Buddhist Meditation

Debra Ann’s Mahamudra Meditation 11-20-2011

Debra Ann in her excellent review of Mahamudra meditation mentioned the nine stages of meditation. I would like to expand on these. They come from Thrangu Rinpoche’s Four Foundations of Buddhist Meditation.

Khenpo Jigme’s Teaching on Seven Points of Mind Training Blog 1

Khenpo Jigme agreed to teach on the Seven Points of Mind Training (Tibetan logong) over a series of teachings each month. He began the first teaching by explaining that these teachings came  originally from Atisha and are now taught by all four lineages of Buddhism in Tibet. Thrangu Rinpoche has taught on this topic before and there are several translations of these pith instructions (sometimes called slogans).Thrangu Rinpoche  worked with Michele Martin on getting the exact translation of the instructions below because different teachers have slightly different interpretations of the meaning of the instructions.

WE HAVE A AUDIO CD OF KHENPO’S FIRST TEACHING WITH JULES LEVINSON TRANSLATING AVAILABLE FOR $ 1.00 FOR ANYONE INTERESTED.

 Seven Points of Mind Training in the Mahayana

I. The Preliminaries (Point 1)

1. First, train in the preliminaries.

II. The Main Practice (Point 2)

A. Teachings on Ultimate bodhichitta

2. Consider all phenomena to be dreams.

3. Analyze the nature of unborn awareness.

4. Even the antidote is liberated in its ground.

5. Rest within alaya, the essential nature.

6. In post-meditation, think that people are like an   illusion.

B. Teachings on Relative bodhichitta

7. Train in sending and taking alternately. They should ride the breath.

8. Three objects, three poisons, and three seeds of virtue.

9. In all activities, train with these words.

10. Begin the sequence of [sending and] taking with  yourself.

III. Transformation of Adverse Conditions into the Path of Awakening (Point 3)

11. When the world is filled with negativity, transform  adverse conditions into the path of awakening.

A. Teachings on Relative bodhichitta 

12. Drive all blame into one.

13. Be grateful to everyone.

B. Teachings on Ultimate bodhichitta 

14. Seeing confusion as the four kayas is the unexcelled protection that emptiness [gives].

C. Teaching on Special Practices 

15. Embracing the four applications is the best method.

16. To take unexpected conditions as the path, instantly   join with meditation whatever you encounter.

IV. Blending the Practice with Your Whole Life (Point 4)

A. Teaching on what to Do During Your Daily Life 

17. Practice the five strengths, the condensed heart  instructions.

B. Teachings on What to Do at Death 

18. The Mahayana instructions for transferring  consciousness at death, is the five strengths. The way you behave is important.

V. The Evaluation of Your Mind Training (Point 5)

19. All Dharma converges in a single purpose.

20. Of the two witnesses, take the principal one.

21. At all times merely rely on a joyful mind.

22. You are well trained if you can [practice] even when distracted.

VI. The Precepts of Mind Training (Point 6)

23. Always train in the three basic principles.

24. Change your attitude and rest within yourself.

25. Don’t talk about weakened limbs.

26. Don’t brood over the [faults of] others.

27. Work with the greatest afflictions first.

28. Discard all hope for results.

29. Give up poisonous food.

30. Don’t be so constant.

31. Don’t get riled by critical remarks.

32. Don’t wait in ambush.

33. Don’t make things painful.

34. Don’t shift the ox’s load to the cow.

35. Don’t aim to be the fastest.

36. Don’t act with a twist.

37. Don’t turn gods into demons.

38. Don’t seek [others’] pain as the limbs of [your] happiness.

VII. Guidelines for Mind Training (Point 7)

39. All activities should be done with one [intention].

40. Correct all wrongs with one [intention].

41. At both the beginning and the end, an activity to be done.

42. Whichever of the two occurs, be patient.

43. Observe these two, even at the risk of your life.

44. Learn the three difficult points.

45. Take up the three main causes.

46. Don’t allow three things to weaken.

47. Keep the three inseparable.

48. Train impartially with all objects. Deep and pervasive training at all times is crucial.

49. Always meditate on whatever makes you boil over.

50. Don’t be swayed by outer circumstances.

51. This time, practice the main points.

52. Don’t misunderstand.

53. Don’t fluctuate.

54. Train wholeheartedly.

55. Liberate yourself through these two: examination and analysis.

56. Don’t wallow in disappointment.

57. Don’t get stuck in irritation.

58. Don’t be temperamental.

59. Don’t expect a standing ovation.

This essential elixir of instruction, which changes the five kinds of degeneration into the path to awakening, is a transmission from Serlingpa. The awakening of karmic energy from previous training, awakened an intense interest in me.  Therefore, I ignored suffering and criticism, and sought instruction for subduing ego-clinging.  Now when I die, I’ll have no regret.

This translation is gathered from those of the Nalanda Translation Committee and Ken McLeod, with some changes and new translations by Michele Martin, March 2000.

******

In this first teaching, Khenpo explained in great detail the first instruction and how the preliminaries were extremely important. In this teaching described the four ordinary foundations and how if these were not thoroughly mastered, everything that followed would be of just a little benefit. In the process he mentioned the following categories:

Here are the numbered items mentioned by Khenpo in his first talk to the Thrangu Meditation Center These are taken directly without editing from Thrangu Rinpoche’s Four Foundations of Buddhist Practice.(Available from Thrangu Meditation Center $5.00).

The Eight Freedoms or the Eight Riches

1.  The first unfavorable condition from which we are free is birth in the hell realm.

2. The second is free from the hungry ghost realm

3.  The third is being free from the animal realm

4.  The fourth is being born in a country that has Dharma

5. The fifth is being free from being born in the god realm.

6. The sixth unfavorable condition being born in a place where there is no good dharma or religion

7. The seventh unfavorable condition is to be in a world where no buddha has manifested.

8.  The eighth unfavorable condition is being born mentally deficient.

The Ten Assets

 The first set of assets, those due to our own circumstances.

The first being that we had the good karma to have been born a human being.

The second asset is to be born in a place where the Buddhist teachings are available.

The third asset is having mental and physical faculties intact.

The fourth asset is not to have an unvirtuous livelihood such as one which involves killing or stealing. The fifth asset in our control is having faith and confidence in the dharma.

 The second group of five assets are those provided by someone outside of ourselves.

The sixth of these is that a buddha exists in the world we inhabit.

The seventh is that the Buddha not only entered our world but also gave teachings.

The eighth asset is that these teachings haven’t declined and disappeared.

The ninth asset is that the dharma is actually practiced.

The tenth asset is people who out of kindness are ready to support us in our practice.

Eight Unfavorable Circumstances

In addition to having the eight freedoms and the ten assets we also need to be free from the eight unfortunate or unfavorable circumstances: mental situations which pop up suddenly even in the midst of practice and interfere with or preclude it.

1.   The first unfavorable circumstance occurs when the five poisons (Skt. kleshas) of the mind are very strong.

2.   The second intrusive circumstance is the influence of bad friends.

3.   The third unfavorable circumstance is not recognizing clearly what is a danger and what is a help to one’s practice.

4.   The fourth unfavorable circumstance which could arise at any moment is laziness.

5.   The fifth unfavorable circumstance is encountering the unfavorable result of previous karma

6.   The sixth unfavorable circumstance is not being your own master but being dependent

     on someone else.

7.   The seventh unfavorable circumstance is practicing because of the impure motivation of wanting to help only ourself.

