might do
lots of harm to somebody and think thats something good. This is very
possible. And some person who is a little bit mad might go around
destroying lives, thinking that they are helping them to be liberated
from some kind of evil thing. This kind of thing happens in society. In
this kind of situation, intention does not count as anything positive. It
is the clear, pure, correct, and adequate intention that is most important
from a Buddhist perspective. Ones real intent should be: I wish to
attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. In order to
accomplish that end I will follow the Lord Buddhas teachings according
to the lineage. And then one should try to practice them in ones
meditation, and try to have the proper view, and try also to apply them
in ones post-meditation. There need to be very strong guide-lines, yes.
Otherwise, your intention is just wandering around out in the wilderness,
you know. And then the ego, the kind of ego that I was describing, can
take over, and one could become anything. Many of the really terrible
people, who have done so much harm to humanity, many of them have
thought that their intentions were good. Some of them may have known
exactly what they were doing. But many of them might not have known.
They may have thought they were doing the right thing.
QUESTION: Rinpoche, this is a related question. If one isnt fully
realized, then one cant go through the world engaging in non-activity
52
or Buddha activity. So, while we are still with our obscured minds,
how can we know whether an action we take that isnt obviously a
good action, or a bad action, is worth doing, whether it will be
beneficial or not; how does one not get locked in the struggle of nihilism
and eternalism?
RINPOCHE: Yes, well, a little bit of that problem always will be there,
along the way. But one has to be able to progress through it. That is
what dharma practice is all about. The moment that you begin practicing
dharma you will not become Buddha. That means you will still be making
mistakes. You will still have shortcomings. Thats why one has to have
the profound, living lineage. If the lineage is not there, even if all the
dharma books are there, it doesnt really mean much, because then the
dharma books are taught by people according to their own ideas and
ego. In that case, it actually is only their own ideas and ego disguising
themselves as dharma, rather than the real dharma. The living lineage
has to be there. Thats number one. And the living lineages master
whom you associate with has to be a qualified master of the lineage.
Then, your practice has guide-lines, is properly guided. But then, you
should not become totally dependent upon the guru because you also
have Buddha nature, just like your guru.
In your practice you follow the guru. The important issues, the
spiritual issues you relate to the guru, but for regular things, you have
to stand on your own feet, you have to use your own common sense.
And you have to make your own decisions. Dont be afraid of making
mistakes. That would be paranoia. We make mistakes. Be mindful and
aware; then the mistakes will be little mistakes. Maybe ninety percent
right and ten percent wrong. That is easy to overcome gradually. In
certain things, we repeat mistakes, because we are so used to doing and
saying things in the wrong way. But slowly we progress. When people
start to think that they would like to make exactly the perfect, ultimate,
correct decision, then thats a big problem. Because that expectation
implies that, as I told you earlier, if I drink this water I can get enlightened
53
if I know how to do it perfectly, ultimately. But being able to do that is
already enlightenment. That kind of total, ultimate perfection 100
percent ultimately perfect, will happen as a result, not as a cause, of
enlightenment. So we do our best. We have a saying, A journey of a
million miles starts with the first step. We have to take that first step,
and then keep on marching. On the way we might lose the path, we
might make a mistake. Maybe there might be landslides. We may wander
about, but we dont miss the real, ultimate goal. We do our best.
QUESTION: Rinpoche, if minds nature is pure, where do defilements
come from?
RINPOCHE: Well, during every moment in which we dont realize
this ultimate essence of mind as it is, the defilements continue. But
then, according to the Vajrayana teachings, when you become
enlightened, none of those lifetimes, not even one moment has happened.
In this way, time is relative. Everything is relative, but everything is also
beyond any limitation. It doesnt mean that we are truly, ultimately in
samsara. We are truly, relatively in samsara.
QUESTION: Rinpoche, would you kindly tell us a story from your
own life experience to inspire us in our faith?
RINPOCHE: Are you serious? (laughter) Okay, Okay. Well, my life
experience, yes. All right. I dont know whether or not it will be inspiring,
but I will say a few things. I was very, very, fortunate to be connected
with so many great masters. My time with those great masters has been
very, very precious. And I learned a lot from them verbally, and I learned
a lot from them through their actions as well. Not necessarily always
just sitting there and listening to some talks from books. But observing
and learning from the way they were, how they manifested. Starting
with His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, and including all
the other great masters that I really consider my teachers, from all of
them I received so much. So, one could say, I could have even been the
54
Arizona desert, but by now there should be a couple of huge, beautiful
lakes in it. Because that is how much was received really. In their teachings
all these great masters emphasized just one very simple thing. And they
tell you, and they tell you, that your essence is Buddha. That is actually
the essence of all the teachings that I have gotten from them. You are
not just your limited physical body, and your limited knowledge and
your shortcomings and problems with some potentials. You are
actually nothing less than Buddha. That is you. That is your essence.
And they empower you with it. And they instruct you in it. Everything
is based on that. This is very, very precious, as far as Im concerned.
Lets say I dont like flying very much. Especially in big, big airplanes.
It must be karma, because I spend so much time on airplanes. Since
1980, I have been flying almost every month. Sometimes every week
and still I dont like it. But even though I dont like it, even though
something might happen to my airplane, and even if someday I find
myself about to crash, and then really do crash and become barbecued,
from a practical point of view, then I know that this Buddha within me
will still be intact. There is no way that this Buddha within will be
corrupted, or affected, or burned, or hurt, or lost. So this is, I think, the
most important, essential blessing from all of those great masters. There
is one thing that my supreme guru, His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa,
told me, which I remember very clearly and all the time I try to keep
this in mind and be mindful of it. He said, When you go around and
teach people, let them know that they are the shrine of the Buddha. The
Buddhas shrine is within them. Let them know that. So that is what
Im trying to do. Thats all.
QUESTION: Do you have women monks in your temple? If so, what
are the different duties, how are their duties different, if at all, from
those of male monks?
RINPOCHE: Well, actually in our lineage, the Karma Kagyu lineage,
right now, counting the monks and nuns together all over the world,
altogether there are about 20,000 over 20,000, actually. In Tibet,
55
there is a huge difference in the population of monks and nuns. There
are many, many more monks than nuns, which is a reality. But these
days it seems to us that the population of nuns is growing. I dont know
why. But somehow, there are many more nuns. And, theres also another
very inspiring development in India and Nepal and Tibet and everywhere.
There are three year retreats for nuns, and there is a college where nuns
can study. These things are developing, about which Im very happy.
In Vajrayana Buddhism, as you may know, there are two ordinations
for monks: novice and bikhu (a fully ordained monk). But nuns dont
have bikhuni ordination in Tibetan Buddhism. The lineage is missing.
We have novice nuns, but no bikhunis.
8
His Holiness the Sixteenth
Gyalwa Karmapa, my guru, wanted to revive the bikhuni ordination.
He sent Sister Palmo, Freda Bedi, to become a bikhuni. Sister Palmo
was a very special nun, a Westerner, who actually was responsible for
training Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and many other Rinpoches, too,
to speak English, which was a very great contribution. And since then
several additional efforts have been made to revive the bikhuni ordination.
Since His Holiness passed away in 1981, I have put everything I can
into continuing this effort. Right now we have enough fully ordained
nuns to pass on the lineage, enough bikhunis who are mature, which
means that ten years have passed since they were ordained and thus
they are permitted and empowered to pass on the lineage. So, we have
reached that point. And now we are stuck with one last thing to do,
which is to get the entire lineage of how this ordination has been
continued from the Buddha up to now and how it is to be continued.
We need the lineage, the name, and the history. We dont have that
fully in our hands yet. We are waiting for that. And when that happens,
then Ill be very happy.
In my monastery in India I have built a three-year retreat centre for
nuns, and right now eleven nuns are doing the three year retreat, a few
of them actually for the second time. So thats where we stand. Still,
theres a long way to go. And we will get there. So, lets make the
dedication. Our little deed here we dedicate for the benefit of all sentient
beings, so that it becomes limitless.
56
THE VIEW (Extensive explanation)
In this particular section we are now studying, the Third Gyalwa
Karmapa is making a prayer for perfect practice on the perfect path of
Mahamudra. Within this section, we have already finished going over
the general prayer. Now, the Third Gyalwa Karmapa writes five particular
prayers concerning the view. First, everything that is in the universe is
actually the manifestation of mind. He is praying for that understanding.
Second, mind itself is free from all kinds of limitations and extremes
neither mind nor any of its manifestations is any kind of solid entity,
nor are they nothing at all. Beyond both of these that is the second
prayer. Third, mind is free, not only from the extremes of existence and
non-existence, but also beyond the existence or non-existence of any
kind of limited identity. The fourth prayer is that we understand the
unity of emptiness and interdependence. And number five is concerned
with overcoming all aspects of doubt regarding the ground, the essence.
So, regarding the practice of the perfect path itself, Gyalwa Karmapa is
writing about ground, path, and fruition, and within the category of
ground, which is the view, he writes about these five particular categories.
Since, within this same prayer he is also writing about view, meditation,
and action, then these five prayers concern the view itself, which is the
ground. After that then, the meditation.
THE VIEW
Prayer to Understand all Phenomena as Mind
Of the five particular prayers regarding the view, the first is that
everything is the manifestation of mind. Karmapa writes here:
10. Naturally manifesting appearances, that never truly exist, are
confused into objects.
Spontaneous intelligence, under the power of ignorance, is
confused into a self.
By the power of this dualistic fixation, beings wander in the
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realms of samsaric existence.
May ignorance, the root of confusion, be discovered and cut.
Here Karmapa means that all of the external manifestations, which
we call objects, have never existed with any kind of ultimate reality.
They have existed as the manifestation of the essence of mind. So, they
are projections, which are interdependent manifestations. The definition
of ignorance here is that we have mistaken those manifestations, which
are interdependent with ourselves, as various kinds of separate entities,
and we have mistaken them as objects. That is the first step here.
