A Torch Lighting the Way To Freedom

The Hundred-Syllable Mantra

~ DudjomTersarNgondro

📸 No information on thangka painter

The Meaning of the Hundred-Syllable Mantra ~
The mantra is a prayer evoking Vajrasattva’s promise. Here are the words with their equivalent meanings.

OM
Most highly praised,

VAJRASATTVA SAMAYA
Vajrasattva! The sacred link between us—

ANUPALAYA VAJRASATTVA
Guard it closely. O Vajrasattva,

TENOPATISHTHA DRIDHO ME BHAVA
May you remain firmly with me.

SUTOKAYO ME BHAVA
May you completely satisfy me.

SUPOKAYO ME BHAVA
Make me blossom fully.

ANURAKTO ME BHAVA
May you always be loving toward me.

SARVA SIDDHIM ME PRAYACCHA
Bestow on me all accomplishments.

SARVA KARMASU CHA ME
In all my actions

CHITTAM SHREYAH KURU
Make my mind most virtuous.

HUNG (The vital seed syllable of Vajrasattva.)

HA HA HA HA (Syllables indicating the four boundless attitudes, the four empowerments, the four joys, and the four bodies.)

HO (A laugh of pleasure at those.)

BHAGAVAN SARVA TATHAGATA
O Victorious, Virtuous, and Transcendent One of all the Tathagatas,

VAJRA MA ME MUÑCHA
You are the diamond—do not forsake me.

VAJRI BHAVA
Make me a diamond holder.

MAHA SAMAYASATTVA
O great being of the commitment,

AH
May I be inseparably united with you.

THE POWER OF ACTION AS AN ANTIDOTE 
This entails performing positive actions as antidotes to negative ones. In this case, it refers to the essential points of visualizing the deity, reciting the mantra, concentrating on the negative actions and obscurations being washed away, and so on.

THE POWER OF REGRET 
This is to give rise to intense remorse for the negative actions one has performed in the past—as if one had taken poison.

THE POWER OF RESTORATION OR RESOLUTION
This is the firm resolution to refrain from negative actions in the future, even if one’s life is at stake. These last two powers are complete when at the end of reciting the mantra, one verbalizes one’s parting, in verse or as prose, with such prayers as “In ignorance and confusion . . .” Even if one cannot do this, giving rise to true regret and recognizing the fault in future wrongdoing will automatically produce the resolution to refrain. There is not one of us who has not entered the door of the Secret Mantra Vehicle. And once we have done so, if we do not subsequently keep the commitments, we will go to hell; if we do keep them, we will attain Buddhahood. There is no other destination than these two. The Secret Mantra Vehicle commitments are very subtle, numerous, and difficult to keep. Even Lord Atisha said that after he had entered the Mantra Vehicle, he committed fault after fault in rapid succession. So for us who have few antidotes, weak mindfulness, and no vigilance (we do not even know the different categories of vows, nor the point at which we break the precepts), there can be no doubt that breaches of our vows are falling on us like rain. We should therefore do the practice of Vajrasattva every day and recite the hundred syllables twenty-one times. By doing so, our downfalls will be blessed and their fully ripened effect will be prevented from growing greater. And by reciting the hundred-syllable mantra one hundred thousand times, all our downfalls will be eradicated, as the Ornament of the Essence says:

Clearly visualize Vajrasattva Enthroned on a white lotus and moon: By reciting twenty-one times The hundred syllables according to the ritual, Downfalls and the like will be blessed And therefore not grow greater. Thus the greatest accomplished beings have taught, So do this practice constantly. If you recite it one hundred thousand times, You will become the very embodiment of total purity.

Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom
Complete Instructions on the Preliminary Practice of the Profound and Secret Heart Essence of the Dakini
By Dunjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje 
Translated by the Padmakara Translation Group
Shambhla Boston & London 2011

We offer these words of advise to our sangha as we remember and pray for Venerable Dhomang Gyatrul Rinpoche who entered Parivirvnan on April 8th.

As Lama Tharchin Rinpoche said, in speaking of Kyabje Thinley Norbu Rinpoche’s parinirvana:

“It is like doing one mantra on a holy day where the merit multiplies by millions. During this time, we can remember Rinpoche’s wisdom, his kindness, how much that has penetrated our mind, how our lives would be inconceivable without him … We can come together and pray, make aspiration prayers together that immediately this life has set we can be reborn in the Pureland, that we can practice together and attain fully enlightened Buddhahood always together. Then we don’t have any separation, from life to life.”  

See Orgyen Dorje Den for Parinirvana of Venerable Dhomang Gyatrul Rinpoche Puja Schedule and Swift Rebirth Prayer

 

Refuge

~ DudjomTersarNgondro

Photo by Sangharakshita, Kalimpong. 1958

There are seven benefits of taking refuge:
one becomes a Buddhist, a follower of the Buddha;
one will not fall into the lower realms;
one becomes a support for all vows;
one is not harmed by obstacles caused by humans and non humans;
one has few illnesses and a long life;
obscurations of actions performed in the past are purified;
and one will swiftly attain Buddhahood through the completion of its cause, the two accumulations.