8. The last unfavorable circumstance also comes from the impure motivation of wanting fame and   fortune.

Vivid Awareness Blog 9 Guru Yoga Practice

Denver Center Study Group Outline for 10-30-2011

Quote of the Week: Chagdud Tulku’s mother who was a delog journeyed into the Bardo and came back with the following message: “ You in the world of the living, although you have gathered clothing for a hundred years, you will go forth naked on the morning of your death; better, then, to wear shabby clothes while practicing what is virtuous. Although you have amassed food for a long time, you will go hungry on the morning of your death; better, then, to make a gift even of your leftovers. Although you have amassed possessions throughout your life, you will go forth empty-handed on the morning of your death; better, then, to make provisions for your journey in future lifetimes. One the morning when the dark noose of the lord of death closes about you, and it is time for you to go, helplessly, your father and mother won’t be there to protect you, your loving relatives and friends won’t be there to shelter you. You will see that they are mere objects of your memories of happiness and job, that they have no true essence. Cast off these bonds of appearances and perceptions based on confusion, for it is surely time to practice the divine Buddha-dharma, which will truly benefit you in the future. Do not let the remainder of your human life slip away.

Last Week: Last week we had a teaching on the third Ngondro which is mandala practice.

This Week: We will cover page 40-41 of Vivid Awareness which covers the fourth Ngondro practice of guru yoga.

Guru yoga is a practice for us to develop devotion to the Dharma. As our understanding of the Dharma increases, we begin to see that it is actually particular way of looking at any situation. Whether we are raising a child, trying to do well and keep our job, get along with our parents or spouse, deal with a mental or physical illness, or trying to overcome certain negative personality traits; we begin to realize that the most direct and complete way of doing these things is to do it in a dharmic way.

But how do we know what is the proper Dharmic way? Can the Buddha tell us, No. We must rely on our guru and hence we develop a deep faith in our spiritual teacher or teachers by doing Guru Yoga. Once we begin to develop faith in the lineage and spiritual teachers and teachings, be begin to receive blessings (Tib. chin lap) which is the energy of all the activities and tremendous practice of all the bodhisattvas of our lineage. Blessings in Buddhism are not like blessings in the Christian or Hindu religions where there is the implication of “I have been a really good boy or girl, so please use you supernatural powers to help me with my troubles and problems.” Rather, the receiving of blessing in Buddhism is often described in terms of the following metaphor: If you have a bowl and it is turned upside down and you try to pour water in it, the water will simply run out. But if the bowl is right side up, the water will go in and fill up the bowl. In the situation of blessings, all the buddhas and bodhisattvas would like to help us, but if we have no faith in what they have done, then we are like the upside down bowl and will receive no benefit from them. If we have faith and work in our practice and try to develop bodhichitta, then we will be like an upright bowl and be able to receive their help.

Every time we do Chenrezig practice, we are actually playing out what I have described in the above paragraph. If we do Chenrezig (or any other practice) because our friends are doing it or we like the tune and to sing, we will get very little benefit from it. If we do the practice because we genuinely want to help other beings who are suffering, then we will get a great deal out of the practice. And when we visualize all beings having Chenrezig over their heads and saying the 6-syllable mantra, we cannot expect the whole world to have changed when we finish our practice because most of those persons are “upside down bowls.”

I will now describe the Guru Yoga practice for you who don’t know what it is like. I will, as I have been doing for all the Ngondro practices use the new shortened Karmapa practice.

We begin by sitting in Shamatha position. We visualize ourselves as our yidam which is a meditational deity. Now, in the traditional Guru Yoga one always visualizes oneself as Vajrayogini. Many practitioners do not have a personal yidam so when I asked Khenpo Jigme about this, he said if you don’t have a personal yidam, then you can choose one such as Chenrezig, Vajrayogini or the like.

Then in the short version you recite: “Above the crown of my head, on a lotus, sun, and moon seat,

Is my root guru the mighty Vajradhara

Sky-blue, holding vajra and bell in his crossed arms,

Beautified by precious ornaments, blazing with major and minor marks,

The vivid embodiment of all then directions and three times’ victorious ones.”

So we visualize ourself as a yidam and Vajradhara is visualized by himself above our head just as he appears in the lineage tree. We then say the seven branch prayer and a supplications of the four kayas, and a supplications to the precious guru who is Vajradhara and also to our lineage and our own spiritual teachers.

Traditionally, in Guru Yoga we recite the following six lines 100,000 times. I give these six lines because they are so packed with meaning.

1. Precious Guru, I supplicate you
2. Grant me the blessings to abandon ego-clinging.
3. Grant me the blessings to realize the futility of samsara
4. Grant me the blessings so that non-dharmic thoughts may cease
5. Grant me the blessings to realize my mind as unborn
6. Grant me the blessings that my illusions naturally subside
7. Grant me the blessings to realize all phenomena as dharmakaya
   

In the short version of Guru Yoga, in the mantra section we recite Karmapa chenno which means “Karmapa, think of me” many times. Since this phrase is so short, it is easy to say it 1 million times. This seems like a lot, but it goes very fast.

Picture of the Week: Our newest member of the Sangha who has had perfect attendance. For color picture see the blog: www.Buddhist-Meditation.tumblr.com. Remember to put the dash between Buddhist and Meditation.

Vivid Awareness Blog 8 Mandala Practice

Thrangu Meditation Center Outline for 10-9-2011

Quote of the Week: When a simpleton abused him, Buddha listened to him in silence, but when the man had finished, asked him, “Son, if a man declined to accept a present offered to him, to whom would it belong?” The man answered, “To him who offered it.”

       “My son,” Buddha said, “I decline to accept your abuse. Keep it for yourself.”

                                                — The Buddha as told by Will Durant

Suggested Dharma Practice for the Week: We have already talked about saying the meal prayer as a way to increase our path in Dharma. Another way is suggested by the 17th Karmapa is that we take a little bit of our food of each meal and dedicate it to the three jewels. We would then leave that offering uneaten.

Last Week: We discussed Vajrasattva practice, but didn’t actually pass out the Vajrasattva mantra. Here it is. It is also in the prayer book on page 87 (purification of White Tara practice).

OM VARASATTVA

 SAMAYAM ANUPALAYA VAJRASATTVA TVENO PATISHTHA DRIDHO ME BHAVA SUTOSHYO ME BHAVA SUPOSHYO ME BHAVA ANURAKTO ME BHAVA SARVA-SIDDHI ME PRAYACCHA SARVA-KARMASU CHA ME CHITTAM SHREYAH KURU HUM HA HA HA HA HOH BHAGAVAN SARVA­TATHAGATA VAJRA MA ME MUNCHA VAJRI BHAVA MAHASAMAYASATTVA AH    The short version is: OM VAJRASATTVA HUM.

Outline, Comments, and Additions to Page 38-40 of Vivid Awareness

The main purpose of Mandala Practice (the 3rd Ngondro practice) is to develop generosity. Generosity is the perfect antidote to the self-centered or self-cherishing that we harbor.

In every sadhana practice we make offerings. It can be to our guru, to the three jewels, to the bodhisattvas, or to a yidam. If you have a shrine the bare minimum is a statue or picture of the Buddha and seven offering bowls which you fill with water every day (or if you can’t do that every time you do practice) These seven bowls representing offering everything that you have. Since Buddhism originated in India these offerings are represented by the seven offering goddesses called Argam, Padyam, Pupe etc are listed below. I have the pictures of these goddesses and what they are offering (drinking water, washing water, flowers, incense, light, perfumed water, food, and music).

 There are two kinds of offering bowl setups for a shrine: the first is more of a Mahayana shrine which consists of 7 offering bowls which usually have just pure water in them. The other is a Vajrayana shrine which usually have 8 bowls and this is depicted on the photograph above. One cannot visually “offering” so in about the 8th Century in India the process became more easily visualized or solidified by picturing the offerings of eight types that were common to that time. In India there were already eight offering goddesses so these were adopted. When we had an important person such a village chief or high religious person or a king into one’s house one would first offer them drinking water. This is represented by the goddess Aloka and when we do the offering mudra in Buddhist practices we say “aloke, ghende, newidye” with each mudra. After offering water, we would wash the person’s feet—we must remember that in those days all streets were dirt and we didn’t want dirt and mud tracked into a center or sacred part of the house. Then we would offer them flowers. In Tibet, there were no flowers 8 months a year so they adopted the custom of giving a cloth scarf or kata which is still done today. Then one would have the dignitary light a stick of incense on the shrine—a practice still done in many Buddhist shrine rooms and we would light a candle. Then we would give them perfumed water to wash their hands in because it would be time to eat. On the shrine we often put a little saffron in this bowl of water. Then we offer food and have a feast. Finally, while we are feasting, we have to have musical accompaniment which is shown by Shabta.