Then he takes the next step. He says that we always encounter our
ultimate essence, always. But each time we encounter it, we mistake it
for an I, a self. The Buddha within is always recognized by us, but we
misrecognize it as I. So, those two are the basic delusions, the ignorance
of all sentient beings. In the third sentence, he says that, because
manifestations are taken as objects, and Buddha nature is recognized as
a self and taken as the subject, then duality is established. And due to
this dualism, we have been wandering in all kinds of different confused
conditioned existences, in samsara. Then he says, may I and everyone
totally recognize this illusion, which is ignorance, for what it is. May we
totally confirm the truth of this, and may we be totally victorious over
this confusion of ignorance.
Relatively, we are sentient beings in samsara. Our mind, through
which we see things and communicate with things, which has emotions
and concepts, etc., is in its essence, nothing less than the Buddhas
dharmakaya itself. But, in relative manifestation, we manifest as ordinary
sentient beings. We have likings and dislikings. Not only that, we act
upon them. We are influenced by them, and from time to time, we do
negative things to ourselves as well as others. It is not just the I; there
is much more that develops out of it. Regardless of what the I does
and how it appears, it does not change what everything is all about.
From that point of view, Karmapas prayer is very simple. Hes pointing
out that everything out there is there. It is not just made up, it is there.
But it is not there more than an interdependent manifestation of what
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is within us. It is totally interdependent. Everything is interdependent.
Everything is interdependent, and everyone is interdependent. What is
out there is the object. For me, you are the object. For you, I am the
object. For me, my eye is the subject; for you, your eye is the subject.
Everything is interrelated. There is nothing more and there is nothing
less than that. This kind of subject-object dualistic interaction goes on
forever sometimes temporarily good, sometimes temporarily bad. In
the context of this dualism sometimes people kill each other, sometimes
people are very nice to each other and help each other. But it is dualism
in either event. So in this way, he is saying, may we realize the non-
dualism or non-duality, and the oneness and even beyond the oneness
of everything.
This is the way that Vajrayana Buddhism and the Mahamudra
tradition understand and describe everything as the manifestation of
mind. Only this way. The way of understanding that everything is the
manifestation of mind, that takes everything out there as only the
projection of your own mind, is not complete. Mahamudra will never
say, nothing is there more than just your mind. Mahamudra will say,
everything is there as nothing more or less than the interdependent
manifestation of everyone elses mind, and also of your mind. Thats
how you see it, thats how you perceive it. Thats how you affect it, and
thats how it affects you. This is quite different from saying, everything
out there is a production of my mind. If that were the case, what about
my being a production of your mind? In the Mahamudra tradition it
does not end there, saying that nobody is there, only me. If it were so,
why should I tell you all of this, because its only me (laughter), (Rinpoche
would just be talking to himself ). So, in these four sentences, the Gyalwa
Karmapa writes from the Mahamudra point of view that everything is
the manifestation of mind, and hes praying for that recognition.
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THE VIEW
Prayer to Abandon The Limitations of Existence and Non-Existence
The next prayer is the second in this category. Mind itself is free
from any kind of true, dualistic solid reality, and it is also free from not
having any kind of reality at all:
11. It is not existent even the Victorious Ones do not see it.
It is not nonexistent it is the basis of all samsara and
nirvana.
This is not a contradiction, but the middle path of unity.
May the ultimate nature of phenomena, limitless mind
beyond extremes, be realized.
What Karmapa says in the first sentence is that the mind does
not have any kind of solid, dualistic reality. He says that even the
Buddha, who was enlightened, did not see anything that was a dualistic
solid existence. He says that mind is not just nothing; it is the
foundation and essence of both all of existence and also Buddha itself,
of realization, of enlightenment, of liberation. Therefore, it is not just
nothing. It is everything. Then he says that this something and nothing,
or everything and nothing, is not contradictory; this is the unity, the
Middle-way. And then he says, may one realize this ultimate nature,
the essence of mind which is beyond any kind of limitation. The
meaning behind this is quite simple. Gyalwa Karmapa ends this
question of whether mind is something or mind is nothing with the
final conclusion of the Middle-way.
It is important here to understand what middle does not mean.
You have a perfect image for misunderstanding Middle-way. You know,
in your schools you have one person with a very big head sitting on a
wall. What do you call that? Humpty Dumpty! Middle way doesnt
mean you have to be Humpty Dumpty (laughter). Middle way doesnt
mean you dont believe in this, you dont believe in that. You just sit in
the middle it doesnt mean that. The Middle-way means the unity of
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everything. The harmony of everything. It doesnt mean that when
somebody says mind is empty, that you say, I dont say anything no
or yes. Im in the middle. And then if somebody says that mind is
something, then you say, I dont say anything, Im in the middle.
Maybe thats wise. Maybe you wont get into trouble with either side,
but then maybe you get into trouble with both sides (laughter).
Here the modifier of Middle-way zung jug in Tibetan means
unity. Unity here means that the mind has no solid, dualistic limitation
at all. If the mind is something if the mind is supposed to be big
then what is the definition of big, the actual size? Is it the size of a
planet? Is it the size of a whole solar system? Is it the size of a whole
universe, one hundred million solar systems? Or, is it the size of one
million times that? What is it? In that way you get nowhere. The mind
does not have any kind of physical size, as such.
Then we can even go to the simple and very stupid concept, Is
mind green, is mind blue, is mind purple? Does mind have all the colours
that you can think of? Is it like a rainbow? You see? We could go on
and on asking questions about minds specific characteristics without
being able to answer these questions with an affirmative. Therefore,
mind does not have any kind of solid, dualistic entity that you can
somehow use as an example to say, this is what mind looks like. There is
no such thing.
But then mind is not something about which you can say that it is
nothing. It is everything. If somebody says mind is nothing, then who
is saying it? Nothing is saying it is nothing. So, mind is not just nothing.
The Middle-way here is the unity of these two rivers beyond any
limitation, either in terms of existence or of non-existence. Im not sure,
have you heard about these particular philosophical terms such as
Shentong? Okay. So, this is the Shentong view, which is the philosophy
of our lineage.
According to the Shentong view it is like this: Mind does not have
any kind of solid reality. Mind is neither totally existent, nor does its lack
of any kind of solid dualistic reality suggest the total non-existence of
anything. It is everything. It is all-pervading. There is no limitation to
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mind whatsoever. That is the unity of both of these. That is the Middle-
way. The Gyalwa Karmapa emphasizes this here very clearly. Zung jug.
He doesnt just say Middle-way he says zung jug, which means unity.
THE VIEW
Prayer to Abandon the Limitations of Being and Non-Being
The third prayer is again slightly different, because whether mind
is a solid reality or whether it is totally empty, whatever its nature, it
cannot be said that this is it or this is not it. It is free from that limitation.
The Gyalwa Karmapa writes here:
12. If one says, This is it, there is nothing to show.
If one says, This is not it, there is nothing to deny.
The true nature of phenomena, which transcends conceptual
understanding, is unconditioned.
May conviction be gained in the ultimate, perfect truth.
The Third Gyalwa Karmapa here writes that there is no example
that can illustrate the mind as being like this totally. There is nothing
equivalent to it except itself, except the Mahamudra nature of mind
itself Buddha, the dharmakaya. The Buddha can say, Your mind is
just like my mind. He can say that. But it does not really change
anything. You cannot say, Your mind is like this glass of water. There
is no equivalent example for the mind itself.
Then Karmapa says that you cannot say that mind is not this or is
not that. There is nothing that does not have the quality of mind, because
everything is a manifestation of mind. Everything is the interdependent
manifestation of mind. There is nothing about which one can say that
mind is totally unlike this. Mind is like everything, and everything is
part of the limitless manifestation of mind. Minds manifestation has
no limitation whatsoever and the essence of the mind has no limitation
of any kind whatsoever. This is the meaning of the second sentence in
this verse.
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The Gyalwa Karmapa says in the third sentence, lo less des pay cho
nyi du ma jay, that the true nature of phenomena, which is also the true
nature of mind, is beyond any kind of concept, idea, thought, perception,
etc., whatsoever. The ultimate nature is beyond all of this, and the essence
is also not the result of a composition of anything, which means we
cannot create a mind mechanically. We cannot create a mind combining
many things. Mind is not a result of many components put together,
and then something comes out of it. Du jay means composite and is
used to refer to things that are compositions of other factors. Our body
is a composition. Some factors that make up our body come from our
father, some from our mother, some from the universe at large. When
we are born, we are very small. Then we keep on eating, keep on drinking,
and grow bigger and bigger, and then we become six foot or even seven
foot tall. But the mind is not a composition in this way, neither in its
cause nor in its condition. Therefore, he says mind is du ma jay, not
composed. And it is beyond any percepts and concepts, because those
are merely the manifestation of mind.
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You see our ordinary impression of mind is like our thoughts. But,
for mind itself we cannot find an example, except itself. Any example
will be incomplete, because it is dualistic. I have heard some scientists
say that they can examine the materials of the universe, down to the
finest details, down to the nuclei of atoms and so forth, but they cant
know exactly the nature of anything in its undisturbed state. Because
when they check anything, they have to disturb it to check it. When
you examine something, then you can only know how it is in that kind
of situation when it is being disturbed by examination. But you still
dont know how it is when it is not being examined. In the same way,
when the Gyalwa Karmapa says the mind is beyond being an object of
thought, he is saying the same thing. Thinking itself is dualistic.
Whatever you might think about, in this case the ultimate nature of
mind, will be conditioned by the thinking and thus will no longer be
the unconditioned thing itself. The true nature of phenomena, which is
the true nature of mind, is beyond all of this.
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THE VIEW
Prayer to Understand the Unity of Emptiness and Interdependence
Then Karmapa prays, may I confirm a correct understanding of
the ultimate essence of everything, the pure nature of mind. The fourth
prayer is about the unity of emptiness and interdependence. Regarding
this, the Third Gyalwa Karmapa writes:
13. Not realizing it, one circles in the ocean of samsara.
If it is realized, Buddha is not anything other.