a. THE BENEFIT THAT ONE BECOMES A BUDDHIST, A FOLLOWER OF THE BUDDHA

By renouncing the ways of non-Buddhists, who rely on Brahma and others for refuge, and taking the Three Jewels as one’s object of refuge, one will be included in the ranks of Buddhists, as the wise have declared, for it is said: The difference between Buddhists and non-Buddhists is the refuge.

b. THE BENEFIT THAT ONE WILL NOT FALL INTO THE LOWER REALMS

Taking refuge bars the entrance to the lower realms and places one, throughout one’s series of lives, in the blissful states of the higher realms and liberation. It is said that the son of a god who was going to be reborn as a pig was prevented from doing so when he took refuge, as is related in the Tale with a Sow, which declares: Those who have taken refuge in the Buddha Will not go to the lower realms.

c. THE BENEFIT THAT ONE BECOMES A SUPPORT FOR ALL VOWS

Taking refuge reinforces our intention to attain nirvana, this being the reason for our taking vows, and it is, therefore, the basis of all vows, as the Seventy Stanzas on Refuge explains: A lay practitioner’s going for refuge in the Three Is the root of the eight vows.

d. THE BENEFIT THAT ONE WILL NOT BE HARMED BY OBSTACLES CAUSED BY HUMANS OR NON HUMANS

The manner in which taking refuge dispels all kinds of fear and danger is described in the Supreme Victory Banner Sutra: Monks, wherever you are—in solitary places, cemeteries, empty wastes, and the like—take refuge in the Three Jewels and you will be free from fear, suffering, and hair-raising experiences. And in the Essence of the Sun Sutra we find: Beings who go for refuge in the Buddha Cannot be killed by ten million demons. Even if they have broken their vows and their minds are disturbed, They will surely go beyond birth.

e. THE BENEFIT THAT ONE WILL HAVE FEW ILLNESSES AND A LONG LIFE

It is said that as a result of taking refuge, one will be less affected by illnesses related to past deeds and obstacles, and one will live a long life of abundance and splendor, as we find in Ornament of the Sutras: Against all kinds of negative actions, Aging, illness, and death The Buddha gives complete protection. Because he protects from all kinds of harm, From the lower realms and wrong paths, From the view of the transitory composite,n and from lesser vehicles, He is the supreme refuge.

f. THE BENEFIT THAT THE OBSCURATIONS OF DEEDS PERFORMED IN THE PAST WILL BE PURIFIED

Every single one of the obscurations from deeds accumulated in the past will diminish and be exhausted. And even those who have committed crimes with immediate retribution (as did Devadatta, Ajatashatru, and others) will, by taking refuge in the Three Jewels, be liberated from the lower realms, as has been related in the scriptures.

g. THE BENEFIT THAT BY COMPLETING ITS CAUSE, THE TWO ACCUMULATIONS, ONE WILL SWIFTLY ATTAIN BUDDHAHOOD

In the soil of faith, watered by the rain of the two accumulations, the seed of the enlightened potential grows and ripens into the harvest of Buddhahood, as the Nirvana Sutra tells us: Those who take refuge in the Three Will acquire the supreme accumulations of merit and wisdom, Propagate the Buddha’s teaching in the world, And thereby attain Buddhahood. And when the Buddha said, in the White Lotus Sutra of Compassion, Those who have entered this my doctrine, even lay practitioners or those who assume the appearance of monks, will in this same Excellent Kalpa attain the full nirvana without residue in the absolute space, without a single exception, he was referring to beings who have taken refuge. Again in the Sutra of the Immaculate he said: If the merit of taking refuge were to possess form, it would fill the whole of space and still there would be more. And in the Condensed Transcendent Wisdom: If the merit of taking refuge were to take form, The three worlds would be too small to contain it. How could one ever measure that treasure of water, The great ocean, in cupfuls? There is no end to the explanations the Buddha gave on this. Taking refuge will create the dependent connection through which you will gradually come to accomplish ultimate Buddhahood, turn the Wheel of the Dharma, and gather around you a vast Sangha of Non returners.

— A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom: Complete Instructions on the Preliminary Practices by Dudjom Rinpoche, Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje

On April 3rd, during the 2023 Ngondro Retreat, Thadral Tulku, Jigmed Namgyal Dorje Rinpoche, gave the Refuge and Bodichitta Vows to retreatants at Pema Osel Ling and streaming online.

Welcome our new Buddhist Sangha! (Computer screen on Rinpoche’s throne too!)

Positive vs Negative

~ DudjomTersarNgondro

Accordingly, the result of positive actions is happiness and the result of negative actions is suffering. We therefore need to undertake the former and give up the latter, for the manner in which positive and negative actions ripen as their respective results is said to be inconceivable.

Whether positive or negative, even though an action may be insignificant at the moment it is performed, at the moment of its full maturation, its result will have greatly increased until it has become a hundred, a thousand, or even an infinite number of times greater, like a grain of barley or some other seed growing and spreading.

Unless the deeds we have accumulated are annulled by antidotes, it is impossible for them to be used up until their results have matured. So it is extremely important to take the adoption of virtue and avoidance of negative actions seriously. As the Great Master said,

What’s the use of winning happiness in this life through evil deeds

That will lead to misery in many lives to come?

This life is short, a mere few months or years,

And there’s no telling how long one’s future lives will last.

The way, therefore, to make your other lives happy and free of pain

Is to take up virtue and abandon negative deeds.

Dudjom Rinpoche – A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom – Shambhala Publications