We often think of meditation as sitting there very still, not moving trying to focus our thought down. But having an enlightened mind involves movement and energy shifts and a lightness to it. We we see high lamas together or with their monks and students they are often smiling and joking and laughing. We see light and movement. If we look at these goddesses and the dakinis in Thangkas we see they are dancing because the path to enlightenment is one of lightness and movement. When we are offering we are evoking these goddesses and moving our hands in symbolic movements (mudras) and that is how we should see mandala offering— a joyous act of giving everything to the entire universe.

Actually, mudras come from Indian dance in which every movement in sacred dances (not just Indian, but Bali, Thai, Burmese, Japanese classical, etc.) represent a word or feeling or mood. When we see the movements in in these dances we see the energy ebb and flow with their bodies. It is the same with the movements of Tai Chi and martial arts—we concentrate on inner peace and the body then flows with energy and we are able to block or pivot or strike with immense power and insight.

Indian dance by the 8th century had already developed texts on the body movements in dance laying out over 1,000 movements and what these movements mean and what they go with. To this day we can go to India and study under a master and gradually learn these movements until they become automatic and flowing.

Finally, this technology of the movement of energy in the body was not only used and known in Buddhism, but was the very foundation of ancient science yoga and many other healing modalities.

The 17th Karmapa on Mandala Offering

I will explain mandala offerings briefly. First of all, there are said to be many types of merit, such as conditioned merit and unconditioned merit. It is extremely difficult for ordinary individuals to instill conditioned virtuous merit and unconditioned merit into their beings. Whatever phase we are in, whether the phase of ground, path, or fruition, a great deal of conditioned virtuous merit is needed. It is difficult for individuals who lack merit to even hear the words “path” and “Dharma,” let alone develop the path within themselves. This is why we need to make the accumulation of merit within our beings complete, which we should do by making mandala offerings. It is for this reason that we do the mandala practice.

The sutras and tantras both talk about how to make mandala offerings. Generally, the word mandala is a Sanskrit word that means “to take the essence.” Thus before we offer the mandala we need to identify what the essence is that we are taking. It is the result, the three kayas—the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya. The method by which we take their essence is to continuously offer mandalas to the buddhas and bodhisattvas, which makes the obscurations in our beings become thinner and thinner and the qualities grow stronger and stronger. Ultimately we will manifest the state where all faults have been extinguished and all qualities gained. Then at last we will be able to take the essence.

We need to know what materials mandala plates can be made of. There are three types of material: the best, the average, and the least. The best mandala plates are made of precious substances such as gold and silver. The middling are made of iron or copper, and the least are made of wood, clay, stone, and so forth. Mandalas come in different shapes and colors. For example, pacifying mandalas are square, enriching are round, magnetizing are crescent-shaped, and mandalas for wrathful activity are triangular. Similarly, each of the different activities of pacifying, enriching, magnetizing, and destroying has its own color. There are also large, medium, and small-sized mandalas, but the minimum size it should be is twelve finger widths across. These are the physical characteristics of the mandalas that we can use. When we offer mandalas, there are two types: the mandala of accomplish­ment and the mandala of offering. The mandala of accomplishment is set up as a representation, and the other mandala is used for actually making offerings. If all the sources of refuge mentioned here—the Buddha, Dharma, yidam, lamas, and Sangha—are present in your shrine room, it is not neces­sary to have a special mandala of accomplishment. But whether in actuality you have the mandala of accomplishment or not, you should visualize the sources of refuge on the base of the mandala as they are described above,’ whichever type of mandala it may be. Then offer a seven-branch prayer in a way that moves you and with all the branches properly fulfilled.

    When you offer one hundred thousand mandalas, the most important mandala is the offering mandala. You mainly make seven-heap mandala offerings on the offering mandala. To describe the seven-heap offerings, the mandala plate represents the golden ground of the earth, and on that ground is the golden earth anointed with fragrant scents, scattered with flowers, and completely circled with a ring of iron mountains around its perimeter. In the middle is the king of mountains, Mount_. Meru, surrounded by the four main continents in the four directions and also adorned by the sun and moon to its right and left. Visualize it as a pure land created by the intentions and aspirations of the buddhas. You should make this offering thinking that through the power of visualizing the offering, all wandering beings purify the stains of the defilements and enjoy the state of the four kayas within a realm that is utterly pure.        

In terms of how the mandala is offered, we should first talk about what substances you should offer in the heaps. Offering medicinal herbs and other substances that sustain the body eliminates physical illnesses and brings long life. Offering precious stones and the like will cause your needs and wishes to be fulfilled and your purposes accomplished. Offering rice and grain that have been infused with a nice scent has the purpose of being able to elicit faith and generate renunciation in others. Medicinal herbs, grains, or any offering substances other than gems and precious stones for the offering piles get stale quickly, so you should not always use the same herbs and grain over and over again. You may, however, offer gems over and over again.

When you make the mandala offerings, keep some grain and gems in your left hand as you offer the mandalas. Holding the mandala plate with an empty hand does not create an auspicious connection. Then you can make the piles, whether of grain, medicinal substances, or gems, with your right hand. First wipe the mandala plate with your right wrist. In the Kamtsang tradition, we wipe it all the way around twice in a clockwise direction and once counterclockwise. Wiping it twice clockwise is most likely in terms of the outer classes of tantra, and wiping it once counterclockwise is in terms of the inner tantras. The ordinary custom is to wipe twice clockwise and once counterclockwise, but it is also okay to rub it either three times clock­wise or three times counterclockwise.

Whether you wipe the plate clockwise or counterclockwise, the main thing is to do it with your right wrist. The reason is that the bodhichitta nerve is on the surface there. Because the bodhichitta nerve is there, this creates the interconnections that make it easier to purify afflictions, misdeeds, and obscurations and develop love and compassion. As you wipe the plate, you should think that this realm that you are taming is cleared of all rocks, mud, gravel, and any other impurities or faults. If you think that, it becomes the practice of purifying a realm described in the sutras on transcendent wisdom. It has all the elements of the practice of purifying a realm.

Hold some grains or gems in your right hand as you wipe the mandala plate, and when you are done place them in the center of the mandala plate. If you do not do that and leave the center empty, there might be the fault that you will be born in a realm that is pure but empty. Then you make the seven piles on the mandala. There is the king of mountains, Mount Meru, in the center and the four continents in the four directions, ornamented by the sun and moon. You should visualize these properly.

There are two different ways you consider the directions: You can consider east to be in front of yourself, or you can consider east to be in front of the mandala. Thus east is either the direction you are facing or the direction those to whom you are making the offering are facing. You consider the di­rection that those to whom you are giving offerings face as the east primarily to receive the blessing of the sources of refuge quickly. You consider the direction you are facing as the east to offer your body, speech, and mind. Either is acceptable.

In either case you should visualize Mount Meru in the center. These days there is a lot of discussion about whether or not Mount Meru exists, but whether something like the specific Mount Meru we visualize in our medita­tion absolutely has to exist is a different question. Some people visualize Mount Meru as square and some as round. There is no way it could exist ex­actly as each and every individual imagines it. Therefore the way you visualize it is not how it is. Instead, the main purpose is to broaden our attitude and actions so that what we call the four continents are purified of all their stains and impurities, so that they may become the pure realms of the buddhas.