It is completely devoid of any this is it, or this is not it.
May this simple secret, this ultimate essence of phenomena,
which is the basis of everything, be realized.
The Gyalwa Karmapa says that when one doesnt realize this, then
one is in samsara, wandering in the ocean of samsara. If one does realize
this, then there is nothing other than this that can be described as
Buddha. Buddha means the recognition and realization of the essence
of the mind. Then he says that everything is beyond any kind of
limitation of this is, or this is not. There is no doubt, because the
essence is the essence. There is nothing that can undo the essence, and
there is nothing that can create the essence. It is always incorruptible
and unchangeable, and there is no way to dilute it in its essence. So, it
is totally pure in itself. Then he says, and this word is a little hard to
translate because, directly translating the word, tsang means secret, and
it even has an ironic interpretation, which is something like weakness.
Tsang is a weakness. But here it doesnt mean the negative aspect of
weakness. What Karmapa is saying is that it is so simple. It is the essence
of everything. It cannot be corrupted; it cannot be diluted. It always is
as it is. It is as simple as that. So he prays, may I see that most essential
spot of the nature of mind, the simplicity of it. I think that a way to
describe this might be what we shared earlier about Naropa. Naropa
said, when he woke up enlightened after the holy episode with Tilopa
(laughter), he says to himself, I have known this a long time ago. So,
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that is the secret, that is the tsang, the soft spot, a kind of spiritual
acupuncture point...the eye of the storm, lets say, of the ultimate nature
of mind.
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THE VIEW
Prayer to Overcome all Doubts Concerning the Ground
Prayer number five is about the total confirmation of the ground,
the Buddha nature, the nature of mind itself, which concludes this first
section about the view. He writes:
14. Appearance is mind and emptiness is mind.
Realization is mind and confusion is mind.
Arising is mind and cessation is mind.
May all doubts about mind be resolved.
Karmapa says that whatever manifests and becomes apparent is
mind. And whatever disappears and is empty is also mind. Once you
understand and attain realization, that is mind. But if you dont realize
the true nature of things and get carried away by illusions everything
becomes like an illusion that is also mind. Whatever is born and
whatever arises is mind. And whatever dissolves and dies and the cessation
is also mind. Then he prays that all doubt about the nature of mind
may be resolved, that it be confirmed that everything is just mind. This
is the fifth and last prayer regarding the view of Mahamudra.
ii. THE MEDITATION
The next section is meditation Mahamudra and for this Gyalwa
Karmapa makes two categories, one general and one specific.
General Prayer for Mahamudra Meditation
The general section, regarding the meditation, he writes in four lines:
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15. Not adulterating meditation with conceptual striving or
mentally created meditation,
Unmoved by the winds of everyday busyness,
Knowing how to rest in the uncontrived, natural spontaneous
flow,
May the practice of resting in minds true nature be skilfully
sustained.
This is a very profound teaching about a particular kind of
meditation, and one that could be applicable to any kind of meditation
that you are doing. However, if you take this too literally with respect to
your present meditation method, you might get a little confused. You
have to understand that Karmapa is writing about a very specific level
of meditation. It is about resting in the nature of mind, observing the
nature of mind, which is considered the highest aspect of Mahamudra
meditation. So he is writing this verse according to that. If you are
doing something that employs visualization, like prostrations, then you
can also apply this, but not totally literally, because that is a slightly
different approach from what he is describing here.
In the first line he says without being diluted. I dont know if Im
saying this correctly or not. If you put water in the milk, it gets diluted,
doesnt it? Mentally created meditation involves dualistic effort. When
you are really observing the nature of mind, you just observe. It does
not involve mentally created meditation. That is very profound. If you
are visualizing properly in the Vajrayana tradition, you are not creating
a new visualization. You are not adding some kind of Rolex watch to
your gurus hand (laughter). If you are doing guru yoga, or visualizing
a Buddha, you are not doing something like that. Therefore, you are
not adding anything. Whatever kind of meditation that you are doing,
it is a mental activity. It is a creation of your mind. The visualization is
a thought. And thinking a particular prayer is also a thought. So, if we
compare this kind of meditation (involving visualizations and prayers,
etc.) with the particular meditation that Gyalwa Karmapa is praying
about here, then these more preliminary forms of meditation are mentally
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created. Even though we learn them from the lineage, still they are
mentally created. We have to work pretty hard to visualize, first the
lotus, then the letters, then the deity, then the fountain of nectar, and
all kinds of particulars. It is all created by mind. It doesnt just happen
naturally up there. So, on a somewhat more subtle level it is considered
a creation of the mind. But since this is not your own invention, it is
not considered the same as ones own creation, like an architect drawing
a new plan for a new house. Vajrayana visualizations are not the same as
architectural plans, because they are from the lineage. You are following
the method according to the precise instructions of the lineage, which
has blessings and confers transmission. So that makes a difference. So,
not diluted by the effort of mentally created meditation.
At the same time, in the second sentence, he says, not being carried
away by the winds of ordinary thoughts. That is quite simple. When
you sit there and try to observe the nature of your mind, and then a
thought comes, the thought can carry you away. You can daydream
there forever. It is the most convenient time and situation to daydream.
One might take a happy ride and spend all ones meditation hours just
daydreaming all sorts of wonderful things. Karmapa is telling us not to
do that.
The third line of this verse is concerned with knowing how to place
your mind in the unchanging, original, natural state of mind itself.
This doesnt mean that we have to let our habits take over. Karmapa
makes it very clear in the second line that one is not to get carried away
by thoughts and emotions. He is saying that, without following or
developing any kind of particular procedures or means, such as
visualizations or any other way of mentally creating anything, and at
the same time, without getting carried away by regular thoughts and
emotions that we naturally have, may one be able to rest in the nature
of mind, placing it in its original, unchanged, undiluted, unaffected,
natural state. May one just rest in its natural essence, as it is, and may
one know how to go about just resting in that way.
In the last sentence, Karmapa says, may we be quite well acquainted
with and know how to maintain this practice of the most essential aspect,
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the practice of the nature of mind. Here it is very clear that The Third
Gyalwa Karmapa is saying that resting in the nature of mind is the
ultimate of all meditation. We do all the other practices in order to be
able to do that. We go through all the other basic processes of the
accumulation of merit, the accumulation of wisdom, and learning about
different method of meditation such as breathing, physical exercises,
visualizations, all kinds of practices, etc., etc., in order to reach that
state. That is the most essential meditation, which is expressed in these
four lines.
THE MEDITATION (Specific Prayers)
That is the general prayer concerning Mahamudra meditation, after
which The Gyalwa Karmapa writes six particular specific prayers on
the same subject: The first one concerns shamatha (tranquillity
meditation); the second, vipashyana (insight meditation); the third,
how to recognize, how to observe the nature of mind; the fourth, the
great unity, the recognition of the nature of mind as great unity. The
fifth deals with the nyam, (sometimes translated as temporary
experience) that precedes realization of any kind. Nyam is a technical
term implying some kind of indication, but then in Tibetan it is perhaps
not that strong. Nyam means that you feel it, you have the experience
or you feel the actual happening of the progress of your meditation.
We have an example. We say that when there is a storm coming, the
top of the castle feels it first. It is like that. The real fruition of
meditation is realization, the full maturity of the process is happening
or has happened. But before that, something starts to appear in your
life. So that is nyam. And the sixth one is tokpa, the actual realization,
which is not nyam, but real awareness and realization that takes place.
Karmapa writes six particular shlokas, praying one by one for each of
these to happen properly.
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THE MEDITATION
Prayer for Shamatha
The first prayer concerns shamatha:
16. The waves of subtle and coarse thoughts calm down by
themselves in their own place,
And the unmoving waters of mind rest naturally.
Free from dullness, torpor, and murkiness,
May the ocean of shamatha be unmoving and stable.
Here Karmapa compares the mind to an ocean. In the practice of
shamatha, the subtle and also the more rough aspects of thought, which
are like waves, naturally become peaceful. That is how we meditate; we
just sit down and use any kind of breathing technique, or any other
kind of method, and then the rough and subtle thoughts slowly settle
down, and we feel peaceful.
In the next line, he says that the great water, the lake of the mind,
which is the analogy, remains calmly and naturally without moving.
That means, once you reach that level, then your mind becomes calm
and steady and quite relaxed. As I mentioned previously, people who do
meditation for stress management purposes achieve this state. They are
very happy, because one days job is done. You have got one days hard
work of worldly gain already, but then you have to pay this price that
you have to pay. Youre really tensed and not so clear-minded. And if
you go home you might get into an argument with your husband or
your wife. You dont want that, so you do a little bit of meditation, and
you calm down. So you get a double benefit. But Mahamudra doesnt
stop there, because that is not the only purpose of Mahamudra.
The next line mentions three principal stains or defilements that
must be removed in the practice of shamatha. In Tibetan these are jingwa,
mukpa, and nyokpa. You have an expression in English, being spread
too thin. When one is spread too thin, ones mind sometimes tends to
space out and become totally ineffective and inadequate. That is what
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is meant by jingwa. When one is feeling very dull and heavy, and totally
exhausted, that is what is meant by mukpa. Jingwa is a more outwardly
oriented mental state, while mukpa is a more inwardly oriented mental
state. And nyokpa means all mixed up and contaminated. Jingwa and
mukpa are not necessarily mixed up; nyokpa is mixed up. These are
three principal obstacles to meditation that good shamatha overcomes,
and the Gyalwa Karmapa prays that we will overcome them.
The Gyalwa Karmapa says, may the ocean of shinay (Tibetan for
shamatha) be stable, without moving and without being disturbed. The
definition of shinay is a mental state of peaceful, stable, calm abiding.