Thus what is mentioned here are Mount Meru in the center, the four continents, the sun, and the moon. Alternatively, it would probably be fine to make a new seven-pile mandala with Asia in the east and America in the west and offer it, as long as you offer it properly. But before you made such an offering you would have to think a lot about it and then make something up, which would not be easy. What is essential here is that you transform your offering of Mount Meru and the four continents—that is, the whole universe—into a pure realm. This in turn will transfigure our attitude and vision into something tremendously vast.

For example, in Taiwan and China there is a lot of emphasis on the human pure realm. That human pure realm is precisely what we visualize here as the mandala. This is because a pure realm is not some fine, excellent place that already exists elsewhere. Pure realms come from purifying impure realms; a pure realm is not a place somewhere that has been excellent from the beginning. At first it has an impure nature, and it only becomes pure through being cleansed and purified. In the case of the pure realms of Amitabha and other buddhas, for instance, first the buddhas themselves were ordinary individuals, but through their training in purifying realms, gradually their place, country, and possessions were cleansed of impurities and stains and purified to the nature of pure wisdom. That is how pure realms such as Sukhavati were created, and we ourselves can also train in the same way.

This is a mandala plate, but it is upside down. Visualize it turned over with a smooth flat top. There are two mandalas in the mandala practice. The one above is used to do 100,000 mandalas and is held in the hand.

This is the second mandala place which would go on your shrine. The bottom is the mandala plate picture above (but right side up) and each of these rings are filled with rice so it is 4 stories high. This plate goes on your shrine.

Vivid Awareness Blog 7 Vajrasattva

Below is the Vajrasattva mantra in two forms. The first is how the mantra is said with a Sanskrit pronunciation and the second is how the mantra is said with a Tibetan pronunciation. There are also several variations of this mantra, but this is the one that is used in Kagyu Ngondro. Finally, there is the short Vajrasattva mantra.

IF THIS PICTURE IS SMALL JUST CLICK ON IT.

And below is a photo of Vajrasattva. You can get a high quality

IF THIS PICTURE IS SMALL JUST CLICK ON IT.

8 x 10 photograph from the Thrangu Center bookstore for $ 3.00. Vajrasattva is easily recognized because he is white in color and in his right hand hold a vajra and in his left hand holds an upside down bell on his left thigh.

The next blog will contain some background materials from Khenpo Jigme’s teaching on the Seven Points of Mind Training.

Vivid Awareness Blog 6

Denver Center Meditation Group Outline for 10-2-2011 (Vivid Awareness 6)

Last week (page 35-36 of Vivid Awareness) we discussed the first uncommon preliminary which is refuge and bodhichitta. We engage our mind by visualizing the lineage tree, we engage our speech by saying the refuge prayer and we engage our body by doing prostrations in front of the visualized refuge tree. I found this in the Karmapa’s explanation of his Short Ngondro practice which involves just the prostrations.

The 17th Karmapa on Prostrations

 Next is how to prostrate, starting with how to join your hands: To your fingertips together but leave space between the centers of your hand so that they do not touch. Then insert your thumbs between the hands. You hands should have the shape of a lotus blossom that has not yet opened but is just about to bloom. Leaving the empty space in the center represents the dharmakaya. The shape represents the form kayas. The right and left hands represent means and wisdom—at least when we act virtuously. If we act unvirtuously, they might represent maras and obstructors! By joining these two representations of means and wisdom, we create the auspicious connection for the path to arise where it has not arisen, never weaken where it has arisen, and continue to grow and develop without weakening, through the union of means and wisdom.

Once we have joined our palms, we touch them first to our forehead. Then we place them at the level of the throat, and then we touch them to our heart. This represents the qualities of the buddhas’ three places and the purification of the obscurations of the three gates of body, speech, and mind. Doing this is a cause for purifying the obscurations.

When you do the refuge practice in the future, you are going to have to prostrate, and when you prostrate, you will generally have to do full prostrations. There are also many other types of prostrations, such as half prostrations—prostrations where the five points touch the grounds Full prostrations mainly appear in vajrayana instructions, whereas the half prostration, also called the prostration of the fivefold mandala, is the usual type of Buddhist prostration. It is okay to do full prostrations, and it is also okay to do half prostrations. Alternatively, if your knees are bad, it is permissible to kneel, touch your hands to the three places, and then touch your head to the floor. You don’t have to get up but can prostrate while kneeling.

Usually it is said that one should do a few hundred thousand prostrations. But many foreigners complain a lot when they do prostrations—they say that their back hurts or their knees hurt. Prostrating is good, but if trying to do a hundred thousand becomes a huge hassle and causes great difficulties, it is no longer Dharma practice. Since this is a ngondro practice that I wrote, when you practice, you can decrease the number a bit. You do not absolutely have to do one hundred thousand prostrations. The minimum is one thou­sand or ten thousand, or perhaps fifty thousand. Full prostrations are fine, and half prostrations are also fine. If you are able to do more, don’t limit yourself to a hundred thousand; it is also fine to do two hundred thousand. But even if you reduce the number of prostrations, you still must recite the refuge prayer at least one hundred thousand times.

The most important thing to understand about prostrations is that a pros­tration is an expression or convention of body and speech that can show our respect. If doing this can demonstrate pure action of the three gates, it is a prostration. Otherwise it is not a prostration. If the prostrations we do f that criterion, it does not matter how many times we prostrate. We can gather the accumulations, and we have accomplished the primary pure In Tibet, prostrations can be scary—when you see them, they seem terrifying prostrations should not be like that; they should be an expression of faith.

The Second Special Preliminary: Vajrasattva Practice.

We now go onto the second special preliminary which is the Vajrasattva practice. In Vivid Awareness (page 36-38) Thrangu Rinpoche explains why Vajrasattva is very important. Then in the Short Ngondro text the Karmapa explains the process of how we actually reduce and eliminate our negative karma.

To give one example from a famous Nagpa, when he was a child in Tibet he saw a beautiful fish with all kinds of gleaming silvery scales. He took the fish out of the water to play with and when he realized that he had killed the fish, he ran to his teacher and asked what he could do to erase this bad karma. The teacher then taught him the Vajrasattva mantra. I have also seen Thrangu Rinpoche suggest Vajrasattva for a particular problems in group interviews.

Finally, we should not think of Vajrasattva as being a “preliminary” or “lower” practice because the teaching is that when we go on our most important journey in the bardo, we visualize ourselves a Vajrasattva and say the 100 syllable Vajrasattva mantra. 

The 17th Karmapa on Vajrasattva

When we speak about purifying misdeeds, we talk about the four powers: the power of support, the power of regret, the power of resolve, and the power of acting on the antidote. I think that the easiest of these is the power of support, because the power of support is to rely on the precious Three Jewels or the field of merit. Therefore, even if our own intentions or actions do not quite measure up, that on which we are relying—the power of support—helps us greatly. For instance, when we con­fess misdeeds, even if our actual intent and action in making the confession do not measure up, taking the Three Jewels as a support while making confessions will make purifying our misdeeds faster and easier, through the power of the compassion of the Three Jewels.

When we talk about confessing misdeeds, many people think that when we say, “confess misdeeds,” it means, “I killed a bug in the past and now I need to confess it.” Or perhaps it is, “I killed a horse and have to confess that misdeed,” or even, “I murdered someone and have to confess that.” That is excellent, but there is something even more important than that. If we first make a commitment or form a great hope and then later do some wrong that violates it that is a far graver harm. Generally killing horses or a person is wrong and confessing it is good. But performing a misdeed that violates a strong commitment or great hope we have made mentally brings greater harm upon ourselves.

If someone were to kill some insects incidentally—for instance, if a bug were crawling here and they squashed and killed it with their hands or feet—there would not be any immediate harm to them. The suffering that is its karmic ripening does not immediately occur. It is, of course, wrong, but it does not immediately lead to any great harm to them. This is because when we kill an insect, we do it in passing without a long period of advance prepa­ration or premeditation. Because of the motivation, it does not bring us much harm. We frequently kill many bugs underfoot, but we don’t particularly feel as if we were killing.

However, if we make a firm commitment and form a strong hope, and then perform a wrong or other act that contradicts it, the harm it brings us is greater. The reason for this is that commitments and hopes are phenomena that can stay with us for a long time, and therefore doing something that vi­olates them is more harmful to us. Thus it is even more important to confess. Wrongs that contradict the three vows than to confess misdeeds such as killing sentient beings. For this reason, when we say that a wrong is either grave or minor, it is not as if there were someone pretending to be a buddha and ranking our mis­deeds on some scale, saying, “That wrong you committed is serious, but this one is not.” What we need to look at to determine whether a wrong is serious or minor is how harmful it is to our being and whether or not it creates great damage in our mind stream. If something you have done harms your mind greatly or has a big impact on you, then that is probably a very serious wrong. If it does not have a strong negative effect on your mind, produce an intense feeling, or make a strong impact on you, then you have committed a wrong, but I think it is a minor wrong.

What is the main thing we need to know when confessing our misdeeds? If we have done some specific misdeed and confess it in particular, that is good. It is good to specifically remember the wrongs we have done and con­fess them. But when we confess misdeeds, it is not necessary to remember each and every instance and confess each individually. It is better to do an overall confession of all the misdeeds we have done under the influence of the three poisons of the afflictions from beginningless time up to now. The reason is that it would be extremely difficult to specify each and every mis­deed and confess them all individually. With me, for example, I don’t remem­ber committing any particularly serious wrong when I was little, but I did do many small wrongs, none of which I remember. We are all the same: we have done many wrongs but do not remember them. However, none of the wrongs we have done have not been mixed with the three poisons of the afflictions, so if we confess all the wrongs that we have committed when motivated by the three poisons, we will be able to confess all our misdeeds whether we remember them or not.

There are primarily three conditions that lead to committing misdeeds. The one that is like the boss is delusion, and the two henchmen are greed and hatred. This is because delusion permeates all of the afflictions. From the delusion of not knowing, we perceive things incorrectly and then regard them inappropriately. This is why delusion permeates all the afflictions just as the sense of touch permeates the body. “Just like the sense of touch in the body” it is said. That is the reason why delusion is said to be like the boss. When we say that greed and hatred are like henchmen, although there are many afflictions under the control of delusion, the primary ones—the ones that really and truly have power and that we mainly employ—are greed and hatred. That is why they are said to be like henchmen. It is impossible that there is any wrong we commit that did not happen because of either greed or hatred.

When we classify the misdeeds in terms of our motivation, there are three types: those committed primarily under the power of the affliction of delu­sion, those committed under the power of the affliction of hatred, and those committed under the power of the affliction of greed. If we see any act performed under the influence of the afflictions as revolting and confess it, we can confess and purify all our misdeeds. If we explain our actions or karma in terms of what we use to commit them, there are three types: actions of body, of speech, and of mind. Any act we do must be performed with either body, speech, or mind. Any misdeed we commit is thus done with body, speech, or mind. If we classify acts in terms of how they are committed, there are three types: those we perform ourselves, those we have someone else do, and those that we rejoice in having been done. Those we perform are acts that we actually do ourselves. Those we have someone else do are those that we get someone else to do instead of doing ourselves. These are more harmful. We pretend that we have not done anything wrong, but if we have told someone else to do it, then we have made two people accumulate wrongdoing, haven’t we? That is a graver wrong. When someone else has committed a misdeed and we think, “What a guy! Way to go!” or “Well done!” and rejoice in that, the strength of that thought creates a misdeed for us as well. How does this misdeed occur? It is not as if a portion of the misdeed committed by the other is allotted to us or we accrue some interest from it. We get the whole misdeed or the entire wrong. An individual who rejoices in someone else’s misdeed incurs the entire negativity; the negativity is not divided into portions and each person gets one part. Thus it is the same as performing the misdeed oneself.

From Thrangu Rinpoche’s booklet Ten Virtuous Deeds

For an action to be unvirtuous and lead to negative karma four conditions have to be present. These four conditions are: (1) there has to be an object of the action, (2) there has to be a negative intention, (3) one has to actually do the action, and (4) the action has to be completed. If these four aspects of an action aren’t all present then it is not necessarily a negative action.

(1)   In order for the act of killing to occur, there must be the actual object or being who will be killed. It can be any kind of living being from a small insect to a large animal. It must be a being capable of experiencing sensations and sufferings.

(2)   For the act of killing to occur, a second factor must be present: the intention. One must have the motivation to harm a sentient being. For example, if we think, “This person or animal is going to harm me” or “It is dangerous and therefore I wish to kill it” we are killing out of the obscuring emotion of anger and the desire to cause harm. We can also kill through the motivation of desire by thinking for example, “If I kill this being, then I will have food, clothing, pleasure and enjoyment.” One then intentionally kills that being. Or one can kill through the motivation of ignorance such as sacrificing an animal for religious reasons, thinking, “If I kill this being, then the act will be good and beneficial because the Hindu scriptures say that sacrifices are all right.” Nevertheless, this is not a good intention because the motivation is ignorance. If one does not realize that one is killing a being, then there is no negative result or karma.

(3)   In addition to having the object and the motivation, there must be a third factor of actually undertaking of the action of killing. This means that although one may have the intention of killing someone, one has to carry it out for it to be the negative act of killing. This point is actually carrying out the act of killing someone. One does not need to do this action oneself; one can make someone else do it by instructing and paying him to kill another being. When that person has done the action, one feels happy, “Oh, it is good that person is killed.” Even though it is not one’s own action, but only carried out according to one’s instructions, it is still one’s own negative action of killing because one is responsible for having made someone else do it. So, as well as the motivation to kill, there is the actual act of killing, whether done by oneself or done according to one’s wishes.

(4)   Finally, the fourth factor is called “completion.” For an act to reap the negative karma of the action there has to be an actual result of the action. For an act of true killing the being must actually die. So, one might have the intention to kill someone and one might carry out the action, but it might happen that the victim does not die in spite of one’s having done one’s best to kill him. While this is obviously a negative act, it does not count as a real act of killing. Also, if one has ordered someone else to kill somebody and he disobeys or fails in his job, it is not an actual act of killing. Clearly, one’s attempt is a negative action that leads to negative karma; but if one’s action fails in its goal, then it does not become the very serious negative action of killing.¹ All four factors must be present for it to be a true act of killing.

Vivid Awareness Blog 5

Quote for the Week: 

In the teachings on Buddha-essence or Buddha-nature, the Buddha spoke of those whose nature was pure and of clear light, pure since beginningless time, endowed with the 32 features of enlightenment and existing within the bodies of every sentient being. The Buddha taught [in the Uttaratantra] that like a very precious jewel wrapped in a dirty cloth, it lies permanent and unchanging wrapped in the cloth of the aggregates, sensory spheres, and sense sources eclipsed by anger, desire, and ignorance and tainted by the impurities of conceptuality.

                                                            — Chandrakirti’s Lankavatarasutra.
Last Week’s Study

Last week, we were read the beginning half of the second chapter on Khenpo Gangshar in Vivid Awareness.

The Uncommon Preliminaries (or Ngondro (page 30-34 of Vivid Awareness)

These four preliminaries are called “uncommon” because they are connected to advanced Vajrayana practices. For example, you don’t need to do (although it is always highly recommended) ngöndro to do Shamatha and Vipashyana, Chenrezig, Medicine Buddha, or the White Tara practice in the practice book. But you would do this for Vajrayogini or Chakrasamvara.

The uncommon preliminary practices we use were written by the 9th Karmapa in the 1600s (good article on him in Wikipedia) when most Vajrayana practitioners were monks or yogis who had a great deal of time to practice. This ngöndro practice can be gotten from KTD in pecha form in 122 pages. One does 100,000 refuge prayers with prostrations, 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras, 100,000 mandala offerings, and 100,000 guru yoga prayers.