Now I would like to go on a little side-track here. The tremendous
benefit of shinay is that during its practice our inner potential the
Buddha nature, the essence, the limitless potential somehow manifests
itself temporarily. You could have been very confused and very disturbed
and inadequate in many things. But then you might sit down and do a
very good session of shinay immediately after that, and then feel more
clear and see things more clearly. Even if you have made some mistakes,
you see quite clearly where things went wrong and you are able to develop
some perspective on everything more effectively. Of course, without
stable realization, this is temporary. But it is all right there. The reason
that that happens is that it is all within us; it is not coming from outside.
The shinay does not add something to us from outside. It is letting our
inner potential and its own natural remedies manifest, and is providing
the space for it to manifest. Instead of our inner potentials being
imprisoned and then suffocated and being stepped all over, shinay lets
the Buddha quality manifest. For beginning practitioners particularly,
shinay is an extremely effective means of meditation.
THE MEDITATION
Prayer for Vipashyana
The next shloka is concerned with lhaktong, which is how Tibetans
translate vipashyana. Of course, you know that in the Pali and Sanskrit
traditions and translations of the Buddhas teachings, there may be some
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slightly different definitions of vipashyana and shamatha. Thats not too
important for us here right now, but it is good to know, because maybe
you could get confused later. So, the next shloka reads:
17. Looking again and again at the mind which cannot be
looked at,
The meaning which cannot be seen is vividly seen, just as it is.
Thus cutting doubts about how it is or is not,
May the unconfused genuine self-nature be known by self-
nature itself.
A Vajrayana Buddhist practices shinay not just to have some kind
of convenient awareness, a handy awareness that one develops temporarily
now and again; the purpose is to go further towards enlightenment.
From that point of view, after one has developed the clear-minded
condition of shinay, one can look at the nature of mind which is not an
object and has no objective nature that you can look at, but that you
nonetheless observe and observe again and again. Then you will see
what cannot be seen from a dualistic point of view. But you will see it in
a most natural and spontaneous, nondualistic way. See is a way of
describing it; its actually realizing more than just seeing. The word
seeing is used in many of the teachings, including here.
Then, in that situation, there is no doubt whether this is it or this
is not it, because you feel it, you see it, you recognize it. You know,
this is it. In the last line, Karmapa says, may the face of your own
mind be recognized by your own mind itself. In Vajrayana Buddhism
there is particular terminology we use for this, which is the meeting of
a mother and child after a long separation.
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When they recognize each
other, they become one. In this way, through dualism, we separate
ourselves constantly from our true nature and essence. We cant separate,
but we somehow have this situation: We call ourselves I, and then all
of this, (Rinpoche indicates through gesture) everything else, which is
the other, everything happens between them. But then, once we recognize
the true face of our mind, it is like coming back home, like mother and
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child recognizing each other and then becoming one and nondualistic,
a total kind of oneness. That is described here in the last sentence, in
which the essence of ones own self recognizes itself by its own self.
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THE MEDITATION
Prayer to Recognize the Essence
In the next shloka, the third prayer describes how a Mahamudra
practitioner at this level should look at everything else, look at the nature
of mind, and look at the relations between everything:
18. Looking at objects, the mind devoid of objects is seen;
Looking at mind, its empty nature devoid of mind is seen;
Looking at both of these, dualistic clinging is self liberated.
May the nature of mind, the clear light nature of what is, be
realized.
I must tell you that when I was young, in those days when I was
meditating, this particular sentence was extremely helpful for me.
Maybe I had some problem with meditating and this way of seeing
things, but then it was solved. I wanted to let you know. Karmapa
says, look at objects, look at everything, and it confirms that they are
just manifestations of mind, nothing more, nothing less. Then he
says, looking inwardly at the mind you dont see any kind of dualistic
entity (i.e., anything that is separate from what is looking and can, in
that way, be looked at). Inwardly, you dont see any dualistic entity.
And between these two, observing them and being absorbed in that
observation, then the dualism between mind and objects and between
the observer and the observed naturally disappears. When you look
out, you see that everything is a manifestation of in here (indicating
by gesture some internal space); but when you look in, there isnt any
kind of dualistic entity that you can hold on to. Between these two
ways of looking and subsequent seeing, the real dualism is dissolved.
What is left is the clear light, the nature of the mind. Clear light
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doesnt mean a kind of light. Clear light is used in the sense that it is
everything; it is all-pervading, and it is not ignorance, it is wisdom.
13
It is all-pervading, it is the essence of everything. Karmapa prays that
one may recognize and realize this essence of everything. According to
The Gyalwa Karmapa here, that is how we, as Mahamudra practitioners,
view outside and inside and their interrelationship.
THE MEDITATION
Prayer to Understand the Great Unity
Prayer number four discusses the unity of various paths leading to
enlightenment. The Gyalwa Karmapa writes:
19. Free from mental fabrication, it is the great seal, Mahamudra.
Free from extremes, it is the great Middle-way, Madhyamika.
The consummation of everything, it is also called the Great
Perfection, Dzogchen.
May there be confidence that by understanding one,
the essential meaning of all is realized.
Karmapa says, being beyond any kind of conceptual limitation is
Mahamudra. Being beyond any kind of extreme like nihilism,
eternalism, etc. is the Middle-way, the Great Middle-way. The essence
of all together, the unity of everything, is called the Great Completeness,
Dzogchen. Then he says, by knowing one, all are realized. By knowing
any one of these, one realizes the essence of everything. Chik she means
knowing one, and kun don tok means that the essence of all is realized.
May one obtain this confidence.
When Im travelling around, lots of people, I guess mostly
intellectuals, ask questions about what is the difference between chak
chen (Mahamudra) and Dzogchen which is better, and whats the
difference between those and Madhyamika, and whats the difference
between Shentong and Rangtong all kinds of philosophical questions.
I think the Gyalwa Karmapa answers this very clearly in these four
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sentences. Chakcha chenpo (Mahamudra), uma chenpo (Madhyamika),
and dzokpa chenpo (maha ati, mahasamdhi), all are the same. They all
contain the essence of recognizing and realizing by which you attain the
realization of Buddhahood. If we dont recognize that yet, then, if we
are practicing Mahamudra, we are Mahamudra practitioners who are
trying to achieve that realization. And if we are practicing Dzogchen,
we are Dzogchen practitioners who are trying to attain that same
realization. And it is the same for the Middle-way as well. We are just
students; we are just practitioners. But once one attains realization, then
Mahamudra realization is equal to Madhyamika realization and
Dzogchen realization. Dzogchen realization is equal to Mahamudra
realization and Middle-way realization. The ultimate realization of any
authentic system is the same. That is very clearly written here by the
Third Gyalwa Karmapa, and he calls that oneness unity.
THE MEDITATION
Prayer for Perfect Meditative Experiences
The next prayer is about nyam (meditative experiences of a
temporary nature):
20. Great bliss free from attachment is unceasing.
Luminosity free from fixation on characteristics is
unobscured.
Nonthought transcending conceptual mind is spontaneous
presence.
May the effortless enjoyment of these states be continuous.
Now Karmapa talks about three kinds of nyam: When, in the
practitioners experience great joy becomes continuous without stopping,
and without attachment to that joy, thats one kind of nyam; when the
clear light becomes continuous without the minds having ups and downs
(the mind sometimes being clear, sometimes being obscured by mental
defilements) and without having a sense of clinging to the clarity, thats
another kind of nyam; and when the state of nonthought that transcends
intellect or conceptual mind develops into spontaneity, which is beyond
any kind of intention and effort, like the development of an involuntary
spontaneity, that is another kind of nyam. He says, may these kinds of
effortless experiences develop continuously. These are descriptions of
the highest and most profound nyam.
Now. I must take a little side-track here. When a person is practicing
very seriously, then they ought to have nyam; to do so is quite common.
And when a person has nyam, that is actually a very good sign, but it is
also a dangerous time for the practitioner, very dangerous. Therefore,
our great masters always warn us about nyam. Actually, Karmapa says a
few words about this latter when he talks about tokpa, which is actual
realization. So what happens with nyam is that up to that point of having
nyam the practitioner, in fact all people, are involved with thoughts and
emotions and reality from the stand-point of one particular kind of
mind-set or set of concepts. We see this very clearly now, because the
world is very open, and we can see everything, and we can read
everything, and when we as people travel all over the world we can see
this. Certain people are doing certain things very seriously, and they
make such a big deal about it. Its like a life-and-death matter. But for
you it doesnt mean anything; its so silly, as far as you are concerned.
Then something that is really a life-and-death matter for you, if the
same people were to look at it, they would find it very silly. It doesnt
mean anything to them, but for you your reality is real. Isnt it? So, all
the different kinds of sentient beings and practitioners of course, are
sentient beings have all these different kinds of mind-sets, different
kinds of conceptual understandings of reality. And we are set in them.
And of course, the most basic and the biggest mind-set is the self. The
self is very important. I comes first, me first, not you first. You see?
Me first is present in every single sentient being. It is a very strong
instinct. And on top of that, then, every kind of culture is different,
every kind of background, every kind of physical make up has an impact
on the mind every imaginable kind of conceptual impact, every
imaginable kind of environmental impact. There is so much there that
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it becomes a reality. Regardless of how unreal it is and could be seen to
be, it is a reality to those people and a very solid one. So it is possible
that intellectually, through learning, you might overcome certain aspects
of this mental conditioning, strictly based on the intellectual aspect of
learning, but then on the subconscious or unconscious level, you might
not change a bit. You might be a very great philosopher and really know
a lot. And, maybe in peaceful situations, when conditions are positive,
you might be able to do a lot of good things, but in a very difficult
situation, one that really pounces on you, time after time, one thing
after another, then you might lose everything, you might even go crazy.
In that case , things might not have really changed very much or
improved very much on the deeper level.