In 2006, the 17th Karmapa was requested to make a shorter ngöndro version which Westerners who worked could do (monks still have to do the original one). This 6 by 6 inch booklet has only 24 pages and still has all the essentials of ngöndro (including the 100,000 of each preliminary). There is also a longer instruction booklet that goes with the practice booklet.

To do ngöndro practice, you have to get permission for a qualified lama and get instructions beyond what is in the practice booklet.

I asked Thrangu Rinpoche if he preferred his students to do the ngondro practice in English or in Tibetan and Rinpoche said either one is all right. I then asked him whether he thought doing 100,000 of prostrations and then going one to do 100,000 of Vajrasattva, etc was better than doing 10,000 prostrations, then 10,000 Vajrasattva etc. and then going to the next 10,000 and Rinpoche said either way was fine.

A Review of the shorter Ngöndro for Western students

To just give an idea of what the ngöndro practices involve and why we do them I will go through describing the four practices based on the new 17th Karmapa version.

Taking Refuge by the 17th Karmapa

           ” Now it is time to take the refuge vows. Before taking the refuge vow, it has all been just words, but when we take the vow, it should not be merely words: if we are really and truly saying the words, they should be meaningful and they should be said with feeling. To bring about this feeling, take what is already present within your being and combine it with the refuge vow. If you combine taking refuge with the Dharma that is present within you right now, I think it will have feeling.

          If we can’t find the Buddha whom we are taking refuge in, there’s no way we can take refuge. When we look to see where there might be a buddha, we might look for someone who matches what the Buddha described as a buddha—someone who has extinguished all faults and who has all the, qualities—but nowadays there isn’t really anyone who has extinguished all faults and who has all the qualities. But there is the lama present before us—the spiritual friend to whom we are connected, who teaches us the Dharma and shows us the path—so we make the lama the Buddha’s representative and think of them as a buddha.

            But the spiritual friend is just someone for us to follow; we can’t take the spiritual friend and whack the afflictions over the head with him. What we can use to hit the afflictions over the head is the Dharma. There are many things that we can say about the Dharma, although I have already explained the main points. At this point we do have subtle virtuous thoughts present within ourselves. Those might be faith, devotion, loving-kindness, or other such thoughts. Additionally, we instinctively had virtuous thoughts when we were children. We should remember all these thoughts now and evoke them especially. We should think that because of them we can start to practice and that because of them we are going to embark upon all the paths.

            In my case, for example, I remember what it was like when I was four or five years old. Since I was a nomad, my family slaughtered animals. When an animal was killed, I naturally felt compassion or something like it, and the feeling was strong and intense. That was when I was four or five, but now I am getting into my twenties. I have read many books and occasionally done a bit of practice here and there, yet I have never since felt any compas­sion that could rival what I felt when I was little. This is why calling the qual­ities and love that we innately have to mind and bringing them into our Dharma practice is so much better than hundreds or thousands of conceptu­ally fabricated practices.

            Many of you have Dharma friends, but usually you only think about the lama and do not particularly pay any attention to your Dharma friends. Yet you should keep your Dharma friends in mind, and consider how you can create Dharma connections with one another and develop those Dharma connections through harmonious samaya commitments with one another. Considering this, you should rely upon each other. This is how you should think of the Three Jewels as you go for refuge today.

            After having given you the refuge vows, I have a hope for all of you. Of course it is important for you to keep all the precepts I explained as well as you can—that is generally just how it is done. What I have to say from my own part is that I have no particular hope that now that I have given you the refuge vow, you will do your practice so well that in the future you will be able to perform great miracles, awaken to Buddhahood, grow an ushnisha on your head, and have wheel designs on the soles of your feet. It is of course good if that happens, but I have no specific expectation of that. If I had such expectations, I should hope for the same for myself, but I haven’t grown any­thing yet.

        The main point is that on this earth, communities are extremely important. If communities act in negative ways toward each other, it harms the entire earth. If communities act well toward each other and do good things, it brings good things to the whole world. Now that you have gathered here and I have given you the refuge vow, the main thing for all of you is that you take greater responsibility for this world. I hope that you develop more courage to work for happiness in the world, and that when your courage increases, all the particular intentions you now have for this world do not just remain mere thoughts but can really and truly be demonstrably shown on this earth. Do as much as you can as an individual to train in altruism and loving-kindness, and then do what you can to bring happiness from the small scale of within your family up to the larger scale of society in general and to all beings in this world. This is what I personally hope of you now that I have given you the refuge vows.”  End of Karmapa’s teaching

Vivid Awareness Blog 4 (Chapter 2 and 3)

Denver Center Study Group Outline for 9-11-2011 (Vivid Awareness 4)

Quote of the Week: 

 All the practice and all the Dharma study that you do is wasted if it doesn’t make you a better person.

                                                                                    — Adzom Rinpoche

Suggested Dharma Practice for the Week:

Below we have the four ordinary foundations. The practice is to memorize these four verses (in English or Tibetan) and then to briefly repeat them before any practice session and contemplate them. These four thoughts will help motivate you in your practice.

Note: We will meet at Jody Sherpa’s house next week.

Review notes for Last of Chapter 2 of Vivid Awareness

Page 23 Last week we didn’t get time to discuss what is meant by: “What we mean by mind instructions is that we don’t really analyze external appearances. We instead look directly at the nature of our internal mind itself. When we see that, the emptiness of all phenomena is just that.”

I also asked to give examples of mind training and realized that I myself could not answer the question. So I thought I give it a try. While I was doing Shamatha my mind just kept flying off on something I was writing. I tried doing the 9 cleansing breaths and that didn’t work. I then got the urge to just get up and go to the computer and simply write everything out so I couldn’t keep thinking about it. Then I stopped, looked at my mind and realized that really I was just bored. I then recalled Thrangu Rinpoche saying—it doesn’t matter if thoughts are good or thoughts are very bad, just keep on meditating. I also thought of being told that Guru Rinpoche had said that if students were having problems in their practice, they should say the Guru Rinpoche mantra and he would help. I did this and most of the discursive thought just vanished.

Why does it say mind training practice is effortless? Why can anyone do it?

Page 26 Last paragraph and first paragraph of page 27. Why should comprehending the true condition of the world (Samsara) make us happy rather than sad and discouraged?

Review notes for Chapter 3 of Vivid Awareness 

The Mind Instructions have three different phases: The first is doing the common and then the uncommon preliminary practices. The second is to have the nature of mind “pointed out” to us. The third is “subsequent application” which is often called “post-meditation” ie. being off our cushion.

Bodhichitta is impartial compassion which includes everyone (not just our friends, race, or countrymen) and also animals and non-human beings such as the unfortunate ones in the hell realms. Bodhichitta has two types: relative and ultimate bodhichitta. Khenpo Gangshar makes the point that relative and ultimate bodhichitta for the Foundation vehicle practitioners is simply to give up unvirtuous behavior and accept virtuous behavior. For the Mahayana vehicle practitioners relative bodhichitta is also giving up unvirtuous habits and accepting good ones, while ultimate bodhichitta is realizing the meaning of emptiness. Finally, for the Vajrayana practitioners [in Tibetan this is always called “secret mantrayana” even though Thrangu Rinpoche has said there is nothing “secret” about the Vajrayana so I call it just the Vajrayana] that relative and absolute bodhichitta is understanding the essence (or nature) of mind.

The Four Common Preliminaries (page 31)

The four common preliminaries are called “preliminaries” because we should contemplate these four thoughts before doing any practice. They are called “common” because they are common to all practice including Shamatha, not just special advanced practices. These four common preliminaries are also called, “four thoughts that turn the mind” towards Dharma.