Through meditation, through practice, and especially through the
practice of Mahamudra, and when your meditation begins to get quite
advanced, you will inevitably have nyam like this. If people who are not
advanced try to have experiences like these, they will not be able to
manage it, because they dont get it right. They are right there, but it
takes time and it takes effort. Just because you want to be something
(i.e., just because you would like to have certain meditative experiences),
you dont necessarily become something. You have to be that. That
happens when it happens. It doesnt happen before it happens, does it?
When a person is experiencing this level of nyam, that persons practice
really works very, very deeply. It works even at the unconscious level
and the subconscious level.
When one is practicing at this very deep level, there is the breaking
up of the external and the subconscious level, of the emotional level,
and even of the physical level of the setting. And when that happens,
you can have tremendous experience. And that can be totally mental;
that can also be visual; that can also even be physical all kinds of
thing can happen. And when that happens, if the person doesnt have
good guidance, and if the person doesnt know that it is simply a nyam,
if the person thinks it is a real tokpa genuine realization of
Buddhahood then they might think, Im Buddha already (laughter).
Yes, yes. But when you are Buddha, then you are Buddha, arent you?
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You dont have to think, Im Buddha. You dont have to think you are
Buddha, you are Buddha already. But, before you are Buddha, if you
think you are Buddha, its quite something (laughter). And it might be
very inconvenient for you, that is, for the practitioner. Definitely.
When I was practicing, all of my great teachers always warned me
about this. I cant claim that I had tremendous nyam; Im not really a
great practitioner I must be honest. I do my best, but Im not a great
practitioner. So I dont have great nyam, but I had nyam. And because I
knew what they were supposed to be, I did not manage to think that I
was Buddha. Im not a Buddha. Im quite clear about that. So in this
vein, nyam are a very important part of the practitioners path, because
they are very encouraging. They are really a kind of confirmation that
your practice is going well. It is working. But this stage is also dangerous
if you dont understand it deeply.
Nyam is described here by Karmapa in a most positive way, and he
is describing the highest aspect of nyam, the continuation of great joy
without any kind of clinging to it. Usually what happens, is that when
you feel really good, you get attached to it. And then you talk about it.
And you might write about it, might even make a movie about it
(laughter). You might do all kinds of things. Then the nyam is gone.
The nyam just ends right there. Nyam can never become tokpa if we
announce the nyam. So, it is a dangerous threshold for the practitioner
who is progressing rapidly.
Another term for that kind of situation is barchay in Tibetan, which
means obstacle. And the greater the achievement, the bigger the obstacle,
naturally. That doesnt mean somebody is waiting for you with different
kinds of hammers, and if somebodys really progressing well, they use
the bigger one (laughter). Its not like that. But the bigger the positives
in your practice, the bigger the negatives, naturally. Not all the way, but
until a certain stage. It doesnt go on like that all the way to Buddhahood.
Then a Buddhas negativity and a Buddhas obstacle would be extremely
big. Yes? The path to Buddhahood doesnt go on to the very end that
way, but until a certain level there is this kind of obstacle. We have a
saying: The brighter the light, the sharper the shadow. In the same
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way, obstacles come along together with the path and its nyam like a
shadow and the form it follows.
THE MEDITATION
Prayer for Actual Realization
Having prayed for perfect nyam, the Gyalwa Karmapa in the sixth
shloka prays for tokpa, actual realization:
21. Longing for good and clinging to experiences are
self-liberated.
Negative thoughts and confusion purify naturally in
ultimate space.
In ordinary mind there is no rejecting and accepting, loss
and gain.
May simplicity, the truth of the ultimate essence of
phenomena, be realized.
From one point of view, clinging to a nyam may be kind of nice, so
you hold onto it. Its so precious, it is so great, you hold onto it. But
that is attachment, and Karmapa says may this be spontaneously freed,
and he prays that we never get attached to nyam; he prays that good
nyam and any kind of attachment will be spontaneously freed.
In the second sentence, the Gyalwa Karmapa says that if the nyam
is sometimes frightening and fear arises, not attachment, but fear, then
may it dissolve into the ultimate space. May fear, the negativity aspect,
also be freed.
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In the third sentence, Karmapa discusses ordinary mind, the nature
of mind, the nature of this ordinary mind, free from accepting and
rejecting. That means that even though we are ordinary sentient beings
the nature of our mind is Buddha. We dont have to be extraordinary in
order for our true nature to be Buddha. Even in the ordinary now the
essence is Buddha. Karmapa prays that we recognize and realize this.
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In the last sentence, the Gyalwa Karmapa prays that one may realize
the ultimate essence of everything beyond any kind of dualistic
fabrication. That is total realization, which is tokpa in Tibetan, the
realization that comes after the nyam. He prays for perfect tokpa, right
after praying for perfect nyam. With this, the six particular prayers related
to the meditation are complete.
iii. THE ACTION
The third section concerns the action the view, the meditation,
and now the action. The Third Gyalwa Karmapa writes prayers about
Mahamudra action, what takes place in the post-meditation experience,
in two shlokas. The first shloka concerns compassion; the second concerns
the unity of compassion and emptiness.
THE ACTION
Prayer for Compassion
The prayer for compassion:
22. The true nature of beings is always Buddha.
Not realizing that, they wander in endless samsara.
For the boundless suffering of sentient beings,
May unbearable compassion be conceived in our being.
This is regarding compassion. I think I spoke to you earlier about
compassion and devotion. The Third Gyalwa Karmapa writes very clearly
about that particular point in these four lines. He says the nature of all
sentient beings is always Buddha. Every single sentient being is always
Buddha in their essence, always. Then he says, because of their lack of
realization of this, they are wandering in samsara. They are wandering
in samsara because they dont recognize their own true nature. Samsara
is nothing more and nothing less than beings not knowing and not
recognizing that they are Buddha. Until we fully realize that, we are in
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samsara; when we fully realize that, we are Buddha. That is the definition
of samsara here.
In the third line, Karmapa states that sentient beings in samsara
are suffering without any end to their suffering. So long as we are in
samsara suffering has no end. We will do everything to overcome our
suffering, of course. If we dont have enough money, we might take out
a loan and do all sorts of things. Some people even rob banks. People
will do anything, but it does not solve their suffering. We want to have
good health, of course, so we take good care of ourselves. Some of us
have good health, some of us dont. But then somehow having good
health does not solve the problem of suffering. Some people want power.
They do this, they do that to obtain it. They stand for election; they
stand for all kinds of things. And they may even get everything, but it
does not solve their suffering. Looking at things from this perspective,
the real suffering of sentient beings isnt hunger. Hunger is one kind of
suffering, but suffering is not limited to the hungry and sick. Sometimes,
when people talk about suffering, they think suffering means pain,
sickness, lack of money, and only these sorts of things. But, according
to the Buddhas teachings on suffering, suffering is the struggle and the
constant dissatisfaction of life. That is the suffering hes talking about.
That will continue as long as we are in samsara.
In the last line, Karmapa prays that unbearable compassion may be
born within us. Now, it sounds as though unbearable here means that
youre so compassionate that you cant stand it, and you scream and yell
and jump up and down, something like that. But it doesnt mean that.
Zomay means that we are unable to ignore the suffering. We will not
just go about our own business. Because of knowing what the potential
of all sentient beings is, because of knowing that every sentient being is,
in essence, a Buddha, then we put our own effort into realizing
Buddhahood in order to benefit all sentient beings. That is the idea of
unbearable here. We cant afford to be lethargic. Compassion is so strong
that it will not allow us to be lethargic. It will not allow us to be selfish.
That is what unbearable compassion is.
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THE ACTION
Prayer for The Unity of Emptiness and Compassion
The second particular prayer of this section is about the unity of
emptiness and compassion, written in four sentences:
23. When the energy of unbearable compassion is unceasing,
In expressions of loving kindness, the truth of its essential
emptiness is nakedly clear.
This unity is the supreme unerring path.
Inseparable from it, may we meditate day and night.
The first sentence says that the strength and the power of this
compassion, which he earlier described as unbearable, is always alive.
Compassion never dies. It is always alive. And when this compassion
manifests as loving kindness, the essence and the nature of it is the
naked and bare manifestation of emptiness. That means that true
compassion which is not dualistic, compassion which is not stubborn,
compassion which is not selfish, compassion which is empty and open,
and is all-pervading; that is beyond any kind of limitation to compassion.
When this compassion manifests as loving kindness, then its ultimate
essence, which is emptiness, manifests as it is, without any cover, without
any kind of skins on it, bare.
In the third sentence, he says that there is no way that the unity of
compassion and emptiness can go wrong. Golsa means that there is a
kind of way to go wrong. If you are travelling down a road and come to
a junction that has three or four different forks, then you can make a
mistake. But there isnt any way to make a mistake if compassion and
emptiness are in unity. Then nothing can go wrong. So, golsa drelway
means that there is no way to get it wrong. He says, lam chok, which
means the profound, the best, the correct path the unity of compassion
and emptiness. In the last line, he prays, may one practice this day and
night, at all times. This completes the second prayer in the section on
the action, regarding the unity of emptiness and compassion.
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iv. THE FRUITION
5. PRAYER FOR THE FINAL ACCOMPLISHMENT
OF THE PATH
The last and fifth section is praying for the final accomplishment
of the fruition, the unmistaken, correct fruition of the path. Actually,
Karmapa writes it exactly as the fruition of the completion of the path,
in four lines:
24. By the power of meditation arise the eyes and supernormal
perceptions,
Sentient beings are ripened and Buddha fields are perfectly
purified,
The aspirations that accomplish the qualities of a Buddha
are fulfilled.
By bringing these three to utmost fruition fulfilling,
ripening, and purifying may utmost Buddhahood
be manifest.
In these four sentences, the Third Gyalwa Karmapa describes the
Buddha, the final enlightenment of Buddhahood, in a simple but
comprehensive manner. He says that the result of the strength of
meditation, which develops through practice of Mahamudra, through
the meditation on the nature of mind, is that one attains the eyes.
Chen in Tibetan means eyes. In Buddhism in general, and in Mahayana
and Vajrayana Buddhism in particular, a Buddhas qualities are described
in this manner: five eyes and five ngonshe, which is hard to translate.
Lots of people say something like clairvoyance. But I dont think it is
the same thing. Ngonshe means knowing beyond the limitation of time
and distance. Someone who has ngonshe will know the future, will know
everything. That is what we call ngonshe. There are five aspects of ngonshe.
Our ordinary eyes see forms and colours of forms. Beyond this, Karmapa
is describing how Buddhas see everything and these eyes represent
five different aspects of seeing everything ngonshe. It doesnt mean
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Buddha has five eyes. But then, the Karmapa did not mention all the
details here. So, the simple way to look at this is that the eyes represent
the omniscient quality of the Buddha, which quality is the result of the
power of meditation.
This ngonshe is gradually obtained with varying degrees of limitation.
Before you attain the enlightenment of Buddhahood you will have
ngonshe to see the past, present, and future, etc. You will have the quality
of these five eyes, but it will be limited. For example, a first-level
Bodhisattva can manifest in 100 physical forms in 100 physical locations
all at the same time. That is one of the miracles of the first-level
Bodhisattva as far as physical form is concerned.
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The second-level Bodhisattva has all of these special qualities and
insights multiplied by 100. That means that the second-level Bodhisattva
can manifest 10,000 manifestations at the same time etc. In this way,
the five eyes and the five ngonshe get more and more limitless, but at the
beginning they are limited. People like me I have a hard time even
manifesting in one form correctly most of the time (laughter). So, this
is a way of describing enlightenment by referring to these particular
eyes and particular ngonshe. And the Third Gyalwa Karmapa is saying
that as one progresses along the path these special qualities gradually
develop from being limited to being limitless.
Then he says, may we benefit beings. However, for benefiting
sentient beings, here he uses a very particular word, min, which means
ripen. A fruit which is not min is a green one. You cant eat it, it is
very sour, it is very hard. It is very hard to digest. Once it becomes
min, then it is really good. It tastes good, its soft, its good for the
health. I think a superficial word for that is to ripen. Karmapa says,
ripen sentient beings. This means that, although you cant change
sentient beings essence, because they are all Buddha and, therefore,
dont have to change anything they are good just as they are still
their essence has to ripen in its manifestation, because right now they
dont talk like a Buddha. They dont think like a Buddha and they
dont behave like a Buddha. And sometimes they even do totally wrong
things. That means they are not ripe. So, it is the compassionate
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aspiration and the compassionate activity of the Buddha to make beings
ripe, so that their inner essence may manifest and become more
apparent so that they may become more kind and more
compassionate, and then have the ability to be more compassionate
and kind, too. Many people would like to be kind, but dont exactly
know how to. There is a very common saying, that kind people always
suffer. They say things like that, that good people always suffer, which
is not true. It doesnt have to be that way. When a good person suffers,
that means the person has good intentions, but somehow things are
not right, so that their kindness is not working. It doesnt mean that
all kind people have to suffer, does it? The problem is that there is no
power together with their kindness; there is kindness, but their kindness
doesnt have power. So that when you do something, instead of other
people really appreciating it and being happy and benefiting from
what you do, they somehow resent it, and you get into trouble. Or
something similar. So, min means everything, every aspect of the
essential qualities of being has to be ripened.
At the same time, sang gye shing rap jang also has a very particular
meaning. A great Bodhisattva, after attaining realization, but before
attaining Buddhahood, receives direct transmission from all the Buddhas.
That is what we call shing kam, pure land. Superficially speaking, it is
like pilgrimaging to all the pure lands. But it is not physical. It is the
inspiration and blessing and transmission of all the Buddhas to dispense
empowerment. Thats what it means. After that, gradually all the qualities
of Buddha, beyond any limitation, become complete: sang gye cho nam
drup pay monlam dzok. At that stage, the original aspiration such as, I
wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, is
fulfilled and completely accomplished.
In the Mahayana teachings it is very clearly said that enlightenment
wont happen without someones first giving rise to enlightenment
mind.
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One has to first have the inspiration to attain enlightenment
for the benefit of all sentient beings. Without this, true enlightenment
wont happen by accident. So, in this way the original inspiration is
being fulfilled, beyond any limitation.
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Then Karmapa condenses the first three lines into one very short
sentence. He says, dzok min jang sum thar jin sang gye shok. Dzok means
all the qualities of Buddha are complete; min means benefiting sentient
beings, and min means benefiting oneself, also, ripening is complete;
and jang means that the empowerment by all the Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas is complete. So, the Gyalwa Karmapa prays, may one
attain this total enlightenment of Buddhahood sang gye shok. That
concludes the final part of the main body of the prayer.
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III. THE CONCLUSION
OF THE PRAYER
O
ne shloka is left. At the beginning. I mentioned that we have three
parts to this text. The first part is the preparation, like the
preliminary part of the prayer. Then there is the prayer itself and the
conclusion. The conclusion has four lines:
25. By the power of the compassion of the Victorious Ones of
the ten directions and their sons and daughters,
And by the power of all the pure virtue that exists,
May the pure aspirations of myself and all sentient beings
Be accomplished exactly as we wish.
The conclusion of this whole prayer is actually very similar to the
beginning of the prayer. At the beginning, Gyalwa Karmapa prays to all
gurus, deities, Buddhas, and Bodhisattvas. At the end, he prays again
that by their compassion, by the compassionate blessing of all the
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions and three times, and by
the power of all the positive, virtuous, good karma that exists all the
good things that any and all sentient beings have been involved in
may the pure aspirations of myself and all sentient beings be fulfilled as
they are. Everyones aspiration, as a Mahayana-Vajrayana practitioner,
according to Mahamudra principles, is, I wish to attain enlightenment
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for the benefit of all sentient beings. And so, the last sentence is, may
this pure aspiration be fulfilled just as it is, may we all attain the
enlightenment of Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings.
That is the end and the completion of the Aspiration Prayer of Mahamudra
by the Third Gyalwa Karmapa.
I hope that my teaching on this prayer will be beneficial, not just
here and now, but I hope that it will be continuously beneficial for
you in your practice, and that it will be conducive to the progress of
your practice. And I wish this not only for those of you who are
practitioners of Mahamudra, but, also and equally for those of you
who are involved with Zen or with other lineages. Whatever lineage
you are involved with, whatever practice that you are doing, I pray
that this will benefit you and be conducive to the progress of that
particular practice that you are doing.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
QUESTION: Rinpoche, how can we keep ourselves from feeling
discouraged or helpless when even advanced people like you who dedicate
their lives to meditation and dharma practice are not even enlightened?
(laughter)
RINPOCHE: So, you would rather like me to say that Im enlightened?
Okay, if it makes you happy, I will say it, but its not true. Of course,
Im enlightened on certain things, you know. But Im not Buddha,
definitely not. One simple thing I dont know how to drive a car. So,
you are all much more enlightened in driving cars than I am, you see.
Buddha means that one is enlightened as to everything. This is very
clear. I am blessed by many great masters. I practice, doing my best, but
Im not 100 percent practicing all the time. Im teaching, Im travelling,
Im doing many, many things I have to do. And Im not Buddha.
Definitely not. But dont get discouraged. You might get enlightened
before I do. Really. Why not?
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QUESTION: How do we overcome strong attachment to nyam which
have already occurred?
RINPOCHE: If you know it is a nyam, then I think youre quite safe.
If you know it is a nyam already, and know not to get attached to it, I
think that is a good enough step. And then if you continue your practice,
and try not to pay too much attention to what happens, then you should
take nyam as an encouragement. Thats all. You dont have to purposely
think about it all the time, and you dont have to not think about it,
just appreciate it, and take it as an encouragement and take it as a
reassurance that your practice is going well. And you can talk to your
teacher about it, definitely. But dont announce them to everybody. You
just talk to your teacher, your master, and seek advice, and practice as
usual.
QUESTION: Rinpoche, could you say more about the experience of
nyam? What are its indicators, how long does the experience last? Do
they last for moments, for days, for weeks, for months?
RINPOCHE: It could be anything, and what Karmapa is praying for
here and what he wrote in his prayer is, may there be nyam forever
until the final realization continuous. That is what he prays for. But
it could be anything. It depends also on what is really happening.
Sometimes certain things really quickly transform. It could be
tremendous, and it could last long, or it could be very short. It could be
anything; no generalization is possible.
QUESTION: Is the experience of realizing our true nature associated
with an emotion, like bliss or exhilaration or joy? And is it as temporary
as the emotion?
RINPOCHE: Oh, definitely not if the realization of your nature of
mind is the final one. But if it is a nyam of your nature of mind, then it
THE CONCLUSION OF THE PRAYER
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will be like that (i.e., temporary), yes. A Buddha or a Bodhisattva of the
first level onward will not fall back, you see. Until you reach a certain
level of realization, one can, how do you say...?
AUDIENCE: Regress.
RINPOCHE: Yes, yes, that sounds great (laughter). Yes, yes.
QUESTION: Can enlightenment be experienced without emotion, or
with many emotions?
RINPOCHE: The enlightenment of Buddhahood is beyond all the
emotions. The emotions are improved and transformed a long time before
Buddhahood, much before the stage of a first-level Bodhisattva also.
We all have emotions right now.
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QUESTION: Rinpoche, I have a number of questions about His
Holiness Karmapa. The first one is, did any of the Karmapas attain
Buddhahood?
RINPOCHE: I believe so, yes. My guru, the supreme leader of the
Karma Kagyu lineage and the Kagyu lineage at large, is the embodiment
of Chenrezig, yes, yes.
QUESTION: Can you say something about the Seventeenth Karmapa,
how hes doing, what hes like, what his situation in Tshurpu is like,
how his education is progressing?