Thrangu Rinpoche has written a 68 book on just these common preliminaries called, Four Foundations of Buddhist Practice. Available from Namo Buddha Publications.

In the Uncommon preliminaries or ngöndro, these four are summarized in a very poetic way:

First, contemplate the preciousness of being free and well-favored. This is difficult to gain, easy to lose; now I must do something meaningful.

Second, the whole world and its inhabitants are impermanent. In particular, the life of beings is like a bubble in water. Death comes without warning and this body will be a corpse. At that time, the Dharma will be my only help. Therefore, I must practice with exertion.

Third, when death comes, I will be helpless. Because I create karma, I must abandon evil deeds and always devote my time to virtuous actions. Thinking this, every day I will examine myself.

Fourth, the homes, friends, wealth, and comforts of samsara are the constant torment of the three sufferings. Just like a feast before the executioner leads you to your death. I must therefore cut desire and attachment and attain enlightenment through exertion.

[The three sufferings are: simple suffering, suffering due to having something or status and then losing it, and all-pervasive suffering which is the overall suffering of life (or samsara)]

Questions:

In the first common preliminary, do we have to believe in reincarnation to understand this preliminary?

In the second common preliminary, how does Dharma help when one dies?

In the third common preliminary, what is karma and why does doing virtuous or good deeds lead to happiness?

In the fourth common preliminary, why does cutting desire and attachment lead to enlightenment?

The Four Uncommon Preliminaries (Tibetan is ngöndro)

These four preliminaries are called “uncommon” because they are connected to advanced Vajrayana practices. For example, you don’t need to do (although it is always highly recommended) ngöndro to do Shamatha and Vipashyana, Chenrezig, Medicine Buddha, or the White Tara practice in the practice book. But you would do this for Vajrayogini or Chakrasamvara.

The uncommon preliminary practices we use were written by the 9th Karmapa in the 1600s (good article on him in Wikipedia) when most Vajrayana practitioners were monks or yogis who had a great deal of time to practice. This ngöndro practice can be gotten from KTD in pecha form in 122 pages. One does 100,000 refuge prayers with prostrations, 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras, 100,000 mandala offerings, and 100,000 guru yoga prayers.

In 2006, the 17th Karmapa was requested to make a shorter ngöndro version which Westerners who worked could do (monks still have to do the original one). This 6 by 6 inch booklet has only 24 pages and still has all the essentials of ngöndro (including the 100,000 of each preliminary). There is also a longer instruction booklet that goes with the practice booklet.

To do ngöndro practice, you have to get permission for a qualified lama and get instructions beyond what is in the practice booklet. Thrangu Rinpoche says his Western students can do either one.

Picture (or Chart) of the week: The Four Common Preliminaries from the Ngondro Text.

CLICK ON PICTURE FOR ENLARGEMENT

Vivid Awareness Blog 3 (Chapter 2)

Denver Center Study Group Outline for 9-4-2011

Quote of the Week: Why We Practice the Dharma

10. All the water and drink you’ve consumed
From beginningless time until noHas failed to satisfy your thirst or bring you contentment.Drink therefore of this stream
Of this enlightened mind, Fortunate Ones.

                                                — Milarepa

Suggested Dharma Practice for the Week: The next time someone criticizes you either rightly or wrongly, don’t simply think, “that person is wrong”, “what do they know”, “how dare they criticize me” etc. Instead, take in a deep breath of external prana and let it out and just look inside to that feeling this situation created. Then just observe what your mind does to avoid that uncomfortable feeling. That is the feeling of your ego being bruised and what you do with it is how you deal with your ego.

Review notes for Chapter 2 of Vivid Awareness

Page 19

In many ways the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages are very close in their description of the path to enlightenment and many of the methods of getting there. Thrangu Rinpoche points out that Khenpo Gangshar uses the term “ordinary mind” (Tibetan thamel gyi shepa or TGS as Trungpa Rinpoche’s students like to call it) which is a Kagyu term for non-conceptual mind and Khenpo Gangshar also used awareness (Tib. rigpa), often called “primordial awareness” which is also nonconceptual to distinguish it from what we usually think of as “mind.” Rinpoche goes on to point out that Khenpo Gangshar’s teachers go back to Jamgon Kongtrul the Great who was one of the major persons in the Rime movement which tried to tried to unify all the traditions.

Page 20-21

The homage is very important because it tells one what kind of teaching it is. Each type of teaching has a different homage to a different enlightened person. Making one’s homage to Vajradhara (Dorje Chang of the lineage prayer) is quite unusual, but Khenpo Gangshar made the homage to him because Vajradhara represents the dharmakaya which is “the world as it is” and not “the world as it appears to us as ordinary persons.” To understand this, we have to understand the four kinds of guru or teachers.          

The first kind of guru is basically all the persons in the center of the lineage tree below Vajradhara. The second king of guru are all the dharma teachings which are also found on the rear branch of the lineage tree. The third kind of guru are all the signs that appear to in our mind and also in our behavior that are a positive result of our meditation. Finally, there is full realization of the world or phenomena as they really are which is represented by the dharmakaya Vajradhara. This is why in the Kagyu lineage prayer we end it with, “may I speedily attain a state of Vajradhara.” This dharmakaya Vajradhara is not male or female, white or blue, with one or four arms because Vajradhara is what we realize when we attain the final goal of our practice. The picture of the lineage tree is a representation of Vajradhara and therefore is the sambhokakaya form (literally, enjoyment body) of Vajradhara.

What may not be obvious here is that in Tibetan we say, “I pay homage” with chag tsal lo as in the Prayer to Solicit Chenrezig’s Attention we end this prayer with, “Chenrezig la chag tsal lo” and in English we can translate this as either “Chenrezig, I pay homage to you” or “Chenrezig I prostrate to you.” It means the same thing in Tibetan because in India and Tibet one paid homage to a king or great guru by prostrating.

Page 21-22

We may think that learning the four classes of tantras is not very important; but if we know if a particular practice is part of one of these classes, we know whether the outer or inner behavior is emphasized in the practice, if one visualizes the deity outside oneself or inside oneself, the kinds of personality types what benefit most from the practice and so on.

The four classes of tantras are:

Kriya tantras (Skt.)     Action tantras (English)  The outer activities such as cleanliness, eating and drinking, clothing are emphasized.

Carya tantras (Skt.) Conduct tantras in which deity is visualize outside oneself and then oneself as the deity so one can see the correspondence

Yoga tantras or yoga tantras in English. These concentrate on the inner experience and the four seals (mahamudra being one of the seals)

Anuttara-yoga tantra or Highest yoga tantra which emphasizes luminous clarity and intrinsic awareness.

  The Nyingma have a system of 9 types of teachings and the highest is “ati yoga” which is equivalent to the “highest yoga tantra.” They call this practice Dzogchen (Great Perfection in English) and Dzogchen is divided into two different part: Trechel (which is very, very similar to Mahamudra) and Togyal which involves many esoteric practices such as sky gazing and dark retreats.

The 84 Mahasiddhas is a fascinating book translated by Keith Dolman what describes high Vajrayana practitioners who were washer women, bakers, fishermen, kings, scholars and so on who achieved enlightenment by practicing Mahamudra. When the 16^th Karmapa came to America and was asked what would be the most appropriate meditation for Westerners, he said, “mahamudra.” And this is why Thrangu Rinpoche has taught on Mahamudra more than any other practice or subject.

Discussion Questions

What does the Third Karmapa’s verse mean?

Do you feel fortunate to have learned about the Dharma?

Essay Question for this Chapter:

Can you give five examples (both on and off the meditation cushion) where you were practicing the “mind instructions” described on page 23. And five examples when you weren’t practicing this. [Note: I believe that here “mind instructions” refers to the oral instructions from the lama and not the “mind training instructions” or lojong.]

Did you doing this kind of meditation “easy” or “effortless”? 

How can you prepare for this “effortless” practice that Rinpoche says one can do in any situation?