RINPOCHE: Yes, I have had the great opportunity and privilege to
see him about four times now on different situations. It was really an
inspiration of the highest level. I dont want to go into detail about that,
but, in general, His Holiness is physically extremely healthy, and mentally
he is extremely intelligent. He has performed lots of miracles, although
that is not very important. But miracles have happened anyway. Tsurphu
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Monastery (the traditional seat of the Karmapas) right now has over
400 monks. And Tsurphus retreats almost every one of the
Karmapas had their own retreat in the mountains around Tsurphu,
which range from something like 12,000 to 15,000 feet above sea
level most of these retreats in the mountains around Tsurphu are
now occupied by very good practitioners, mostly by nuns, actually.
Most of them are nuns coming from all parts of Tibet. And the
monastery itself has two retreat centers, both having monks doing
three-year retreats for quite some time now. His Holiness sees people
every day. When I was there he was seeing people every day at two
oclock in the afternoon. And every day several hundred people were
there to see him, coming from all parts of Tibet, from Europe, from
America, from everywhere, Southeast Asia, everywhere. And then, from
time to time, he also gave empowerments. And everything is really
wonderful; really, really good. I must tell you that Tsurphu Monastery
officially is allowed by the Chinese government to have only 100
monks. But, now there are 400 monks.
QUESTION: Rinpoche, could you give a brief comment as to how
one learns to rest in the pure nature of the mind? What advice or help
can you give us?
RINPOCHE: How to rest in the pure nature of mind? All right. If
youre a shamatha practitioner, I think you know how to do it quite
well, but at a beginners level, if youre a beginner. If youre an advanced
practitioner, then you know how to do it at an advanced level. So that
what level you practice at is not something I can influence, even
if I try. Meditate using that basic shinay practice, breathing or visualizing
or anything. Your purpose for doing that practice is to reach a peaceful
and calm state of mind. Usually we have emotions, we have all kinds of
things. Even physically, we can have disturbances. We have to let
everything settle peacefully. When our mind reaches a state of calmness
and peacefulness, then instead of just sitting there trying to enjoy it, we
observe the nature of our mind without becoming involved in subject
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and object too much. At the beginning, it will be a little bit subject-
object oriented, because you will have to say, now I want to rest in the
nature of my mind. It will be superficial from that point of view. But
that will be the beginning. In that state of consciousness, your mind is
quite calm, clear, and non-physical, but limitless clarity, which doesnt
have any physical aspect, which is not simply empty, but is also endowed
with clarity. There will be luminous clarity and even a little bit of joy in
there. And then we rest in this state of mind, trying to maintain the
awareness of itself, by itself. We try to maintain that for a certain period
of time at the beginning. That will be somewhat close to what youre
asking, I think.
Once you get into this state of mind, then naturally there will be
thoughts. There will be concepts arising, caused by anything and
everything. Prompted by all sorts of outer and inner phenomena. When
these thoughts occur, then you just realize it. Oh, there is a thought
happening. Then, dont make any further elaboration on it. Dont try
to stop it, dont try to think its bad, dont try to continue it. Just leave
it there and rest again in that same state of mind. And the thought will
dissolve into itself and go back to the original state of mind, if everything
goes well. Otherwise, you might not manage to do that. And if that
happens, its okay. Then, whatever other practice you have to do, you
do. And if youre not doing anything, then you dedicate the merit and,
without disappointment, without being proud, you just happily draw
the meditation to a conclusion and go about your life, but trying to
maintain that awareness as a background in your post-meditation
experience, in all situations if possible, but in a healthy, well-grounded,
clear, mature way. Otherwise, if you try to meditate at times, in an
immature and unclear and desperate way, it can be detrimental also.
Not so good. The first thing that might happen is that it might cause
an accident, if youre driving (laughter). Yes, really, maintaining awareness
doesnt mean that you have to be different. I hope thats good enough
for now. Then of course, whoever your real root guru is, talk to that
person and try to receive further teachings.
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QUESTION: Rinpoche, what is the relationship between the practice
of ngondro and Mahamudra experience, and what is the relationship
between Mahamudra empowerment and Mahamudra practice?
RINPOCHE: Mahamudra empowerment, what does that mean?
LAMA TASHI: Well, I think maybe they are referring to something
like Karma Pakshi Empowerment.
RINPOCHE: Oh okay. The preliminary practices that our lineage
does are actually Mahamudra preliminary practices. In Tibetan we
call it chak chen ngondro, Mahamudra preliminary practices. At the
beginning of our talk, I think I said that Mahamudra refers to
everything that we practice. Meditating on the nature of the mind
directly is the highest and most essential Mahamudra practice. Every
practice of Mahamudra is directed towards that. That seems also to be
the general popular concept of Mahamudra. When people say
Mahamudra they usually tend to exclude the yidams, exclude the
empowerments, exclude shinay, exclude lhaktong, exclude the four
foundations (the four preliminary practices); they just call this highest
form of formless meditation, this most essential essence practice of
the Mahamudra lineage, Mahamudra. It is correct to do so, but
everything else is also Mahamudra. Otherwise, there wouldnt be any
Mahamudra, would there?
Mahamudra preliminary practices are directed towards two purposes:
One is purification, the other is accumulation. The reason they are
called preliminary is that many other practices are taught afterwards.
Therefore, they are called preliminary. But each one of the four
preliminary practices is a complete practice in itself. They are not just
good-for-nothing practices. And they are not just good-for-one-thing
practices either. If one practices only prostrations forever, one can attain
enlightenment through that. It is by itself a complete practice.
Prostrations, Vajrasattva, Guru Yoga, Mandala, all are complete practices.
They are four totally self-contained and complete practices, organized
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as preliminary practices to go further into the teachings of the
Mahamudra lineage. These teachings are so abundant, therefore, this is
how they are taught (i.e., in this kind of organized system).
Now, how these came to be divided into four practices was like
this: In the beginning we have to purify our mental continuum of
cognitive and emotional obscurations, dont we? We have to purify the
negativity in our minds. After that, we have to accumulate positiveness,
positive energies and positive mental attitudes and attributes. That is
the ground or the basis of our practice. The prostration practice comes
first, because beginners find it a little hard to sit. And also, physical
purification is quite an effective form of practice for a person. You can
really feel that you are practicing. And it is guaranteed that you will not
fall asleep while doing prostrations (laughter). You see? In that respect,
it is a perfect practice for a beginner. Prostrations are practiced for
purification, but not just for purification; they are also practiced for
accumulation and also in order to attain realization. But the practice is
more purification-oriented.
Vajrasattva is practiced second because it doesnt require so much
physical activity. The activity is more mental and verbal. Its aim is the
purification of more subtle, inner obscurations of mind. Then, the
mandala offering is practiced for the accumulation of merit, because we
have to accumulate merit in order to obtain wisdom. Without merit,
wisdom is hard to obtain, relatively speaking. As I mentioned earlier,
some people say that the more kind you are, the more problems you
seem to get. And so one gets discouraged. But that doesnt mean that
kindness brings problems. It means that merit is lacking and, therefore,
there is no power behind it. Since the power of compassion principally
arises from deep and extensive wisdom, we accumulate merit in order to
obtain wisdom. So, in the Mandala practice, we offer the whole universe
to all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. We offer more than we can ever
imagine, but with no strings attached. When we offer to all the Buddhas
and Bodhisattvas, the objects to whom we offer are beyond any
limitation. Therefore, the merit is limitless. The Mandala Offering is
practiced for the accumulation of merit and wisdom.
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After the Mandala Offering we practice the Guru Yoga. One
visualizes the Buddha Vajradhara high above ones head, and in between,
all the Mahamudra lineage gurus, surrounded by all the sources of refuge.
From all the Buddhas, from all the Bodhisattvas, from all the protectors,
from all the deities, and from the dharma, from all the sources of refuge,
having supplicated them with great devotion, one receives empowerment.
That process is practiced principally for the development of the wisdom
accumulation. So, when there is merit, then we receive the wisdom
accumulation on top of it. In that way, first there is physical, verbal,
and mental purification, and then the accumulation of merit and wisdom.
That is how the four foundations are taught.
And deity empowerments like the Karma Pakshi Empowerment
which is actually a Guru Yoga empowerment all in one is also an
aspect of the Mahamudra lineage. When you look at Mahamudra you
have to see the whole thing. It is not just one essential formless meditation
practice that is Mahamudra. You can call that Mahamudra meditation,
yes observing the nature of mind, but starting from the four
foundations of Mahamudra and continuing all the way to the realization
of Buddhahood, all of the various practices are the practice of Mahamudra
in the Mahamudra lineage.
QUESTION: Rinpoche, having received this Mahamudra teaching,
how does one learn to practice?
RINPOCHE: After receiving something like this, the most important
thing to understand is that you have all the authority to say this prayer.
I have read each sentence to you one by one. And I can even read it one
more time for everybody, because somebody might have missed part of
it, So then, everybody who is here, if you get hold of the text, may say
the prayer. You have that authority. Then besides that, you know the
meaning of the prayer. So, as you say it, try to remember it. Try to
recollect the meaning and try to mean what you say.
I have found a wonderful translation of this prayer; I think its
quite good. I dont mean to be presumptuous. This is done by our
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Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and the translation group that worked
under him. So, this has a really wonderful blessing. You can even say it
in English, but I dont have the transmission to give it in English. The
transmission of the sound is actually in the Tibetan language. But the
meaning is here in English. If in the future the English translation and
transmission is made properly by one who has it, then it will be the
most convenient for everybody. You will be able to say it in English and
it will be full and complete. For now, you can learn about this as you
have time to go through everything that you have learned. Try to
understand it deeper and deeper, because the nature of a prayer is such
that if you say it ten times wholeheartedly, each time you are saying it
more deeply. And if you recite it a hundred times wholeheartedly, each
time you understand it more deeply. There is no end. The simple prayer:
I take refuge in Buddha, I take refuge in dharma, I take refuge in
sangha I have been saying this since I was eighteen months old.
Thats when I was recognized as me (laughter). What Im supposed to
be, I mean. Since then, I have been saying it, and I cant say that I have
completed it, the ultimate way of saying it. I will complete the ultimate
way of saying it when I attain realization when I become a Buddha.
That will be the ultimate of my simple prayer. So each day I say it.
And each day, if you say it wholeheartedly it goes deeper and deeper.
There is much more in it than one first understands. Just the word
Buddha itself goes deeper and deeper. Thats why we repeat it. Just
to say it once is not enough. Of course, to get a Ph.D. degree, once
will be enough. But to really get the real realization of it, it is not
enough. One time is not enough. Even a million, ten million times is
not enough. Each time one says it, one goes deeper into it. So thats
how you can practice at the beginning.
You can do that on the side, even if youre doing some other practices,
cant you? Then, if you want to be involved in the Mahamudra lineage
and practice further, then I think you should do the four foundations
first. You should learn about the four foundations, and do them clearly
and carefully. Take all the time you need; theres no rush. If you try to
finish too quickly prostrations, for example it doesnt mean
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anything. Whereas, if you really do prostrations properly, that in itself
is a complete practice. Its not a beginner thing. If your prostrations
take ten years, it doesnt mean that you have to be ashamed. If your
prostrations are finished in one month, thats fine. But the practice
itself is a complete practice. You should look at it as a complete practice,
not as some kind of kindergarten of Vajrayana Buddhism. The
prostrations are a total practice. Even if you just say, OM MANI PEME
HUNG, which most people overlook they just think condescendingly
that people only know how to say MANIS but, if they say many
mantras, then that practice is a complete practice. If you just say, OM
MANI PEME HUNG, it can lead you to enlightenment. In this way,
every practice is total on its own.
QUESTION: Rinpoche, have you ever known an advanced practitioner,
a master, who admits to having experienced complete realization?
RINPOCHE: Admits? I have met so many! (laughter) I have met so
many people who say they are Buddha. Really, really. Lots of times
people come to me, and they say, I think Im a first-level Bodhisattva;
what do you think? (laughter) They are being very honest, very honest.
I respect their honesty. But, then, I say, Well, you know, Im not a
first-level Bodhisattva. So how can I know whether or not you are a
first-level Bodhisattva, if even you dont know? (laughter) Of course,
with due respect, we all should not judge, definitely not. But then,
when it comes to our own standard, then we have to be quite honest
and quite sincere, and also humble. This is very important. In our heart,
we know we are Buddha, nothing less than Buddha. So, there is nothing
wrong with being humble. It doesnt make us less than Buddha. All
right, okay, lets dedicate the merit.
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96
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Notes
1: Paranirvana: after the Buddha Shakyamuni passed from this realm;
Buddhas are not said to have died, since they have reached the stage of
deathlessness, or deathless awareness.
2: There are three bodies of Buddha: the dharmakaya, or the body of the
realization of ultimate truth, which benefits the Buddha in question; the
sambhogakaya, a form body called the enjoyment body, that exists
for the benefit of beings but is perceptible only to high-level Bodhisattvas;
and the nirmanakaya, a form body that is perceptible to ordinary beings
and manifests for their benefit. The latter two arise spontaneously from
the former. When Lord Buddha taught tantra, the Buddha himself
manifested as the central deity of the particular mandala of whatever
tantra he was teaching.
3: Tal is often translated as freedom and jor as endowments, qualities,
resources, and here as conjunctions. The eight freedoms are
traditionally enumerated as freedom from birth as a hell being, a hungry
ghost, an animal, a barbarian, a long-lived god, a heretic, a mentally
handicapped person, or living in a dark age (here meaning no Buddha
has come, in other contexts according to the five degenerations we are
living in a dark age). Of the ten conjunctions or resources, the five personal
conjunctions are having a human body, being born in a land to which
the dharma has spread, having all of ones senses intact, not reverting to
evil ways, and having confidence in the three jewels. (Having ones senses
impaired to the extent that ones mind could not function properly in
the study and practice of dharma would constitute the loss of ones precious
human birth.) The five conjunctions that come by way of others are that
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a Buddha has been born in this age, that the Buddha taught the dharma,
that the dharma still exists, that there are still followers who have realized
the meaning and essence of the teachings of the dharma, and there are
benevolent sponsors.
4: Arhat and arhati are the names applied to thosemale and femalewho
reach the pinnacle realization of any of the Hinayana traditions, and signify
personal liberation from samsara and the attainment of peace or nirvana.
Buddhahood comprises personal liberation from samsara, as well as
omniscience and limitless capabilities for leading sentient beings to liberation.
5: Rinpoche is referring here to the basic dualistic split and the fundamental
ignorance of the true nature of mind that form the basis for the negativities
and that must also be purified if the negativities are not to recur.
6: For example, the illusion that gracious living requires the ownership of a
dishwasher is an illusion on which dishwasher manufacturers thrive. But
the dishwasher manufacturers notion that ownership of a Mercedes is
absolutely essential to his or her business prosperity is an illusion on
which the Mercedes manufacturer and the Mercedes dealership thrives.
7: Situ Rinpoche was teaching in English and it was not entirely clear exactly
how he was using the words observe and absorb. From practical
experience one can say that when we sit and meditate and observe our
mind, that the process is both personal and inward; whereas, when we
become absorbed fully in the Mahamudra experience, as the name implies,
our experience then contains everything; there is nothing that is either
shut out of our awareness or that passes beyond our awareness. In this
sense, absorption in the experience of Mahamudra entails acute and
pervasive awareness of relative phenomena. However, if one thinks of
absorption in the sense of becoming engrossed exclusively in ones own
thoughts or in ones own little world, then the use of this word could be
misleading.
8: No bikhunis who have successfully transmitted the bikhuni lineage to the
next generation of nuns.
9: According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a percept is an impression
in the mind of something perceived by the senses, viewed as the basic
component in the formation of concepts.
10: Soft spot is a term coined by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche as a way of
describing a point from which to begin developing bodhicitta; ultimate
bodhicitta, which is the fruition of training in relative bodhicitta, is the
same as realization of the true nature of mind.
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11: Mother luminosity refers to primordial, self-existing luminosity, whereas
child luminosity refers to the meditators various levels of experience of
luminosity. Therefore, when it is said that mother and child luminosities
are united, it means that the meditator has attained the realizations of
the nature of luminosity.
12: Self knowing mind, or mind seeing itself, is refuted in some Buddhist
texts and commentaries such as Chandrakirtis Madhyamika Avatara, and
Shantidevas Bodhisattvacaryavatara (in particular in the ninth chapter of
this work). Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, makes the following comments
on this seeming discrepancy. Here what is being given in these texts is a
refutation of substantialist schools who assert that a substantial mind
can see its substantial self in the way that our physical eye actually sees
something, a visual form, that appears to be out there These Madhyamika
texts do not contradict the Mahamudra meditation and view, Because
what is being discussed in Chandrakirtis and Shantidevas writings is the
substantialist notion that a substantial or truly existing mind can see
itself as a substantially existent thing. And that is correctly refuted as
impossible. In the Mahamudra practice, We are talking about a mind of
which the fundamental nature is emptiness, and of which the primary
characteristic is cognitive lucidity, looking at itself and seeing its own
emptiness, and through being aware of that emptiness, recognizing its
own cognitive lucidity, which is entirely different from a substantial thing
seeing itself.
13: Translated variously as clarity, brilliance, luminous clarity, and
luminosity. We must not make the mistake of thinking of this as some
kind of light such as we get from a light bulb even though the words
suggest this. Rather it is simply that continuous awareness, that knowing,
that the mind always has.
14: Here Rinpoche, by mentioning only fear among all negative thoughts
and other aspects of confusion, in effect, narrows our focus to one of the
principle high-level obstacles to Mahamudra realization, which is fear.
Another is hope, which is related to the attachment mentioned in the
previous line.
15: Such a Bodhisattva can also see 100 different situations in perfect detail,
such as 100 different Buddhas set up in 100 different shrine rooms in
100 different locations, all at the same time. In the same way they can
see all the virtuous and unvirtuous karma that they have performed in
100 previous lives and all that they will create in 100 future lives. There
NOTES
100
are twelve categories of these special powers of a Bodhisattva, which
gradually increase as the Bodhisattva progresses from one level to the
next. For further information, see Gampopas Jewel Ornament of
Liberation, under the chapter on spiritual levels.
16: Bodhicitta: the altruistic mind that aspires to awaken to liberate all sentient
beings from suffering, the awakening mind.
The generation of bodhicitta is based on the altruistic wish to bring
about the welfare, and ultimately the total liberation, of all sentient beings
from all forms of suffering. What distinguishes bodhicitta from the
ordinary compassionate aspirations to benefit others shared by all people
of good will is the recognition that one cannot ultimately fulfil these
aspirations until one has attained the state of mental purification and
liberation of Buddhahood, which is the source of all positive qualities,
including the omniscience that can see, individual by individual, the causes
of suffering and the causes and path of liberation from suffering. This
understanding gives rise at some point to the initial generation of the
aspiration to attain the state of Buddhahood in order to liberate all sentient
beings from suffering and to establish them all in states of happiness.
This is called aspiration bodhicitta, which must be followed by what is
called the bodhicitta of entering or perseverance bodhicitta, which is the
training in loving-kindness, compassion, the six paramitas or transcendent
perfections, etc., which lead to the attainment of Buddhahood. Aspiration
bodhicitta and perseverance bodhicitta are both included in the term
relative bodhicitta. Absolute bodhicitta is direct insight into the ultimate
nature. This state of primordial awareness is compassion and loving-
kindness and gives rise spontaneously and without preconception to
compassionate activity.
17: Some eighty or ninety kinds of coarse emotions are abandoned
permanently at the attainment of the first bhumi, the first level of
enlightened Bodhisattvahood. Rinpoche must be referring to these
emotions, for it is also written in the texts that it is not until the eighth
bhumi that the Bodhisattva is totally liberated from emotions, i.e., of all
the remaining more subtle ones.

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