Picture of the Week: Two pictures of Thrangu Rinpoche’s Vivid Awareness teaching in Boulder and one of the meeting with the Denver and Boulder Dharma groups with Rinpoche.

Vivid Awareness Blog 2

Quote for the Week:  Dharma in Daily Life

      We shouldn’t feel that Dharma occurs only when we sit down and meditate. Dharma should be present with us all the time. Dharma should be practiced in everything we do and at all times and used in all our actions. Of course, at the moment we can’t act like Milarepa and the Buddha, but at least we can try to be responsible for our own mind. We must try our best not to let the negative mental states develop. We must try to feel more compassion and to develop more bodhichitta. Although we can’t do this immediately, at least we can do whatever we can by doing it everyday, again and again.

                                                — Thrangu Rinpoche in The Middle-way Meditation

Practice in Daily Life for the Week: At the time of death, we go into a deep unconscious swoon. When we become conscious again we are confused, disoriented, and fearful because we no longer have a body. At that time we need help. This is very similar to when we wake up from a deep sleep. So the practice is that when we wake up from a deep sleep, the first thing we do is place our guru above our head. If we want we can place a deity such as Chenrezig above us and think of them guiding us. If we keep doing this every day, then when we actually pass away, it will be an automatic event and we will have help in the bardo.

Vivid Awareness Blog 2   (8-28-2011)

The Importance of Terma

On page 11 Thrangu Rinpoche begins to describe terma (dharma treasures) and tertons (special persons who find dharma treasures). I would like to elaborate on this topic because it is central to understanding Trungpa Rinpoche and his Shambhala teachings.

The story of Terma begins with great Indian master and magician Padmasambhava (who is called “Guru Rinpoche” in Tibetan) who lived in the 8th century CE. Guru Rinpoche was born in Oddiyanna which western scholars place in the present Swat Valley in Pakistan or Orissa in present India. Guru Rinpoche was born fully born in a lotus in a lake and King Indrabhuti of the area adopted him as a son. When he was in his 20s he got in trouble and was banished to a cemetery ground. There he learned tantric practices and also visited the Kingdom of Sohar. He went to the convent where princess Mandarava was and the king punished him with a sentence of burning him alive. But through is magical powers he turned the fire into a lotus lake and the King gave him Mandarava to be his first wife. He then went to Maratika cave in Nepal and then to Tibet where he stayed for about 50 years taming the wild shamanistic local religion and building an enduring Tibetan culture. Incidentially, Maratika cave is still existent and because Guru Rinpoche achieved long life in this cave it is still used by Tibetan lamas to increase their life span. In 1985, for example, Khenste Rinpoche, Chokyi Nyingma Rinpoche, Choling Rinpoche and Tulku Urgyen when to this cave and did a week drupchen to increase the lifespan of Tulku Urgyen. Afterwards, Tulku Urgyen, reported that he had dream of a dakini coming and giving him 5 pieces of turquoise and this indicated that he would live 5 more years.

At the time of the eighth century Tibet was a non-Buddhist nation until Guru Rinpoche came and converted the pre-Buddhist practitioners from the Bon Religion to Buddhism. Guru Rinpoche brought many Buddhist teachings and texts from India and started the “direct lineage” of Buddhist teachings  by taking 100 of the brightest Tibetans and training them as translators of these Buddhist teachings which were in Sanskrit. He also helped establish Tibet’s first monastery, Samye near Lhasa. Also directly under Guru Rinpoche was his Mandarava who he brought from India and his Tibetan wife or consort Yeshe Tshogyel who was to become the first Tibetan to reach enlightenment. Guru Rinpoche also had 25 close disciples to whom he passed certain teachings. Incidentally, Thrangu Rinpoche is said to be a reincarnation of one of these 25 disciples.

Guru Rinpoche also established a completely unique system of Indian termas. He decided that the world was not ready for many advanced teachings so he hid these teachings so that they would be recovered at a later time when the people would understand them. He and his two wives and 25 close disciples hid a large number of teachings.

There are three major types of termas. The first is Earth Terma. For Earth Termas Guru Rinpoche and his followers hid paper scrolls in rocks or lakes or temples and these scrolls which sometimes were in caskets did not actually contain the texts. Instead, the texts were written in a cryptic symbolic language (language of the dakinis) which meant nothing to an ordinary person. However, when discovered by a terton who usually was an incarnation of a close disciple of Guru Rinpoche, the symbolic language would unlock a profound teaching in the terton’s mind and he or she would write it down.

The second kind of terma is Mind Termas in which the symbolic script appearrs in the terton’s mind first and this leads him to the actual teachings which had been hidden. Also the physical teachings were often entrusted to non-humans who lived many lifetimes longer than humans (dakinis and  protectors) to make sure that if ordinary persons approached the hidden teaching, they would not see or find these termas.

The third kind of terma is Pure Vision Teachings which are received by great masters (not just Nyingma tertons) as a vision from the deities or great masters. For example, when Marpa was returning to Tibet and was laid up by customs officials, he had a dream in which he actually went and saw Saraha (who had  lived about 500 before him) and received and important teaching from him. This is described in the biography of Marpa.

Now, getting back to the topic of Termas and its relation to Trungpa Rinpoche. When Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche was in India before he came to the West he went to a Guru Rinpoche cave to do a retreat being attended by a Westerner. One night Trungpa Rinpoche became “a wild man” and “completely possessed” and began furiously to write and write. When he was through he told the attendant that he had received a whole new practice directly from Guru Rinpoche. This practice was translated and is practiced in Shambhala centers all over the world. This is an example of a Pure Vision Terma. Trungpa Rinpoche also received visions and messages about the land of Shambhala and these became what is known as Shambhala training.

On page 13, Thrangu Rinpoche talks about what happens to lamas in this life-time ie. they like us forget our mind’s nature which is being perfectly tuned into what is happening in the moment and lose things. He also discusses what happens when a lama is reincarnated.

As I understand it, everyone is reincarnated as a new being after a period of time after they have died. Since particularly evil persons are reincarnated into the hell realm, we cannot say that people are always reincarnated into a human body. When we are reincarnated as a baby, most people forget their previous life, although there is always a small percentage who don’t. People who do not forget their previous life are not particularly highly evolved, but most great practitioners remember their previous lives but not perfectly. I have already discussed the scientific evidence for reincarnation and stories of how it happens so I won’t repeat these. But for Rinpoches to remember the teachings that they had received from a previous lifetime, they have to be removed from daily life and put in a situation in which they have to read through and contemplate  they had learned in their previous lifetime. If this isn’t done, the Rinpoche may well end up leading a perfectly normal life with no desire or ability to teach the Dharma.

Study Questions

Finally, Thrangu Rinpoche brings up a whole series of questions in the last pages of this chapter (p. 15-P.16):

1. Why is faith and devotion necessary?
2. Why is wariness with the world necessary?
3. What does it mean “to realize the nature of mind”?
4. What do we mean by “selflessness of the individual” in the Foundation Vehicle?
5. Why is it important to study the Middle-way philosophy to determine that “all phenomena are empty”?
6. Thrangu Rinpoche says that in the Vajrayana, we do not use the study of the “selflessness of the individual” or the “emptiness of phenomena” in our meditation. Why is this not done?
7. What is Mahamudra and Dzogchen?
8. What does “the method is to look at the nature of our mind and realize it” mean?
9. (p. 17) What does “external phenomena is too bright” and “internal mind is not bright enough mean?

Photo of the Day: Picture of the Day

I enclose a pictures of several of the dakini texts that have been found by tertons. The yellow paper indicates that they were most likely written by Yeshe Tsogyal. Each was found by a different terton. Number 12 shows symbolic script. On 13 and 14 the symbolic script is on top line and the terton has written the Tibetan below. Number 16 shows a page of a full text. Taken from Hidden Teachings of Tibet by Tulku Thondup Rinpoche.